Between
the apathetic and defeatist view of Fatalism—
whereby people believe everything is determined before it happens, and
that nothing we can do will make any difference—and the equally-erroneous view that everything happens by Accident or
Chance, lies one based upon the Law of Cause-and-Effect. The present
has arisen out of past causes, and the future arises from a
combination of both past and present causes, although when it arises,
of course, it will not be the future, but the present.
The
present is open, and the future not fixed; we are in the process of
creating it. The Greenhouse Effect is largely the result of human
activity; the rest of Nature cannot be blamed for that. Likewise, the
good things of our civilization have been brought about by people;
they did not just happen by themselves.
So,
though there are reasons to be proud of being human, we must also
accept responsibility for our personal and collective mistakes; there
is nothing and no-one else to blame.
