30 Dec 2022

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Lynn White's The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis

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Academic level: College

Paper type: Essay (Any Type)

Words: 552

Pages: 2

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The past is an important point in learning from our mistakes, and it help us not to commit the past mistakes in future. 

White reasons that concepts that have infused the belief that humans have protectorate over nature is profoundly rooted in ideology of Christianity. Transcendence of man over nature is only a proliferation of ideologies which have contributed to the degradation of the natural world. 

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“ All forms of life modify their context,” is a best example of the coral polyp that molds the sea environment. Human beings have equally molded the environment: slash and burn agriculture, overhunting, and overgrazing are few examples of dominion of humanity over nature. The proliferation of technology and science as a tool used to assess the natural world with empirical and theoretical approaches have rendered old ways of reasoning superseded when comprehending how the work functions. The traditions of science and technology derive most importantly from western perception. White observed that these movements attained ascendency in the middle age era- therefore when we delve back into the historical roots of technology and science, it is crucial to scrutinize “fundamental medieval assumptions and developments.” 

How individuals react to their environment “depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them.” Nature became conditional to our beliefs and destiny, and no ideology put forth the idea of destiny greater than religion. Christian ideology inherited the concept of time and creation from the Book of Genesis, where God made man in his image. Christianity remains the most anthropocentric of all world religions because of this belief. The dichotomy between man and nature reinforced the Christian belief which “insisted that it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends.” Scholars of natural theology claim two positions: 1) the effort to comprehend the mind of God is possible by seeing how he operates within his creation, 2) because God gave man the bible, nature is symbolic of divine biblical texts; hence, comprehending nature is understanding the divine work of God. Technology and science have been spearheaded by some of these principles. 

White has uncertainties as to whether more science and technology can set right the crisis of future environmental calamity. What it will in the end rely on is relationship of the humanity to nature. He maintains that science and technology will just destroy the biological world with the exception of a new religion in place or it results in something different. The St. Francis parables illuminate White’s approach, for Francis advocated for humility and nature as “not merely for individual but for humanity as a species.” 

White does not intend men to live as righteously as St. Francis. Nevertheless, he only implied that in our realization of connections to the biological world as disconnected, but its component—we can start controlling these disastrous changes happening at the international level. The natural sphere will simply deteriorate except for when we decline the Christian truism of transcendence of man over the natural world. 

The thought that humans have dominance over other creatures on earth is profoundly entrenched inside the biblical context well thought-out by theology researchers from the time when Christ died. Nonetheless, White argues a new approach to religious evolution to integrate all life aspects. St. Francis discarded the anthropocentric bible standpoint in the times when he would be victimized for his faith. Perception of St. Francis on nature incorporates the entire life aspects, though tiny or huge. His sermons base on humility, not superciliousness . If humankind will be able to embrace natural world like St. Francis irrespective of our viewpoints, religious convictions, as well as doctrines the nature would just thrive as humanity realize its position in the universe. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 16). Lynn White's The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis.
https://studybounty.com/lynn-whites-the-historical-roots-of-our-ecological-crisis-essay

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