In “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” Lynn White proposes that the reason behind the modern day ecological crisis is solely to blame on Christianity. White comes to this conclusion by tracing Christianity back to its roots and how it has impacted human interaction with nature. White begins his argument modestly stating how cannons were fired in the 14th century requiring workers to start collecting wood and minerals, which led to early deforestation and erosion. He then compares this to modern day when our civilizations are rapidly destroying nature in order to sustain the dramatically high population. White then asserts that western science and technology are the most successful and due to that reason are adopted around the world indiscriminately. He then goes on and gives an example of how Portugal, in the technologically …show more content…
White gives the example in the 7th century after Christ, farmers started pooling teams of eight oxen in order to plow lands faster and easier than before. White says that this is when man stopped seeing themselves as a part of nature but as the conquerors of nature. White credits Christianity’s defeat of paganism as the greatest win for its anti-nature attitude. He justifies this by saying that getting rid of pagan views of pacifying spirts before cutting down a tree or damming up a river was the last time any kind of Christian views cared about nature. White also says that this allowed Christians to uncaringly destroy nature, even though it was one of God’s creation.He then says Christianity at the same time this was happening was encouraging these views due to the scripture in the bible. White gives examples from the bible of how God created man in his image and how God’s creations were meant to serve man. He then states that this gave man the belief that it was the will of God for them to exploit
The issue of Deforestation has been high on the global environmental agenda for many years, and remains a serious problem today. In the tropics and many other parts of the world, nations continue to lose the valuable biodiversity, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation that natural forests provide. Christianity can only address this matter by continuing to combine an acceptance of the command to people to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’ (Genesis 1:28) with a balancing injunction to act as stewards of the environment. Charities such as Christian Ecology Link and World Vision work to increase awareness of the current ecological crisis and encourage adherents to live sustainably and make ‘green’ consumption choices.
A Short History of Progress Written by Mister Ronald Wright, talks about the progress and the issues of having too much change occur to a civilization, and how it can affect the outcome results of a healthy progressing community. He mentioned the ups and downs that occurred to some civilizations and how some triumphed while others did not. Which leads to the main dilemma Wright argues about, which is the current destruction of the environment around us. Over exploiting nature, over expanding, and overpopulating are problems that past societies have come across and is now occurring in our time. These things are what helped societies prosper during certain moments in history but they are now causing problems because we as people are abusing the
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.
In his essay, The Trouble with Wilderness, William Cronon discusses the importance of preserving wilderness. Nature has been deteriorating since the introduction of the human species, and Cronon attributes this issue to the destructive nature of humans. The essay begins with his thesis “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (Cronon 1). He challenges the reader to find the difference between wilderness and wildness. Cronon’s biggest fear is violating the holiness of nature.
Our earthly habitat is not an unexpected occurrence of little worth, but rather, it is one to be highly valued and preserved. The biblical doctrine of creation helps the Christian to understand the true significance of the world in order to deal with the environmental crisis. The Bible says, “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited…” (King James Version, Isaiah 45:18). In Christian teaching, God not only created Heavens and Earth, but expressed His delight in His creation. This creation meant, everything encompassing the trees, the
“ (646) In this paragraph the author engages the reader in thinking about the magnitude of environmental problems in modern day society by creating a parallelism with the Mayan and Polynesian cultures. This is one of the many examples the author uses throughout the text. In this text Diamond introduces a series of factors that have proven to gradually destroy strong kingdoms and cultures throughout history.
One example of this is when she explains prophetic christologies. This kind of christology focuses on Jesus’ grace to the oppressed. Whether it be through eating with outcasts or healing the suffering, Jesus teaches by example to help those in need. However, she then suggests that this lesson can be extended to nature, despite the fact that the environment is not mentioned in these stories explicitly. She argues that nature is the “new poor” and should be treated as such.
