Religion, Science and the Current Ecological Crisis

The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis In “the Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” (1967) Lynn White blames Christian attitudes towards nature for our current ecological crisis. He says: “Especially in its Western form, Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has ever seen.” In Pagan (pre-Christian) religions, spirits were everywhere in nature. Every tree or stream has a spirit, and people had to care for the happiness of the spirits. Spirits are not people, but they have their own interests and value. In Christianity, in contrast, the purpose of nature is to serve Man. We need not care about nature, except as a way to benefit ourselves or glorify God.

Christianity and Science White argues that Christianity has exploited the natural world via science and technology. A Christian philosophy towards nature allows science to ruthlessly exploit the natural world. Historically, man has always changed his environment: Prehistoric overhunting led to many extinctions Cultivation in the Nile valley has changed the nature of the river Ancient Romans profoundly changed their ecologies through terrace farming, overgrazing and cutting of forests.

But the real change in the man-nature relationship, according to White, came with the marriage of science and technology, with roots long before the industrial revolution of the 18 th century, or even the scientific revolution of the 17 th century. The turning point came in Northern Europe in the 7 th century, when a new type of plow, requiring six oxen, turned the sod with a vertical knife, and “attacked the land with such violence”. The goal of farming changed from single family subsistence farming (modest and sustainable) to cooperative action to maximize land yield (aggressive and greedy).

“Man’s relation to the soil was profoundly changed. Formerly man had been a part of nature: now he was the exploiter of nature. Nowhere else in the world did farmers develop any analogous agricultural implement. Is it coincidence that modern technology, with its ruthlessness towards nature, has so largely been produced by descendants of these peasants of northern Europe?”

White’s Solution Science and technology caused the problem and more science and technology are not the answer. “What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecological crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one.” Seems to prefer various kinds of mysticism, e.g. regarding groves as sacred and trees as containing spirits. Proposes Saint Francis as a patron saint for ecologists. “His view of nature and of man rested on a unique sort of pan- psychism of all things animate and inanimate, designed for the glorification of their transcendent Creator.”

Questions for discussion Is White right to blame Christianity for the ecological crisis? Was the new six-oxen plow really the catalyst for the creation of a new man-nature relationship? Is Christianity the most anthropocentric religion the world has ever seen? Do we need religion to be the foundation for an environmental ethic? Is mysticism a better ethic for environmentalists than a scientific world view? Can we rely on science to find a solution to our ecological crisis?

Reading for next week Required: “Selfish Genes and Selfish Memes”, Richard Dawkins (1976), in The Mind’s I (1981), edit. by Hofstadter and Dennett (edit), available on reserve on the Philosophy Department Suggested: “Argument from Poor Design”, Wikipedia, available at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_poor_design