| Written by Philip Hughes, this paper explores the relationship between attitudes towards the environment and Christian belief among Australians. It uses data from the 1994 National Social Science Survey.
Statistically, it would appear that religious beliefs and practices make very little difference in themselves to attitudes and actions about the environment. Upon deeper analysis, however, it is apparent that religious beliefs and practices make a considerable difference, but Christian traditions work in a variety of ways. While respect for God as creator does mean respect for creation, this translates into action in different ways for different people. For some it means that creation is there for human use, while for others it means respect for the inherent spirituality of nature. For some it means leaving the environment alone, while for others it means management for human purposes.
The study looks at the implications of this particular example for the dynamic relationship between religious beliefs and values in general. People do not simply develop their values as local deductions from their beliefs. Rather, they come to affirm a variety of different beliefs and from different sources, and the process of working out how these beliefs and values should relate to each other is, for many, a life-long quest.
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24 A4 pages. Available from the CRA.
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