Using religion to help conquer environmental destruction on a global scale

Can faith or religion tackle the global environmental crisis?
This was the topic of discussion at a symposium held over the weekend entitled “Faith & the Environment,” organized by Reviving the Islamic Spirit. Over 500 attended the sessions at the University of Toronto and the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga led by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an expert on Islamic science and spirituality, and Hakim Archuletta, an expert in homeopathic medicine.
Archuletta began the session by diagnosing the audience with a critical level of simultagnozia – the inability to see pieces as a component of the whole.
“With over 20,000 people dying daily due to lack of food, 90 percent of the fish species having disappeared from the seas and 100 species disappearing every week from the face of the planet, it becomes difficult to argue that humans possess common sense, let alone any humanity,” argued Archuletta.
How can we turn a blind eye to this environmental genocide and allow an ecocide to take place? Archuletta attributed this to the sense of denial inherent in our human nature.
“Just like when one is diagnosed with a disease, it is difficult for us to accept that we suffer from such a disease,” he said
Archuletta argues that we pretend that this tragedy cannot happen to us and, with the new-generation’s weapons of mass distraction, we instead try to combat reality by resorting to our flat-screens.
Archuletta points out that “obesity” is not only physically expressed but also manifested in society through excessive consumerism, which all religious doctrines are opposed to.
Nasr criticizes everyone, including adherents of religion, for having done very little work when it came to protecting the environment.
“It is like rearranging the furniture aboard the Titanic as it is just about to sink,” he said.
He also pointed a finger at Muslims for having forgotten their rich environmental heritage where the first hospital for animals was founded.
He further pointed out that the Qur’an had numerous chapters named after plants and animals, some of which even describe their kingdoms, including the bee kingdom.
Both scholars referenced a famous Islamic tradition: “If you find out the end of the world is coming tomorrow and you are planting a tree, continue planting the tree.”
Nasr went on to propose that if God was the creator, as most religions claim, then it is our moral responsibility as His representatives and those made in His image, to respect the first revelation: the creation of nature.
Nasr suggested religious leaders come up with “green” temples, churches and mosques and place an emphasis in their sermons to join forces with environmental activists, initiatives and organizations to preserve our environment.
Indeed Rumi, the famous Persian scholar, made no mistake when he said, “Faith is the sail of the Ship of Our Being.” Whether you believe in God or not, we all know that nature has the last say.
In accordance with this, Nasr proposed that we should “think globally and act locally.”
The world is indeed a global village. By coming to the realization that a dam in China will affect how you breathe in Toronto, we ought to deal with the cancerous problem of environmental degradation now.
Sikh, Muslim, atheist, Hindu, Jew or Christian – we are all in this together. This world is like a ship: if we do not do something now about the hole that the environmental destruction is creating, we are sure to sink, eliminating all species including our own.