I thought PaigeB's contribution summarized the nub of the problem
for many people. Over the last few hundred years, as people have
found religious orthodoxies increasingly out of line with their
perceptions of their social reality, they have abandoned the
spiritual world. Once they have abandoned the spiritual, there is
only the material to cling on to. People need however some sort of
ideology by which to live their lives. Therefore they have
experimented with a number of secular materialistic ideologies:
nationalism, Communism, racism, capitalism, etc. All of these
ideologies have had disastrous results in almost every sphere--
social, ecological, and economic.
Many people's response to this is a sense of despair while others
turn inwards to individualism. Indeed, in the West, individualism
with a capitialist social base seems to have become the prevailing
ideology with adverse environmental results. The path that some
are investigating as an alternative to all this is a return to
spirituality--not in the form of the religious orthodoxies of the
past but in new forms. Some of these new forms are themselves very
inward-looking and individualistic but others combine
spirituality with a social and ecological awareness--part of which
must include a move towards a society that is more imbued with
"feminine" values. This seems to me to be the only path that in the
long run will fulfill the goals of those who are
concerned about the environment. I do not deny that it is
possible for invididuals to be unselfish and ecologically
motivated without any spiritual basis to this as PaigeB states is
her position. But it seems to me that such an attitude will never
become an inherent part of society as a whole unless spirituality
replaces the materialistic ideologies that form the core of modern
Western society.
Interestingly many of the religions of the world prophesied
exactly the sort of world in which we are now living and the
ecological disasters that result from a turning away from
spirituality and morality.
In the Hindu scriptures, the dark age of Kali was described thus:
"In that (Kali) age, people will be greedy, take to wicked
behaviour, will be merciless, indulge in hostilities without any
cause, unfortunate, extremely covetous for wealth . . . Petty-
minded people will conduct business transactions and merchants
will be fraudulent . . . People will have their minds weighed down
with constant anxiety and fear, due to devastating famines and
heavy taxation. The land being devoid of food-crops, people will be
always with the fear of impending droughts (Bhagavata Purana 12:3
v. 24-39)."
And the Islamic Traditions foresee a time when: "the most wicked
member of a tribe becomes its ruler; the most worthless member of a
people becomes its leader; a man is honoured through fear of the
evil he may do . . . look at that time for a violent wind, an
earthquake, being swallowed up by the earth, metamorphosis,
pelting rain, and signs following one another like bits of a
necklace falling one after the other when its string is cut
(Tradition transmitted by Tirmidhi. See Mishkat al-Masabih, vol.
3, p. 1139).
Similar statement appear in the Bible: "And you will hear of wars
and rumours of wars... For nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes
in various places . . . And then many will fall away, and betray one
another, and hate one another . . . And because wickedness is
multiplied, most men's love will grow cold . . . For then there will
be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of
the world until now, no, and never will be (St. Matthew 24: v. 3, 4,
6, 7, 10, 12, 21).
And Baha'u'llah observes: "The vitality of men's belief in God is
dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine
can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into
the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent
Revelation can cleanse and revive it? (Gleanings from the Writings
of Baha'u'llah, no. 99, p. 200).