When it comes to nature everyone has their own personal experience that either made them appreciate the worlds beauty a little more or transformed them from the inside out, yet humans have long been blamed for the destruction of everything wild. What is it about nature that William Mckibben describes in his book End of Nature which makes us “think of people as small and the world as large” and how did this change to where “the opposite has become the truth.” (Mckibben XV) Humans have put their fingerprints all over the natural world and made it to where they demand control of it all, instead of nature demanding to control man. This inclination for humans to think they can make nature whatever they want it to be becomes an issue that must be tackled at a global scale, starting with each individual’s treatment of nature. The end of nature predicted by Mckibben occurs when we ignore the warning signs that are glaring right at us, and choose to not
Reading William Cronon and Neil Smith, I came to understand that each of the two authors introduces us to a different approach of human conceptual relationship with nature. In The Trouble with Wilderness, William Cronon speaks about how we reject our responsibility toward nature and the potential danger existing in our conception of wilderness (or nature). On the other hand, Neil Smith in The Production of Nature introduces us to how humanity transforms the nature in the process of producing commodities.
Lynn White Jr. is a medieval historian. He talks about how the western world change how we treat the environment, especially by western religion. White starts by giving the history of technology around the world, for example, the clock. He also talks about the different people who were involved with helping technology growing into what we know now. He goes into his subject of Medieval and it View of Man and Nature. He explain, “This, distribution of land was based no longer on the needs of a family but, rather, on the capacity of a power machine to till the earth. "Man's relation to the soil was profoundly changed. Formerly man had been part of nature; now he was the exploiter of nature." Pg four because of technology men was no longer part of Nature anymore. White has also say that religions especially Christianity change how men think. He explains “ If so, then modern Western science was cast in a matrix of Christian theology.” pg 5 That Western Christian is how people will see the environment. White believed to solve this problem is to think of an alternative
In this belief, Europe in the Inside because it innovates and leads the Outside (non-Europe), which imitates and receives. In The Colonizer’s Model of the World, J.D. Blaut challenges the belief that European civilizations have some special quality in their race which gives them full superiority over any other culture or community and that the Europeans have made history. One of the most important beliefs of diffusionism is the idea of “the European Miracle,” which is the belief that Europeans were more advanced than all other nations before 1492. This notion was rejected after World War I and it was confirmed that non-Europeans are not inferior in any way, genetically or physically, than Europeans.
Christian voice is correcting them or proclaiming the biblical model of man’s relationship to nature which: is unique and superior to the dominant free-market and environmentalist models. . According to Gardner and Stern (1996), in that place are exclusive approaches that have power to be implemented in companionships search to defend the environment. One like approach may take a closer look at holy and regarding duties beliefs and the effects of these beliefs on the environment. The idea to create values and beliefs in environmental issues are important components of having a safer and enjoyable world for its people and the world they live in. Christian and non-Christian, at hand, must see the environment and the shortcoming of business by reason of a proper conversion to an act or purpose of and preservation of the wealth the planet has to support life. Christians as the Bible originate directing the eye to what has to be published by word force in reference to human natures dependence and bounden duty to the nature and its resources. As Christians we should do what ever it takes to make sure this earth glorify God. If we are careless about science and economics — not caring about how they work and what they describe, creation’s economy will suffer (Christians Research Institute).
Despite many Christians, such as Patriarch Batholomew from the Greek Orthodox church who states that ‘For humans to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances. These are sins’ in an attempt to encourage prioritising environmental protection, climate skeptic Calvin Beisner states that “the Bible teaches that earth and all its subsystems… are the product of a God who is an infinitely wise designer”, reflecting that his personal interpretation of God’s revelation has led to his understanding of the Earth being intelligently design, so that humankind could not potentially destroy it, consequently leading to him not placing priority on the protection of the environment.
White’s thesis in The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis states that in order to confront the expanding environmental crises, humans must begin to analyze and alter their treatment and attitudes towards nature. The slow destruction of the environment derives from the Western scientific and technological advancements made since the Medieval time period. “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them” (RON p.7). Technology and science alone will not be able to save humans until we adjust the way of thinking and suppress the old ideas of humans power above nature. Instead, we need to learn how to think of ourselves as being
Looking back at the world in the past few hundred years, it would have been difficult to imagine that one day, majority of Western Europe would come to dominate the world in global economy (Landes, European Exceptionalism: A Different Path, 1998). Frank (2001) described the process of which the western society