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Do you think that Religion has had a Positive, Negative or no impact on the world's environment OVERALL or ON AVERAGE?
Examples of negative impact:
Many ancient cultures cut down their forests in order to build monuments for worship.
Religions that forbid birth control contribute to the overpopulation of the planet.
Religious wars taking time and money away from environmental research and using resources at very fast rates.
Examples of positive impact:
Churches forming committees to plant trees, or push people to recycle.
Certain religions are very environmentally aware and do a lot, but are very much in the minority.
That sort of thing is all I can think of, so my opinion is that religion as a whole has a negative impact on the environment, both historically and currently, of the planet.
Every single human activity that we engage in will have some impact on the environment if it consumes natural resources. I don't see religious activities as having any more or less impact than anything else we do. Almost all of us drive a gas powered vehicle, use electricity that often uses fossil fuels to produce it, etc.
It really depends on the religion. The Native American religions tended to make the person not be greedy and ask the environment for what he needs and forgive what harm he must do to it to live. This forms a value system of taking care of the environment and not doing too much harm.
The basic Christian view of god being separate from the environment and giving man it for his own wants is far more harmful. This has been shown in the wanton destruction over and over. When the religion promotes the only good thing being the "afterlife" (really means death), then the earth, its environment and how man takes from it is devalued. Even today after seeing how much hard is done, some still persist in the view that the world exists solely for man and he can do whatever he likes with it.
This is not to say that it is absolute in either case. Just the underlying values that the different religions promote.
The basic Christian view of god being separate from the environment and giving man it for his own wants is far more harmful. This has been shown in the wanton destruction over and over.
I hadn't even considered that aspect of religious teachings when I wrote my earlier post. Many religious people believe that the entire earth and all of the plants, animals and every resource available has been given to mankind by God are we are basically free to do whatever we want with it. I honestly don't see Christians or any other faith trashing the environment like big corporations often do but I have to agree that the mentality of man being given dominion over nature by God is not a good one.
While I can't speak for other areas, here most of the churches seem to be fully bent on being as conservative/Republican as possible. Since they associate any environmental concerns with liberals, they go out of their way to care as little for the environment as possible. I've even seen people intentionally do something harmful to the environment just to "show those hippies." So I can't say the religion itself is the cause of this idiocy, though I can say that the churches here are chock full of people who go out of their way to dismiss all environmental concerns.
Don't forget that some of the more vociferous Christians are looking forward to the 'end times' which they see as happening soon, so to them it doesn't matter how badly the environment is treated.
Do you think that Religion has had a Positive, Negative or no impact on the world's environment OVERALL or ON AVERAGE?
Examples of negative impact:
Many ancient cultures cut down their forests in order to build monuments for worship.
Religions that forbid birth control contribute to the overpopulation of the planet.
Religious wars taking time and money away from environmental research and using resources at very fast rates.
I believe all mankind in general fail in all these catagories. No specific blame can be put on any one particular group. Mankind in general are to blame for the decline of Earth's environment. That would include myself, even as much as I love the natural world. But I don't have the perfect handle on every thing about proper care, recycling, etc, etc, etc. I also don't sit back in my big comfortable easy chair in my nice home in the comfort of the properous country I live in and criticize some father in a third world forced into poaching for having to feed his family either. The imperfect human nature of man's inhumanity to man is at fault and both religion and secular sides are to blame.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacerta
Examples of positive impact:
Churches forming committees to plant trees, or push people to recycle.
Certain religions are very environmentally aware and do a lot, but are very much in the minority.
I think there are equal or maybe more secular organizations involved in this type of work, but does anyone anymore really take them seriously ???
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacerta
That sort of thing is all I can think of, so my opinion is that religion as a whole has a negative impact on the environment, both historically and currently, of the planet.
What do you think, and why?
I always wanted to see the Cedars of Lebanon, as I have an interest in those biblical areas and the plant life mentioned in the bible or any other ancient writings. Of course I'll never go and see them because being an American citizen, it would be like painting a bullseye on my back and chest.
There was a 1 hour documentary on CNN Europe recently dedicated to the Cedars of Lebanon, and it was eye opening. I think of most of them being on Mount Hermon, but there were at one time vast forests everywhere. There are in fact today no longer any vast forests, just pockets of woods spotted here and there. They said most of the forests were destroyed by the Ottoman Empire for firewood for their steam trains. Here's an example of the small woods left over in this area. You'll notice a wall built around these woods which are guarded and protected by a Lebanese Conservation Group called the Commitee of the Friends of the Cedar Forest. They were simply volunteer individuals who took it upon themselves to save what was left. Notice the moonscape land surrounding what was once a massive extensive Cedar Forest eco-system. The picture below is winter/spring time. The one below that is summer, but notice the fortress type wall built around it to preotect it from even modern day woodcutters.
I've studied a familiar landscape tree commonly used in Southern California called the Aleppo Pine. It's values is it grows rather quickly and thrives in intense heat environments. Very drought resistant. Botanists and archealogist researchers believe it is the Oil Tree mentioned in the Bible. Historical evidence shows there were once vast areas of these forests surrounding the hills around Jerusalem. But if you've ever noticed the surrounding modern landscape in the news items on that region, ever notice that the surrounding countryside looks like a moonscape ???
Mankind in general have issues with exploiting our environment. Even the Maori of New Zealand and the ancient Anasazi of the American Southwest have been found to have destroyed their own environment and we are told by the experts that native primative indigenus peoples have always been one with the land.
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