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

The greening of religion??

History

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

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

Comparisons between environmentalism and religion

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

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

External links

Quakerinfo - Quaker Environmentalism

References - shift to talk page when finished?

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).