I have pointed out (as well as many others) in the past that due to the secular nature of the Left, they still have a yearning for that which God can only satisfy. I also have pointed out the religion of environmentalism is a product of the Left and has many liberal denominations coming on board. Leading the way of course is the emerging movement. For instance, an earlier post (which is a must read: “Feminist Extremism, Eastern Concepts in Youth Specialties and Gaia in Emergence“) I did mentions this pull towards environmentalism when the true nature and deity of God is minimized:
- What modern secularists called “nature” (a term that turned a sacred work of art into a profane source of “raw materials”) and what modern Christians always linked with “versus evolution” (thus turning a sacred mystery into a profane and misguided argument).
- What ancient Christians viewed, along with Holy Scripture, as one of God’s two primary sources of self-revelation.
- What emerging Christians will cherish as God’s art gallery in which we live and of which we are a part and for which we were created as planetary trustees and caretakers.
Later of course we get to the “action” (the “praxy” if you will) behind the emergent meaning:
… For postmoderns, it’s “Mother Earth,” holy ground tragically portrayed in the words of James Merrill: “Father Time and Mother Earth, A marriage on the rocks.” No wonder the word environment is used less and less; it’s too cold a word for this theology of “holy ground.”There are now over 130,000 religion and ecology projects in operation worldwide. Unfortunately, very few of them are emanating from evangelical churches.
If our humaneness is most manifest in our relationships—with swallows and snails, with friends and enemies, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the modern world needed marriage counseling big-time. The willingness to sacrifice living systems for commerce has meant that the lungs and other vital organs of Mother Earth are being cannibalized to the point where “natural” disasters are no longer “natural” but induced.
The mad weather patterns of the past decade are a byproduct of disappearing forests (at current rates of deforestation, Ecuador will be totally barren of trees in 20 years), disappearing healthy air, and disappearing ecosystems….
Daily Kos may be an almost official stop of the Democratic Party — today’s top ad demands you help the Arizona Democrats fight the new immigration law — but it’s certain not a religious website. In fact, last Friday, the blogger “HumeSkeptic” declared that all religions pale in comparison to earth worship:
In so far as all morality is fundamentally based on preservation, betterment and continuation of life, there is no higher morality than environmentalism.
All religions pale in comparison.
Morality, when associated with religion, is limited and parochial. It is primarily focused on preservation, betterment and continuation of humans, but not all humans, only those following a particular belief system.
Even when it pretends to extend beyond that parochial realm – for example, “Love thy neighbor” and “Thou shalt not kill”, religious morality is limited to human life.
Environmentalism, on the other hand, encompasses preservation, betterment and continuation of all life, and, therefore, is the highest level of morality.
It being the highest morality, it is not a surprise that the vast majority of Republicans oppose and mock environmentalism.
HumeSkeptic can’t see that the limited and parochial worldview might be the one that worships the planet and human life, but seems to reject any notion of an afterlife.
The author points out a key aspect that degrades this religious position rather than raises it: limited and parochial worldview. Hume once said that if he did stand before the Christian God he would ask why enough “evidence” wasn’t given him to believe. What would his question for Gaia be?