DESTRUCTIVE

DOMINION OR
LACK OF MORAL
RESPONSIBILITY?

“Seeking the supreme

state of sublime peace, I
wandered…until…I saw a
delightful stretch of land and a
lovely woodland grove, and a
clear flowing river with a
delightful forest so I sat down
thinking. “Indeed, this is an
appropriate place to strive for the
ultimate realization of… Nirvana”.
Ariyapariyesana Sutta,
Majjhima Nikaya

Maria Lucia Uribe Torres

 DESTRUCTIVE DOMINION OR LACK OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY?

By Maria Lucia Uribe

In this paper I summarize different religious perspectives about creation, emphasizing

the environmental crisis of many countries today and giving a general view of the
ecological destruction of the world. I try to find out how the ethics embedded in religions
could allow us to tackle the situation.

Reflection

I come from Colombia, the second country in terms of biodiversity in the world, with the
biggest number of world bird species and with more than 1000 rivers. This makes me
question myself on the big responsibility that people living in my country has in order to
keep all its natural resources and to ensure that future generations will inherit them. A
country with so many natural blessings and yet with so much ignorance among its
population on how to take care of those natural gifts they have received.

I lived for a year in Sri Lanka and got shocked by the amount of garbage on the streets
and by the complacency of people when it came to deal with their social responsibility to
keep their country cleaned. A country with variety of forests, mountains, flora and fauna
can paradoxically be perceived as a big garbage dump.

I spent some time in Japan and got surprised by the way people spend resources and
especially by the way people use printers and paper without consideration of the amount
of paper or ink they spend.

Now that I live in Europe I got to know many good environmental practices, laws and
initiatives to preserve the environment but I got disappointed by the fact that some
companies don’t care about the environmental impact they cause in the countries where
they produce their products (most of the times in developing countries), and still they are
called socially and environmentally responsible.

Most of the conflicts today are based on land-ownership, on distribution of resources or

power over those. Just stop for a moment and think about:

- Iraq and United States (petroleum)

- Israel and Palestine (land)
- Kenya (Water between Kukuyus and Maasai groups)
- Georgia and Russia (natural gas)
- Indian Land Rights in Latino America

Which others do you know?

We, as humans, act as the owners of the earth but without any collective
responsibility to make it a better place for future generations. We claim rights to own
and use the earth but forget about our responsibilities to take care and use it in
sustainable manners. We dispute land and resources but lack ways to improve them
and preserve them. We create new ways of consuming resources but lack creativity to
generate alternative ways of making a better use of what we have.

2|P a g e
Does the earth belong to us? Who gave humans “dominion” over earth?

The world we live in today is facing a big environmental crisis promoted by industrial
exploitation, over population, military proliferation, contamination of water, deforestation
and air pollution, among others. Natural resources like petroleum are getting scarce and
many animal species are in risk of extinction.

Two specific examples show us the destruction that we have caused to some of the
most precious natural areas:

The Amazon rainforest in the Amazon basin in South America represents over half of the
planet's remaining rainforests and also comprises the largest and most species rich tract
of tropical rainforest that exists1. However, it is experiencing severe droughts and high
levels of deforestation which causes indigenous communities to disappear and trees and
animals to extinct.

The Ganges River in northern India and Bangladesh with 2510 Km long is considered a
sacred river by Hindus. They believe that bathing in the river can help them attain
salvation. Yet the river collects large amounts of human pollutants as it flows through
highly populous areas. Industries are also a source of pollution and the high level of
waste — estimated at nearly 1 billion liters per day- is a significant factor of
environmental concern2.

These are only two of the many examples of environmental degradation in the world and
make us wonder: Does the earth belong to us? Who gave humans “dominion” over
earth? How much are we aware of the environmental crisis the world faces today?

According to the Biblical perspective the dominion was given by God in Gen. 1:28 “be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…” However,
from the Jewish perspective, Rabbis affirmed that this was not a license for exploitative
subjugation. “It is humble participation with God in ongoing creation as a totally
interrelated reality, accompanied with a high sense of moral responsibility for
consequences. We are Shomrei Adamah – guardians of earth.”3 The Jewish present
this responsibility as to serve and preserve, being stewards or guardians of earth.

