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Published on Visualizing Ecology (http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter)

Kathryn Cardenas - Week 2

Lynn White, Jr. generalizes Christians, and attributes the roots of our abuse of the natural world to Christianity. “We shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has not reason for existence save to serve man… the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious…” (n1)

Our ecologic crisis cannot be attributed solely to the Christian religion. The destruction of the natural world and ecologic crisis are results of the rise of the modern, human world, and the marriage of science and technology for the benefit of mankind. “The driving motive behind … technological development was the pure and simple desire to increase productivity and wealth.” (n3, pp. 12) The need to make life as comfortable as possible, that science should have a more “useful” purpose besides archiving and observance, is an idea not rooted singularly in Christianity. The crisis is the “product of an emerging, entirely novel, democratic culture.” (n1), not a complete exploitation by a singular group who just happens to have the same religious title.

 “Christianity is a complex faith, and its consequences differ in differing contexts.” (n1) The religion itself is utterly complicated, with its’ different forms, beliefs, and teachings. An unfortunate result of such a complicated religion is the difference in opinions over almost every aspect of that religion, and an even more complicated view of those who believe in it. There needs to be “very precise distinctions between biblical instruction and the behavior of those peoples supposed to have been biblically instructed.” (n2) The bible passage Genesis 1-3 is an example of more than one axiom relating to the view of the world in the Christian religion. One of the most popular interpretations of that passage is that God let Man have “dominion over… all the earth” (n4), therefore God created the world for man’s benefit.

The same teachings of the bible and Christianity have taught other Christians to believe a completely different view of the natural world and it's purpose. Wendell Berry believes that “subduing the things of nature to human purposes is … dangerous… the misuse of the Bible thus logically accompanies the abuse of Nature.” (n2)

It would be accurate to say that there are groups of Christians and certain axioms that have led, and allowed an advancement in science and technology at the price of nature. It might be more accurate to say that people, especially those in Western civilization, want to be as comfortable in life as possible enough to ignore and even skew original religious teachings to their benefit.

In our modern world, it is impossible to believe that our secular scientific and technological advancements have shown us nothing except to find a solution in changing the religious beliefs of one very large, diverse group. Perhaps a better solution, as Worster states, is to “dispel modern society’s confidence in technology and more, its faith in unlimited economic growth.” (n3, pp. 22)

 

Notes:

1. The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis  2. Christianity and the Survival of Creation  3. Nature’s Economy  4. Genesis 1-3

henry week 1 › [0]

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