Juliet Schor, A Plenitude Economy, and Ecology

This is a very interesting short piece on the relationship between our economy, consumption, and ecology. I think you might find it interesting.

Is Atheism a Religion?

I was on the bus the other day and I saw this advertisement:

This made me think back to the very early days of the semester when we were talking about what constituted a religion and whether or not some forms of atheism, in their adamant rejection of religion, had somehow become religions in themselves. One of the criteria for religion that we mentioned was that its seeks to gain new followers. This seems like a good example of that as regards at least one type of contemporary atheism, and so I thought that you might find it interesting. 

The Poetry of Rumi

As promised here are a few links to poems by Rumi that have been published on the internet for those of you who are interested:

http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/guest_house.htm

http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/contemp/rumibarks/

And this link is to Coleman Barks' web page. He is the primary English language translator of Rumi's work.

Whirling Dervishes

Today in class I mentioned the whirling dervishes of Sufism. You can see them here:

Especially, notice that though this combines movement and music it is not a dance as such. Notice their faces. This is a type of meditation.

In India, Spreading A Green Gospel Among Pilgrims from NPR

I heard this story on NPR this morning and I thought you might be interested because it is exactly the kinds of things that we talk about in class. No one is writing a paper on the Sikhs this term, but this is still interesting. Take five minutes and listen to this story.

Richard C. Foltz “Islam”

Foltz begins his essay saying, "it would seem that the adoption of a caring and non-exploitative eithic toward the environment by Muslims would presuppose the existence in Islamic tradition of principles which accord value to the natural world."

For all 1.2 billion muslims in the world to actually associate an environmental principle in their religion, Foltz says it must be something from Sharia law. While not all rules of Sharia are followed by all Muslims, it is the general ethical code for the religion, and, therefore, would contain an environmental guideline if there was one. This is why contemporary Islamic environmentalists are using the Qur'an as a direct resource to support ecological issues while not presenting nature as a 'false idol'.

It is up to the specific Muslim, based on different Qur'anic concepts (tawhid) if they choose to believe that all of God's creations, animate or not, are holy or if, through God's eyes, the religion is completely anthropocentric. In the environmentalists defense, the Qur'an contains accounts from the Prophet Muhammad that "emphasize compassion toward nonhuman animals." There are also judgements "against those who despoil the earth."

These are, after all, ancient texts. To appeal to all Muslims of dynamic beliefs today, Islamic scholars must modernize these ideas to create support toward the environment. For example, one scholar stressed a prohibition of relieving oneself anywhere near a water source because it polluted water and, eventually and against Sharia law, harms humans.

Renewal

I found this movie linked on NPR's website. I found the trailer interesting-- it shows how different religions are participating in environmental activism. This is the little blurb the website provides about the movie:

RENEWAL is the first feature-length documentary film to capture the vitality and diversity of today's religious-environmental activists. From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions, Americans are becoming caretakers of the Earth. With great courage, these women, men and children are re-examining what it means to be human and how we live on this planet. Their stories of combating global warming and the devastation of mountaintop removal, of promoting food security, environmental justice, recycling, land preservation, and of teaching love and respect for life on Earth are the heart of RENEWAL.


You can watch the trailer here http://www.renewalproject.net/