Our current attitudes towards prostitution are due to social pressures going back millennia regarding sexuality. Few people acknowledge the role that social control plays in determining our attitudes towards prostitution.
Prostitution only became an unsavory profession because of the lies about them made up by religious zealots as a means of social control. However, prostitution used to be a religious function of temple priestesses for the cult of Astarte. Thus, religion used to be the mother of prostitution.
Indeed, the religious zealots' defamation of prostitution was done to control female sexuality. Once religion and prostitution were in bed together, now monotheistic pressure has separated them.
Today's religious zealots also borrowed the idea of marriage and virginity from pagan Roman practice. Prior to marriage, the ancient Roman bachelor party sometimes consisted of deflowering the wife to be by the husband's male friends, which may be related to the Astarte cult.
Hence, the decadent orgies of today's hedonism are merely revivals of old-time religion popular before the "heresies" called Christianity, Islam and Orthodox Judaism arose.
That which is secular is subtly pagan. That which is pagan has been adapted to monotheism.
Today, few prostitutes know of the religious origins of prostitution due to centuries of historical repression.
Perhaps sacred prostitution was all a metaphor for hedonism made holy.
In any case, prostitution is a complex issue which is viewed by civil authorities as a social problem with medical risks such as sexually transmitted diseases in these post-modern times.
This is why most countries will keep prostitution illegal, and thus control sexuality as a commodity.
Originally posted: June 4, 2007 10/00 PM
Prostitution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_prostitution
Sacred prostitution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_prostitution
Astarte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte
Canadian justice minister rules out legalization:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/01/20/peter_mackay_rules_out_legalization_municipal_regulation_of_prostitution.html
Showing posts with label paganism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paganism. Show all posts
20140107
Buddhism as Non-Religion (satire)
Buddhist practice centres around meditation, and as such, is not concerned with good and evil, apart from following simple precepts which have service to others as their inspiration.
This is in stark contrast from the fanatical forms of other religions, which sometimes claim to be on the side of the ages-old religious battle between good and evil. Whether this person roots for good while that person roots for evil, good and evil is but a form of dualism. At the root of this dualism is the Western logic of "one is either good or evil; anything less than this is evil", which condemns people who see life not as either good or evil but in terms of shades of grey as being wishy-washy or, much worse, considers them to be evil.
With neo-Pagans being at odds with Christians, in popular culture they have been demonized in Hollywood, and supposedly has influenced the rise of satanic cults and counterculture fashion trends such as Goth.
However, neo-Paganism is not Satanism, nor are the deaths and ritual sacrifices done in Satan's name truly Satanic, being committed by people who may have been drug users rendered psychotic through such use.
Nor has paganism influenced Goth fashions. Rather, the reality of high school has left a few teenagers with a healthy dose of rebellion. Besides, wearing black is a powerful antidepressant.
In contrast, American Satanism, is at heart a disguised cult of ego which incorporates parts of Ayn Rand's philosophy regarding the ego combined with mantras using a dead language for theatric effect.
Thus, Satanism is not about ritual sacrifice, despite what the Catholics claim in their anti-Satanic propaganda, much of which makes up the themes of many movies (The Exorcist and its copycats).
In contrast, Neo-Pagans tend to be anti-Christian yet their practice is still within the Christian domain in that few few see the need to study deeply Buddhism of any form.
Because Buddhism teaches that good and evil are relative, and that Asian culture as a rule tends to follow a form of ethics dependent on the situation one finds oneself in (situational ethics), much of it is anathema to a strict following of the Wiccan rule to "do what you will as long as it harms none".
Buddhism itself does not teach this: instead, it explains how the mind works, and gives the one tool to control it: meditation. More than a way of perfecting oneself, the Buddhist precepts serve as a guide to help settle mental unrest. Indeed, Buddhism encourages each of us to be of service to others. While it does expect its adherents to battle evil and side with good, Buddhism does so subtly. Additionally, there is no millennialism in Buddhism.
