New website

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Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 12th March at 6pm in the bar of the Horseshoe & Saddlers, Enniskillen.  New and prospective members are very welcome.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 26th February at 6pm in the bar of the Horseshoe & Saddlers, Enniskillen.  New and prospective members are very welcome.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 12th February at 6pm in the bar of the Horseshoe & Saddlers, Enniskillen.  New and prospective members are very welcome.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 22nd January at 6pm in the bar of the Horseshoe & Saddlers, Enniskillen.  New and prospective members are very welcome.

Religion and the environment

You shall not defile the land  

 by Laurence Speight

We are so embedded in our culture, so focused on attending to the necessities of daily life that we are often blind to the contradictions between our declared values and beliefs and how we live. This disconnect in regard to the religious became apparent to me on observing the enormous amount of car parking space churches provide for their faithful. At one Catholic Church I counted 280 spaces. This is on a par with what the big supermarkets provide for their customers. Adjacent to the car park was an almost equal amount of land reserved for the deceased.

Car parking space of supermarket proportions encourages the use of the private car, which makes a major contribution to global warming leading in turn to the extinction of life and the collapse of ecosystems. Undermining ecology multiplies the suffering of the poorest of humanity. Yet, one would have thought that of all the different groups in society the religious would exemplify a life of care and respect for nonhuman nature as destroying it desecrates the handiwork of God. This is clearly stated in the primary texts of the major religions. The Book of Numbers in the Christian bible states that the Earth is sacred and should not be polluted or defiled. Numbers 35: 33-34 advices:

“You shall not pollute the land in which you live .... You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell.”

The ethic of respect for nonhuman nature is repeated throughout the bible often accompanied by the scientifically supported warning that if the Earth is defiled humankind will suffer the consequences. Further, God proclaims that all animals, inclusive of Homo sapiens, have equal merit. In Ecclesiastes 3:19 we are told:

“For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breathe, and humans have no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all return to dust.”

Contrary to God’s explicitly expressed directive about how humans should interact with nonhuman nature, and the revered status with which it should be held, the main religions have traditionally regarded other life forms as mere utility. This hubris has brought catastrophe to the planet and may lead to what many dare not contemplate our early extinction. That we are doing practically nothing to address global warming suggests this might be the outcome.

A change in our attitude towards nonhuman nature is possible. In Pope Francis’s recent interview with the editor of La Civitta Cattolica (americanmagazine.org/pope-interview) he gives a distinctly ecological view of human relations saying:

“No one is saved alone, as an isolated individual, but God attracts us looking at the complex web of relationships that take place in the human community. God enters this dynamic, this participation in the web of human relationships.”

Although the pope also spoke of “God in creation” and “love of all things in God” which implicitly means all life, from microbes to Giant Redwood Trees, is sacred.  What the pontiff unfortunately did not do to do was ask the faithful to live in an environmentally sustainable way so as not to desecrate the sacred, unstring the interconnecting web of biodiversity Catholics believe God created. On the eve of the publication of the International Panel on Climate Change’s new report (27.09) this was a missed opportunity, unless his extolling the virtues of living “on the frontier” was a message to the faithful to do so.

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 he was so exasperated by the apparent inability of political commentators to understand what most concerned the voters that he often said: “It’s the economy stupid.” (A slight variation of this phrase was coined by James Carville, his campaign strategist.)  Something similar could be said about our collective failure to realise our place in the community of living things, but I won’t be rude.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 14th November at 6pm in the bar of the Horseshoe & Saddlers, Enniskillen.  New and prospective members are very welcome.