[intro music] Welcome to World Ocean Radio… I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory. A 2010 demographic study of world religions by the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life, estimates that: “there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the world population of 6.9 billion. The demographic study – based on analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers – finds 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of that year. In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice various folk or traditional religions, including African, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions. An estimated 58 million people – slightly less than 1% of the global population – belong to other religions, including the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism…” The study also finds “that roughly one-in-six people around the globe (1.1 billion, or 16%) have no religious affiliation. This makes the unaffiliated the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world’s Catholic population. Surveys indicate that many of the unaffiliated hold some religious or spiritual beliefs (such as belief in God or a universal spirit) even though they do not identify with a particular faith.” Let’s assume that over the intervening years, these statistics have followed a general percentage increase in parallel to the increase of world population to 8 billion. It adds up to a complete global community dedicated to some doctrine and moral instruction that influences their values and actions and determines attitudes and behaviors. But that community seems today in traumatic turmoil: as opposites, and apostates, with political agendas, righteous certainties, territorial disputes, and conflicts of heart, mind, and hand. If community is defined as “fellowship with others,” the use of the word seems aspirational at best. And yet, in the context of religious commitment to the ocean and protection of the natural world, here is a selection of some doctrinal statements by leaders of the major religions worldwide that pertain: From the Quran: “Do the unbelievers not see the heavens and the earth were joined together, and we split them apart? And we made from water every living thing?” From Pope Francis’ 2015 Encyclical laudato sí: “Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures…When we speak of ‘environment’, what we really mean is a relationship existing between nature and the society that lives in it. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live.” And this from the Religious Partnership for the Environment, comprising the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches, the Coalition on Environment in Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network: “Throughout the Jewish and Christian scriptures, water is perhaps the pre-eminent symbol of life, both spiritual and physical. Abundant, pure water, so necessary for human survival and comfort, manifests divine mercy and healing and occasions gratitude and rejoicing.” From the Buddha: “Just as we know the ocean because it always tastes of salt, we can recognize enlightenment because it always tastes of freedom.” These statements lie at the core of doctrine and instruction to believers, but what of their practice? What of the commitment to these conjoined principles? What of the values expressed by actions: individual and collective? What of the ever-growing evidence of the failure of that central, ethical intention? What of the loss evident in our indifference to natural systems, shared resources, and undeniable consequence? Is this sin? Original sin? The final pollution of Eden? How, as believers, can we continue to not practice what has been preached, ignoring the teachings, avoiding the confessional, not accepting the responsibility, denying the accountability, and disinterest in the reparation or restoration or renewal? By abandoning the natural world, do we also abandon god? As Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Fundamentalists, other religionists, agnostics and atheists, perhaps it’s time to ask again these questions? There are answers, if we are prepared to embrace them. We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio. [outro music]
