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Where Do We Belong in God’s Universe?
In the 16th century the dominant religious “theory” was that everything on the planet from God down to minerals and rocks were links in the Elizabethan Chain of Being. The earth that came from the disintegration of rocks was at the bottom of the chain. At the top of the chain was God. It progressed downward to angels, demons (fallen angels), stars, moon, kings and queens, princes, nobles, men, wild animals, domesticated animals, trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metals, other minerals-and, finally, rocks.
Each category had its own “chain” from top to bottom. As an example, an oak was at the top of the tree chain, the yew was at the bottom. (The yew tree had toxic, death-dealing leaves representing death.) Kings were at the top in the human chain, peasants at the bottom. If a human tried to rise above his anointed place in the chain, he brought disaster to himself and family. Think Macbeth.