Exploitation of Environment by Religions
Question
this is the essay prompt:
Both Buddhist and Abrahamic traditions include resources that encourage the conservation as well as the exploitation of the natural world. Compare Buddhism and one Abrahamic tradition by summarizing how each religion supports the exploitation or abuse of nature. Then, choose either Buddhism or your chosen Abrahamic tradition and argue how resources within the tradition can support the conservation or protection of the environment.
( it has to be in less than 850 words. you could use the reference from the book, " Buddhism a very short introduction" by Damien Keown. i need it by 10:30am today May 1st 2017 please.


Solution
Exploitation of
Environment by Religions
Introduction
Each and every religion forms the basis of human
beliefs and values. It is from the teaching and
resources of their religion that people
implement their practice and actions. Studies have shown that Both Buddhist
religion and traditions encourage the conservation and the exploitation of the
natural world. The same notion is through of all the Abrahamic religion. This
essay is going to focus on Buddhist religion alongside Christianity. Some of the
major things that are going to be unveiled
within this paper are on how both
Buddhist and Christianity support the exploitation and abuse of nature. Also,
the paper will give a recommendation of
how the resources within Christianity tradition can be used to support the
conservation and protection of the environment.
How Buddhist
support the exploitation or abuse of nature
There are various ways in which Buddhist resources and
beliefs support the exploitation and abuse of nature. First, even
though the religion is not compatible with all
kinds of war, it advocates for various types
of war (Keown 10). According to
Buddhist, they believe that ‘Holy War’ is right. When any war takes place,
natural resources such as animals and plants are destroyed and thus by
supporting the Holy war, they are
supporting the exploitation and abuse of nature (Keown 12).
Moreover, Buddhism believes
that it is not proper to eat animals and thus all animals should be well taken
good care of by being respected. However,
they lay little emphasis on plants. Plants form its
core food and that is why they are termed
vegetarians. However, according to environmentalists, Buddhism to some extent
supports the exploitation of natural plants and vegetation since they consume
more than they can replenish. Obviously, nature does not have boundless
vegetation and thus by eating vegetation
only, they end up abusing nature (Keown 18).
How Christianity
support exploitation or abuse of nature
According to Christianity, human beings were given the
power and mandate to take care and be the most superior among all creatures
(Schorr 54). According to their interpretations, many Christians believe that they have the power to carry out
tasks and amendments towards nature that they deem fit since they were tasked with the power of looking over
God’s creation. While many Christians focus more and believe in
anthropocentrism, this might not be the best way of living. Many Christians
believe that human beings are the most important
entity and they tend to ignore all the other entities into their concerns
(Schorr 54).
Also, human beings
believe that they were instructed to be fruitful. They also believe that God;
their creator commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth. In addition
to this, Christians believe that they were instructed by God to subdue the
earth having dominion over all the things on
earth; both those in the sea and those on land. Many Christians have
taken this advantage and gave birth too many children than they can take care. Also, since they were instructed to
replenish the earth, they have gone over to overcrop
land making it infertile. Others have over farmed their crops and
livestock making it hard for the plants and livestock to have a healthy life and thus destroying what once
used to be natural. Regarding subduing the earth, many Christians have become hunters; they want to rule the world by killing
the wild animals as they are powerful and have the capability of killing them. For
these reasons, many animals have been killed making others such as the dinosaur
extinct (Schorr 54).
How Christians can
use their resources to support the conservation or protection of the
environment
There are so many ways that Christians have
interpreted their religion and instead of
caring and protecting their environment; they
have ended up exploiting and abusing it. One of the ways that Christians can
use their resources and teachings to conserve the environment is by planting
more trees instead of cutting them down since they were given the mandate to
subdue the world and anything in it. Moreover, since they have the powers to
look over the creation inclusive of the wild animals, it is proper that they do
not kill wild animals, but they take care of them since they were also instructed to caring for the world and everything in it.
On the other hand, even though in Genesis 1: 26-28,
God blessed the first human beings and told them to be fruitful, give birth and
fill the earth, they should not use this excuse to give birth to more children
than they can take care of comfortably. Therefore, it is important that
Christians take this advantage to give birth to just enough children and take
good care of them. Giving birth to more than enough leads to abuse of nature
since over population leads to exploitation of natural resources (Schorr 54). Many people within the Christian doctrine
believe that God gave them ownership of the
earth. However, they should not own but rather be stewards so that the
coming generation might find the
environment still conducive for them.
Works Cited
Keown, Damien. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Schorr, David. "Christianity and
Environmentalism." Environment, Law, and History. (2015): 2015-5.
Print.




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