So at its root, Buddhism provides a mind tool (meditation) used to control one's mind through non-coercive means. No one is forced to meditate, yet its use is generally encouraged only when the novice Buddhist is ready.
Yet meditation itself is useful to all religions because the more one practices meditation, the more one realizes Buddhism to be a non-religion.
When religious people of all faiths reflect on their favorite book in their holy books, and then are inspired to become caring and loving people by treating other people with compassion, I feel that they have meditated on loving-kindness.
It may be called another name, but meditation is the precious gift that helps to transform people lost in their own worlds into caring and compassionate people.
Originally posted: June 21, 2010 03:02 PM
Reference:
Grey in popular culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey#In_popular_culture
The Greyness of Living: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2010/06/greyness-of-living-thoughts-on.html
This is in stark contrast from the fanatical forms of other religions, which sometimes claim to be on the side of the ages-old religious battle between good and evil. Whether this person roots for good while that person roots for evil, good and evil is but a form of dualism. At the root of this dualism is the Western logic of "one is either good or evil; anything less than this is evil", which condemns people who see life not as either good or evil but in terms of shades of grey as being wishy-washy or, much worse, considers them to be evil.
With neo-Pagans being at odds with Christians, in popular culture they have been demonized in Hollywood, and supposedly has influenced the rise of satanic cults and counterculture fashion trends such as Goth.
However, neo-Paganism is not Satanism, nor are the deaths and ritual sacrifices done in Satan's name truly Satanic, being committed by people who may have been drug users rendered psychotic through such use.
Nor has paganism influenced Goth fashions. Rather, the reality of high school has left a few teenagers with a healthy dose of rebellion. Besides, wearing black is a powerful antidepressant.
In contrast, American Satanism, is at heart a disguised cult of ego which incorporates parts of Ayn Rand's philosophy regarding the ego combined with mantras using a dead language for theatric effect.
Thus, Satanism is not about ritual sacrifice, despite what the Catholics claim in their anti-Satanic propaganda, much of which makes up the themes of many movies (The Exorcist and its copycats).
In contrast, Neo-Pagans tend to be anti-Christian yet their practice is still within the Christian domain in that few few see the need to study deeply Buddhism of any form.
Because Buddhism teaches that good and evil are relative, and that Asian culture as a rule tends to follow a form of ethics dependent on the situation one finds oneself in (situational ethics), much of it is anathema to a strict following of the Wiccan rule to "do what you will as long as it harms none".
Buddhism itself does not teach this: instead, it explains how the mind works, and gives the one tool to control it: meditation. More than a way of perfecting oneself, the Buddhist precepts serve as a guide to help settle mental unrest. Indeed, Buddhism encourages each of us to be of service to others. While it does expect its adherents to battle evil and side with good, Buddhism does so subtly. Additionally, there is no millennialism in Buddhism.
So at its root, Buddhism provides a mind tool (meditation) used to control one's mind through non-coercive means. No one is forced to meditate, yet its use is generally encouraged only when the novice Buddhist is ready.
Yet meditation itself is useful to all religions because the more one practices meditation, the more one realizes Buddhism to be a non-religion.
When religious people of all faiths reflect on their favorite book in their holy books, and then are inspired to become caring and loving people by treating other people with compassion, I feel that they have meditated on loving-kindness.
It may be called another name, but meditation is the precious gift that helps to transform people lost in their own worlds into caring and compassionate people.
Originally posted: June 21, 2010 03:02 PM
Reference:
Grey in popular culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey#In_popular_culture
The Greyness of Living: http://gandhara.blogspot.com/2010/06/greyness-of-living-thoughts-on.html
20131223
Further Thoughts on Good and Evil
For the record, I refuse to believe the devil or satan or whoever you call this dark angel, created by God represents evil. In my eyes, even the devil's original nature is good.
