Religious Studies - Ethics (the enviroment)

The origins of the universe

Many of the world's religions have ideas and beliefs about the origin of the universe, including people and animals. Usually these take the form of creation accounts in the sacred books of the religions concerned.

In Christianity, the creation accounts are found in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1-2:4

This account tells how God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

After creating the earth, the sky, the seas and plants, God made birds and fish on the fifth day and animals and humans on the sixth day.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27

The relationship between human beings and the earth is increasingly complicated and urgent. Every day there are stories about pollution, global warming and animal species facing extinction. Religion is responding with views on the environment and our responsibility for it.

Christian belief about the environment

Although human beings are seen as the most intelligent life form on earth, they are responsible for almost all the damage done to the planet. If we imagined the earth is aged 46, all the damage done has taken place in the last 60 seconds of the earth's life.
Christians say in the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

Christian teaching about caring for the environment comes from the Bible:

Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'… God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'
Genesis 1:26 and 28

Some Christians have interpreted this story as giving people the right to exploit the environment. However, most people see themselves as being responsible for the world created by God and they have to make their own decisions about how to do this.
The Bible has very little else specific to say about the environment, but it explains the principles of stewardship (responsibility) for God’s creation:
In the Old Testament the Jews were told to rest the land once every 50 years so that it would produce more in the future (Leviticus 25:8-11). They were also ordered not to destroy trees when they were attacking a city:

When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?
Deuteronomy 20:19

God's earth

It is clear that the earth still belongs to God not to humans:

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
Psalm 24:1

In the New Testament Jesus stresses God’s concern for life:

Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.
Luke 12:27-28

Many Christians do celebrate the environment by holding harvest festivals each year when they thank God for the harvest.