Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 13:1 (Apr 2016)
Article: Apologetics, Faith, And Science In Environmental Policy-Making
Author: Mary H. Korte

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Apologetics, Faith, And Science In Environmental Policy-Making

Mary H. Korte

Professor of Natural Sciences
Concordia University Wisconsin

Abstract: Environmental policy is often debated; however, the ethical basis for establishing policy is not commonly discussed. Whether under Republicans or Democrats, many Americans support some environmental policy-making. However, utilitarianism inadequately establishes ethics, and policy based on perceived utilitarian values is subject to fickle and transient politics. Unless an absolute ethic exists, a universal environmental ethic cannot be established; however, absolute ethics must be revealed by God, not through human reason. Christians in science should know how to defend the assertion that an absolute ethic has been revealed by God, and legal-evidential apologetics provides the best foundation for environmental ethics and policy-making.

Although science and Christianity may be seen as enemies, Christians have the opportunity to integrate apologetics with science in support of ethical environmental policy-making. Moreover, integration of faith and science is ultimately the only basis for developing, implementing, and enforcing universal environmental policies. A story illustrates the problem of attempting to establish environmental policy without faith. I once took several students to a Leopold Education Project workshop. The LEP’s mission is to develop ecologically literate students committed to Leopold’s land ethic. To begin, the facilitator asked how educators could teach children to care for nature. No one answered. Eventually, one of my students said she would ask students what they thought the God of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or any religion, wanted people to do. She suggested teachers could explain to children that their higher power would want them to care for nature so others could enjoy it. There was silence when she finished speaking. After a pause, the moderator said teachers cannot bring God into schools due to separation of church and state. The student asked, “If we can’t bring God into class, how can we teach children about morality, including environmental ethics?” The leader answered that in the interest of time we had to move on; however, Gould might have answered:

Homo sapiens also ranks as a ‘thing so small’ in a vast universe, a wildly improbable evolutionary event, and not the nub of universal purpose. Make of such a conclusion as you will. Some people find the prospect depressing. I have always regarded such a view of life as exhilarating—a source of both freedom and consequent moral responsibility. We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes—one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thr...

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