For God is actually the creator of good and evil. Check the Old Testament.
As well, neither the devil nor satan actually are mentioned to in the New Testament except as statement made by Jesus and others e.g. "Satan get behind me" which implies an internal moral struggle to control egoistic impulses with respect to power and control that Satan promised if Jesus were to exercise his divine powers to control others and become "King of the Jews".
Ergo, this duality of God as representative of Good and the devil as representative of Evil is neo-Platonian and thus was influenced Christian doctrine to the point of becoming dogma. The sames goes for the concept of an immortal soul, which has almost become a doctrine which is non-Biblical.
As well, Good and Evil never existed before human existence. Rather, good and evil are concepts thought up by men, and this includes the thought of good and evil existing before man's existence. Thus, I am sympathetic to the Jewish God.
Perhaps the real reason for Jesus was God's way of making up for all the violence he either meted on humanity or got his followers to mete on other people. However, I refuse to be a martyr for Christ.
As a Buddhist, I object to the violence done in the name of Jesus. This includes child abuse done in the name of Jesus, which is not Christian.
For any fundamentalist Christian parents who subject their children to violence in the name of their God, but call it discipline do not know what discipline actually means. Indeed, discipline done in anger too is violence.
Hopefully from this little rant of mine you can understand that a parent who disciplines their child in anger is not doing God a favor.
What has this to do with good and evil? Well, I tend to believe that a person is capable of great evil yet also of great good.
Even so, I also believe that if a person who is good shall become a good person, so too may a bad man, once he turns over to the cause of good, be it as a Christian, Jew, or Muslim, as well as a Buddhist, a Hindu, a pagan, a Wiccan, or even a La Vey Satanist.
Originally posted December 20, 2012 at 0310H
For God is actually the creator of good and evil. Check the Old Testament.
As well, neither the devil nor satan actually are mentioned to in the New Testament except as statement made by Jesus and others e.g. "Satan get behind me" which implies an internal moral struggle to control egoistic impulses with respect to power and control that Satan promised if Jesus were to exercise his divine powers to control others and become "King of the Jews".
Ergo, this duality of God as representative of Good and the devil as representative of Evil is neo-Platonian and thus was influenced Christian doctrine to the point of becoming dogma. The sames goes for the concept of an immortal soul, which has almost become a doctrine which is non-Biblical.
As well, Good and Evil never existed before human existence. Rather, good and evil are concepts thought up by men, and this includes the thought of good and evil existing before man's existence. Thus, I am sympathetic to the Jewish God.
Perhaps the real reason for Jesus was God's way of making up for all the violence he either meted on humanity or got his followers to mete on other people. However, I refuse to be a martyr for Christ.
As a Buddhist, I object to the violence done in the name of Jesus. This includes child abuse done in the name of Jesus, which is not Christian.
For any fundamentalist Christian parents who subject their children to violence in the name of their God, but call it discipline do not know what discipline actually means. Indeed, discipline done in anger too is violence.
Hopefully from this little rant of mine you can understand that a parent who disciplines their child in anger is not doing God a favor.
What has this to do with good and evil? Well, I tend to believe that a person is capable of great evil yet also of great good.
Even so, I also believe that if a person who is good shall become a good person, so too may a bad man, once he turns over to the cause of good, be it as a Christian, Jew, or Muslim, as well as a Buddhist, a Hindu, a pagan, a Wiccan, or even a La Vey Satanist.
Originally posted December 20, 2012 at 0310H
20130811
Why Militants of Religion Attack Women
Celebration of the female body was also partially supported in Constatinople, though radical Christians back then were known to desecrate any art that depicted nudity.
Some of the battles that the Byzantine Empire fought were with Christians who subscribed to a more militant form of Christianity led by religious leaders sympathetic to Gnostic teachings which claimed that worldliness was evil and that godliness was good.
Due to militancy among the Christians, a pagan mathematician was assassinated by radical Christians in Alexandria for preferring the pagan sciences over the conservatism of Christianity.
