Earth: a Gift from God Treated with No Respect

I don’t know about anyone else but why would you ruin a gift? To do that would show neither gratitude nor respect towards the gift-giver. Just think: they’ve taken the time, effort and money to get you something they think you’ll like and then you destroy it. It’s rude, if nothing else.

So when people say they have a right to do whatever they want with, and to, Earth because it was a gift from God, it frustrates me beyond belief. If you love and worship God so much, why would you ruin a gift from Him?

Besides, being given a gift isn’t synonymous with owning it. Someone may take you to the cinema or a restaurant but you don’t own these, or the rights to the films, or the recipes or crockery. The gift is the experience of being there, enjoying something that someone else has taken time and effort to produce.

Creating the universe and everything in it on any timescale would be a hefty, impressive task. Destroying a gift that had that much put in to it would be inconsiderate and rude. Surely doing so would be sacrilege?

Or maybe are these people claiming they own the Earth instead of God? That would be bringing humanity on the same level as divinity. If that were true, God wouldn’t be unique, breaking a fundamental concept in Abrahamic traditions.

Human actions are accelerating global warming. Animals and plants are becoming extinct because they can’t adapt fast enough. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more deadly. Even in my lifetime, the rate of deforestation and mining has completely ruined the beauty of Earth. Pollution, litter and oil spills are smothering the beaches and turning the oceans into cauldrons of acid.

You’re meant to look after and take care of the gifts you’re given. If you got a gift from your deity, surely you’d look after it with lifelong dedication? So saying that you can do what you want with the Earth because it’s a gift from God just doesn’t make sense. By virtue of Earth being a gift, you should treat it in the exact opposite way that you’re doing.

Thankfully this is a minority view but the consequences are still dire.