Verdict: Genesis not Guilty

Lynn White boldly faults Genesis for contributing to environmental strains placed on current society. Lynn states that through God’s action of giving man the power to name the animals of the earth and to act as “Masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of the heaven and all living things” allows humans to be ignorant to all living things besides themselves. All organisms have a niche in this world. Thus all organisms impact the environment, some on a greater scale than others. Furthermore, all organisms survive for the sole purpose of species preservation. For that reason, all organisms would fully exploit their environment given the opportunity (the absences of checks and balances employed by food chains). It just so happens that humans have been able to manipulate the environment to maximize food production for the population while also managing water systems to provide clean water to most families worldwide. As I will speak for myself and most likely many others, we do not go around, see a tree and say “Well I am master of this tree so I’m going to chop it down because God says I can.” No one would do that, unless they wanted to use the tree for timber. Lynn’s interpretation implies just that. The fact behind current environmental problems can be linked to ignorance but not the same ignorance which White spoke of. The fault here is that humans do not know everything about animals, making us less than masters of these animals. The master that God spoke of is one of conservation that knows the feeding patterns and internal workings of all of his creatures and the planet. Only once humans have met these demands of becoming master of all living things, can humans begin to conserve this planet and its species.