Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

the 21st century the task of explaining nature
In
largely fallen to science, but this is a relatively
has
occurrence. Explanations of natural
recent
have occupied religious thought and
phenomena
1967 Clarence Glacken published a fairly
In
account of the relationships
comprehensive
religion and nature in the Western
between
This inspired other investigations into
world.
environmental impacts of Western culture,
the
philosophy and science. These works
religion,
“an epic struggle in Western culture
portray
organicist and mechanist worldviews
between
between those who view the natural world as
…
sacred and having intrinsic value, and
somehow
who view the Earth as a way station to a
those
realm beyond the Earth …” (Glacken
heavenly
Religion was viewed as both culprit and
1967).
in the environmental destruction story.
saviour
in 1967 Lynn White published an article
Also
argued that Abrahamic religions (Judaism,
that
and Islam) perpetuated modes
Christianity
living that were inherently damaging to
of
environment, and argued, like Toynbee a
the
later, that the solution to this problem
decade
also be essentially religious” (White
“must
In these authors’ view, Buddhism or
1967).
were more sensitive to nature than
Paganism
prevailing monotheism. Combined with
the
forces of the era, the existential threat
cultural
the Cold War, and growing alarm about
of
degradation, this all made
environmental
more curious about and receptive
Westerners
non-Western religious traditions. Max Weber
to
had already traced capitalism’s unbridled
(1958)
Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism and
ideas.
belief systems and traditions showed
Indigenous
to offer more environmentally sensitive
up
and behaviours.
values
view was romantic and simplistic—
White’s
religions were causing environmental
Western
and Asian or Indigenous traditions
destruction
inherently nature-friendly. Yi Fu Tuan
were
an influential article in 1968 disputing
published
ideas, noting that deforestation predated
these
that Asian nations did not have a
Christianity,
impressive environmental record,
particularly
that many regions of the world had
and
environmental decline, scaled for
witnessed
numbers, well before the arrival of
population
Western civilization.
modern
scholars agree that nature plays a role
Numerous
shaping religion, and vice versa, but there is
in
less agreement on the important
comparatively
These include whether religion helps or
details.
adaption to the environment, and the
hinders
of this influence in relation to other
strength
features. For decades, anthropologists
cultural
been investigating the role of religion and/
have
spiritual beliefs in Indigenous Peoples’ ability
or
thrive in their environmental contexts. A
to
evolutionary argument is based on “the
common
of the most sustainable”—or the idea
survival
culture is a set of adaptations to a specific
that
and that religions evolved to guide
environment,
towards successful adaptations. This was
people
view of anthropologist Julian Steward, who
the
Indigenous Peoples in North America’s
studied
Basin. Another anthropologist, Marvin
Great
stated in the 1960s that the sacredness of
Harris,
in India was ecologically advantageous,
cows
to sustain the nutrient cycles of agroecosystems
serving
and the carrying capacity of the land.
III. Methods and tools
III. Methods and tools
III.3 Religion and nature
The present threat to mankind’s survival can be
removed only by a revolutionary change of heart in
individual human beings. This change of heart must
be inspired by religion in order to generate the will
power needed for putting arduous new ideals into
practice.
(Toynbee quoted in Porritt 1984)
practice, and been reflected in it, for millennia.
Harris subsequently generalized as follows.
Beliefs and rituals that appear to the nonanthropological
observer as wholly irrational, whimsical, and even
maladaptive have been shown to possess important
positive functions and to be the dependent variable of
recurrent adaptive processes.
(Harris 1971)
consumption of natural resources to religious
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