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The links between environmentalism and Christianity have a long and complicated history that in the end comes down to a matter of perspective. People can read one document and come up with several different meanings. The Bible has been used over and over to fit the needs of those who’re using it. In its earliest uses its messages were formed to be easier and more appealing in order to convert people, but as time when on and the religion grew more and more people began to associate spirituality and religion back into nature and the environment. With Saint Francis came a message of love and compassion towards all that he extended to include not only the poor and meek, but every living thing. In american history the Protestant view that was seen
The author of this book Steven Bouma-Prediger main argument is Christians need to live more earth-careful lives and being called to be caretakers is not optional. The responsibility to care for the earth is a part of our faith. Early in the book the authors takes you back to your first encounter with nature he does to make his topic relevant and personal to the reader. He then opposes his first question, how much do we actually know about where we live? He states that this question shows us how little we know about our trees, plants, flowers, and the patterns of the moon. This is also his first argument in which he said if we do not know our earth we are destine to use and abuse it. Understanding and caring about nature is necessary to live properly on this earth. Chapter 1 (page 21) “we are for what we love, we love only what we know, we truly know only what we experience.
The battle between humanity and nature began when the industrial civilization started threatening our environment and natural resources. Hunters, like Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold, were the first Americans to realize that nature is something that we need to preserve. Leopold’s awakening was seeing a fierce green fire in the eyes of a wolf he had shot. He was able to understand what it means to take away pieces of life and how it affected the important role of earth’s grand scheme of nature. People started to become environmentalists when they experienced the same realization as
... lot easier by the flexibility of New Age Religions, with people adopting only what suited them, and being able to practice their faith anywhere. Ethical concerns for the environment are also key foundations to some New Age religions, for example ‘The Green movement’ ‘believe in Gaia — an “Earth spirit,”’ and one of their religious focuses is on the care and treatment of the earth.
And Mr. Crichton theorizes that there are two reasons why we need to go back to environmental science, and leave the religion aspect behind us. First, we need to stick with the cold hard facts of science and we can’t rely on one government political party to solve all of our problems for us, this is an all-for-one type of deal, with no connotations involved. Our second reason he explains is that religions think that they have the answers to everything. But when it comes to environmentalism, we are dealing with discoveries that are still being found to this day, we need to evolve and mesh ourselves in order to accept new ideas and proceed with how to live our lives
I happen to believe that hardcore “Environmental Greenies” are very dangerous people. The fanatics invent crazy modern mythological terminology like “carbon footprint,” “alternative energy” and “global warming” and the overzealous charlatans expect to make the rest of civilization (including our easily impressionable and indoctrinated school children) feel guilty if we aren’t voluntarily and gullibly deceived by their creative frivolous terminology.
...that they believe is just and being ethical when concerning the environment, adherents will be rewarded by God. Humanity also benefits as, environmental ethics provided by the Christian teaching and beliefs allows communities to come together and discuss issues concerning the environment whilst being guided by their faith.
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
As Stephen Asma stated “Instead of religious sins plaguing our conscience, we now have the transgressions of leaving the water running, leaving lights on, failing to recycle, and using plastic grocery bags instead of paper” (Asma 25). Asma was trying to portray the trivial ‘sins’ of environmentalism, meanwhile notably signifying they’re lesser than religion. Even though most of environmentalism’s rules are trivial, they are attempting to shape people into better beings. The most fascinating part about environmentalism is the absence of a higher being. Considering that many of environmentalists are secularized beings, they choose not to have a higher being because of the resemblance of religion. Often, religion scares secularized individuals away because they begin to feel the pressures of being ‘perfect’. Secularized individuals strive to become better beings but cannot deal with the stresses that come with a heaven or hell. Therefore, environmentalism offers a belief to those who may subconsciously want to be ‘religious’ but are afraid of the commitment with God. Either side you stand on, whether you’re for the religious or environmentalist, your main achievement is striving to become a better human being
Christians believe that God created the earth along with civilization in seven days and some scientist believe that the earth has always been here and that everything just has evolved over time. Being a Christian in this world and taking any sort of science class will test your faith, because all of these different things such as evolution and our bodies being powered by chemical reactions, while depending on the laws of chemistry operating in a uniform fashion. Chemistry seeks to model, understand, tailor and make use of everything in the natural world, from the atomic building blocks of matter to the complex metabolic pathways of living organisms. It is a fascinating subject which has the potential to impact the world in which we live for either good or ill. As Christians in chemistry, the interaction of our complementary scientific and Christian worldviews is vitally important, allowing us to grow in our own faith and enabling us to be effective contributors, participants and witnesses in our classes and
“Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world, likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority[control of the masses].”(Zeitgeist 2007) In this essay, we will explore the different roots of religion and the plagiarism that Christianity and a number of different religions have committed.
Arising within the first few pages of Whitney’s paper is her contention that non-Christian religions can also do ecological damage and that Christianity did bring forth occidental culture characterized by capitalism, commercialism and this has an equal or even greater impact on environmental problems than medieval religion. Whitney’s argument is forward thinking and takes into account the economic boom of the 1990’s, something that White has failed to take into account. As a preamble to her argument she mentions that despite the secularist nature that the world is moving towards, Lynn continues to believe that medieval Christianity is still the main influence of our harsh attitude toward nature. White defends his point by mentioning the cause of Western technological “dynamism” as caused by medieval Christianity, stating that medieval Christianity creates an exploitative attitude toward nature. White uses tilling and its advancements during the medieval times to strengthen his point as follows; in order to increase efficiency of ...
Christian theology states that God created the earth and gave it as a gift to humans to be shared with all other living creatures. This belief is known as the “Creation-centered approach to the natural environment” (Massaro, p.163). This approach emphasizes the value of nature by recognizing humans as being an equal part of God’s creation under which all “species deserve protection” (Massaro, p.163). With such publicly known cases of pollution like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or Bethlehem Steel’s pollution of Lake Erie decades ago, it is evident that humans have been using the environment in accordance with the Stewardship or even the Dominion model, both of which place humans above all other creations. According to Massaro, Christian theology also explains that showing “disregard for the air that others breathe and the quality of the water they drink is to sin against God” (Massaro, p.162). This type of disregard destroys humankind’s relationship with all other living organisms.
The well-being of the environment is the responsibility of all people. From the water in the ground, to the air that we breathe and everything in between, is a gift from God, and worthy of preservation. The book of Genesis says, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (Gen 1:15, New American Standard). It is clear by this passage that God intended for man to not only care and prepare the land for growth, but also to remain faithful in his responsibilities that God had given him. Christians should not neglect their responsibility toward protecting the environment and living a life that exemplifies this cause.
The most obvious reason that the environment has moral significance is that damage to it affects humans. Supporters of a completely human-centered ethic claim that we should be concerned for the environment only as far as our actions would have a negative effect on other people. Nature has no intrinsic value; it is not good and desirable apart from its interaction with human beings. Destruction and pollution of the environment cannot be wrong unless it results in harm to other humans. This view has its roots in Western tradition, which declares that “human beings are the only morally important members of this world” (Singer p.268).
We need to use the natural resources in a positive way so that we do