IMO militant elements of Islam cater to this same kind of conservatism. Even though the Roman Empire was corrupt before Constantine the Great made Christianity a state religion, its art was did not lead to the excesses of pornography in America.
Although the decadence of Caligula is well known, only writings by authors who were not fond of him are known as it was common to destroy any literature praising him after that emperor's death along with statues of him and his god-horse.
Today, the fans of celebrities sometimes tend to worship almost like gods. Even when they act like drug addicts and never-do-wells, their fans still support them when they go into rehab.
However, American mass media is keen to display the bodies of celebrities as though it is a social good i.e. the right to freedom of expression.
To Muslim conservatives, it is obscenity mainly due to hardliners who fear that such obscenity will corrupt the morals of their youths, especially the men.
What they do not admit is that such obscenity was condemned by Muhammad because he too feared being corrupted by the idols of Mecca.
When a good man who fears corruption lashes out by killing people, that is the root of militancy. It matters not if it was 1500 years ago or last year.
As long as a religion protects its core values with militancy and the threat of death of unbelievers, it is an intolerant religion. This is what American Christians are trying to say.
Yet in more primitive areas of Asia, Christians are not less militant and intolerant as their Muslim brothers and sisters e.g. Brazil after an amateur football game, clashes between Christians and Buddhists in rural areas of Burma, India and Thailand, the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, etc.
Religion promote conservative values, many of which are becoming increasingly outdated. This is why people apostate and leave religion.
As long as religion holds onto traditional values without tolerance of modern values, the violence will continue.
For any religion that allows for killing and other violent forms of repression has lost the core values of non-violence and peace that was integral to its founding.
Hypatia murdered by Christian mob: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HypatiaTo conservatives such as the Muslims, it is obscenity.
20130730
Why My Buddhism Turned the Devil into a Dharma Protector (Satire)
This morning I am moved to write about religion, both Buddhist and Christian. If you have an aversion to such things, feel free to stop reading right now because the following prose is beyond your comprehension. Otherwise, please be warned: I am writing from the viewpoint of a Japanese Buddhist. All I can add to this, is in my writing, anything is possible. >:)
So I'm going to start with Jesus, because his story gets a lot of press these days.
Suffice it to say, Jesus did these things: feed the poor, clothe the homeless, cure psychosomatic illness.
Not once in the Bible did I read about him saying, "Persecute homosexuals and other sinners." He never diabolized sin to that extent. Rather, this is dogma of church people who mix up the Old Testament stories about Lot with the New Testament.
In fact, he freed sinners from the diabolizing of people that the Jews did to sinners, which led the early Jewish nation to become a tribe of warriors.
IMO Christianity borrowed heavily from pagans such as Plato and Aristotle, so much so that good and evil became personified as god and satan -- as though they were friend and enemy of Christians.
For Christians, good and evil ae extremes; there is no middle ground.
It's stuff like that makes me glad I was born Buddhist, because Buddhism is the middle ground, and good and evil the result of what each sentient being create.
I don't open myself to spiritual attack from demons by meditating because such a thing is ridiculous to a Buddhist -- we are not devil worshippers; we are worshippers of truth.
Yes, I am suggesting that Christians who use the satanism card to diabolize other faiths as pagan are authors of lies, because their lies began with denying the syncretic roots of Christianity.
In contrast, Buddhism was not founded by the Buddha. Rather, it was renamed by Christian and secular scholars alike in the modern age. For it is the Buddhadharma that was founded by the Buddha over 2500 years ago to address the problems of the nascent Hindu religion called Santanadharma, which was renamed Hinduism by modern Western scholars.
Dharma has many meanings to a Buddhist such as law or teaching. Its meditative techniques work, even without the spiritual teachings of the Dharma. However, meditation works more efficiently with those teachings to guide the meditator.
