A sin against Nature is a sin against God

In his new book -due out today- "The Creation: An Appeal to save life on Earth" Scientist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author E.O. Wilson is out to save life on Earth -- literally -- and as a secular humanist has decided to enlist people of religious faith in his mission. In his imaginary letter to a Southern Baptist Pastor Wilson is candid about his views as and academic and proposed an alliance:

It may seem far-fetched for a secular scientist to propose an alliance between science and religion. But the fact is that environmental activists cannot succeed without you and your followers as allies. The political process in American democracy, with rare exceptions, does not start at the top and work its way down to the voting masses. It proceeds in the opposite direction. Political leaders are compelled to calculate as precisely as they can what it will take to win the next election. The United States is an intensely religious nation. It is overwhelmingly Judeo-Christian, with a powerful undercurrent of evangelism. We secularists must face reality. The National Association of Evangelicals has 30 million members; the three leading American humanist organizations combined have, at best, a few thousand. Those who, for religious reasons, believe in saving the Creation, have the strength to do so through the political process; acting alone, secular environmentalists do not. An alliance between science and religion, forged in an atmosphere of mutual respect, may be the only way to protect life on earth, including, in the end, our own.


Here in VT I have met an example of this type of spiritual-enviro leader; Rev. Paul Bortz from Middlebury.

“Over the last decade, Rev. Paul Bortz has been a visible and highly respected leader in Addison County, pursuing realistic, spiritually-based solutions to our greatest environmental problems,” said Middlebury College Assistant Professor of Economics Jon Isham, who has worked with Bortz in the community. According to Isham, Bortz founded three local environmental groups that reach beyond the traditional goals of improving the environment to find deeper and more spiritual solutions that will be both effective and inspiring. As the founder of Spirit in Nature, a set of interweaving trails in Ripton’s Green Mountain wilderness, Bortz helped create a natural place of solace and quiet revelation for the public to enjoy. Collaborating with local citizens, Bortz established the Middlebury Global Warming Action Coalition to affect a measurable change in the way Addison County residents consume and produce energy. Bortz has also helped develop the Vermont Interfaith Power and Light project to create a statewide forum for addressing Vermont’s global warming issues.

Here in Burlington we have Gary Kowalski at the Unitarian Church (yes the one at the end of Church Street) , author of Science and the Search for God (Paperback) Here's what amazon says about his book:

Harvard-educated theologian Gary Kowalski argues that many of the ills of the modern world—from the rise of fundamentalist intolerance to secular society’s endless (and empty) search for thrills—stem from the mistaken view that science and faith are antagonists rather than natural allies. Both science and faith, the author suggests, compel us now to move beyond materialism toward an understanding of the world that includes the realities of consciousness and spirit. In the twenty-first century, human beings have less reason than before to feel they hold a privileged or special position in the cosmos, but more cause than ever to feel connected and akin to all that is. Christians and Jews, skeptics and seekers alike will find that this brief, persuasively written volume sheds new light on the old questions, Who are we? Where do we figure in the larger scheme of things? And what can we honestly believe?

I have been playing with the idea of having some sort of ad-hoc conversation/study group/reading club (?) about Social/Human Capital as it relates to Religion/Belief and the environment. Any takers/ideas?

Best,

Azur

PS: If you are interested in this area you can read (or listen) through Speaking of Faith - two stories in particular drew my attention 1) The Evolution of American Evangelicalism and 2) Planting the future

Enviro-Sissies or Patriots?

This blog is mostly about what I want to write but occasionally I will transcribe an article that I think is worth reading instead of my rantings. Kudos to Mr. Thomas L. Friedman (Brandeis, Class of 1975) for a straight to the point n0-nonsense column on the importance of renewable energy and environmental protection. Mr. Friedman won the Pulitzer prize three times and is a member of the Pulitzer Prize board.

This is the type of upfront messaging that is dearly missed from the leaders of our environmental movement, one would think the democrats and local coffee shop liberals.

January 6, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist, NYT

The New Red, White and Blue

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists - wimps, actually.

What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that theytalk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspectsand engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promotedemocracy around the globe.

But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S.foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficientand independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as somethingonly liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiencyand conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do.Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically sayingthat a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months issomehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence - that isfor sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American valueseroded at home and abroad.

Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's anational security imperative. The biggest threat to America and its valuestoday is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It's petrolism. Petrolism is my term forthe corrupting, antidemocratic governing practices - in oil states fromRussia to Nigeria and Iran - that result from a long run of $60-a-barreloil. Petrolism is the politics of using oil income to buy off one'scitizens with subsidies and government jobs, using oil and gas exports tointimidate or buy off one's enemies, and using oil profits to build upone's internal security forces and army to keep oneself ensconced in power,without any transparency or checks and balances.

When a nation's leaders can practice petrolism, they never have to taptheir people's energy and creativity; they simply have to tap an oil well.And therefore politics in a petrolist state is not about building a societyor an educational system that maximizes its people's ability to innovate, export and compete. It is simply about who controls the oil tap.

In petrolist states like Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Sudan, people getrich by being in government and sucking the treasury dry - so they neverwant to cede power. In non-petrolist states, like Taiwan, Singapore andKorea, people get rich by staying outside government and building realbusinesses.

Our energy gluttony fosters and strengthens various kinds of petrolistregimes. It emboldens authoritarian petrolism in Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Sudan and Central Asia. It empowers Islamist petrolism in Sudan,Iran, and Saudi Arabia. It even helps sustain communism in Castro's Cuba, which survives today in part thanks to cheap oil from Venezuela. Most of thesepetrolist regimes would have collapsed long ago, having proved utterly incapable of delivering a modern future for their people, but they havebeen saved by our energy excesses.

No matter what happens in Iraq, we cannot dry up the swamps ofauthoritarianism and violent Islamism in the Middle East without also drying up our consumption of oil - thereby bringing down the price ofcrude. A democratization policy in the Middle East without a differentenergy policy at home is a waste of time, money and, most important, thelives of our young people.

That's because there is a huge difference in what these bad regimes cando with $20-a-barrel oil compared with the current $60-a-barrel oil. Itis no accident that the reform era in Russia under Boris Yeltsin, and inIran under Mohammad Khatami, coincided with low oil prices. When pricessoared again, petrolist authoritarians in both societies reasserted themselves.

We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq,but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home.That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewableenergy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than thewelfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last yearas an energy bill.

Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiencyand environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think ofanything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates ofspreading democracy around the world, live green. Green is the new red, white and blue.

Copyright 2006The New York Times