27 September 2006
Funamentalists and the environment
It's high time I expanded on the idea that religion is having a detrimental effect on the environment.
Religion is a fantastic tool of capitalism. Since a good chunk of church leadership is corrupt to begin with - beefing up the dogma and obfuscating the inherent biblical inconsistencies in order to keep the tithe buckets filled every Sunday - it functions well as an integral cog in any PR/advertising campaign. What's more, since the carrier wave is religious fervour, any message you piggy-back onto it will be all the more potent in the ears and eyes of the deeply deluded.
A great example was provided by Desmog Blog today. ExxonMobil dumps a bunch of money into the pockets of Evangelical leaders, and in return, grouped together as the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, they dispute claims that global warming is anything to worry about. It's win-win because the churches get to spread the idea of dominionism and the primacy of humanity, and the oil companies get to keep making a profit from multi-million-year-old swamp juice. It's ironic that those evangelicals would dispute the temporal provenance of the sacred cash cow that funds their cause.
The extremity of Christian idealism believes that the earth exists solely for the use of man as a gift from god, and that we should be stewards of nature rather than participants in it. You can read the Cornwall Declaration on the ISA site. It's a warm and fuzzy spiritual doctrine that exists to maintain the delusion that the bible is real, while erecting a facade of environmental concern. Here's how it works:
1) god is real
2) god created the world less than 10,000 years ago
3) we are all descended from the first couple, Adam and Eve, created around that time.
4) Eve was tricked by a talking snake into eating the magic apples god told her not to.
5) Eve convinced Adam to eat the magic apples too.
6) this snack was unforgivable.
7) since we are all descended from them, we share the blame for the dreaded snack.
8) so god has been holding this grudge for millennia about the magic apples and has been sending the guilt trip all that time to the descendents of the first couple.
Note: god created Adam, Eve, the snake, the apples, the rule about the apples, and the human nature that made Adam and Eve break the rules. Also, the magic has something to do with knowledge, so, you know, education is bad?
9) god went on to create more rules, and passed them on to the descendents, demanding absolute fealty above all
10) the descendents continued to break the rules
11) god had a change of plan
11.1) get a girl pregnant and have her bear a son
11.2) become the son
11.3) spread an updated version of the rules to the people
11.4) get tortured and killed
11.5) no more grudge about the apples. all is forgiven
12) god continues demanding fealty
The rules spread, the kingdom grows, and people get sucked into the christian vortex. The delusion is imperative. Each item supports the next. Faith in jesus depends on the crucifixion. The crucifixion depends on the original sin. The original sin depends on the creation story.
So, evolutionary theory is a challenge to the whole house of cards. If man were descended from some ape-like hominid that lived millions of years ago, it means that the creation story is bunk. The rest of the myth collapses. Evolution is a challenge to the whole religion. By refuting evolution, and placing man on a pinnacle, as unique and privileged, reinforcing the idea that we are stewards rather than just another branch on the tree of life, the delusion persists.
Furthermore, other scientific disciplines come under fire, especially those that undermine the stewardship angle, i.e. environmental science. By denying Anthropogenic Global Warming, church leaders are casting doubt on science, thus defending the dogma from scrutiny.
I'm sure that there are a few odd-balls who believe the rapture is coming and would like to push events toward that misguided conclusion. If the great war of christ against the infidels happens in the next few years, it won't matter if the permafrost melts, because the faithful will be enjoying the destruction of the world from their box seats beside the throne.
Religion is a fantastic tool of capitalism. Since a good chunk of church leadership is corrupt to begin with - beefing up the dogma and obfuscating the inherent biblical inconsistencies in order to keep the tithe buckets filled every Sunday - it functions well as an integral cog in any PR/advertising campaign. What's more, since the carrier wave is religious fervour, any message you piggy-back onto it will be all the more potent in the ears and eyes of the deeply deluded.
A great example was provided by Desmog Blog today. ExxonMobil dumps a bunch of money into the pockets of Evangelical leaders, and in return, grouped together as the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, they dispute claims that global warming is anything to worry about. It's win-win because the churches get to spread the idea of dominionism and the primacy of humanity, and the oil companies get to keep making a profit from multi-million-year-old swamp juice. It's ironic that those evangelicals would dispute the temporal provenance of the sacred cash cow that funds their cause.
The stewardship God gave to human beings over the earth–to cultivate and guard the garden (Genesis 2:15) and to fill, subdue, and rule the whole earth (Genesis 1:28)–strongly suggests that caring for human needs is compatible with caring for the earth. As theologian Wayne Grudem put it, “It does not seem likely to me that God would set up the world to work in such a way that human beings would eventually destroy the earth by doing such ordinary and morally good and necessary things as breathing, building a fire to cook or keep warm, burning fuel to travel, or using energy for a refrigerator to preserve food.”
The extremity of Christian idealism believes that the earth exists solely for the use of man as a gift from god, and that we should be stewards of nature rather than participants in it. You can read the Cornwall Declaration on the ISA site. It's a warm and fuzzy spiritual doctrine that exists to maintain the delusion that the bible is real, while erecting a facade of environmental concern. Here's how it works:
1) god is real
2) god created the world less than 10,000 years ago
3) we are all descended from the first couple, Adam and Eve, created around that time.
4) Eve was tricked by a talking snake into eating the magic apples god told her not to.
5) Eve convinced Adam to eat the magic apples too.
6) this snack was unforgivable.
7) since we are all descended from them, we share the blame for the dreaded snack.
8) so god has been holding this grudge for millennia about the magic apples and has been sending the guilt trip all that time to the descendents of the first couple.
Note: god created Adam, Eve, the snake, the apples, the rule about the apples, and the human nature that made Adam and Eve break the rules. Also, the magic has something to do with knowledge, so, you know, education is bad?
9) god went on to create more rules, and passed them on to the descendents, demanding absolute fealty above all
10) the descendents continued to break the rules
11) god had a change of plan
11.1) get a girl pregnant and have her bear a son
11.2) become the son
11.3) spread an updated version of the rules to the people
11.4) get tortured and killed
11.5) no more grudge about the apples. all is forgiven
12) god continues demanding fealty
The rules spread, the kingdom grows, and people get sucked into the christian vortex. The delusion is imperative. Each item supports the next. Faith in jesus depends on the crucifixion. The crucifixion depends on the original sin. The original sin depends on the creation story.
So, evolutionary theory is a challenge to the whole house of cards. If man were descended from some ape-like hominid that lived millions of years ago, it means that the creation story is bunk. The rest of the myth collapses. Evolution is a challenge to the whole religion. By refuting evolution, and placing man on a pinnacle, as unique and privileged, reinforcing the idea that we are stewards rather than just another branch on the tree of life, the delusion persists.
Furthermore, other scientific disciplines come under fire, especially those that undermine the stewardship angle, i.e. environmental science. By denying Anthropogenic Global Warming, church leaders are casting doubt on science, thus defending the dogma from scrutiny.
I'm sure that there are a few odd-balls who believe the rapture is coming and would like to push events toward that misguided conclusion. If the great war of christ against the infidels happens in the next few years, it won't matter if the permafrost melts, because the faithful will be enjoying the destruction of the world from their box seats beside the throne.
Labels: AGW, ecochristians
// posted by Parge @ 12:21 PM