Under this perspective human beings have the responsibility to care for the earth and
make it more harmonious. We all are part of earth and at the same time we are
interrelated with nature. Human beings have a responsibility for caring, serving and
keeping what has been given to us. From my point of view we live in a place that
doesn’t belong to us but still we have the responsibility to transform it and administrate
its resources. All what is in earth is God’s creation and therefore God is part of this
creation.

Michael Lerner in his book Jewish Renewal emphasizes that a “real humility in which we
see ourselves as part of the totality of Being, understand that nature itself is permeated

1
Turner, I.M. 2001. The ecology of trees in the tropical rain forest. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
2
Alley, Kelly D. On the Banks of the Ganga: When Wastewater Meets a Sacred River, University of
Michigan press (2002)
3
Larry R. Rasmussen. Earth Community, Earth Ethics. WCC Publications Geneva. 1996, 231 p.

3|P a g e
with the spirit of God, and recognize that the choosiness of the human species, our
ability to develop a certain level of self-consciousness, is at the same time an obligation
toward compassion, caring, and stewardship”4

I believe that there are embedded ethical values and ethical attitudes in the mandate
given by God in Gen. 1:28. Those values correspond to the moral responsibility
towards nature, respect to other species, compassion towards injustices, empathy
with those species who don’t have the ability to reason and reconciliation of our
priorities and needs with the needs and priorities of the earth as a whole.

According to Larry R. Rasmussen, the Hebrew God has a power that includes a strong
ethical component: human beings are morally responsible before God for the condition
of the world.5 Rasmussen also cites Lerner and says “if people are faithful to God’s
moral universe and thereby create a just social order, the land will yield its produce in
abundance. But if they re-create the oppression they have known and stay from God’s
commands, ecological catastrophe will follow”6

A moral responsibility to transform in positive ways the world is needed today. The
condition of the earth is not only in God’s hands but in our hands. It is explained in the
Hebrew tradition by the experience of the Jewish who were slaves in Egypt. They
experienced the power of God by being freedom. This experience held them
responsible for their own community and for transforming their own world. God was just
with them and it is their responsibility to be just and have mercy on others who could
experience social injustice or inequality. Social oppression was not supported by
God and if oppression existed as part of the social order, this social order had to be
transformed.

Here lies the importance of the stories of creation, not only seen as venerating the
wonders of the world and the physicality of it, i.e. the nature itself but as a force for
transformation. In this sense, Jewish tradition also indicates that the proper relationship
between humans and the rest of nature and of all creation together with the creator is
symbolized by Sabbath. “The sabbatical year and the jubilee year provide a clear vision
on ecological reconciliation, social restoration and personal renewal. Sabbath reminds
us that time, the realm of being, is not just a commodity, but has a quality of holiness,
which resists our impulse to control, command and oppress.”

Jewish people celebrate the Sabbath in the remembrance of the events of creation but
also in remembrance of going out from Egypt. Both elements helped understanding that
we have been given life and it is our task and responsibility to transform and to liberate
ourselves of any kind of controlling attitude.

4
Michael Lerner, Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (New York: Putnam, 1995), 416
5
Larry R. Rasmussen. 249 p.
6
Michael Lerner. 71 p.

4|P a g e
Do world religions support the exploitation of earth?

Reading about other

religious perspectives
Judaism on creation I have
come to think that what
unite us as human
Buddhism Hinduism beings are the earth
and all its nature. I
also think that the
EARTH power to transform
the current
environmental crisis lies
Islam Christianity on the ethics
embedded in each
Other religion that can allow
religions us to influence attitudes
and apply moral
responsibility to our
relation human-nature. Contradictorily earth can also be a factor to disunite all human
beings, as we noted before, contributing to conflicts and governing powers that evolve in
chaos and social disorder.

