Human Dignity & Integrity of Creation

Yes you love travelling, but do you love Mother Nature herself as much?

The Human Dignity Complements the Integrity of Creation. The crisis in human dignity affects the integrity of creation as a whole. Our common home sends many alerting phenomena year after year. We have seen the worst of natural calamities and man-made calamities this period of this century than in any other. Strong unpredictable and destructive super typhoons have hit many nations regardless of preparedness, and leave unrelenting similar degree of destruction. The fiercest is typhoon Haian which hit the Philippines in 2013 and is said to be the strongest typhoon the world has ever seen.[1] Not to mention the deadliest earthquakes, landslides, forest fires, and sporadic extreme weather conditions across the Globe at the same time of the year. To this day, we continue to expect far worse than what we have had and thus forced to live in a new normal situations.

On the other hand, we hear news and see online pictures of the abuse of ecology, the abuse of its resources and abuse of the ecosystem. We see pictures of trash on our waters. 14 Billion pounds of garbage are thrown into the ocean every year.[2] We see the pollution of our air in many cities as population and industrialization grow rapidly. Along with these sights are realities of extinction of many of the animals. 100-1000 species[3] of animals and plants leave this world each year with no certainty of regaining them back. We also add into our list of abuses the destruction of the habitat of existing animals to pave way for human interests. This sad imagery has been fueled by human drive for progress, progress not for all human beings but only a few.

Concrete ecological crises are presented in the book of Celia Deane-Drummond entitled A Handbook in Theology and Ecology. Here she points out that overpopulation of the planet is the underlying problem which she says incommensurate with the capacity of the planet to contain us. As people increase in number, the demand for food also increase, and so is the waste. This number and scale would increase rapidly when we consider the number of people who work in the urban areas where demand for food, and waste disposal are enormous. Such scales of demands lead the industries to up their production.[4] Food gets produced fast at a massive scales with the help of related technologies. But how about wastes? Where do they go? Some are burned. Some dumped into dumpsites. Some go to oceans, polluting our oceans forever, and little amounts are recycled.

The growing scale of pollution both in water, air and continued deforestations have caused tremendous fall to creation, particularly on animals and plants -the creatures whose names and identities were given by human beings. Extinction of species in both animals and plants is alarming reality increasing at a fast and massive scale. Land degradation caused by polluting of lands to force it to produce beyond what it naturally does is haunting the quality of food we consume today. The rapid depletion of the earth’s natural resources in both energy and minerals makes everything expensive when in fact they were given to humanity for free. Climate change is continued to be felt at massive scales across the globe every day. The heating of the both poles by gas and Sulphur emissions, causes the massive glaciers to melt and thus increasing water levels in oceans and in turn submerging costal areas relentlessly.

In view of these above-mentioned environmental and ecological crises, we ask the question: Where is the human person, the crowning glory of creation, in all these? The integrity of creation and the dignity of the human person are intertwined and how they share the same fate in respective crises. It is God who has given the dignity and integrity to them respectively. They complement each other, in as much as the human person is the key in the preservation of the well-being of creation as his fundamental role stated in the book of Genesis.

Man’s fundamental ecological calling to have dominion over creation in Laudato Si.

Humanity is the crowning glory of creation. The role to dominate and subdue the earth belongs to every man and woman who inhabits the earth. Domination assumes an entirely different meaning, and this is as stewards and not brutal masters seeking only for utility. Pope Francis attributes this indifferent human attitude towards creation as the lack and failure of Christian anthropology which “gave rise to a wrong understanding of the relationship between human beings and the world.”[5] Humans have interpreted this lordship in human contexts of vassal-master relationship and not as engineers abiding creation for growth.

Laudato Si names this source of human-ecological crisis as technocracy. This is a paradigm wherein technologies or that which makes life and work for human beings easier becomes the focus and dominates human conscience. We can say at an extent that technocracy is the disguise to man’s crave for pleasure and avoidance of suffering in the modern sense. When technology dominates the world stage and the very lifestyle of each person to the extent that it has become a priority over other human relationships as well as to that of the ecology, it becomes enslaving.

However, it should be made clear that the Catholic social teaching is not up against technological advances. In fact, Pope John Paul II considers “science and technology are wonderful products of a God-given human creativity” in his address to Scientists and Representatives of the United Nations University in Hiroshima.[6] The church is not against the beauty of many discoveries and scientific leaps in the past. What the Church is keen on teaching against is that of the enslavement of human conscience by technocracy. As always, the Church warns the flock against enslavement to anything as in the economy, work and the goods. This is what catholic social teachings are for, they liberate the faithful from enslaving social structures.

Fr. Karl Peschke, SVD offers a wholistic framework of an ecological ethics, and includes all the above mentioned areas of ecological problems. In his book Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, he recognizes the inherent crisis on natural resources, technology enslavement, consumption in modern lifestyle, animal Extinction and Care, and environmental protection issues. He points out that “there can be no peace and well-being for man if he does not recognize and respect nature for what it is: the work of God’s wisdom and the presence of his goodness.”[7] Human beings, therefore, must see the world around him/her and must recognize outright that he/she is a part of a larger reality which is constituted by different dimensions of reality and life.

