Anthropocentrism as an Ecological Fallacy: Philosophical and Theological Musings on Laudato Si

Abstract

We live in the midst of an ecological crisis. Mother Earth is like a ticking time bomb that will eventually explode if we do not take urgent and drastic measures to save her. We only have one planet, our common home.

The author posits that the cause of the environmental problems that we are experiencing is our anthropocentric mindset, where we think that the world is at our disposal. We harness, nay, exploit, our physical resources in the belief that we are being commanded to “subdue” the earth as mentioned in the book of Genesis of the Judaeo-Christian Bible. However, it is only a half-truth since the same Bible also tells us to “keep” the earth.

There are many well-meaning environmental thinkers who advocate ecocentrism which puts premium on the intrinsic worth and value of the whole of creation. Their ideas concur what the papal encyclical Laudato Si spells out in succinct terms about the decrepit state of our planet, the causes and effects especially on poor people and poor countries which are experiencing the brunt of climate change and global warming.

Being plagued by enormous problems on environmental degradation, the author calls into action the stakeholders of the educational institutions to come up with ways and means on how to cultivate ecological consciousness especially on the part of their students. After all, it is to them that we bequeath the world that we are living.