I once heard a well-known preacher fervently ridicule those who endeavour to save dolphins when God’s priority is ‘clearly’ saving humans. His comments, which seemed to be laced with disdain for those who genuinely care for the well-being of Earth’s other sentient beings, were met with enthusiastic applause from the Christian crowd that was his audience for the day.
Hearing what he had to say and the response he received from the people reminded me that for too long, humanity (and sadly, that includes many mainstream evangelical Christians) has been guilty of supreme arrogance when it comes to our relationship with the planet. That arrogance, coupled with a fair amount of ignorance, has blinded us to the fact that it is we who depend on the Earth and not the Earth that depends on us.
Remove humanity, and the planet will thrive without us, but remove the vital processes of exchange that regulate life on Earth or the diverse elements that make life possible, and our very existence as the human race is placed in jeopardy.
Humanity may well be the pinnacle of God’s creation, and human beings may well bear the image of God, but this does not mean we are independent of the context in which we live. Quite the contrary. We depend on our context as much as any other life form. We need fresh water. We need clean air. We need plants, soil, minerals, and shelter. We need the earth. The earth doesn’t need us.
Somehow, we have become disconnected in our thinking from the very gift that sustains and preserves us. We have assumed that we are above it when in reality, we are immersed and entrenched in it. We are, as it turns out, in and of the world.
Rediscovering our place and our purpose as custodians of the earth and its inhabitants is vital to ensuring not only our own well-being but also the fulfilment of an obligation we have toward God, the Creator and owner of the planet we have been given.
A case in point: in the biblical account of the Flood (Genesis 6), the often unseen and, therefore, unspoken truth is that to save humankind, God instructed Noah to save the animals. Why? Because the preservation of vital ecosystems post-flood is essential to the continuation of life on Earth, including human life. The point is simply that it would not be possible to save humanity without preserving the animals that play a vital part in the systems that regulate life on Earth. To protect and preserve humans, you must protect and preserve their context.
Added to this, in the covenant God makes with those who survive the flood (Genesis 9:8-17), the commitment is to “every living creature” (repeated 5 times in 9 verses just in case we didn’t get the message). The point: God cares deeply about the earth and everything (not just everyone) in it.
My appeal to my fellow Christians is this: You can’t say that you care about people and not care about the quality of water they need to drink, the quality of the air they need to breathe, or the quality of the soil they need to sow.
If you are genuinely and seriously concerned about human beings, then you will be concerned about the context on which we depend, not only for the quality of life but for life itself.
For the whole conversation, see Earth Matters – Part 1, Earth Matters – Part 2, and Earth Matters – Part 3.
John
Totally with you Tim
Philosophically and theologically it’s both fascinating and thought provoking that humans are not required for the survival of our world’s natural ecosystems whereas bees, worms and krill are