Environmental Concerns

[metis]

In Judaism, halacha (Jewish Law) has it that we cannot cut down a fruiting tree (one that may feed humans or animals), but if we must do so then we must plant two trees somewhere and feed the humans or animals until the new trees are mature enough to pick up where the old tree left off. It is considered a mitzvah (good deed) to plant a tree(s), especially when a loved one dies. Also, halacha has it that animals must be treated in a humane way, which prohibits small cages, being worked on the Sabbath, slaughtered in a inhumane fashion, etc.

My question is whether religion, in your opinion, should have environmental concerns?

[ShyLady]

in Christianity, but I think all people should have some environmental concerns. Its the careless attitudes of people that make the enviroment worser than it would be if it where totally natural. Like people who cut down trees without a thought to the loss of beauty the trees can provide, or anything else they can provide. Around here, in Tennessee, we have plenty of trees, but I have noticed a lot of trees going away to make places for growing or new neighborhoods, and it is kinda scary if you think about what will happen if they just keep on and on cuting the trees down and there eventually comes a time when there is no trees. Then I stop worring about it and decide that that will be way too far in the future for me to worry about and then I wont have even a tiny care anyway.

[shaw-n]

If it does not then it misses the whole point.
Spirituality is our inherent nature.
It is natural, yet it is transcendent and so we strangely become oblivious to it.
We seem to forget.
All that is physical has its spiritual component.
There is no such thing as "dead matter".
All is alive.
How should the cells of our bodies behave in those bodies?
Symbiotic
Yet so many are parasitic.
This is the aberration.
Religion is supposed to focus peoples attention on these primal facts.
If it does not then that religion has no value, no merit whatsoever.

[arthra]

I think most religions have counseled humanity to be good stewards of the earth...

Adam being a Gardener..(the "oldest profession" by the way) must have had concerns about when to plant..harvest and take care of the eco system of His Garden...

From the Baha'i Writings:

"Every man of discernment, when walking upon the earth, feeleth indeed abashed, inasmuch as he is fully aware that the thing which is the source of his prosperity, his wealth, his might, his exaltation, his advancement and power is, as ordained by God, the very earth which is trodden beneath the feet of all men."

"We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic and with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions."

[Storm2008]

Originally Posted by metis

My question is whether religion, in your opinion, should have environmental concerns?

Yes. Mine certainly does.

I believe in planetary entity. We are children of the World Mother. We should strive not to injure her not only for moral reasons, but purely pragmatic ones as well - while we're granted a great deal of leeway, if we cause too much damage, she may well simply eliminate us in the same way we would treat cancer.

[Tonyamendola]

Just like God is an idea so is the World

We have chosen to live in the idea we call the world

When we choose to live in God then the World will no longer concern us

It will vanish and remain no longer and as such can be looked upon as simply a learning device for a little time until we all awaken and the former has passed away

The Garden of Eden simply symbolises a place of no lack - to be in God

So look after the World as you would a classroom - its there for lessons to guide us home
There is nothing to fear, nothing to be destroyed or saved - Nothing is really happening in this dream we call the World

Walk the World and accept its lessons with a smile
For a little while it is a learning aid - care for it but do not despair when it appears to fail - It was made to fail because all form fails and returns to dust
It is our creation and we love our creation but we will not lose that which is Real and that which is dust we will no lonnger remember - for it has gone

Thank God they are only lessons in a dream and when you awaken and remember the beauty within each of us as ONE you will no longer remember the World

How could infinity know such a limit ?

[Wendy Tall One]

Just a bias point, as I was a forestry major in college.

You will find that most loggers are the greatest proponents of conservation and regrowth. They know that with out trees and careful efforts, that they do not have a job. This is what the science of Silviculture is dedicated to. Silviculturists regard trees as a crop species much like corn and beans.

As many of you know I come from NH. It is one of the most densely forested states in the US and also one of the most actively logged. In the state of Maine the largest group of people that are proponents of safe and sustainable logging tactics are the loggers themselves.

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As for the environment, naturally, in earth based religions like NA spiritualism, Wicca, many Pagan sects, and many others, the earth and all of its native contents are to be revered.

There is a reason many of us are called tree hugging, dirt worshiping hippies.