Ecology and the Bible

[Reggie_O_Donoghue (RiderOnTheClouds)]

@Relates

It is not well known, but Richard Dawkins is anti-ecology.

He is? Richard Dawkins is a vegan to the best of my knowledge.

[Relates (Roger A. Sawtelle)]

@Reggie_O_Donoghue

He is? Richard Dawkins is a vegan to the best of my knowledge.

What does that have to do with it?

The basis of his system is the Selfish Gene, which is why it is false and he is an atheist The basis of ecology is Symbiosis, which is why it is the true understanding of life. . .

[Thanh_C (Thanh Chung)]

@Reggie_O_Donoghue

Although I am a conservationist, I strongly have to disassociate myself from the Anti-Human elements of the environmentalist movement, the group that claims all humans do for the world is destroy it.

It is admittedly true that shoot to kill policies are effective in fighting poachers, probably the most effective method in the short term, but in the long term education will be just as useful, and let’s be real here, animals matter, but humans matter more.

There are some newspaper articles that cover the issue of conservation in Africa and parts of Asia in more depth.

The tribes paying the brutal price of conservation

African tribes losing ground to conservation

Aggressive conservation efforts by African and Asian states to make wildlife preserves completely devoid of humans for tourism, or at least restrict the rights of indigenous peoples who are living in these areas, have a significantly negative impact on hunter-gatherer and pastoralist tribes which do not illegally poach animals and cause large-scale harm to the environment. I believe that the hunter-gatherer and pastoralist tribes ought to have more international recognition to be protected and not have their livelihoods destroyed. Instead of being treated like enemies, they should be treated as partners in conservation and be allowed to have wildlife preserves for themselves. After all, they have been living in the land for thousands of years and probably know it better than anyone else.

To be clear, there are more and more environmentalists who recognize that these tribes live in harmony with nature. I think this misguided form of conservation is driven by many African and Asian states that see conservation as a very lucrative part of the tourism industry.

[Reggie_O_Donoghue (RiderOnTheClouds)]

Anyway, I found this article compelling:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1207043?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

It seems the earliest Christians (I don’t know about Jews) interpreted this passage metaphorically, and saw it as referring to subduing the inner beast in our hearts.

[Thanh_C (Thanh Chung)]

Thanks for posting the link. While I am still trying to figure out Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament, this great and interesting journal article by the historian Peter Harrison reminds me how Christian interpretations evolved over the centuries. I have not read any of his other works, but I am planning on doing that to see his arguments on the relationship between religion and science.