Biblical Ethics and Environmental Ethics

Biblical Ethics and Environmental Ethics

1. Dominion

   • Genesis seems to set out the idea that humans were tasked by God with ruling over the Earth and using it for our own purpose.
     • Genesis 1:26 - 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'
     • Genesis 1:28-29 - 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' Then God said, 'i give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seen in it. They will be yours for food.'
   • This tends to mean that humans see themselves as the centre of the universe, not a part of the nature around them
   • Supported by Aristotle who influenced Aquinas to continue the view that humans are the only morally important beings to inhabit the earth.
     • Aquinas thought that 'all animals are naturally subject to man.'

2. Stewardship

   • When we consider the second Genesis account we see that man is put in Eden to protect and preserve it
     • Genesis 2:15 - 'The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.'
   • Humans are the pinicle of creation only because we have the role to care for and conserve nature.
     • Humans are merely caretakers of God's property.
   • Creation is made by God and is therefore intrinsically good and must be preserved because it has intrinsic value.
   • We need to protect the land as illustrated in Leviticus 25:4 - 'But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest.'

3. The Fall

   • The original sin recorded in Genesis 3 corrupted humans
     • Which also corrupted the beauty and harmony found in nature.
   • Can be interpreted as showing the environmental damage as being part of human sin and therefore capable of rectification.
     • Rectifying the world can restore human's relationship with God

4. John Muir

   • American naturalist who set up the Sierra club, a conservationist group.
   • Studied the Old and New testament but discovered another primary source of understanding God as he explored the environment and nature.
     • From nature, especially the wilderness, Muir was able to study the plants and animals in an environment that he believed "came straight from the hand of God, uncorrupted by civilization and domestication.

5. There are a small number of radical Christians who believe that there is no need to care for the environment.

   • The end of time/the Apocalypse will arise before any significant envrionmental damage. Destruction is welcomed as foreshadowing the coming apocalypse. (Revelations 6:12-14)

6. Criticisms

   • Seems to give instrumental rather than intrinsic value to nature.
   • An anthropocentric approach, humans have greater moral significance.
   • Bible seems to encourage human domination and exploitation. Lynn White argued this saying the current ecological disaster is due to the Christian command of 'dominion' over the earth.