Last week’s “Can We Be Good Without god” debate, a response
to Metro Transit’s ban on atheist advertising, got me thinking big,
post-modern questions such as: What does “good” mean? For “Sustainable
City” purposes, let’s assume being good means living sustainably,
allowing life to continue for as long as possible on this planet. To
what extent do secular versus religious worldviews shape how we treat
the planet?
The first to publish this line of thinking was Lynn White who, in a
1967 Science article, called out religion, particularly
Christianity, for its mindfuck of the earth. He wrote, “Human ecology
is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny—that
is, by religion.”
Dr. Anne Marie Dalton, professor of religious studies at St. Mary’s
University, elaborates on White’s indictments. “He accused biblical
tradition—its view that divinity was totally independent of the
natural world, that humans have dominion over the earth, that there is
a hierarchy of living things—of being responsible for how we treat
the environment.”
Katie Kish, vice president of the Freethought Association of Canada
(the sceptics behind the kyboshed bus ads), agrees with White. “Some
Christians believe that creation—earth, organisms, eco-systems—was
planned explicitly for man to rule and use,” she says.
So, for the crime of ecocide, hang the Christians. “It’s actually
not that simple,” says Dalton. Oh. “There are other religions with
totally different worldviews that also hurt the environment.” Even
western science, from which has sprung the modern environmental
movement, owes its existence to monotheistic religion’s tendency to
compartmentalize, to separate the earth from the spirit. There is a
greater similarity between those two worldviews than one might
expect.
It can also be argued that with dominion comes the responsibility of
stewardship. “Some [monotheists] would say the natural world reflects
god,” Dalton adds. So raping the earth is like, uh, raping god.
“There are instructions for stewardship in the Bible,” Dalton adds.
“Jewish law says to protect forests; there are practical things in
Deuteronomy, giving the earth a rest with the Sabbath. The Bible says
do not ravage all the trees after a war, that the land actually belongs
to god, not humans.”
Thus, true Christians are conservationists. “Religions are talking
more and more about environment,” Dalton says, “starting with
[religious historian] Thomas Berry calling on the church for
environmental responsibility in the ’60s.”
Two years ago the pope and cardinals declared their concern for “the
risk of the destruction of creation,” and called for “respect and
protection” for the environment. Kairos Canada—a multi-denominational
faith group—lobbies government to enforce better corporate
responsibility on environment and has declared a carbon Sabbath.
Coupled with that “fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over
every living thing that moves” thing, the church’s message is a bit
ambiguous.
How exactly are we supposed to behave? Help me out, Katie Kish. “How
we should behave doesn’t stem from a higher authority but rather with
our natural instinct of empathy,” Kish says. That empathy naturally
guides humans in caring about and for non-human life. “Environmentalism
is actually very important for secular people, because we focus on the
lives we live on earth, as we think it is the only life we get.”
Focusing on life on earth allows a scientific reverence for what is
earthly, Kish says. “Biology and ecology show us how amazingly complex
and interconnected everything is, from the smallest cell to the largest
whale and the entire global ecosystem as a whole. Astronomy and physics
bring us majestic images of galaxies billions of light years away and
enormous forces of nature that are at the same time capable of creating
and destroying life at a whim.”
It is perhaps the presence or absence of that reverence, be it
rooted in the earth or inspired by heaven, that determines the
sustainability of a person’s worldview.
Kish acknowledges that, while some worldviews are generally more
sustainable than others, there are always exceptions. “There are
atheists who are ruthless capitalists; there are Christians who are
conservationists and vice versa,” she says.
Dalton, while also acknowledging this complexity, points to certain
worldviews that are particularly strong on reverence and
sustainability. “Indigenous cultures’ worldviews of how humans ought to
live in the natural world are the most cohesive and most emphasize
honouring the natural world,” she says.
She adds that there is much to be learned from Buddhism, with its
notion of peaceful living within the natural world. “Some Buddhist
Thais recently ordained trees to protect them. They believe that the
potential for enlightenment exists in all creatures, not just humans.”
Send tithes and prayers to Chris Benjamin at chrisb@thecoast.ca.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
Must be ‘Bash the Christians week’
I though pollution was an equal opportunity phenomenon.
Nah, ‘Bash The Christians Week’ was a while back now, around 2nd century B.C.E. I believe. Y’know, Lyon and Marcus Aurelius and all that? No, this is ‘Read One Line Of An Article And Bash The Author Week’. Surely you got the memo?
Erratum
Whoops – that was meant to be C.E., not B.C.E. Bashing Christians before there even were any – now that would be paradoxical as well as mean, wouldn’t it?
There is some extremely reckless characterization of the Christian theology of nature going on here. Entire theological systems relevant to these questions were produced throughout the Middle Ages (like that of Eriugena’s ‘On the Divisions of Nature’, for example, or the Augustinian reading of Genesis).
For a contemporary Canadian author who certainly doesn’t fit into these simplistic dichotomies, I would refer to poet Tim Lilburn.
I go to a United Church, where every week a “green tip” is shared. The church has also ensured that “tea time” held after the service is done with mugs, not disposable cups. We are located in a rural community, and there is a car pooling system set-up for those wishing to attend the service while at the same time, saving some gas.
The youth group held a service on Good Friday with a focus on environmental concerns.
Anyway, just thought I’d share some of the positive stuff going on.