Final Paper
Alienation and Nature
Ashford University
Victoria Long
6/20/15
Relationships between humans, religious beliefs, and nature can be complicated. Today humans seem to be more disconnected from nature than ever. Modern society is to blame because most people live indoors and spend a lot of time watching television or on the computer than being outdoors in nature. Human societies have responded to the environment based off migration, invention and discovery. The Industrial Revolution had a major impact on humans and ecology. The Industrial Revolution changed human lifestyles from human development, life longevity, social improvements, public health, and the use of natural resources. Humans went from doing manual labor to having a machine do the work for them. This would make a huge impact because this process could increase production to serve human needs with a growing population. Human population growth has increased the use of natural resources for energy, housing, and food. There became a psychological and spiritual disconnect with humans and nature. In this paper we will examine the cause of human separation from nature, how religion and spirituality play a role within humans and nature and how humans can reconnect and build a relationship with nature. Many people have tried to figure out when the separation of humans and nature first took place and according to The Separation from More-than-Human Nature “others have seen the separation as
Nature is the playground for every human. It is essential that we include nature in our lives; it keeps us on our correct path. However, if we dismiss ourselves from nature, we begin to stray from our correct path. We become engulfed in the distractions from the modern world . The only approach to appropriate this quandary is to break our pervicacious ways and return to peaceful serenity known as nature.
Prior to diving into the many new insights that can be comprehended while viewing history through a natural lense, it is important to define nature in this context. While man is technically a creation of nature, and therefore nature himself, he shall be excluded from this brief definition of what composes nature. Here, nature will be considered everything living or otherwise on this earth that is not a creation or product of humanity. All other creatures and parts of the environment are to be considered nature.
Through removal and technology, humans have started to become isolated from the wilderness and the nature around them. This view distinctly contrasts with Thoreau’s perspective. “Though he [Thoreau] never put humans on the same moral level as animals or trees, for example, he does see them all linked as the expression of Spirit, which may only be described in terms of natural laws and unified fluid processes. The self is both humbled and empowered in its cosmic perspective,” states Ann Woodlief. The technologies that distract and consume us, and separate us from the natural world are apparent. Many people and children ins cities have seen little to no natural-grown things such as grass and trees. Even these things are often domesticated and tamed. Many people who have never been to a National Park or gone hiking through the wilderness do not understand its unruly, unforgiving, wild nature. These aspects, thought terrifying to many, are much of why the wilderness is so beautiful and striking to the human heart. “Thoreau builds a critique of American culture upon his conviction that ‘the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality,’” pronounces Rick Furtak, quoting Thoreau’s Life
Throughout history, humans have had a strong reliance on nature and their environment. As far back as historians can look, people have depended on elements of nature for their survival. In the past few decades, the increased advancement of technology has led to an unfortunate division between humans and nature, and this lack of respect is becoming a flaw in current day society. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv criticizes modern culture by arguing that humans increasing reliance on technology has led to their decreasing connection with nature through the use of relevant anecdotes, rhetorical questions and powerful imagery to appeal to ethos.
A good example that support the theory that “Western Society assumes that humanity and nature are disconnected and that the environment is subordinate to human needs.” are first, Puritans belief that they had the God given right to subdue both nature and any Native Americans they saw, which was all for the glory of expanding the Christian society. A second example is the key beliefs of d’Holbach’s and other philosophers that “humanity towers above nature because of humanity’s capacity for thought and rational decision making. With these abilities, people could decode nature’s laws and more efficiently tame it for the betterment of society.” Colonist believed that the environment existed solely to support human needs.
Humans are born from and return to earth at death; human beings and nature are bound up each other. Yet, the technological modern world has shaped humans to be oblivious of nature and the ethnocentrism has positioned human beings above all other things. Nature has become resources for people and nothing more than that. David Abram, the author of the Ecology of magic, travels into the wild, traditional land in search of the relation between magic and nature; the meaning nature holds in the traditional cultures. Abram intends to communicate his realization of the magical awareness of the countless nonhuman entities and the necessity of the balance between the human communities and the nature to the readers, hoping the Western technologized
Since the beginning of time, mankind has depended on nature for survival. Although, throughout the years society has learned to manipulate nature for their own selfish advantages. In the passage written by Richard Louv, he utilizes rhetorical questions, repetition, and a tone of nostalgia to stress that sad truth about the separation of mankind and nature.
A question I have for you is how you do see humans in relations to Nature? Nature is a vague term, and the way you emphasize people to embrace its simplicity implies humans were apart from Nature to begin with. This inherently
Humans are animals. Even as developed, personalized, and intelligent as we are, we share a deep connection with every living thing. However, many of the problems in the world result from the human belief that technology is more powerful and can replace the serene, perfect essence of nature. I believe that a connection with nature can heal wounds and help humans find balance in their lives.
The sad injustice to nature is that man has forgotten the biotic connection between the natural world and humanity. Whether protecting nature is a spiritual experience or simply a means for survival, nature is as much a part of human life as the human themselves. The separation created by modern environmentalism between human and non-human entities can only be reunited if people learn to view life as a part of nature. The scary part about that thought, however, is will that be enough now? Only time can
Throughout today’s society there are several different cultural perspectives which form theoretical and practical understandings of natural environments, creating various human-nature relationship types. In this essay, I will describe and evaluate different ways of knowing nature and the impact of these views on human-nature relationships. From this, I will then explore my own human-nature relationship and reflect on how my personal experiences, beliefs and values has led me to this view, whilst highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each and reflecting upon Martin’s (1996) continuum.
If this knowledge is not reaching western citizens through the Christianity, it will be necessary to find it somewhere else. While traditional religions almost always can offer a cosmology that connects man and nature, Native American spirituality may be very accessible to a society that is increasingly interested in environmental concerns but does not have a firm and direct qualitative relationship with the natural world.
Nature is not altered by humanity and instead is pure, creating inspiration for people to be original. Nature is “the greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, in the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable” (Nature 221). People who believe in transcendence see the importance
The people nowadays also abuse on what nature can provide to them. People are influenced by the western Culture, Man is more powerful and can have dominion over nature and that nature as they see become merely an instrument to satisfy human needs and wants. This kind of thinking or we can say attitude towards nature is called the “Anthropocentric Attitude”. Man reduce the value of nature as it is and it’s important because nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man and that the value of non-human things in nature is merely instrumental. An opposite thinking would be the Eastern Culture, for they value nature very well and they treat nature being one with them. This thinking or attitude is known as “Ecocentric
Nature as w e know it means different things to different people. To an economist, natural is often seen as a resource to be transformed and put in readiness for human use. An alternative view is that humans are stewards who should care for natural things as well as making use of nature’s bounty. Another view is that nature of animism, which sees nature as a living thing, something to be respected and not controlled. Some native American’s view the earth as a sacred place could be called animist. Another alternative view is that the entire planet earth is a self correcting system based on a symbiotic relationship between the earth and the living beings(Peacock,