Correlation Between Relgion and the Environment

Religion and the Environment

"The environment has become one of the major moral issues of our time." -Robin Gill

For years now the issue of environmental sustainability, environmental conservation has been at the forefront of many debates. Environmentalists argue that humans are destructive, possessive and have the mindset that we have a sort of dominion of other living things on earth. The goal for many environmentalists has been to bring this opinion to the attention of many and try to covert humans from destructive, to having a respect for the environment. Many environmentalist have claimed that humans that are tied to a religion are particularly destructive simply because the earth was a "gift" to them. In this article Robin Gill claims otherwise. Using the British Social Attitudes and The British Household Panel Survey, Gill interpreted the data in way that many environmentalists have neglected. The surveys totaled well over 50,000 people and included data such as churchgoers, non churchgoers, occasional churchgoer, and so on. In Gill's research the moral attitudes and behaviors of these people started becoming clear. Gill found that "churchgoing is a highly significant variable on most moral issues." Gill further studied the data and then reports that humans whom are churchgoers and believe in God should respect nature more than the average non churchgoer simply because nature was created by God. Gill also found that surprisingly churchgoers were more likely than non churchgoers to become a member in an environmental group. This fact is astounding to me because most environmentalists have claimed the exact opposite. Now we have researcher who is using data from a very reliable source tell us otherwise.

 



For me, the strongest argument presented in Gill's research is the fact that religious people believe "life, both human and non-human, is created and God-given." If this is something that you believe then you must have a high respect for nature and other forms of life simply because they, too, were created by God. Respecting things which were created in the image of God, is therefore respecting God.  Another strong argument in favor of religion and environment is the fact that if you are a Christian in particular you believe that Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross for our salvation. This salvation can be directed towards the environment as well. A fundamental belief for Christians is love thy neighbor as thy self. This, too, should be translated to the non human aspect of our world.

These arguments now present strong correlation between religion and the environment. I personally believe that religion enhances environmentalism. Religious people spread their knowledge of their religion often, and the hope is that with the spreading of religions, there will be a sense environmental respect instilled in each person that chooses to listen.