The New World Religion?

The environmental movement has a strong sacramental and sanctimonious air to it. Is it the new world religion?

What is the prime religion of the Western world now? How about environmentalism?

Regis Nicoll writes on Breakpoint of the sacramental tone of the environmental movement. He has a point. I would add sanctimonious as another description. From what my kids bring home from school, the message is clear that there are no greater sinners in the world than polluters.

Let me hasten to say that when I list my favorite hobbies, among the top five are hiking, camping, and boating (the other two are writing and reading). I believe (ahem!) religiously in leaving a place cleaner than I found it. I get more refreshment and energy from a walk (or better yet, a week) in the woods than anything else I can think of. I am a conservationist, the way we understood the word when I was a Boy Scout in the '60s.

The environmental movement has lifted nature to the status of an idol, complete with myths surrounding it. Nicoll's article briefly describes false assumptions of the "noble savage," and the myth of a former ecological Eden, destroyed by a Fall, followed by Judgment, and the hope of Salvation. Sounds like all the makings of a religion to me.

Discover magazine this month talks about "Earth Without People" (paid subscription required, sorry): what would happen if all the humans on earth "suddenly disappeared?"If New York, for example, were to be left uninhabited, this is some of what would result:

• 10 years: Sidewalks crack and weeds invade. Hawks and falcons flourish, as do feral cats and dogs. The rat population, deprived of human garbage, crashes. Cockroaches, which thrive in warm buildings, disappear. Cultivated carrots, cabbages, broccoli, and brussels sprouts revert to their wild ancestors.
• 20 years: Water-soaked steel columns supporting subway tunnels corrode and buckle. Bears and wolves invade Central Park.
• 100 years: Oaks and maples re-cover the land.
• 1,000 years: Hell Gate Bridge, built to bring the railroad across the East River, finally falls.
• 10,000 years: Indian Point nuclear reactors continue to leak radioactivity into the Hudson River.

Harvard biologist Edward Wilson says that in a few thousand years, “the world would mostly look as it did before humanity came along—like a wilderness.” What's remarkable about all this is the underlying tone of the article. (Check out the article at your library if you think I'm overstating this.) There's no grief, or pain, or horror at the worldwide destruction of humankind they are imagining. Maybe I'm reading into it, but it appears they think it would be an improvement. (I have to admit, I do like the part about cockroaches disappearing!)

Nicoll aptly quoted C.S. Lewis: “When men cease believing in God, they do not then believe in nothing, they believe in anything.” Humankind needs religion; it is inescapably part of our nature. Environmentalism at this extreme is a religion of mass suicide. [Note: a thoughtful reader has reminded me the quote actually belongs to G.K. Chesterton, and mentioned that Nicoll also has acknowledged the correction.]

Posted: Mon - January 31, 2005 at 12:52 PM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

The New World Religion?

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson