Responding to the atheistic critique

1. Responding to the atheistic critique Case study – Christians and the environment

2. Imagine the future ….

3. ‘Imagine a future of relentless storms and floods; islands and heavily inhabited coastal regions inundated by rising sea levels; fertile soils rendered barren by drought and the desert's advance; mass migrations of environmental refugees; and armed conflicts over water and other precious natural resources.’ Kofi Annan, 26 August 2002, Time Magazine

4. ‘As forests have been felled and aquifers drawn down; as the atmosphere has filled with toxins and the oceans have been fished to exhaustion; and as the climate itself has begun to talk back, holding up a mirror to our profligate ways, the world has seen the dangers of business as usual.’ Kofi Annan, 26 August 2002, Time Magazine

6. Permission to exploit ? "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." Genesis 1: 26

7. The Historical Roots ofOur Ecologic Crisis, Lynn White, Jr. ‘Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt’ for the ecological crisis. ‘Man named all the animals, thus establishing his dominance over them. God planned all of this explicitly for man's benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man's purposes. And, although man's body is made of clay, he is not simply part of nature: he is made in God's image.’

8. ‘Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.’ Genesis 2: 15   The Hebrew word upon which the translation of keep is based is the word shamarwhich means a loving, caring, sustaining keeping

9. Isle of Harris Super quarry 'Do we have God's mandate to inflict on Creation a scar of this magnitude that might detract from Creation's ability to reflect the glory of God?' Rev. Prof. Donald Macleod

10. ‘The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,’ Psalm 24:1 ‘you are my tenants.’ Leviticus 25:23

11. ‘5 ‘For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove’. Exodus 23:10-11

12. ‘If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.’ Deuteronomy 22:6

13. ‘A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal.’ Proverbs 12:10 

15. ‘ When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien.’ Leviticus 19: 9-10

17. ‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?’ Matthew 6:26 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. Matthew 10: 29.

18. Broken relationships with God, man /woman and with the earth

19. Ever since that moment our consumption has been getting us into trouble.’ James Jones

20. Creation Groaning We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8: 22

21. The land mourns There is no faithfulness, no love,  no acknowledgment of God in the land. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying. Hosea 4:1-3

22. The Tenants in the Vineyard He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.' "But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? Mark 12:1-12

23. Christ Sustainer

24. Basic Ecological Principles of the Bible • 1. Earthkeeping - sustain and keep Creation with all its dynamic integrity and fullness NOT arrogant dominion and consumption • 2. Fruitfulness (bal taschit) –the fruitfulness of creation is to be enjoyed but not destroyed NOT indifferent exploitation • 3. Restoration/sabbath - provide for adequate time for recovery and rest of creation. NOTContinuous overuse • Calvin De Wit

25. The atheist • White’s thesis based on flawed historical methodology • White, Attenborough misinterpret the Bible and read passages selectively and superficially • Inconsistencies in their own positions especially in area of values.

26. The Future Matthew 24: 29 Immediately after the distress of those days   'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;  the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 2 Peter 3:12 That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 2 Peter 3:13 we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth.(kainos not neos) Romans 8:19-21  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope thatthe creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

27. The Ladder of Abstraction for Application of the Jubilee Land laws Today Ladder A Ladder B Justice in economic life All economic assets should be redistributed All property should be redistributed All land should be redistributed Jubilee land laws • Relationships Matter • The extended family should meet regularly • There should be a family-land link • All families should own land • Jubilee land laws Michael Schluter, Jubilee institutional norms www.jubilee-centre.org/resources

28. Psalm 104: 10-23 14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,        and plants for man to cultivate—        bringing forth food from the earth:  15 wine that gladdens the heart of man,        oil to make his face shine,        and bread that sustains his heart.  16 The trees of the LORD are well watered,        the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.  17 There the birds make their nests;        the stork has its home in the pine trees.  18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;        the crags are a refuge for the coneys. [b]  19 The moon marks off the seasons,        and the sun knows when to go down. 20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,        and all the beasts of the forest prowl.  21 The lions roar for their prey        and seek their food from God.

29. Psalm 147: 15 He sends his command to the earth;        his word runs swiftly.  16 He spreads the snow like wool        and scatters the frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.        Who can withstand his icy blast?  18 He sends his word and melts them;        he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

30. Psalm 96 11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;   let the sea resound, and all that is in it; 12 let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.  Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; 13 they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,   he comes to judge the earth.   He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.