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Hayrullah DiNDAR SECOND ESSAY
20301219 Third DRAFT
ECOCENTRİSM
One of the biggest problems in twentieth century is the conflict between humanity and nature. The problem began in the seventeenth century with so-called Industrial Revolution in Europe. At the very beginning mass production was considered as an event, which would end poor and hard days of humans. But it was only a matter of time for the ecological problems to show up. Lots of species faced the danger of extinction, too many trees were cut down, and so nature was corrupted. After humans’ unstoppable and greedy actions hurt the balance of nature in a way that nature couldn’t prevent (particularly in the nineteenth century) it came out that also humanity was in danger. Because of the greenhouse effect temperatures began to rise up, especially in big cities pollutions became a very big problem. At that point scientists and sociologists started to work on finding solutions to all that problems. I will argue that the best solution to the problem is ecocentrism (meaning values centre on ecology) because of three simple reasons: it has common value among people from different beliefs, it offers a new spirit to unite humanity and nature which coincides with our scientific knowledge and the last but not the least important reason is that it can become a mistake free system with a few number of revisions.
Firstly as all creatures need Earth as a life center, the certain value of our belief-system should be Ecosphere. Life is one of the most valuable concepts whether one believes in the theory of Creation or the theory of Evolution. For those who believe in the theory of Creation, for example Yunus Emre tells this fact with his famous words “Like all creatures because of their creator”. For other religions such as cosmic religions, ecocentrism is the religion itself.” Cosmic religion sacralizes nature and is definitely ecocentric.” says Sun Soon-Hwa of the Presbyterian Church of Korea. (Sun Soon-Hwa) Then, for those who believe in the theory of Evolution, all life forms are precious because they are results of long evolution process. As one can see, life is precious for all of us and should be protected at all costs.
Although people believing in anthropocentrism idea argue that historic religions (Islam, Christianity etc.) are anthropocentric, they are wrong because these religions still contain ecocentric elements. It is not true to point at religion as the reason to all today's ecological crisis. It is clear that without rescuing the religious meaning of nature, these religions themselves will be in danger. People will become more and more anthropocentric, and they will lose their respect to both nature and God. God is in every part of our lives when we realize the perfect creation process all around us. If people start to disrespect the creatures that live in nature, they will become alien to God and to nature, with no hope of uniting again. I think this problem is due to the misunderstandings of people about religion. For example one can easily say that in Quran it is told that God created the universe and each and every thing in it just to serve humanity. Furthermore in holy words of the prophet, God says he wouldn’t create the universe if Prophet Mohammed didn’t exist, which seems very anthropocentric. (Keşfu'li Hafa and Menzili'l-Bas, 45) But Islam also tells that people are sent to earth to perfection of spirit for becoming ready to go to heaven and so on, not for disturbing the balance of nature just for the purpose of living a more comfortable life. Today’s anthropocentric idea is very egocentric where in contrast it is well known that Prophet Mohammed slept on a carpet, although he could have lived in a palace, just to fight his ego. As one can see the reason for considering Islam as anthropocentric is basically misunderstanding of certain topics.
Then, for those who believe in Christianity, in the Bible God tells, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis12.3) According to Jill Schaeffer of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the modern age is going through an ecological crisis which forces us into an urgent search for God's will about creation in Bible. She strongly argues that what is to be done to stop the worsening and to go back to wholeness and health, begins with breaking the silence by crying out. What is more she tells that concern for nature is consistent with the concern for humanity and without concerning for nature we won’t be able to find a way out of “the economics of scarcity”. (Schaeffer) More examples showing the existence of ecocentric ideas in religions can easily be given. How on earth one can claim that religion is anthropocentric?
Secondly ecocentrism offers a new spirit to unite humanity and nature, which coincides with our scientific knowledge. To understand the importance of such a spirit, I personally recommend you to also read my essay ’nature and nurture’ in which you can find the very grounds of the topic and have a better understanding of the importance of such a spirit. As one can see in that essay, I personally think the solution to all the problems between humanity and nature is to unlearn the wrong knowledge, which we are taught by nurture. We learn how to be greedy because we are told that one always has to be the best, furthermore anything can be done for the purpose of becoming the best. As our minds are full of such mistaken beliefs we have to get help from people that are not corrupted with such ideas. According to J. Stan Rowe, Professor of Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) offers useful lessons for humanity and with the help of the indigenous people we can be able to find the solution. He strongly argues that we cannot live in the way of Indigenous Cultures because we are alien to their beliefs. So we have to find a new belief-system coinciding with our scientific knowledge. Ecocentrism is a new hope for humanity to unite with each other and also with nature. The research on tribal people enlightened the fact that the reason making them able to live in cooperation is their belief-systems. As we need to cooperate with each other like them, it would be very useful to use the same belief-systems but at this point appears a new problem. Roughly speaking we are far away from being able to copy the same life style because our scientific knowledge about world obstructs us from doing so. The only we can do at this point is to establish our own, science-supported, belief system which is indeed what Rowe exactly tries to tell with his notes. ”Many of us accept and support much of what tribal peoples do in the name of their cultures, admiring and perhaps imitating through Voluntary Simplicity parts of their sustainable life styles… To switch Western culture from its present track to a saving ecopolitical route means finding a new and compelling belief-system to redirect our way-of-living. It must be a vital outgrowth from our science based culture.”(Rowe)
Finally ecocentrism, with small modifications, can become a perfect ideology for both humanity and other creatures. I think the most important problem about ecocentrism is that ecocentrists consider the ecosystem as the most important thing but they consider humans as if they were valueless. This results in a big contradiction with the fact that humans are also a part of the ecosystem. The very reason behind this problem is that ecocentrists are very angry with people that are destroying the world so that sometimes they become radical. To avoid such problems ecocentrists have to tell what they want clearly on media so that society will think better of ecocentrism. According to Brian H. Baxter, an expert on environmental and political theory at politics department of University of Dundee, this means that ecocentrism has to be abandoned in its pure form and become a more moderate ideology. (Baxter)
As one can see, ecological problems are a big issue that must be solved immediately, because it threatens the future of all creatures including mankind. Furthermore ecocentrism is the best possible way of approaching this problem because it has common sense for the society, which can be used efficiently by just building bridges to different religions. What is more ecocentrism offers a spirit to unite all creatures and earth, in a way supported by science. And the last but not the least important reason that makes ecocentrism the best way to make world a better place to live is that it can be a perfect system with slight modifications.
WORKS CITED
ü Baxter, Brian H. Ecocentrism and Persons. Environmental Values 5(1996): 205-219. Available on Internet:
ü Extracted from the aide-mémoire of the consultation edited by Jill Schaeffer of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
ü Genesis 12.3. Bible
ü Keşfu'li Hafa and Menzili'l-Bas. Volume: 1
ü Rowe, J. Stan. Paul Amiel Stewart. Being Human, Ecocentrism and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
ü Sun Soon-Hwa. Human rights in the ecological context. Available on Internet:
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