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Thomas Hartmann April 7, 2014 “You gonna be here long? Religion and Sustainability”

Gottlieb, R. S. (2008). You gonna be here long? Religion and Sustainability. //Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture & Ecology//, //12//(2/3), 163–178. doi:10.1163/156853508X359967
 * 1.) Full Citation**

Roger S. Gottlieb works as a professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and went to school at Brandeis University in 1975 for his PhD. He’s focused most of his work on religious environmentalism, but has also written articles on ethics, the Holocaust, feminism and political philosophy. His works such as //A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and our Planet’s Future// are well respected and have been published in both academic journals and publications such as the //Boston Globe//.
 * 2.) Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials?**

Gottlieb, R. S. (n.d.). Gottlieb, Roger S. - WPI. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from []

Gottlieb’s main argument is that religion must be transformed in order to respond to environmental and sustainability problems such as pollution, climate change, and resource scarcity. Gottlieb describes how religions generally focus on the sustainability of the religion itself, but must now also address environmental sustainability in order to survive. Further, Gottlieb raises the question of what sustainability truly entails. He argues that this is a difficult question to answer because the earth itself is continuously changing and is not immortal. At some point, humans will not exist and the earth will be destroyed whether by the sun expanding into a red giant or by some other unknown threat. Gottlieb argues that religion must give a moral foundation for sustainability that addresses the fact that the earth will change at a certain rate and eventually be destroyed, regardless of humans.
 * 3.) What is the main topic or argument of the text?**

Gottlieb uses frogs to explain the difficulty in defining sustainability. On one hand, the pesticides, chemicals, pollution, and habitat disruption caused by humans is threatening the ability of frogs to survive. Frogs are being found with deformations such as missing or extra legs. On the other hand, Gottlieb argues that frogs, along with every form of life, will eventually go extinct. For example, dinosaurs, which ruled the earth tens and hundreds of millions of years ago, are not extinct. Gottlieb asks if it is right that humans cause a species to become extinct if it would have occurred naturally anyways.
 * 4.) Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out.**

Gottlieb also describes how capitalism and advertising in particular are causing us to believe wants are needs. He argues that religion is necessary to maintain this separation by giving value to reducing consumption, which is a major step towards sustainability.

Further, Gottlieb describes the potential that religion has to change people’s morals, values, attitudes, and behaviors. For example, sacrifice is an idea common to religion that can be used to reduce resource consumption by humans. However, Gottlieb argues that something must fundamentally be changed about religion because even very religious people are sucked into addiction of consumption and laziness.

Gottlieb describes the separation between attitude and behavior when he says, “We will //not// do everything we should; we will not sustain for as long as we could as much as we could. Along with the destabilizing forces of evolution, sustainability is limited because human beings are limited, because our addictive psychology, lust for power, fascination with technology and ease, and plain moral laziness leave us acting, let us say, far below an ideal moral standard.”
 * 5.) What three quotes capture the critical import of the text?**

Gottlieb argues that religion must make sustainability a primary concern when he says, “They cannot relegate ecological concern to a secondary status as it is now, but must take it at least as seriously as sexuality, poverty, war and peace, and tithing to the church. Actually, given the severity of the environmental crisis, it may be necessary to take environmental issues //more// seriously than these other issues.”

One of the questions that Gottlieb asks in trying to make sense of sustainability is, “Is the idea of sustainability, despite the good intentions which animate it, an expression of the same old human fear and lack of acceptance of death: of individual death which leads us to imagine a home in heaven for ourselves after earthly life, or of species death which leads us to imagine cultural death which leads us to imagine that our nation or religious group or ethnic bonds will last ‘forever’? All of these will surely not last even a fraction as long as the frog.”

This article describes religions role in our values, attitudes, and behaviors that are both obstacles and facilitators to sustainability and environmental protection. It gives multiple examples, such as the frog example, that are useful in explaining the complex relationship between religion and sustainability that involves dimensions such as society, culture, and economics.
 * 6.) Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus.**

I have used the example of whether it is morally right or wrong for humans to cause frogs to go extinct given the fact that they would eventually go extinct without human influence.
 * 7.) List at least two details or references from the text that you have used in your presentation and wiki post**.

I have also used Gottlieb’s argument that religions must get past what he describes as, “our addictive psychology, lust for power, fascination with technology and ease, and plain moral laziness.” Humans often do not do what should be done even though they know it is the right thing to do.