Religious teachings have not always supported a moral responsibility to

transform reality but have encouraged individuals to hide themselves from that
responsibility. Some historians have cited religion’s negative role in the environmental
crisis. Opposite to what have been argued about the understanding of Jewish tradition
on the dominion over earth, “Lynn White, medieval historian, has suggested that the
emphasis that Judaism and Christianity have given to the transcendence of God above
nature and the dominion of humans over nature has led to a devaluing of the natural
world and a subsequent destruction of its resources for utilitarian needs”7.

A book series published by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, called
Religions of the World and Ecology noted how some religions are traditionally concerned
with the path of personal salvation, which frequently emphasized otherworldly goals and
rejected this world as corrupting. For example, certain Theravada schools of Buddhism
emphasize withdrawing in meditation from the transient world of suffering (samsara) to
seek release in Nirvana. The book also pointed out that Western Abrahamic traditions of
Judaism, Christianity and Islam have created a dominantly human-focused morality,
where nature is viewed as being of secondary importance8.

Criticism has also been given to indigenous people who based their beliefs in ecological
cosmologies and yet they have developed practices that have damaged, in some
instances, local environments.

7
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim. The Nature of the Environmental Crisis. Essay published as the
foreword to the nine-volume Religions of the World and Ecology book series. Harvard College. 1997. 7p.
8
Ibid. 7-8p.

5|P a g e
Another criticism can be related to the lack of commitment from some religious
communities to address vehemently the structures of oppression and environmental
degradation. This criticism is also related to the focus on personal salvation that creates
a selfish approach to the individual and lack of focus on the collective responsibility.

However, it is important to mention that world religions have embedded ethical

components in relation to nature that emphasizes moral responsibility towards earth.
The negative role that is described above can be overcome by those ethical values in
the religious teachings that can promote moral attitudes of compassion,
responsibility and respect.

For example, “Buddhist story of first origins describes the negative impact of humans on
the earth created by selfishness and greed. In the Buddhist mythological Eden, the
earth flourishes naturally, but greedy desire leads to division and ownership of the land
that in turn promotes violent conflict, destruction and chaos.”9 Clearly it is noted that
Buddhism rejects the destruction of the environment, selfish and greedy attitudes that
has prompted such destruction.

Buddhist also rejects all kind of dominion or hierarchical dominance of one human over
another or of humans over nature, which is the basis of an empathetic compassion
that respects biodiversity.

The Dalai Lama has emphasized that a sense of responsibility rooted in compassion
lies at the very heart of an ecological ethic. “The world grows smaller and smaller, more
and more interdependent…today more than ever before life must be characterized by a
sense of universal responsibility, not only…human to human but also human to other
forms of life”10

“The Qur’an, is clear that God is the ultimate holder of dominion over the creation (e.g.,
Sura 2:107, 5:120), and that all things return to Him (Sura 24:42) and are thus
accountable each in their own ways”11. Accountability and responsibility are
concepts embedded in the Islamic scriptures, which also gives special value to the
creation of God.

With respect to humankind’s stewardship of the earth, Islam agrees that this privilege
entails human beings with a profound responsibility, since creation is God’s power,
beneficence, wisdom and majesty; humans are called to respect it and take care of it.

“The Prophet Muhammad said that: “The earth has been created for me as a mosque
and as a means of purification.” So there is a sacrality to the earth which is a fit place for
human’s service of God, whether in formal ceremonies or in daily life”12.

9
Lily de Silva, “The Hills Wherein My Soul Delights,” in Buddhism and Ecology, Martine Batchelor and
Kerry Brown, eds. (London: Cassell, 1992).
10
Nancy Nash, “The Buddhist Perception of Nature Project,” in Buddhist Perspectives on the Ecocrisis,
Klas Sandell, ed., (Buddhist Publication Society, 1987).
11
Frederick Denny. Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust Inviting Balanced Stewardship. University of
Colorado.
12
Ibid. 2p.

