User:Alan Liefting/Environmentalism and Religion

DRAFT ONLY

This article examines the comparison between environmentalism and religion and the environmental awareness within religious organisations.

Environmentalism is occasionally seen by some to be a new religion and some religions are embracing the environmental message as part of their teachings.

Environmentalism within religious organisations[edit]

The greening of religion??

History[edit]

A landmark meeting between five of the major faiths was organised by the World Wildlife Fund in 1984. Since then there has been many forums involving religion and the environment.

Rationale[edit]

Some faiths are seeing environmental damage as going against Gods will.

Comparisons between environmentalism and religion[edit]

There are some who see environmentalism as a new religion notably Michael Crichton after his speech to the Commonwealth Club on September 15, 2003. While environmentalism can be pursued with a religious fervour it does not involve the faith in a supernatural being. Since religion is characterised by having a belief in a God or Gods it follows that advocates for environmental protection are not doing it as part of a religion. The argument made by Crichton and others who compare modern-day environmentalism to religion, however, is that many environmentalist diefy nature, the environment, or the earth. They also claim that the modern-day environmental movement manifests common mythological structures of religion, including such things as cataclysmic prophesies, judgement, atonement, saints, sinners, prophets, etc., which they see as having analogs in environmentalism.

References[edit]

Worldwatch Institute - Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World (2002)

External links[edit]

Quakerinfo - Quaker Environmentalism

References - shift to talk page when finished?[edit]

Richard Norgaard, “Can Science and Religion Better Save Nature Together?” BioScience, September 2002, p. 842;
Michael Renner, “Ending Violent Conflict,” in Lester R. Brown et al., State of the World 1999 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999)
David Loy, “The Religion of the Market,” in Harold Coward and Daniel Maguire, Visions of a New Earth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption, and Ecology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000)
Gary Gardner and Brian Halweil, Underfed and Overfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition, Worldwatch Paper 150 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1999).