Olivia Strittmatter - Religion and Ecology

  Blog Post 14 - Outside Readings 5

Week 14

        This blog post is about an article that I found on the general topic of religion and ecology. I found this article when I was looking up some background information for my research paper. Religion and ecology as a combined subject is a relatively new area of study. It involves study from multiple different disciplines, such as religion, ecology, history, geography, politics, sociology, and anthropology. This area of study looks to find understanding for the interrelationships between humans, Earth, Cosmos, and the sacred.

Oftentimes, religion is thought to mainly involve the relationships between the sacred and humans. Religion also tries to focus on the social and ethical relationships among humans. When combined with ecology or environmental sciences it focuses on the interactions between humans and the surrounding environment, as well as the universe. They look at what makes humans thrive in relation to the environment. Personally, I think it’s that we’ve altered the environment to suit our needs which is what allows us to thrive, even if it’s at the expense of the ecosystems around us.

This area of study suggests that human interaction with the environment is a way for people to interact with the sacred. Interacting with the sacred through the environment is a major way the people interact with nature, and the larger surrounding Cosmos. One way that this is, is how many religions use the changing of the seasons to symbolically interact with the Earth and Cosmos. Using science, such as ecological changes, to create religious practices is a very beneficial way for people to interact with the sacred aspects of existence. This also is beneficial to human-human interactions, if you’ve noticed, people are often nicer and more helpful to each other around the winter holidays.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forest Bathing

  Homosapians had evolved in nature but had subsequently simultaneously diverged away from nature as modernization took place. Although the effects of evolution and urbanization have driven the species from its origin, natural spaces are still where humans are most comfortable. It has been scientifically proven that when humans spend time in nature, the brain behaves differently. It affects emotions and thoughts, which has a direct impact on immunity and healing powers. These inherent healing qualities natural systems provide are directly correlated to our neurological development and human biological ties to primates due to evolution. In the past several decades there have been many scientific studies that demonstrate the mechanisms behind the healing effects of nature immersion. Countries such as South Korea and Japan have funded extensive research for comprehending the beneficial contributions forest environments have on human mental, spiritual, and physical health. In order ...
Read more

Sabrina Ho--cities

     Many chapters in The Ecology of Eden  focused on this interplay between Mountain and Tower, and finding Arcadia in the middle of it all. A common theme in our class discussed the multiple ways we attempt to imitate true nature and wilderness in our cities' parks and backyards, but these attempts can never truly capture the boundless wilderness we may be seeking. A large part of our discussion is if it were ever possible to recreate true nature in city bounds, and--most interestingly--if that is the true intention for these parks and gardens.      Spending most of my life close to a fairly large city, as well as spending many school breaks visiting even larger cities, I found this to be really interesting. Especially in our capitalist society, it is not uncommon for someone to equate the increase in industrialization and urbanization of our land as an indication of progress and improved economy. But when city-roamers decide to take a break from the...
Read more

Danielle Hawkins- Mnt. of Spices

 After reading Hinds Feet, I picked up the sequel to read. The second book is also an allegory in that Much-Afraid who becomes Grace and Glory sees the gloom and disappear that her family is stuck in. She takes refuge with the shepherd and gets his help to show her family the fruit of the spirit which tenders their hearts to the shepherds care and they come into his service.  Before each chapter the shepherd takes Grace and Glory to 8 different mountains where the landscape was different and so beautiful on each one. As a reminder of this book and the impact it made on me, I recently got a tattoo of a lily to help remind me of the important things I learned. This book was interesting in how it had a more personal account with each individual character. It showed how each fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, forgiveness, self-control, gentleness, faithfulness, and goodness plays out and how it impacts each individual. This book would fit beautifully within the realm...
Read more