Pope Francis points the throw away culture as the source of problem inward in man and is fueled by consumerist mentality being offered to us today by business and politics. The current social set us with its technological marvels arouses the human person to get for himself instead of going beyond of himself. We are made to see our lives a s empty and sad, and compare ourselves to model humans primed by the world to embody its vanities. The result of consumerism is self-centeredness and individualism making the human person crave and greed for more. “The emptier the person’s heart is, the more he/she needs things to buy own and consume…Obsession with consumerist lifestyle above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction.”[8] The result of this greed and obsession makes the earth, our home, begin to look more and more like an “immense pile of filth”[9] that receives human trash of both material and spiritual trash.

Human Dignity is the primordial and ultimate principle for the understanding of the created world and its subsequent preservation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church 374 defines human beings in its established relationship with God and creation. The dignity of the Human Person comes from the very fact that he is the Imago Dei, -created in the image and likeness of God. (Gen 1:27). This dignity given to man enables a person for self-knowledge, self-possession and freedom. It also speaks of a person’s fundamental Christian identity as redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, Sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and destined for divine communion. The given role of man to dominate and subdue the earth is a result of God-given dignity.

In addition, the naming of things and of animals in the book of Genesis (cf Gen. 2:19-20) gives man and woman the responsibility to put identity to each creature, and at the same time provides the framework in which we could understand the created world and its creatures coexisting with humans. The dignity singularly given by God to humans to name things portrays (1) Man as Imago Dei sharing in the creative process of the world, (2) Man as God’s instrument in dignifying creatures, and (3) Man as the ultimate responsible for the preservation the integrity of creation. Thus, the modern ecological concerns and crises can only be addressed by modern man or woman for a better future both for himself/herself, and for a better relationship with the rest of the created world.

Integrity of Creation[10] Encompasses the Integrity of Man’s Living Conditions. When a person dignifies creation by responsible and rational utility of the resources of the earth, he/she in turn is dignified by creation in his/her living conditions and be engulfed in a universal communion where human existence and creation co-exist and complement each other. A clean environment, in our case free of pollutants, makes humans thrive healthily and aesthetically. When wastes are disposed properly, sickness and diseases could be avoided. When the land is respected and be given its due as required by God in the Book of Leviticus, it could bring back the normalcy once more in the form of organic farming, and produce healthy crops for all.

Putting back the integrity rightfully belonging to creation benefits not only the environment and environmental movements but all of humanity. When our common home is given the integrity it rightly deserves from the very start, it will serve the normal order and dignity rightfully belonging to humanity from the very start. “Climate change is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.[11] So is the case for all ecological well-being. A garbage-responsible society benefits all. A clean air, water and land is for every human being that breathes, drinks and eats.

One single transgression against ecosystem mobilizes a complex system of degradation of the whole creation including human quality of living. Whatever we do to violate ecology is an assured self and mutual destruction. Our response must be in kind and be based on ecological, political and historical proportions. Personal change of lifestyle is the very foundation of any remedy in ecological crises, but corporate political and global remedies would help prevent violations in the future. The global problem of Global warming must be mitigated globally. This would lay foundations for security and sustainability and even the basic global framework of collective ecological responsibility. Fortunately, such moves are already taking place spearheaded by superpower nations beginning in 2012 like the United States, China and Russia.[12]

With the proper understanding of the dignity of the human person, the integrity of creation is safeguarded. Pope Francis says: “Human beings too are creatures of this world, enjoying a right to life and happiness, and endowed with unique dignity. So we cannot fail to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture.”[13] This sacred relationship of humanity and ecology constitutes the fundamental relationship within creation.

In addition, equally important relationship is that of humanity and God. In this relationship, God has given human person the enshrined reminder to always desire for Himself who is the ultimate Good, -the conscience. The function of conscience is to direct human consciousness towards knowing and desiring the good. Hence, conscience is the syntherasis within human internality which enables the person to do good and avoid evil, to be a responsible sward and avoid irresponsible and irrational exploitation of the resources of our common home.

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CITATIONS:

[1] https://www.rappler.com/science-nature/43351-world-strongest-cyclones-history

[2]https://seastewards.org/projects/healthy-oceans-initiative/marine-debris-and-plastics/

[3] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140529-conservation-science-animals-species-endangered-extinction/

[4] Celia Deanne-Drummund, A Handbook in Theology (London: SCM Press, 1996), 1-13.

[5] Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, 2015, 79.

[6] Cited from Laudato Si, 69.

[7] Karl Peschke, Christian Ethics: Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II (Manila: Logos, 2001), 771.

[8] Laudato Si, 204.

[9] Laudato Si, 21.

[10] Integrity of Creation is the reasonable and responsible utility of the earth’s resources.

[11] Laudato Si 23.

[12] Michael Northcott, A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming (New York: Orbis Books, 2007), 132.

[13] Laudato Si, 43.