When God created the world, He created everything. Genesis 1 gives all of mankind the wonderful narrative of His creation. God made the sky, the sun, moon, and stars. God also made land, the waters of the oceans and streams. God also made the animals to inhabit the land, sky, and waters. In addition, He made the plants that grow on the land He created. God’s crowning creation was the creation of man. God’s creation of man came along with some big responsibilities. Specifically, He made man responsible for caring for all that He had created. Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” God is in the middle of everything that is going on. Since Christians know from Isaiah 45:18 that God created the earth “to be inhabited”, we know that nothing God did was just by chance or an accident. The creation is something quite valuable that should be preserved in order to stay beautiful as it was intended (Baldwin, 2006). The problem we encounter as human beings is that this is completely impossible. The more we exist and interact with the world that God created, the more we mess things up. Genesis 3 describes for us the result of sin on the earth; that result being pain during childbirth, the ground being cursed, “painful toil” to cultivate the ground, and ultimately death. And it has not improved since that day. Humans today need to stop living carelessly and start living in a way to sustain life on earth (DeWitt, & Nash, 2009). As things stand now, the lives of generations in the future are at stake here. Ken Ham wrote, “the whole of creation is running down and wearing out” (Ham, 2000). Things will not get any easier for us and it will be harder for us...
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In the journal of Environmentalism as Religion, Paul H. Rubin discuss about how environmental is similar to religion. Rubin want everyone to know that the environment and religion are somehow similar in a way, which they both have belief system, creation stories and original sin.
In the beginning, according to Ishmael, God created Man to live peacefully on Earth, sustained by the fruitful bounties of Earth and subject to God's control. That is, until Man ate of the Tree of Good and Evil in the Garden Of Eden, and conveniently forgot all the rules God had so graciously placed in front of him. From that point on, the Caucasian race, full of vanity and pride for having seen so clearly what was good on the Earth and what was not, decided to subjugate the Earth to its will. During this turn of events, totalitarian agriculture was born. And God just shook his head.
On our planet, phenomena’s occur occasionally in nature. Tornadoes, earthquakes, and flashfloods are all types of phenomena’s that could occur. Most of these mysterious events are small and go unnoticed; however, on a rare occasion these sorts of event can be horrendous. One such occasion occurred back around 4,000 BC (Werner Keller, 48). As the story goes, God’s population was growing rapidly on earth. At this point, he had been growing bored with the same people on earth so he made sure no man would live past the age of 120. Given this time, the people of earth started to take advantage of the human race; these acts of selfishness disgusted God. He decided to destroy everything on earth. A man by the name of Noah had lived his life by God’s nature, which eventually led to a close relationship between the two. God had told Noah to build a boat with exact measurements. God had instructed Noah to put two of every kind of animal into the boat; one had to be male and the other female. Then God told Noah to get into the boat with his family, their families, and the animals. Then for forty days and forty nights the clouds seemed to have poured endless amounts of water onto the earth (Genesis 6:1-9). Floods rushed through the landscape, destroying everything in its path. The waters were higher than the tallest mountains, standing above the highest peaks. All living things on earth had died. The water covered the earth at this level for five months (Paul S. Taylor, 1). In time the water began to dry up. Eventually Noah was able to leave the ship and release all he had brought with him. From this point, evolution occurs.
Golden Rule and Environmentalism Intelligence, humor, simplicity, common sense, lack of philosophical jargon, perspective, wit, answer to questions. In the style of a popular scientist, not a philosopher, Stephen Jay Gould announces his view of an appropriate environmental ethic following the simple, but forever elegant, golden rule. "If we all treated others as we wish to be treated ourselves, then decency and stability would have to prevail"(216), he states. In the spirit of Karen Warren, Gould's perspective on environmentalism 'feels right' to me, as I can connect with acts of respect and benevolence towards humans and can easily extend that feeling to the rest of the earth (especially on a personal level where I see the golden
Judeo-Christian beliefs as based on faith, and solely that. These groups and people do not need facts to back up their convictions, and each person will believe that “their way is the right way, [and that] everyone else is wrong,” (Page 6). One of the most commonly known stories from these religions is the story of the Garden of Eden, in which Eve and Adam both partake of the fruit of knowledge and thus for are cast out, bringing evil unto the world. Many believe, that these same connections can be made to our story as a human population as it was with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were both sinners, and “we are all energy sinners,” (Page 2). Both groups of evildoers are then forced to gain their salvation, in our case, sustainability, or be forced
In the days of old -when life could reach more than nine hundred years- “sons of god”(6:2), angels and warriors ruled the earth. One walked the righteous path in the land of the wicked; one saw the grace of the Lord. In these chapters of Genesis, God is seen as an active participant in the story. Through His words and interactions, we can see that His character and relationship towards man is ever-changing and evolving. God is a ruler with expectations. What He had sought out to create in mankind was not being represented, all He saw was evil all the time.(6:5) In Genesis 6:6 we see a God that feels pain from a broken heart. From the grief he has sustained, he demands judgment and justice. His decision and reaction is to destroy all that He has created.(6:7) The Lord’s character here is repentant, judgmental and a potential destroyer. In His grief He finds “favor” for one man: Noah.(6:8) Though it was only one man in an entire generation, we see the grace of God present here. Because of Noah, God finds himself modifying his plans, “the planned destruction becomes a reconstruction” of this earth.(Harper Collins, Study Bible, Notes pp.13)
The book of Genesis is the story of creation according to Hebrew text, God creates the world as a paradise, a lush green world that is good, a world that is right, God himself is presented as being caring and fair. However later on there are many stories within Genesis which question God's morality towards his creations. The supposedly just God is at many times shown to be petty, deceiving, and unequal in his treatments towards his creations. As a result of God's own duplicity the men he created covenants with, God's numerous prophets and their respective bloodlines, themselves are often two-faced and unjust. Because of God's: ill treatment towards men, his favoring of certain individuals over others, and his own prophets being devious, God is in actuality a shallow and unfair being. Therefore God's actions in Genesis show that it is his own morale wrongs which create an imbalanced and chaotic world, one which is filled with cruelty and injustice.
