Ecology and Religion

ECOLOGY AND RELIGION
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Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc320200051"
Judaism  PAGEREF _Toc320200051 \h
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Christianity  PAGEREF _Toc320200052 \h
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Islam  PAGEREF _Toc320200053 \h
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Ecocentrism, Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism  PAGEREF _Toc320200054 \h
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Voices from the Global South  PAGEREF _Toc320200055 \h
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Globalization, Community and Ecojustice  PAGEREF _Toc320200056 \h
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References  PAGEREF _Toc320200057 \h
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Judaism
Judaist’s ethical sensibility
In western religion, such as Judaism and Christianity, deep ecological movement like interpretation has been a common occurrence in many ways (Fox, 1988).
It is a common perception among the theologians that the movement was provided in better ecological ethics and supreme ecological wisdom by Asian religious traditions, mostly in Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
In Judaism, environmental ethics link the tradition of ethical analysis with an important contemporary problem. In many occasions, it makes significant contribution in analyzing and understanding the complex relationship and environmental ethics between nature and man.
The principles and concepts have been evoked both implicitly and explicitly which are consistent with bio-centric or eco-centric understanding between man and nature (Avner and Talias, 1995; Sessions (ed.), 1995).
Judaism does not consider protection or preservation of the nature as the prime social value and believes that as a part of the nature, humans can use and enjoy the nature but have distinctive moral claims to protect it.
Judaism recognizes the majesty and beauty of nature, perceiving that it can be threatening and terrifying too. And the effort of human to subdue nature represents a challenge that the nature posted against human survival.
Jewish law does not accept a declaration of the independent rights of the nature. The rights should be balanced carefully and calibrated against the interest of human. The balancing process must give priority to the human nature (Berman, 2007).
Reciprocity
According to Kabbalists, human must understand their limitations regarding different ecological facts, such as, using natural resources, reproduction and production of wastes.
We must follow the principles that God has provided while creating the world and if God is omnipresent, the only way to create the world, by God would be tsimtsum, which is a voluntary limitation or withdrawal to make space for creating.
As human being, it is our duty to put restriction on our relation with the nature to make space for coexisting with our surroundings and for our future generations.
The presence of human being in everywhere of the nature would precursor the ending of natural diversity.
The metaphor exile in Jewish philosophy indicates that in the twenty first century, the human race would find itself in a complex situation if we do not take serious initiatives about population regarding other communities in the planet (Laurie, 2000).
The central idea of Judaism states that man should keep on the earth in the very same way we received it from God, and for that it is very important to keep the world clean from pollution.
According to the Jewish law, the taming and use of nature by man must not be wasteful and the concept of waste does not include economically prolific use of the natural assets; even for psychological benefits. The biblical imperative needs a balance between preservation and transformation (Diamond, 1998).
Christianity
Reciprocity in Christianity
The history of establishing relation between human and nature in Christian tradition is very old.
Many of the Catholics like the idea of incorporation the environmental issues within a Creation Care framework, which is often describes for all Christian as ecological responsibilities as wardens of God’s earth.
The Christian theology suggests that the creating of the world was the beginning of the history of salvation.
The difference between the nature and exposure and declaration of theocentrism of nature, combining with a concept by Aristotle about the final cause of natural creature.
According to Christian traditions, human should respect each and every aspect of the nature and environment and those who do so are going to be rewarded.
Most branches in Christianity, including a combined effort in both Protestant and Orthodox denominations have discussed environmental problems.
Ethical sensibility and Christianity
In the Old Testament, God’s compassion on the human being has been discussed, indicating the importance of showing compassion to all other living things by man. In Genesis (8.15-17), it is mentioned that animal kingdom suffers for the benefit of human race which is not a right thing to do.
The ethical sensibility and responsibility of man should include all natural things in the planet including all animals and plants (Braulik, 1986).
Concern about natural sustainability as well as ethical sensibility regarding natural issues, mostly about consumption and population, is new in Christianity in comparison with Hindu context (Shiva, 1988).
The Christian communities have the maximum responsibilities for fostering overpopulation and extensive consumption in the world; which is frustrating for the fact that there are many groups within the Christian communities that are criticizing others, claiming themselves as the main sources to maintain the integrity of nature.