In contrast, the history of Christianity shows the Church declaring Gnostics to be anathema to their cause, solely because Gnosis is not subject to the control and power of Christians e.g. only elite members of the Church are allowed to "know God" so thoroughly that you become a Bishop or even the Pope.
Gnostics were considered enemies of the State to both Byzantium, the Eastern Roman Empire that followed Greek rituals of Christianity, and the Western Roman Empire that followed Roman ones, but mainly to Byzantium. For the Western Roman Empire's enemies were mainly Gothic, Norman and Vandal mercenaries who practiced a heretical form of Christianity.
Suffice it to say that under these conditions, Gnostic meditative practices were forgotten when Byzantine armies crushed them in the Middle East. It is even said that the libraries of Alexandria in Egypt were put to the torch by a Coptic Pope to ensure that Gnosis was never to be freely available to Gnostics, let alone pagans.
Meanwhile in India, wherever the Buddhadharma spread, local gods were subjugated and added to the Buddhist pantheon of divinities who pledged to protect the Buddha. Thus, when Western civilization entered the Dark Ages, the East became enlightened by the Buddhadharma with the Santanadharma advocates making the Buddha one of its many gods, leading to the famous Hindu-Buddhist university of Nalanda and the spread of Santanadharma into Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines).
Perhaps, the proto-Polynesians may have took to the sea so that their gods would not be subject to control by invaders.
In any case, by the time the darkness that befell Western civilization was cast off during the Renaissance, religious ignorance forced Galileo to recant and corruption arose within the Papacy to the point where bestiality, incest and murder became part and parcel of intrigues arising from Christianity's inability to control human desire. IMO this was because Christianity considered the world evil and especially the body as a tool of sin.
Yet, if God made the world, then everything in it is his creation, and thus is good. This even includes the human soul, if both it and God exist. Furthermore, sin is not the same as evil. It is alike to evil karma i.e. the fruit of actions associated with the negative emotions and feelings such as anger, fear, lust, and other confusing feelings.
Even ignorance of god does not make a person evil. Only what he creates by what he does and says may cause the rise of confusion due to negative emotions. This is known as "evil passions" to the Buddhists, and also includes the mental calculations a person makes before she acts on them to make it so in the world.
To a Buddhist, a god being a Dharma protector of the Buddha is the protector of the Buddhadharma. Thus such a divine being is a friend of the Buddha, much as Jesus is a friend of Christians, whose angels protect them from birth. The only difference is, the bodhisattvas, gods and other Dharma protectors all protect the Buddhadharma. A wise Buddhist knows that they do not exist in this reality and that he would thus be foolish to worship any one of them including the Buddha.
If the cosmology of Buddhism actually exists, then it is not in the real world but in the mind of fervent worshippers who may not grasp the symbolism but worship them out of respect for all things divine, especially the Buddhadharma which enshrine the Four Noble Truths.
Such respect is sometimes mistaken by Christians as blind worship akin to paganism, due to their ignorance about Buddhism, which sadly is due to their sole reliance on the Bible. More enlightened Christians have studied Buddhism and have compared it to the Protestant form of Christianity called Methodism minus Jesus.
Indeed, in most Asian countries where Christianity is preached, the word "God" is often replaced with that Asian nation's most often worshipped god, e.g. in Chinese Taoism with the lesser gods being akin to angels and saints. Though, in Japan, Christianity is not as easy to sell because of the Japanese myth that their people are born of the gods.
Thus many of the New Religions in Japan have a corrupted form of God speaking through the founder and even his edicts are made through spirit writing, which predates Pentacostalism's corruption by occultism when they added shamanistic practices to their worship. Of course, most Pentacostals will deny occultism and shamanism in their religious practice, because Christians deny that their religion is of this world.
