Spiritual Perspectives

and the Nuclear Age

The detonation of the first atomic bomb has often been referred to as a spiritual or religious experience for those who were present in Alamogordo, New Mexico. When J. Robert Oppenheimer, the leading physicist of the Manhattan Project, witnessed the Trinity Test he quoted the Bhagavad Gita and said, "I am become Death, Shatterer of Worlds".

James Farrell, who was also present, recounts the event:

Farrell speaks of this "unprecedented", "man-made phenomenon" in the fashion of the Old Testament where to look at the face of the Divine is sudden death, not for ugliness or stealing knowledge, but for witnessing severe beauty.

To be sure, the men who worked on the development of the bomb were holding their breath when that first explosion occurred. And with reason, as they did not know whether or not the chain reaction they initiated would ever cease, and if not, that one reaction might destroy the entire world. Before the birth of nuclear weapons, God alone had the perceived power to destroy all life on earth. From 1945 onwards, humanity had elevated itself to a level of omnipotence previously reserved to the Divine.

Ira Chernus, the author of Dr. Strangegod, notes that "Just as God works his will instantly, having no limits upon his power, so does the Bomb, and so do we as masters of the Bomb. In manifesting our infinite power we find the only solution to the problem of our infinite power. Once the button is pushed, there may be no future solutions to our problems, but neither will there be any problems to solve" (Chernus 1986: 30).

There are many spiritual perspectives that challenge or help people to cope with living in a world where nuclear weapons threaten all life on the planet. The following draws on Christian and Buddhist attempts to grapple with the 21st century conundrum of how to remain engaged against the impossible odds of the nuclear age. As General Omar Bradley stated, "We live in an age of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living".

From a Christian perspective, nuclear weapons are viewed as morally wrong and deeply unethical. Nuclear bombs represent a profound manifestation of evil which defy a basic Christian belief in the sanctity of life, a perspective shared by many of the world’s religions such as Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

In 1983, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a letter which condemned the use of nuclear weapons and argued that their use could never be morally justified. The conference did consider the issue of nuclear deterrence differently, however. Given the state of play in the Cold War, the conference could not agree that the threat of nuclear war, if this threat prevented the use of nuclear bombs, was unjustified. They recognized deterrence strategies at that time as an interim policy, but stated that "we cannot consider it adequate as a long term basis for peace" (Pax Christi, October 1998). They further described deterrence as not "an end in itself but a step on the way toward a progressive disarmament" (Pax Christi, October 1998). In 1998, the conference revisited their previous decree and made several alterations. Due to the new international nature of the nuclear arms race; and the fact that nuclear nations, even after the end of the Cold War, continue to use deterrence as an overarching defense strategy; as well as revelations regarding the US government's current drive to modernize its nuclear arsenal, the conference has now condemned deterrence as morally unjustifiable.

The Bishops consider their denouncement of the threat of nuclear war a continuing response to a 1997 declaration of Pope John Paul II. At his behest, the Vatican's UN Mission stated that: "Nuclear weapons are incompatable with the peace we seek for the 21st century. They cannot be justified. They deserve condemnation. The preservation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty demands an unequivocal commitment to their abolition" (Pax Christi, October 1998).

According to the Christian tradition, nuclear weapons and the threat of their use is morally offensive. This represents an ethical justification for the dismantling of all nuclear arms. But what do we do with the by-products, or ‘waste’, of nuclear war technologies? A spiritual practice that the nuclear waste problem can benefit from is the Buddhist practice of ‘mindfulness’. Mindfulness is recognized as a state of awareness, a practice of paying attention. Applied to the problem of nuclear technology, this means to sustain our gaze on the waste products of nuclear weapons and nuclear power production. To be mindful and vigilant of what is occuring. To not ignore or hide from the consequences or responsibilities of the nuclear age. One such proposal, inspired by Buddhism and social activism, is the Nuclear Guardianship Project.

In 1983, Joanna Macy, originator of the project, visited the Greenham Common women's peace camp in the UK. The women's peace camp established itself at a military base jointly operated by the US and British Air Force. It was founded in 1982 with a walk from Cardiff to Greenham, where women opposed the presence of US nuclear weapons in the UK. For thirteen years, women lived at Greenham in order to draw attention to both the site and the proliferation of nuclear technology that the site symbolized. The thousands of women who took their turn living at Greenham made the presence of nuclear weaponry visible for an international community. Greenham has been a worldwide inspiration, and in a fundamental way, changed the nature of anti-nuclear protest. The combination of making the site visible as a symbol of nuclear technology and sustaining their gaze (being mindful) by living at Greenham for over a decade, demonstrated the human will to embody responsibility. In the end, it was the Greenham women and their sustained presence that forced the hand of US and British military establishments. After thirteen years of women living at the site, the nuclear Cruise Missiles were returned to the US and the base was closed.

During her visit to Greenham, Macy experienced a feeling of déjà vu. "Sitting in the rain… I suddenly realized that this feeling of déjà vu was not about the past so much as the future. Of course! For life to go on, this is what would have to happen around the nuclear power and weapons stations. . . . Even after nuclear disarmament, even after the closing of the last reactor, something like these citizen encampments would be necessary to ensure that the radioactivity was contained".

Years later, out of Macy's vision of a nuclear future came the Nuclear Guardianship Project. Established in Berkeley, California in 1989, Nuclear Guardianship advocates the storage of radioactive materials above ground in a monitored, retrievable configuration. When the material is stored where present and future generations can see it, the maintenance required for its continual isolation from the environment is more readily facilitated. Nuclear Guardianship acknowledges that this form of responsible care will require ongoing monitoring and maintenance, and ongoing mindfulness. Because of the uniquely vast temporal nature of radioactive materials, these materials will require routine repackaging in order to ensure their safe accommodation. Continual monitoring and maintenance is a clear necessity when it is recognized that no human-made containment vessel will 'outlive' the radioactive materials they attempt to contain.

Being mindful in a Buddhist sense means to pay attention, to stay alert, to be aware, to notice. When applied to radioactive waste containment, the cultivation of awareness in the present can also provide for an assessment of responsible care into the far future. We can become mindful of and have compassion for future generations. And by cultivating compassion for others, those alive today and those who will be alive in the future, we can begin to recognize our mutual, nuclear responsibility. And work towards a safer world.

Photo by Robert Del Tredici, At Work in the Fields of the Bomb, Harper & Row 1987.

What you can do

• Learn more about the Nuclear Guardianship Project by visiting the Plutonium Free Future website at www.nonukes.org

• Learn more about Pax Christi by emailing info@paxchristiusa.org or by visiting their website at www.nonviolence.org/pcusa

• Talk about the problems of nuclear war, nuclear waste and the production of nuclear power in your church, synagogue, mosque, meditation center, or other places for contemplation and worship. Organize actions in your local area. Educate yourself and others.

• Hold the intentions of the abolition of nuclear weapons and the safe containment of nuclear waste in your prayers and meditations.

References Cited/Further Reading

Chernus, Ira. Dr Strangegod: on the Symbolic Meaning of Nuclear Weapons. Columbia, SC: University

of South Carolina Press, 1986.

Laurence, William. Dawn Over Zero: the Story of the Atomic Bomb. London: Museum Press, 1946.

Macy, Joanna. World As Lover, World As Self. Berekley: Parallax Press, 1991.

Macy, Joanna. ‘Technology and Mindfulness:  A call to attention to the  radioactive results of nuclear technology’, Nuclear Guardianship Forum, Spring Issue, 1992.

Pax Christi. ‘The Morality of Nuclear Deterrence: An evaluation by Pax Christi Bishops in the United States’. Published in-house, October 1998.

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