Exploitation of Environment by Religions

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.