Christians and their Kingdom Come, Muslims and their Jannah paradise, and Hindus and the Good Kingdom, Jews and the World-to-come, or whoever with whatever Sugarcandy Mountain of choice, bear no responsibility for as keepers of the Earth, for their reward is in the afterlife. With an apathy which could be likened to vandalizing the Titanic, for those, with their eyes on the prize, our planet becomes a doomed farm league for the chosen people to be called up the ethereal majors. The faithful feel little ecological or cooperative responsibility because their souls’ destination is some spiritual netherworld, the reward for piety here.
In 2010, US Representative John Shimkus, while vying to head the powerful House Energy Committee, famously quoted the promise made to Noah in the Bible to debunk global warming:
'As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.'
So you see we have nothing to worry about. This kind of thinking led to the policies of George W. Bush, the born-again 43rd president of the United States. His famous Armageddon obsession stemmed from a belief that we were on the threshold of the final battle before the Second Coming and the Rapture.
Why protect the environment that is damned to destruction anyway? Bush’s administration undermined air and water quality at every turn in relentless pursuit of oil and mining interests. Underlings failed to enforce law as well as allowing lobbyists to write new policy. His stubborn refusal to sign took the teeth out of the Kyoto treaty. Wildlife suffered. Pollution flourished.
The Koran, as well as the Bible, puts the faithful as the trust holders of the planet, a responsibility granted by God. But one wonders who’s actually reading when a devotee dreams of jihad and mushroom clouds?
You can argue this is not the attitude of every one of God’s fans, but among the loudest voices the prevalent message more than suggests a callous, even spiteful apathy towards preservation which pervades the right and center of US politics today.
I suppose the atheist equivalent could be “after I die, what do I care?” Of course, atheists too can be immoral. We are not all alike and submit to no uniform doctrine or dogma. But I don’t see it and certainly never as a movement giving up on this world because of a perceived inevitability of doom. What I see of the good atheist is a genuine concern for our planet; after all, our immortality is through our children. This trend ties in with our moral system, not based in promises of everlasting life or threats of damnation, but our innate sense of community.
In 2010, US Representative John Shimkus, while vying to head the powerful House Energy Committee, famously quoted the promise made to Noah in the Bible to debunk global warming:
'As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.'
So you see we have nothing to worry about. This kind of thinking led to the policies of George W. Bush, the born-again 43rd president of the United States. His famous Armageddon obsession stemmed from a belief that we were on the threshold of the final battle before the Second Coming and the Rapture.
Why protect the environment that is damned to destruction anyway? Bush’s administration undermined air and water quality at every turn in relentless pursuit of oil and mining interests. Underlings failed to enforce law as well as allowing lobbyists to write new policy. His stubborn refusal to sign took the teeth out of the Kyoto treaty. Wildlife suffered. Pollution flourished.
The Koran, as well as the Bible, puts the faithful as the trust holders of the planet, a responsibility granted by God. But one wonders who’s actually reading when a devotee dreams of jihad and mushroom clouds?
You can argue this is not the attitude of every one of God’s fans, but among the loudest voices the prevalent message more than suggests a callous, even spiteful apathy towards preservation which pervades the right and center of US politics today.
I suppose the atheist equivalent could be “after I die, what do I care?” Of course, atheists too can be immoral. We are not all alike and submit to no uniform doctrine or dogma. But I don’t see it and certainly never as a movement giving up on this world because of a perceived inevitability of doom. What I see of the good atheist is a genuine concern for our planet; after all, our immortality is through our children. This trend ties in with our moral system, not based in promises of everlasting life or threats of damnation, but our innate sense of community.