Can religion save the environment?
NO. 1
How can individuals save the planet by using their religions to make their voices heard? Anthropologists and researchers are discovering that the nature religions, like Buddhism, Daoism, and Hinduism, have followers who realize that the Earth is suffering, and so are the animals. They are using activism to help the planet and other countries enforce climate and environmental change, but how? ‘’An essay by Lynn White, Jr., ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,’ appeared on March 10, 1967, of Science made a big impact. Within a few years, three basic responses took shape. In the first response, countercultural and left political groups seized upon it as another argument against the racist, warmongering, profiteering, polluting ‘establishment.’ Many concluded that Christianity was bankrupt concerning nature and the environment. To them, Western society must take its cues from religious beliefs and practices from putatively more earth-friendly religions, especially Daoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, pre-agricultural animism, and neopagan worship of the earth goddess. Re-sacralization of the world would counter the effects of disenchantment.
NO. 2
The search in ancient foreign religions for the lost key to the solutions to the environmental crisis gradually faded under the criticism that scholars and popular writers were romanticizing or projecting their values. Yi-Fu Tuan rebutted the Western image of Chinese harmony with nature grounded in Daoist or Buddhist belief in the flow of nature and the lack of firm boundaries between humans and nonhumans. In ‘Discrepancies between Environmental Attitudes and Behavior: Examples from Europe and China’ from David Spring’s Ecology and Religion in History, Tuan described how the traditional Chinese religious respect for nature did nothing to stop rampant deforestation and other environmental catastrophes. Religion and spirituality have been at a turning point in America, as it is connected to all the oppressive systems created to oppress the poor. On the other hand, two evangelicals decided to change how people saw them. ‘’Evangelicals are important for examining the relationship between religious identity and environmental concern. They compromise a substantial portion of the American public (Hackett and Lindsay 2008) and have frequently expressed attitudes of environmental apathy. If meaningful strides are to be made in the struggle to save the environment if it is important to focus on this sizeable segment of American society.’’
NO. 3
Jared L. Peifer talks about how evangelists handle environmental challenges in his paper, How Evangelicals from Two Churches in the American Southwest Frame Their Relationship with the Environment. In his seminal article, historian Lynn White (1967) suggests, ‘What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Beliefs deeply condition human ecology about our nature and destiny—that is, by religion’(pg. 1205). More specifically, White argues that Western Christianity’s theological beliefs in human dominion over nature and the distinction Christianity makes between humans (made in God’s image) and the rest of creation are partially responsible for fostering an ecological crisis. Some sociologists have argued that religious beliefs shape environmental care.’’
NO. 3
Moving onto Buddhism, ‘’Currently, there is some debate about whether Buddhism can support an environmental ethic or the worldview of deep ecology, and some Western scholar-observe are very skeptical of Buddhist efforts to derive an ecological ethic (e.g., see the articles by Ian Harris in 1991 and 1995 and the Journal of Buddhist Ethics in 1994 and 1995). As a scholar of religion familiar with historical and constructive methods, I find that question somewhat beside the point. Historically, all living religions have undergone the major changes required to remain relevant in altered circumstances. There is no reason that the same thing cannot happen in response to the ecological crisis.’’
NO. 4
The reason why environmental concerns are so grave is that humans have the technologies to consume and reproduce in ways, that, if not moderated, seem almost certain to destroy the ecological basis for human life. Therefore, the key question is what values and practices would convince people to consume and reproduce less than when having the technological ability to consume and reproduce more. The world’s religions have not previously faced this situation, which explains why ecological ethics have not been at the forefront of religious thinking in any tradition. What we must do, then, as constructive thinkers in our various traditions, is to place the inherited values and insights of our traditions in the light of the current ecological crisis to see what resources the tradition affords us and where we need to extrapolate new visions.’’
