Actually, right now, TODAY, Catholicism is an ecologically friendly religion. Read Laudato Si. Sigh* I'm sure you won't even though I really think that every environmentalist ought to have it on our shelves. It has only one questionable point (the Pope doesn't believe overpopulation is a problem), and hits all the major points, such as:
- These are global concerns/must be dealt with worldwide
- Sustainability
- Base goals and solutions on scientific research
- Unique responsibility of human beings for care
- Pollution
- Climate change
- Waste/Throwaway culture
- Plunder of Resources
- Loss of Biodiversity (species/ecosystems)/cities becoming too large
- Global inequality (hey people are part of the environment too)
- Weak responses
- Creation is NOT created "for men."
- The ecological crisis is manmade (technology, globalization, antrhopocentricm)
- Integral Ecology
- Dialogue between rcience and religion
- Environmental education and spirituality.
And what is the source of Nature and Nature's laws? IOW, Nature is only the tool of the Divine. We are no more created by Nature than a artwork is painted by a paintbrush.
Have you ever heard of Dr Robert Sapolsky? He is a professor of at Stanford University, neuroendocrinologist, and author. He is perhaps best known for his series of lectures on Behavioral Biology that were videoed and put up on you tube. Personally, I'm in love with his brilliant brain.
This is a link to his lecture, "Are Humans Just Another Primate?" The answer is complicated. Science seems to say that we are a primate, but perhaps not JUST another primate. Anyhow, he is a witty, entertaining, and fascinating speaker, and well worth listening to.
I would argue that we have evolved ourselves right out of the natural world. Consciousness, moral sentience, advanced culture, and science.... All these things together have put us into a position where we decide for ourselves our own destiny, rather than being at the mercy of our environment. In our evolutionary past, weather, habitat, migration of species, etc., determined our evolution. Today we have air conditioning and heaters, we create our own habitats, and we go where we wish and ship our food in from all over the world. Our animal instincts still tell us to have sex with all sorts of forbidden people at forbidden times and in forbidden places, but our conscience overrides these instincts. You could have an entire library just with books about culture and how it substitutes for evolution. Chimpanzees don't paint the Sistine Chapel or write the New World Symphony or dance Salsa on Saturday night. There is just a chasm of difference between using sticks to dig out termites and building a rocket that puts men on the moon.
When I was younger and looked into this, what I learned was that when resources are plentiful a culture gets lazy and exploitative. When resources get scarce, a culture develops an environmental consciousness. For example, when buffalo were so plentiful that the plains oozed with them, the Native Americans would send whole herds running off of cliffs to their deaths, which meant that most of the meat rotted, since it was far, far more than they could ever use. But when the white man came and hunted buffalo as well, and they grew scarce (almost to extinction) this method of hunting became taboo.
Good heavens! God help us if we ever start getting our morality from nature. Virtue wants us to help the sick, the old, the injured and disabled. Nature wants them DEAD.
As always, it is a pleasure to chat with you, my friend.