Do you think the Bible is hostile towards the environment? Discuss the following topics in your answer: Human domination, Partriarchal monotheism, Wilderness and the promise of land.
The Bible is either hostile or indifferent toward the environment. Genesis 1:28 and Psalm 8 make it clear that it is the duty of human beings to subdue the earth and rule over it. There is also the influence of the patriarchal monotheism which brought the perception of the wilderness as a place of death and the problems posed by the promise of the land to Abraham and his descendents in the Pentateuch. The absence of a biblical concept of nature and the lack of attention given to the earth in the wisdom literature were also reasons why the bible's view of the earth is not compatible with modern ecology. Therefore there should be a clear and careful distinguish between what the Bible describes and what it prescribes.
MOSE MASOE
MOSES MBYE
God the Father 26From other biblical studies like when 2 Samuel describes David's adultery with Bathsheba, it does not mean that it was encouraging such behaviour. Similarly when it is describing agricultural practices as Jesus does in the parable of the sower, it does not mean that Jesus was encouraging us to sow among the thorn bushes or on stony ground. Careful attention is needed not to draw normative principles from such descriptions. Nevertherless it is important to understand the world of the Bible if we are to appreciate correctly the thrust of its normative statements. So the writer thinks the Bible is not hostile towards the environment as she is going to explain below.
According to White, the main offending text in the Bible is Genesis 1:28, which states that man was created and instructed by God to "subdue" and "rule over" the natural world. This means...