Environmentalism, Religions, and Modern Society

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Environmentalism, Religions, and Modern Society
A Presentation by Josh Bois
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Presentation At A Glance

• Introduction
• A. Julia Butterfly Hill
• Thinking Process
• A. Research Proposal
• B. Next Steps
• C. Background
• D. Digging Deeper
• The Research Findings
• A. Michael Crichton ( Intro. )
• 1. Environmentalism as a religion
• B. Issues with religions
• 1. Fundamentalism
• Conclusions
• A. Sources
• B. Questions
• C. Video

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Introduction

• Presentation will discuss
• What led me to this topic
• Background ( Important people )
• Environmentalism as a Religion
• General problems with certain Fundamentalist
  approaches
• My overall stand point on the issue

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Julia Butterfly Hill

• Father was a preacher
• Auto injury led to a spiritual quest
• Traveled across the states and found herself on
  the Lost Coast of California.
• Became an environmentalist and helped with Earth
  First!
• Goal was to protect the age old redwoods from
  being demolished

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Thinking Process

• Religion, environmentalism, and our modern
  society.
• How effective is this combination?
• How does it effect our global community?
• What other considerations must be made?

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Proposal for Research

• Focused my energy into one major question
• Why are religious approaches to environmental
  progress an ineffective force in modern society?

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Proposal Continued

• Where I looked for my research
• - Specific Encyclopedias relating the two areas
• -Science, Religion, and Society
• -Ecology and Religion
• - Articles and Speeches
• - Journals
• - Databases
• - Online

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Next Steps

• This search led me to finding Michael Crichton.
• Most specifically his speech
• the religion of environmentalism
• Gave reasons of how religious approaches are to
  the environment are inappropriate and cause
  damage to the natural world they intend to
  protect.

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Background of the Issue

• Looked at authors other than Crichton.
• Who has credentials?
• Political, religious, and scientific authors from
  respected universities.
• What evidence do they use to support their
  reasoning?
• Found strong historical examples and statistics.

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Digging Deeper

• Explored the roots of various religions.
• Searched for ways that religions have adapted
  throughout history.
• Looked for flexibility.
• To help with this I found books such as
• Does God Change
• The Evolving World and Theology

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Findings

• Within most religions
• Change is rare and slow.
• Requires administrative burden.
• Inherent problems with public acceptance vs.
  Faith.
• Age Old texts dictate laws not appropriate for
  today.

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Author, Director, Scientist
Michael Crichton

• Graduated from Harvard
• Taught anthropology at Cambridge
• Taught writing at MIT
• Best known for writing Jurassic Park
• And the hit show ER.
• Has met with U.S. Senate to discuss
• his ideas.

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Environmentalism as Religion
Michael Crichton does not support viewing
environmentalism as a religion because

• Argues we must be flexible.
• We must accept that we are wrong.
• Environmentalism becomes overly fundamentalist.
• Must take a more scientific approach
• New information presents itself often.

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Fundamentalism

• With us or against us mentalities do not
  serve the needs of the public.
• Not able to research into unknown.
• Hidden motivations, agendas, etc
• Leadership based on criteria not suitable for
  most.

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Resources

• Bonnet, Corinne. "Ecology and Religion Ecology
  and Christianity." Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd
  ed. 4 vols. New York Thomson Gale, 2005.
• Crichton, Michael. "Environmentalism as
  Religion." Commonwealth Club. San Francisco. 15
  Sept. 2003. 14 May 2008 lthttp//www.crichton-offic
  ial.com/speech-environmentalismaseligion.htmlgt.
• Danielson, David G. "Environmentalism a New
  Religion?" Heartland Perspectives (1995) 1-3. 15
  May 2008 lthttp//www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?art
  Id177gt.
• Deane-Drummond, Celia. "Environmental Ethics."
  Science, Religion, and Society. 2nd ed. 10
• vols. Armonk, NY M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2007.
• Metz, Johannes. The Evolving World and Theology.
  New York Paulist P, 1967.
• Ostrowski, John M. "Environmentalism as
  Religion." Lew Rockwell. 21 Mar. 2007. 14 May
  2008 lthttp//www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/ostrowski-j
  ohn1.htmlgt.
• "Spiritual Ecology." WikiPedia. 13 May 2008
  lthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_ecologygt.
• Weinandy OFM Cap., Thomas G. Does God Change?
  Still River, Ma St. Bedes Publications, 1985.

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Questions?
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Short Clip of Michael Crichton explaining his
views to a younger audience

• In this clip, Michael addresses many young
  academic researchers and students.
• He gives his responses to their questions about
  why environmentalism should not be a religion.