There’s probably no God - or a vital place for faith?

As UK buses advertise ‘There’s probably no God’, environmentalists are realising the need for something greater than the market thinking that dominates our culture.

Last year the Environment Agency did a poll among 25 leading environmental figures asking them ‘What are the 50 things that really could save the planet?’ They listed the responses according to the most popular ideas. The results were surprising. The second most popular idea out of 50 was ‘It is time the world’s faith groups reminded us that we have a duty to restore and maintain the ecological balance of the planet’

The environmentalists said that faith groups ‘had been silent for too long’, that they needed ‘to form a coalition of followers that could set an example’ and that the whole society was in need of ‘a reverence for what is natural’. You can read the results of the poll here

More recently Tom Crompton of WWF has written a stinging criticism of current government strategies for promoting behaviour change. What the government has done is hire marketeers to segment the population into consumer groups and then target them with appropriate propaganda. The WWF report points out that working with people’s self-interest in this way will not produce the radical shifts in behaviour that we need. Instead we need a more fundamental transition, at the level of values and identity. 

Such fundamental shifts in perception of the world have traditionally been the fruit of good religion and might be interpreted as a call to a renewed, environmentally-sensitive faith. His report is called Weathercocks and Signposts and can be downloaded here

While all these concerned individuals see a vital role for faith and its fruit in today’s world, the buses proclaim ‘There probably is no God, now stop worrying and enjoy yourself.’ This sort of hedonism seems dangerously irrelevant in the face of the environmental crises that we face today.

Your comments.

I believe that the changes of lifestyle and aspirations necessary to reverse the effects of climate change can only come about by moral and civic committment to low-carbon principles.  Religions must take on this challenge, lend respectability to radical research findings, and urgently advocate personal change. 

My interest in Earth Abbey is threefold:

- I am a member of Emmanuel United Reformed Church Cambridge and concerned about the use of various sites and properties now under Emmanuel’s jursdiction.

- I am an architect specialising in low-carbon design with A C Architects Cambridge Ltd. My professional specialisation began with the Environmental Design M Phil programme at Cambridge University, and I now teach architecture for Oxford Brookes University.

- I have been committed to a low-energy, low-waste lifestyle since growing up in a like-minded family in the US: when I was 17 I organised a 2-week residential seminar for fellow Girl Scouts/Guides exploring pollution and world food resources, which was life-changing.

Hi welcome Margaret - you sound like an interesing addition to the community.

This stuff is really intersting to me because I have been trying to make the case the spirituality is essential to sustainability on an MSC I am doing - without much success so far

I completely agree that faith groups should be leading a fundamental change in our societies attitude and response to climate change.  As a christian I see it as a responsibility for the church to take a leading role.  We are in a remarkably privileged position to do this in many ways.

As a pointer to the previous commentator, if you are seeking spirituality in sustainability, or in other words, stewardship of this planet, then you could do worse than reading Jurgen Moltmann’s theology in this area (God in Creation: An Ecological Doctrine of Creation).

I wait with eagerness for the government to try to curb emissions by 80%+, but until that actually happens we will have to take matters into our own hands with our lifestyles.