6|P a g e
In Hinduism, creation is portrayed as part of God as it is well explained in the following
text. “The father of all creatures, Lord God, made the sky. From sky he made water,
and from water made fire (agni) and air (vayu). From fire and air, the earth (prthivi)
came into existence. Actually, mountains are his bones, earth is the flesh, sea is the
blood, and sky is his abdomen. The sun and moon are his eyes. The upper part of the
sky is his head, the earth is his feet, and directions are his hands (Mahabharata,
Moksadharma Parva, 182. 14-19)”13

The roots of Hinduism also reveal a clear unity between humanity and nature. In the
Ramayana (Ancient Sanskrit epic) the forest is a special place, where the seeker finds
enlightenment. It is a place inhabited by magical beings and a place of great beauty. It
describes fruits, plans, birds and other animals that show the importance of nature and
its relation to people’s spiritual life. In Hinduism not only forests have sacred
connotations but also rivers and gardens. However, most of the nature and flora and
fauna described in Ramayana are threatened. The solution to the environmental crisis
in India can find support in Hindu religious ethics and this can be the force to initiate
environmental projects in schools and nurture people’s moral responsibility towards
the environment. As it is pointed out by David Lee “The Ramayana and other epics
and scriptures can still be the means of teaching about natural history”14.

In fact, some progresses have already been made. “Hinduism has given rise to
numerous ecologically sound tenets. Rivers and their origins were declared sacred and
recycling has given importance”15 Another example of the influence of Hinduism in
decisions making is given by the Karnataka Forest Department in incorporating scriptural
references in support of its programs of reforestation.

Hinduism still has a long way to go in helping solve the environmental crisis in India and
South Asia. The adaptation of Hindu scriptures to the current reality can help bringing
awareness and promoting moral responsibility and respect to creation, as it is conceived
as a creative manifestation of the Divine.

Conclusion

Religious teachings and ethical values embedded in each faith tradition are sources of
wisdom to help solving the environmental crisis that the world faces today. There is a
need to reinterpret religious scriptures in ways that promote social transformation and
enhances moral attitudes towards the environment. The “dominion” concept that many
religions and people argue as the basis for dominating nature and other beings has been
disruptive and lacks ethical components. Instead it has become a destructive
dominion force that has impeded the development of a real moral responsibility
towards earth.

The need for developing a clear relation human-nature has to be embedded in the
understanding of a plausible interrelation with earth and with other humans. We all are
part of God’s creation and we are also part of God. We forget that all what is part of

13
Taken from Hinduism and Ecology. The Intersection of Earth, Sky and Water. Edited by Christopher
Key Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Oxford Press 2001. Dharmic Ecology. 5
14
David Lee. The Natural History of Ramayana. In Hinduism and Ecology. Ibid. 262 p.
15
Ibid.

7|P a g e
God’s creation deserves respect and calls us to be responsible in the way we relate to
those, independently if we have dominion over those or not.

World religions should be promoters of social transformation. They also should

promote their teachings emphasizing on the need for compassion to other beings,
respect to the nature, empathy with those who are victims of environmental
degradation and conflicts of power and most importantly empower people to enhance
their ability to respond to the needs of our world.

Bibliography

Alley, Kelly D. On the Banks of the Ganga: When Wastewater Meets a Sacred River,
University of Michigan press (2002)

Christopher Key Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Hinduism and Ecology. The
Intersection of Earth, Sky and Water. Oxford Press 2001.

Frederick Denny. Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust Inviting Balanced Stewardship.
University of Colorado.

Larry R. Rasmussen. Earth Community, Earth Ethics. WCC Publications Geneva.

1996.

Lily de Silva. The Hills Wherein My Soul Delight in Buddhism and Ecology, Martine
Batchelor and Kerry Brown, eds. (London: Cassell, 1992).

Nancy Nash, “The Buddhist Perception of Nature Project,” in Buddhist Perspectives on

the Ecocrisis, Klas Sandell, ed., (Buddhist Publication Society, 1987).

Michael Lerner, Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (New York:
Putnam, 1995),

Turner I.M. The Ecology of Trees in the Tropical Rain Forest. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge. 2001.

8|P a g e