Modern Christian belief leads to reduction of reproduction and resource consumption to balance with nature which underlines the teaching of Jesus as well as early Hebrew prophets about coexistence of human and nature.
The ecological crisis in modern world has understood as different proportion as to be liability for everyone. Different aspects in the need for concentrated efforts are targeted to establish the obligations and duties that belong to international community, states, people and individual. So each member in a community or family, regarding their religious faith, has responsibilities to the nature.
Christian ethics are the most compatible and friendly with the worldwide development of science and technology. However, some researchers argued that science and ethics does not have any sensible link (Nasr, 2007) which makes it difficult to provide any satisfactory result to overcome environmental crisis.
Buddhist philosophy and Christianity
Christianity, as well as any other western religious and ecological tradition does not have any definitive solution about excessive reproduction.
From Buddhist perception, the urge to reproduction is a serious issue and self-control by practicing meditation is the only way to solve it. This perception largely depends on spirituality which, according to many scholars, is not even a common practice among many Buddhist societies and difficult to follow.
Buddhist philosophy is life centered, sermonized by Buddha; where Christianity is the relationship between man and God. In Christian faith, a person is accepted by God because of who he is rather than what he does.
Hindu philosophy and Christianity
The Hindu teaching found close relation between the epics and puranas on dharma and the end of the earth.
The term dharma refers to duty, righteousness and justice, which declines that it is the human being that takes out the nature. Along with other environmental issues like the trees or rivers, the text of dharma also provided some ways to control the population. Any of the Christian books does not offer such solution.
Vedas, the sacred texts of Hinduism, discusses and expresses numerous ideas about religion, life, philosophy and nature, and their interconnections. Among these topics, the notion of enlightenment is directly presented which is a very crucial part of Christian philosophy.
From general point of view, Krishna, the leading incarnation of God is identical to Jesus from spiritual point of view as both of them are described as the supreme spirit in their own religion.
Islam
Ethical sensibility in Islam
In Koran, it is mentioned that human can use the nature to satisfy their needs if and only if the purpose serves benefit to all creation (Ammar, 1995).
The beauty and harmony of the nature must be respected, as a gift of Allah.
The natural resources must not be excessive and should be balanced properly.
Human must share the natural resources and should not be restricted to anyone.
The nature is sacred and Allah did not create the nature randomly; instead, it is a reflection of the truth.
Human has a lot of things to learn from the nature and as a representative of God; human must not destroy the nature (Muhammad, Shah-Kazemi and Ahmed, 2010).
Islamic religious traditions connect nature with paradise stating that nature is a manifestation of human memories of heaven which idolize the religious belief of Adam and Eve. And this is the only way to rediscover dissipate and sacred loneliness of the world from which the force has been expelled.
The Islamic ethics suggest human to accept their responsibility toward environment and nature as they are not only the supreme creation of Allah but also they are freedom and responsible for the most dependability. The fact that human has conquered the universe recognizes their responsibility to protect and maintain natural environment.
Reciprocity in Islam
The relationship among human, nature and God has been identified in Islam as an encompassed act by Allah. The significance of this view can be expressed better by describing a non-anthropocentric model of postmodernism; instead of suspending the dualistic blockades that splits nature from human (Marshall, 1998) to find the unity between human and all other creations.
It is a duty to every Muslim to add sainthood to the environment and nature because of the relationship that exists between Allah and natural environment. This provides inviolability and purity to the nature that involves human to meet the inner significant bristles for protecting and conserving the nature from any damage by any human being or manmade cause.
In the views on the world, Islam describes a precise element of theocentricity in which God includes everything. Based on this concept, the explanation of environmental ethics can establish a more detail ethical approach for the interaction of human nature.
Buddhist philosophy and Islam
Islamic perspective has a lot of similarities with the Buddhist when it comes to nature and life on earth.
The Buddhist philosophy emphasizes and states the interconnection between human and nature (Tucker and Williams, 1998) based on cooperative and productive relationship and as human race is tangled with the nature, harm on the earth will eventfully lead to harm to human (Badiner, 1990) which is also against the ethical sensibility of the religious tradition.
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