{"id":6562,"date":"2008-01-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2008\/01\/28\/hinduism-a-de-facto-supporter-of-ecology\/"},"modified":"2008-01-28T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T12:00:00","slug":"hinduism-a-de-facto-supporter-of-ecology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2008\/01\/28\/hinduism-a-de-facto-supporter-of-ecology\/","title":{"rendered":"Hinduism A De Facto Supporter of Ecology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2008\/WORLD\/asiapcf\/01\/27\/eco.about.religion\/\">edition.cnn.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">NEW YORK, USA, January 27, 2008: Whether we are actively religious or not, religious belief permeates the very fabric of our existence. Namely, it influences our legal systems; and therefore our constitutions; and therefore our nations&#8217; policy choices, both at home and abroad. It also shapes role with regards to protecting the environment. <\/p>\n<p>American thinker Lynn White wrote, &#8221; Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny &#8212; that is, by religion.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>Hinduism is an immensely complex and diverse religion, based on an all-pervasive Divinity, karma and moksha. At its core is living a simple life and shunning the myth of happiness through material gain. &#8220;Hindu religion wants its followers to live a simple life &#8230; People are meant to learn to enjoy spiritual happiness, so that to derive a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, they need not run after material pleasures and disturb nature&#8217;s checks and balances,&#8221; writes Ranchor Prime for the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Hinduism appears to be a de facto supporter of renewable fuels, such is its adherence to sustaining the natural order of things. Hindus are instructed not to &#8220;use anything belonging to nature, such as oil, coal, or forest, at a greater rate than you can replenish it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The western, Abrahamic view differs from the Dharmic faiths. &#8220;Christianity,&#8221; wrote White, &#8220;Not only established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God&#8217;s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends.&#8221; The emergence of Christianity, many, like White believe, marked the moment humans broke away from previously common held beliefs that all beings, all forms of life &#8212; including plants &#8212; had spirits (or souls). &#8220;In Antiquity every tree, every spring, every stream, every hill had its guardian spirit,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;By destroying pagan animism,&#8221; White wrote. &#8220;Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>edition.cnn.com NEW YORK, USA, January 27, 2008: Whether we are actively religious or not, religious belief permeates the very fabric,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}