What’s More Important? at Susan Labandibar

What’s More Important?

I recently was asked: “What’s more important, people or the planet?” For me, the answer was obvious. Our beautiful planet, birthplace and cradle of all the known life in the universe, is more important than the wants and needs of humans, who have become the dominant species to the detriment of the rest of the natural world. But some say that in the celestial game of Pinochle that controls our destiny “People Trump Planet.”

Of course, with our current state of technology, no planet = no people. But that isn’t the point of the question. I would frame the issue as follows: “Is humankind just one life form on a planet teaming with many other living beings, from plankton to elephants? Or is our planet more like a petri dish, containing the ideal ecosystem to support the growth and evolution of mankind?”

What does the Bible say about the relationship of man to animals? While Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, God instructed them to eat fruit and vegetables, Genesis 1:29-30: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be food for you. And to the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.”

Subsequently, however, after Noah landed the ark, God gave Man dominion over the animals he had just saved: “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”

The Christian world view is that God has given Man mastery over the Earth, but that Man has obligations to that which God has created. He is charged with stewardship, not reckless use and destruction. For more on this subject, see Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully, former speechwriter to George W. Bush. (If only all Republicans equated conservatism with conservation the way he does!)

The Buddhist world view is very different. A central tenet of Buddhism concerns the Oneness of all things. It is the very separation of Man from the natural world that causes suffering. Buddhism seeks to reunite the internal with the external, the mind with matter, the spirit with the natural world. Every object, in Buddhism, has a buddha-nature. This is can be a rock, a teacup, or a plant. A false sense of duality causes man to believe that he can destroy these objects without harming himself.