Yet most of the successful Protestant sects borrow heavily from worldly sources e.g. Billy Graham and other televangelists. Though, Mr. Graham's Christianity is his own, and is thus non-denominational. He actually believes in an immortal soul which is derived from neo-Platonism (a form of paganism developed before the Dark Ages which was revived during the Renaissance. It's not Biblical though, because the New Testament only mentioned "everlasting life", which has nothing to do with immortality, which is more associated with alchemy (an occult art) than with religion.
In Buddhism, the closest one gets to immortality is reincarnation, which has nothing to do with souls reincarnating because Buddhism denies the existence of a soul. Therefore, reincarnation is not about immortality of a soul but it is about karma. For only one's actions are affected by time itself: the karma (actions) I created in the past affect my present condition and my present actions (karma) affect my future (destiny). Indeed, there is no fixed point in time as far as karma goes.
Today, I am a Buddhist, quite possibly due to past karma, both in my lifetime and in the lifetimes of previous incarnations. I might have been a god, a demon, a man or woman, an animal, a hungry ghost or even a hell being. When I die, I am sure to be reborn in the Pure Land. But for now, just sitting is enough for me.
Posted via Blogaway
20130112
Baptists Scare the BeJesus Out of Me
About a couple years ago, I used to go to a Baptist Church, attending a 12-Step program for Christians.
WHat scared me away was that the devil kept talking through a couple of church ladies to tempt me to attend Sunday service by bribing me with a free guitar. Also an ex-junkie told mehis life story to get me attend service, which had the opposite effect. Perhaps I'm too judgmental, but then I'm a Buddhist.
Now, that was mind blowing to have those kinds of experiences.
Though it did confirm one thing to me: churches where fear of the devil being preached usually has a good chance of the devil talking through any church member than a Korean Pentecostal church where the pastor has a history of exorcises.
That's because in pagan times, before the Christian missionaries appeared, Korea had shamans who did a lot of exorcisms. IMO that's probably how the Catholic Church got into the exorcism business, as it actually predates Christianity.
Except, in pre-Christian times, the shaman would either capture the evil spirit or be the receptacle for it, which was less dangerous to a shaman than an ordinary person plagued by such spirits.
And the odds that the shaman was no different from a schizphrenic person today was pretty high, since much of what a shaman trains for, you'd have to be fearless to go through.
The average person, being untrained, most likely would go nuts. However, the properly trained crazy shaman would have a ritual to perform as self-exorcism.
Did the pastor ever go an exorcism at this Baptist church? Hell no! That sort of thing is only popular in certain Pentacoastal circuits. This is a Baptist church, for God's sake.
My only regret is, I couldn't be the good Christian my ex-girlfriend was expecting to sweep her off her feet.
You could say, the devil in that congregation is what chased me away.
In short, in my eyes, the devil protected the Buddha for me. If my Buddha can do that to the devil, then I have all the spiritual protection I need!
WHat scared me away was that the devil kept talking through a couple of church ladies to tempt me to attend Sunday service by bribing me with a free guitar. Also an ex-junkie told mehis life story to get me attend service, which had the opposite effect. Perhaps I'm too judgmental, but then I'm a Buddhist.
Now, that was mind blowing to have those kinds of experiences.
Though it did confirm one thing to me: churches where fear of the devil being preached usually has a good chance of the devil talking through any church member than a Korean Pentecostal church where the pastor has a history of exorcises.
That's because in pagan times, before the Christian missionaries appeared, Korea had shamans who did a lot of exorcisms. IMO that's probably how the Catholic Church got into the exorcism business, as it actually predates Christianity.
Except, in pre-Christian times, the shaman would either capture the evil spirit or be the receptacle for it, which was less dangerous to a shaman than an ordinary person plagued by such spirits.
And the odds that the shaman was no different from a schizphrenic person today was pretty high, since much of what a shaman trains for, you'd have to be fearless to go through.
The average person, being untrained, most likely would go nuts. However, the properly trained crazy shaman would have a ritual to perform as self-exorcism.
