Who is left to care about the death of a wilderness?: Blame Judaism and Christianity for the destruction of our environment

I’m not so sure I want to blame Judaism and Christianity for the destruction of our environment.

Blaming the house of Abraham for all that illed the world in 1970’s in our environment, would be just as unfair as Christians taking credit for all the improvement since then. Only part of the blame, and only part of the credit goes to any one religious group.

Some times people are greedy, some times people are short sighted. Sometimes people are just dumb.

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“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” ~Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

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Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine tree one need be neither god nor poet: one need only own a shovel. - Aldo Leopold A Sand County Almanac

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I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. ~Elwyn Brooks White

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Such is the audacity of man, that he has learned to counterfeit Nature, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work. ~Pliny the Elder

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Christianity, with its roots in Judaism, was a major factor in the development of the Western worldview.... A basic Christian belief was that God gave humans dominion over creation, with the freedom to use the environment as they saw fit. Another important Judeo-Christian belief predicted that God would bring a cataclysmic end to the Earth sometime in the future. One interpretation of this belief is that the Earth is only a temporary way station on the soul's journey to the afterlife. Because these beliefs tended to devalue the natural world, they fostered attitudes and behaviors that had a negative effect on the environment. ~Donald G. Kaufman and Cecilia M. Franz, Biosphere 2000

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The word "wilderness" occurs approximately three hundred times in the Bible, and all its meanings are derogatory. ~René Dubos

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We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our grandchildren. ~Native American Proverb

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There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew. ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964

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Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. - Theodore Roosevelt

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A living planet is a much more complex metaphor for deity than just a bigger father with a bigger fist. If an omniscient, all-powerful Dad ignores your prayers, it's taken personally. Hear only silence long enough, and you start wondering about his power. His fairness. His very existence.

But if a world mother doesn't reply, Her excuse is simple. She never claimed conceited omnipotence. She has countless others clinging to her apron strings, including myriad species unable to speak for themselves. To Her elder offspring She says - go raid the fridge. Go play outside. Go get a job. Or, better yet, lend me a hand. I have no time for idle whining. ~David Brin

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There are Christians that care about the environment.

The William Greenfield Center for Environmental Stewardship is a community of educators, practitioners, and individuals, engaged in education and promotion of personal inquiry into the relationships among human beings and their cultures, their daily lives, their vocations and avocations, and the environment.

The Basis for the William Greenfield Center for Environmental Stewardship is the relationship between our creator and humanity, and between humanity and the earth. In Genesis God gave dominion to man to subdue and control plants and animals. We believe that with dominion also comes a mandate to not waste and to improve the gifts that God has given us.

http://www.facebook.com/WmGCenter