It's not exactly a secret that I'm a Christian: I've mentioned it on Fedi a few times; though I've wasn't particularly open about it in my early days on Fedi (which I should talk about some time but would be a different blog post). Anyway, I was sitting partly-listening to Muse's album "The 2nd Law" while thinking about all sorts of stuff when a mentalese thought¹ that had been floating around in my brain for a while joined with some other thoughts and coalesced to the surface into a distinct theological thought that I could actually express in language.
Romans 8:14-17² (NIV) reads:
Romans 8:14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
If we are co-heirs with Christ, then all the earth is our inheritance and taking it without asking is like the parable of the prodigal son: squandering our inheritance on earthly pleasures (a very much un-Christ-like thing to do). Why extract resources from the earth instead of asking God for what we need: are we then stealing from the Father? Endless economic growth (as needed by our current economic structure) requires the endlessly increasing use of the earth's resources by just those of us alive today, which is thus taking (a lot) more than we need. We're not just depriving others (today or in the future) but also insulting God, like stealing sweets from a parent when their back is turned. We could have been given the sweets anyway and it's not like the parent is angry about the loss of the sweets: it's the need to take without asking...
Anyway, that was basically the thought that I had, though it links to a lot of other thoughts I've had in the past that I haven't necessarily shared online.
Normal service of technical content for this blog will hopefully resume sometime soon (given the Old Computer Challenge 2026 is coming up soon).
1: A thought not expressible in language.
2: I'm focussing primarily on verse 17, but 14-16 provide useful context.