One of the most talked about issues of our age is pollution. It was in the last century that man learned how to use nature and to tame it to any limit. Barring natural disasters, almost every other aspect of nature can be controlled by man. But we did not stop at using nature, we started to abuse it. Man's greed provided enough motivation for him to exploit nature. At the beginning, when we started using nature more than we did before, man did not know about the damage he was doing to the environment. He looked around and declared that there was more trees than he could ever cut down, more animals than he could ever kill. This situation changed rapidly as we made better and faster methods to do the job for us. Now even the largest animal on our planet, the blue whale, is in danger of extinction due to the abuse of nature by man.
As a Christian, what should be our response to this problem that plagues our would? How should we view this issue with respect to the bible? Christiany few books have be written on this subject by christian authors. I have often seen good christians completely ignoring the problem of pollution. The reason they tend to give is that this world is preserved for destruction.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 2 Pet 3:7
Our own bodies are going to be destroyed. Does that mean we should be careless about how we eat and drink? Indeed not. There are many commandments in the bible that ask us to take care of our body.
Few christians know that the secular world blames christians for the harm done to nature. Many writers have come to the conclusion that Judeo-Christian culture have little or no respect for nature. Another accusation that they have made is that Christianity have taught that the Creator is not in the creation thus stripping nature of the worship it gained in the days when pantheism was the ruling religion. Yet another problem they point out is the commandment of God to rule and subdue the earth in Genesis 1:28. These secular people find that Christanity is lacking what they want and finds other things that will give nature the protection that it deserves. Some even tend to go back to old world views like pantheism.
Pantheism states that nature is god and that the creator is the creation. Christians cannot understand the concept of the creator being the creation. We only think of the Creator-creation relation as the potter-pot relation. The potter who made the pot is not the pot and cannot be the pot. Pantheist do not view God with such a relation. They think that the creator-creation relation is the relation of a dancer and the dance. The dancer created the dance and is in the dance.
In an article entitled "Why worry about nature?" Richard Means quotes Albert Schweitzer saying "The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relation of man to man." He argues that man's relation to nature is a moral one. Many people views such philosophies with great respect resulting in creation of many organizations like PETA and Green Peace. The members are ready to do any thing that would protect nature. Although they have their good points, some such organizations are to make grievously erroneous philosophies. Ingrid Newkirk, founder and director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (or PETA) once said "When it comes to feelings, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."
Even other movements like Women's Liberation have come to adopt these feeling towards nature. They also have come to think of God as Gaya(or Mother Earth) and have named it "Sophia". A tongue in cheek quip about feminism about their attitude toward nature is well known to many people - "A feminist is a person who think that animals and trees have soul but an unborn baby is just a chunk of flesh."
In such a situation we must try to find the biblical viewpoint about the problem of nature. Some christians think that the only verse applicable to this problem is Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground."
But does this verse give us the right to abuse and exploit nature beyond our legitimate needs? Of course not. If you look closer at the verse, one can find that it asks us to take care of nature! A person who rules a country has no right to abuse its citizens - he has the responsibility to protect them. Similarly, when God granted us the rulership of nature, He expects us to take care of it. The first job given to man by God is recorded in Genesis 2:15.
"The LORD God took the man and settled him in the garden in Eden to care for and keep it."
We need to be clear in about our perspective on nature. We often use the term "Mother Nature" - implying that nature gave birth to us and created us. For a christian, his relation with nature should not be as "Mother Nature" but us "Sister Nature". God created humans and the nature giving God the position of the father and nature and man the position of children. So in relation to the Almighty God mankind and the nature around him are siblings - thus we should be addressing nature as "Sister Nature." So if we have such a close relation to the world around us, don't we have a responsibility to treat it ethically and protect it?
Another reason for christians to protect nature is due to the fact that nature reflect God's glory. We can look at the skies and declare "Lord how great Thou art!". C.S. Lewis once said "Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me." If we destroy nature, we destroy an visible symbol of God's glory. If a father in the next generation turns to his son who is wearing a oxygen mask, points to the sky darkened by the smoke from the nearby factory, and says "What a great world God as made for us!" the effect will be ruined - to say the least.
Let us see nature as God's great gift to us. Let us use it but not abuse it. Let us explore its wonders but not exploit it. Let us enjoy nature till our Lord returns and give us a better world. God has appointed us as the guardian of ecology - let us protect and care for it.