Most importantly, Genesis offers teachings on the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and civilization. Natural World In regards to the natural world, Genesis 1-3 tells of how God created the world, the creation of man, and the fall of man. The Earth was dark and without form, then God spoke everything into existence. Relationships play a major role in humans’ lives on a day-to-day basis.
In Chapters 4 and 5 of Engaging God’s World you have Chapters: Redemption and Vocation in the Kingdom of God, respectively. They share a commonality in that Redemption had to occur before we could accept our vocation in the Kingdom of God. As Plantinga says “Human misery is nearly as old as the human race but equally old is the story of God’s grace, that is, God’s mercy to the undeserving.” What is Man that we live such reckless sinful lives? In the beginning of Genesis in the Garden we observe Adam and eve make the first mistake in Chapter 3-- disobeying and instead of surely dying as God had once said-- he redeemed them from shameful nakedness to briar clothing instead. This fact stands: God is in the business of redeeming his people regardless
For those wondering what exactly we are doing on this earth, the answers lie in the book of Genesis. Genesis is the book of beginnings, the seed that will later sprout into all of the truths portrayed through scripture in the rest of the Bible. The first two chapters show how beautiful the earth was before it became spoiled with sin. Genesis, specifically the first two chapters, symbolizes the work of God and his blessing of creating our earth and orderly universe. God revealed much about human nature and the nature of the world in the first two chapters of Genesis through scripture. Genesis 1 and 2 reveal aspects of human nature about harmonizing with nature, ruling and multiplying, morality, and the need to be organized.
An environmentalist is a person worships the environment and cares for nature more than people. Christians and others share the common perception that environmental ethics exist for how human beings should relate to the land, the free market perceptive and the environmental perceptive. Humans share a relationship with all creations of the earth. But as humans, they find themselves as having a role in the created order which is they have a closer relationship with the creator who has charged them with acting responsible within his creation. Even allowing a common complaint of environmental activists is that Stewardship means that the earth was made exclusively because of human beings - that having dominion upper nature is the same as having the power and directly of domination. Christians consequently share a close relationship by means of the whole of aspects of creation, since in relation to the environment, its unbroken humanity, not unbroken nature, that's seen to be the problem. Stewardship in simple terms means to manage someone else’s property. Christians proclaims that everything belong to God, so as Christians, we need to have the attitude that our belongings are his belongings. As stewards, we have the responsibility of being in charge of the earth. We have been placed in charge and are responsible for whatever happens to it, even though it does not belong to us, as we all know it belong to God. In Genesis 2:15, God took man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it.
Driving my parents SUV today, a thought occurred to me. How am I really making a difference towards improving the environment? You see, this is an important question to me as I now consider myself an environmentalist. This is the "career" that I have finally prepared to commit to. A big change for a boy raised amongst the glitz of a big city, where money, fame and toys define your status. As such, I'm wondering now if I really am making a difference and what I can do to make the biggest impact while being able to live my life in the urban realm. Is it possible to be an environmentalist in a big city, where we are so dependent on "consumption", or am I just a big hypocrite? Or, will I have to move to Montana and live off the land and "suffer" through an existence. This is a question/perspective I believe that MOST people, who may be even remotely environmentally conscious (or want to be), contemplate as they live out their urban existence. Just how can one be an environmentalist while working at a high-tech job, while commuting to work in a gas-guzzling vehicle and while working horrid hours simply to pay an enormous rent? I know that this thought process has stumped me in the past. Maybe being an environmentalist is too daunting of a task - perhaps I should just give up.
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.
Christians Helping to Perserve the Environment Many Christians believe that God created the World and also made man to be its stewards i.e. To look after something that does not belong to you. Christians who want to be good stewards attempt to protect the World and the rest of creation, by dealing with environmental problems e.g. a major oil of the coast of Spain, or forest fires in Australia. Examples of these stewards are "Green Peace" who try to overt environmental disasters and clear up others. Another example is the "RSPCA", who work to prevent cruelty to animals. As most Christians believe God created the Earth for people to live on and multiply, they give thanks to their creator in many different ways: Well Dressing:
“Unless humanity is suicidal, it should want to preserve, at the minimum, the natural life-support systems and processes required to sustain its own existence” (Daily p.365). I agree with scientist Gretchen Daily that drastic action is needed now to prevent environmental disaster. Immediate action and changes in attitude are not only necessary for survival but are also morally required. In this paper, I will approach the topic of environmental ethics from several related sides. I will discuss why the environment is a morally significant concern, how an environmental ethic can be developed, and what actions such an ethic would require to maintain and protect the environment.