In this coursework I am going to explore what different Christians believe in regard to creation and the environment and how they act on those beliefs.

There are other quotes in the bible that suggest that in God's eyes humans are more important than the rest of creation;

'But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows' Luke 12:7

This quote from the book of Luke says that sparrows are of less worth than humans but god still however loves every single sparrow.

'Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.' Luke 12:6

So although god loves every part of his creation humanity is the most important to God. The Church of England's view on the human position in creation is that;

'The dominion given to human beings over the natural order is that of stewards who have to render an account'

Part of the motion carried from the Lichfield Diocese by the General Synod

July, 1992.

This quote means that humans cannot do what they want with God's creation because we 'have to render an account', in other words we have to justify our actions because we are all answerable to god. Many Christians believe that since creation and humanity are interdependent (they rely on each other) we must care for it, not just for the sake of doing our duty to god but also for our own sake since without the rest of creation we cannot exist .It is positive for us to do our duty to God.

In short, most Christians believe similar ideas about our relationship with God's creation, we must care for it, and it is our duty to God, as stewards not to exploit it, this is also to our advantage because we have to use the world's resources in order to survive. There are many variations in the way different Christians act on these beliefs; this is what I am going to investigate in the next section of this coursework.

As we can see from the previous section, Different Christians share similar beliefs about our position in regard to God's creation they do however, have several different views about what we should do to protect it or even whether we should do anything. One way Christians could interpret the bible and act towards their beliefs, would be to say that since god made the earth for us and we were given "Dominion" (or power) over the earth and its resources we can use them how we like. Therefore taking care of the environment is not a compulsory action and it is not very important that we try to stop its destruction. Another view is that since they believe that, according to the bible we are going to have another life with God in heaven, after our lives on earth; we are just passing through this world, caring for this earth and this creation is an irrelevant and pointless task. The view that the different branches of the Christian faith are now trying to promote is that we must actively care for the earth. The different denominations of Christianity envisage different ways of doing this.

The Church of England encourages people to take these general steps to try to preserve and protect the environment:

* to take all possible steps, both nationally and internationally, to establish a just and economical use of the earth's energy resources, and to minimise the impact of consequential environmental pollution;

* to take positive steps to curtail damage to flora and fauna by human activities in this country, and seek to extend such restraint elsewhere in the world;

* to consider what contribution it can make to the encouragement of the stabilising of the world's population so that human beings can live in sustainable harmony with the rest of the natural order and flourish without want;

Part of the motion carried from the Lichfield Diocese by the General Synod

July, 1992.

The Orthodox Church beliefs tend to be of a more down to earth manner, working more locally to changing the views of the people of its church.

* Initiating programs of Christian environmental education at all levels.

* Involvement by parishes in local initiatives, such as organizing recycling programs, conserving energy in buildings, and encouraging less use of the car.

* Holding educational gatherings covering fields from theology to environmental sciences, in order to aid the Church in further practical involvement in environmental and bioethical issues. These should involve Church members and non-Orthodox experts in scientific and ecological fields.

* Mobilizing Orthodox young people to initiate projects of environmental action.

From an inter-Orthodox conference on protection of the environment- was convened in Crete in November 1991

Many churches take an active roll in preserving the environment on a local level; they do this by collecting foil, paper and other recyclable goods to be recycled. Many other churches take a less active roll, instead they collect money for the various charities which raise money to preserve the environment on a more national or international level by. Because, however many Christians believe that human life is sacred the many Christian charities are based on making the lives of disadvantaged humans better rather than improving the whole of creation.

Here is an example of just such a Christian charity which helps to protect the environment:

cafod (Catholic agency for overseas development) believe in,

Integrity of Creation

we recognise the intimate relationship between protecting and sustaining the environment and promoting human development and we seek to take proper account of ecological sustainability in our work.

Taken from the cafod web site (http://www.cafod.org.uk/)