Did the pastor ever go an exorcism at this Baptist church? Hell no! That sort of thing is only popular in certain Pentacoastal circuits. This is a Baptist church, for God's sake.
My only regret is, I couldn't be the good Christian my ex-girlfriend was expecting to sweep her off her feet.
You could say, the devil in that congregation is what chased me away.
In short, in my eyes, the devil protected the Buddha for me. If my Buddha can do that to the devil, then I have all the spiritual protection I need!
20101110
Selected Inspirational Quotes on the Interdependence of all Life
Learn to live in harmony with each other and nature. Living a thoroughly loving joyous abundant life is your God given right. Nature is abundant. Live according to the universal law, universal principles such as Brother/Sisterly Love, Universal Peace, Individual Freedom and Prosperity for all.
— James GillilandIn the vision of universal interpenetration, one of the Mahayana flowers of the Buddha's teaching of Conditioned Co-production (pratitya samutpada), we have a basic insight into our relationship with nature. This vision is exemplified in the simile of Indra's Net: High above in heaven, on the roof of the palace of the god Indra, there hang innumerable jewels interlaced in a great network. As the light reflects off these multifaceted gems not only does each jewel reflect the whole cosmos, but also every other jewel in the net, including all the reflections from all the jewels, the reflections of the reflections, and their reflections.
In this beautiful vision we can begin to connect imaginatively with the mutual interdependence of all processes. Bringing this insight down to earth it becomes clear that by harming nature we are in fact harming ourselves. There are plenty of examples to demonstrate this in the current media: acid rain, the greenhouse effect, the ozone hole, radioactive contamination, to name but a few. These reactions of nature to our carelessness harm us not only physically but also psychologically, as we face the threat of our environment becoming increasingly inimical to healthy human life.
There are very strong Biblical directives to care for God's earth. Articles and theological treatises [on creation care] were often prefaced by the statement, "the Earth is the Lord's." It comes from Psalm 24:1, "The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the fullness and everything it contains."
Most of the Biblical teachings [on creation care] have to do with three principles: earth-keeping, fruitfulness, and Sabbath.
The Qur'an' and the Hadith are rich in proverbs and precepts that speak of the Almighty's design for creation and humanity's responsibility for preserving it. For many Muslims, citing these is enough to prove that Islam has always embraced a complete environmental ethic. Others are more critical. They readily acknowledge that the guidelines are all there in Islamic doctrine. Tawhid (unity), khilafa (trusteeship), and akhirah (accountability, or literally, the hereafter), three central concepts of Islam, are also the pillars of Islam's environmental ethic. But they add that Muslims have strayed from this nexus of values and need to return to it.
— Islam and Ecology, M. Hope & J. Young: http://www.crosscurrents.org/islamecology.htmWords like "Nature" change meanings in important ways over time. Right wingers and left wingers, for their opposite reasons, like to say our Founders disliked democracy, never ever mentioning that the word meant something different at the time they wrote than it means today, or that James Madison defined the American republic exactly as we now define representative democracy (a term that did not then exist).
The word "Nature" has the same problem. As used during that that time "Nature" had a strong survival-of-the-fittest flavor, with conflict and struggle being the primary value within life. People argued over the units that competed and struggled, from Social Darwinists who initially emphasized individuals to Hitler and the Nazis who emphasized races. Nazis justified their violence in part by claiming it was in keeping with "Nature."
There is no evidence of awareness of symbiotic relationships being particularly important, though Peter Kropotkin had drawn initial attention to them. He was largely ignored at the time, but today we know symbiosis (cooperation) is fundamental to evolution. "Nature" like so many important words can only be understood in context and with sensitivity to the times.
Curtis Yazzie: “Once Peabody takes all the coal out, it’ll be gone. Solar would be long-term. Solar and wind, we don’t have a problem with. It’s pretty windy out here.”
— Navajos Hope to Shift From Coal to Wind and Sun, NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/science/earth/26navajo.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1
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