Helen Keller’s God experience

Miss Shawn of a web-based Christian forum mentioned that as she read about Helen Keller she was moved at how she knew God before she even knew a language. One of Helen's friends was Phillips Brooks who was a famous clergyman of his generation in America at one time. Helen was blind and deaf from the age of two, she had lived a life of isolation, unable to speak words she could not hear, unable to know what a word was. So, how did she know God? In one of her letters, Helen told Bishop Brooks that she had always known about God, even before she had any words. Even before she could call God anything, she knew God was there. She didn't know what it was. God had no name for her -- nothing had a name for her. She had no concept of a name. But in her darkness and isolation, she knew she was not alone. Someone was with her. She felt God's love. And when she received the gift of language and heard about God, she said she already knew. Phillips Brooks was thrilled by this. This was the God he knew. 

Helen Keller had always known there was a God

There are some who don't believe in God, but Helen knew about Him. Now this is what is interesting to me. Because people say that others impose and push their believe on people to make them believe. But Helen didn't have any Christian, or anyone there to "impose" their belief on her and she just innately knew there was a God!!!! Imagine That So, my question is how can someone explain that? I would say that it was the Holy Spirit who was with her and speaking and talking with her, how else would she know God in such a way.

In Helen's book My Religion, she describes the following experience:

“I sense a holy passion pouring down from the springs of Infinity. . . . Bound to suns and planets by invisible cords, I feel the flame of eternity in my soul. Here, in the midst of the every-day air, I sense the rush of ethereal rains. I am conscious of the splendor that binds all things of earth to all things of heaven — immured by silence and darkness, I possess the light which shall give me vision a thousand fold when death sets me free.”

Helen Keller is describing the experience of a transcendental level of the mind. Relating it to “Infinity,” she describes it as “the flame of eternity in my soul.” In this deep inward place, she experiences “the splendor that binds all things of earth to all things of heaven.” Even though she is blind and deaf, confined by “silence and darkness,” she nevertheless experiences an inner light that transcends death.

Environmental impacts of coronavirus crisis

The United Nations conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) noted that As the number of coronavirus infections grew exponentially in Europe and North America in March, restrictive public health measures to stave off a worsening pandemic were put in place.

They included stay-at-home orders, which were first issued in Italy and then in rapid succession in most other countries around the world. With entire populations ordered to stay home, schools, offices and factories limited their activities, road traffic dwindled to a minimum and airlines reduced scheduled flights by 60% to 95%.

The followings are the immediate effects on the environment:

Slashed greenhouse emissions

While consumption and employment levels dropped precipitously, they have also been associated with significant reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, air quality levels in the world’s major cities improved dramatically in March and April. Air quality improved largely because of a reduction in factory and road traffic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and related ozone (O3) formation, and particulate matter (PM).

During the same period, global air traffic dropped by 60%. Taken together, these emissions reductions have led to a temporary dip in CO2 emissions from their pre-crisis levels, encouraging some to hope that our global society may indeed be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially over the long term to mitigate impending climate change. Obviously, there are many challenges ahead.

Not all positive

But not all the environmental consequences of the crisis have been positive. Volumes of unrecyclable waste have risen; severe cuts in agricultural and fishery export levels have led to the generation of large quantities of organic waste; maintenance and monitoring of natural ecosystems have been temporarily halted; and tourism activity to natural areas has ceased.

Local waste problems have emerged as many municipalities have suspended their recycling activities over fears of virus propagation in recycling centres. Food retailers have resumed using plastic bags at checkout points citing health concerns over consumers’ reuse of paper bags. In addition, due to stay-at-home policies, many consumers have increased their consumption of take-away food delivered with single-use packaging.

All these developments have created acute challenges for the waste management industry at a time when they are operating with limited capacity due to the coronavirus crisis.

Ecosystems at risk

Natural ecosystems and protected species are at risk during the coronavirus crisis. In many countries, environmental protection workers at national parks and land and marine conservation zones are required to stay at home in lockdown, leaving these areas unmonitored. Their absence has resulted in a rise of illegal deforestation, fishing and wildlife hunting.

Many of the environmental challenges caused by the coronavirus crisis will gradually resolve on their own once the crisis comes to an end and previous levels of economic activity resume. Unfortunately, it is also true that the benefits of air pollution reductions will also be erased. Overall, the crisis may thus have no permanent environmental effects.

However, what we have learned about the environmental benefits and risks of sharp drops in global economic activity will certainly help us to better understand the mechanics of environmental sustainability, societal consumption patterns, and how we can reduce environmental degradation in a future crisis-free world.

Need for action

Attention must be given to threats on the environment and natural resource bases as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and consequential social and economic impacts.

While helping all vested parties to adapt to crisis market conditions and take actions for recovery is seen as a top priority by many authorities, governments should empower the environmentalists and scientists together to work out plans and schedules to protect the environment.

Source: https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=2333