The simple answer is that it doesn't, not even slightly, but since some fundamentalists have said stupid things and/or some people have drawn stupid conclusions from things fundamentalists have said, everybody gets tarred with the same "anti-environmentalist" brush.
Personally, I happen to be one of those crazy biblical literalist types (and one of these days I really must do a post/rant about the common misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what it means to take the Bible "literally") and I've always taught my children that when God created human beings He commanded them to take care of the world He had made (that's straight out of Genesis 2, there), and that littering and other abuses of the environment are acts of disobedience to Him and disrespect for His creation.
I can't think of any Bible verses that even begin to hint at the idea that we have any right to exploit and despoil nature as we please, and a whole lot of verses that argue otherwise (God rebuking Israel for working the land too hard and not allowing it to rest once every seven years as He had dictated, for instance; and also the commandments in the Law about the proper treatment of animals -- "Do not muzzle an ox as it is treading out the grain," etc.).
Unfortunately, some people ignore this, and instead take the Biblical teaching that the earth will someday be destroyed to mean that the world in its present form is a dead loss and we should just forget about caring for the environment. Or at least I'm told that some people do. I've never heard anyone preach this myself, and I can't imagine anybody getting away with it (at least not in my church circles) if they did.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 03:50 pm (UTC)Personally, I happen to be one of those crazy biblical literalist types (and one of these days I really must do a post/rant about the common misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what it means to take the Bible "literally") and I've always taught my children that when God created human beings He commanded them to take care of the world He had made (that's straight out of Genesis 2, there), and that littering and other abuses of the environment are acts of disobedience to Him and disrespect for His creation.
I can't think of any Bible verses that even begin to hint at the idea that we have any right to exploit and despoil nature as we please, and a whole lot of verses that argue otherwise (God rebuking Israel for working the land too hard and not allowing it to rest once every seven years as He had dictated, for instance; and also the commandments in the Law about the proper treatment of animals -- "Do not muzzle an ox as it is treading out the grain," etc.).
Unfortunately, some people ignore this, and instead take the Biblical teaching that the earth will someday be destroyed to mean that the world in its present form is a dead loss and we should just forget about caring for the environment. Or at least I'm told that some people do. I've never heard anyone preach this myself, and I can't imagine anybody getting away with it (at least not in my church circles) if they did.