Need to Respect

The only solution to solve the ethical problems caused by pollution is to respect and esteem the value of environment. Having rationality we need to transcend our ethical realm. In other words, we human have to extend the ethical horizon including the environment at large. The concept of right and wrong cannot be restricted to the human realm; ethics must go beyond human realm to the environment itself.  Thus, human person is not more a master or a dictator of the Earth community but the first among the equals who is responsible for the land community and this evokes the feeling of genuine kinship.

 Respecting the nature is also the expression of respecting the humanity as it shows that we respect for the other human as human being and also care for the future generations.Thus respecting the nature becomes immense conception to get to the bottom of the problem of environmental degradation. Because respect itself can heal the problem and along with it concrete accomplishments has to be in use in order to make it possible.  

POEM ON FUTURE 

When the last tree is cut down,

The last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned,

You will realize that you cannot eat money.

One day you come out from your house

And all you see id big puffs of black smoke and no tree

All you see the Cars and no birds!

All you smell is gasoline and no flowers!

What kind of life is that?

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LINE OF APPROACH AND ACTIONS TO SAVE OUR NATURE

            ‘Love the animals, love the plants, and love everything. If you love everything you will perceive the divine mystery in things.’

 Introduction:

            Life on earth is in trouble. That much we know. But how bad have things become and how fast are eventsmoving? In what will be the sixth grate mass extinction event? Gerardo Caballos of the national Autonomous University of Mexico and his colleagues have assessed, in a paper that came out on 19 June. The report says that vertebrates were vanishing at a rate 114 times faster than normal and that the last similar event was 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs disappeared, most probably as a result of an asteroids. Since 1900 more than 400 vertebrates have disappeared.

            Another study, led by Mark Williams, identifies some quite extraordinary novelties at the heart of current events. First past extinctions have been driven by massive volcanic outbursts, the disorder caused by major asteroid impact and the wrenching effect of rapid climate change.None of this has really figured in the biological crisis not even climate change, which is still only in its early stages. Instead the extinctions are being driven by the effect of just one single species, Homo sapiens. 

The earth is not the possession of individuals, communities, or nations. The earth is the common house of humankind. Human responsibility in this common house is the greatest. It is very urgent for us to draw a plan- a series of action-to conserve the species of the planet, to care for all forms of life, to protect the natural resources and to promote the beauty and verity in nature.

At the time when we try to set things right, Pope Francis gives us the good news of hope in the future. His recent encyclical, ‘Laudato Si’ summons the whole world to examine our present way of life and re-set a different life-style which supports ecosystems and the life of all species.We are totally convinced that time has come to act, to repair what can be repaired to prepare the future, so that humanity will have further progressed in its evolution in a more conscious and fair world, the Earth will still be capable of providing a shelter for its inhabitants.

Moral Degradation

            There are many causes of moral degradation, including poor parenting, the condoning attitude of society, influence of media, family breakdowns and increased freedom. Some of the analysis on the effect of pollution depict that pollution is not only a moral dispute but it is an expression of moral degradation. It reduces the value of the nature, animates and other species, ultimately the human race. It also breaks the relationship between human beings and eco-system.

Third World Exploitation

            As the vulnerable are the target to be victim, the victims of pollution and other ecological perils are the third world (economically poorer countries). The more industrialized countries in order to reduce their ecological problem dump the toxic industrial wastes, radio-active materials in poorer countries especially by the multinational companies. And these poorer countries do not have the technology to monitor the waste materials and sometimes the officials are bribed. An example for this exploitation: in 1946, the US ordered the inhabitants of Bikini Atoll (a small island in the Pacific Ocean) to vacate the Island to make way for nuclear bomb testing. Twenty years later the indigenous people returned to their homeland but found it barren waste.  The same US is the cause of 20 percent of air pollution in the world while it is the country only of 4 percent of the population. The poorer countries are not able to resist the effect of these deadly gases. Thus the third world countries are exploited through pollution. 

Consumerism

            Consumerism is the excessive desire possesses things, in human beings induced by the advertisement and other means of communication. The consumerist attitude is also the cause for pollution. When a new thing arrives, the old things are not properly disposed and it pollutes the land and environment and it also troubles the biosphere. The advertisements induce people to fall in consumerism and the result is pollution by improper disposal of things which become pollutants of the environment.  Consumerism is one of the expressions of human greed, which also affects the eco-system.  It is the hike in production that is largely responsible for ecological hazards in every society all over the world.

Utilitarianism

 The Utilitarianism is a consequential ethic:  The rightness or wrongness of an action depends only upon the consequences of the action. This theory holds that utility or usefulness is the norm of morality because what is useful is always considered to be good. Although every good thing is useful to all sometimes every useful thing is not good to all. Ultimately, the victim of such kind is the environment. The theory of utility complements human chauvinism as the concept of usefulness depends on human interest. Consequently, other species in the biosphere are under risk. This theory also degrades environment as it receives just instrumental value. In utilitarianism, therefore, the only good thing is some form of happiness, or pain aversion, and actions are deemed ethical or unethical by how effectively they can maximize happiness and avoid pain. 

Human Chauvinism

In simple words, “this theory states that items outside human class have zero value.” The early man identified himself among the nature. But adapting this theory human being takes the freedom to manipulate the world according to their whims and fancies. All the eco-crises are based on this damaging concept in the name of transformation.This has even extended to the brutal consequence of species extinction which is dealt in the previous chapter. Human Chauvinism also bases its arguments on features of value and morality. Since the values are determined through human interest and thus value and morality are compressed to human interest.  Since, there is no alternative possibility for human rationality the environmental pollution is easily justified as trivial trial.

Pollution: A Moral Dispute

 The question is can pollution be analyzed ethically? There are many different principles on which to draw in moral reasoning about specific environmental problems. Pollution becomes a human act when it is done knowingly and without any compulsion as ethics requires. Yet it is difficult to determine its nature. For example, though the nuclear energy is useful it may harm the future generation. Hegel has pointed out long ago the nature of this tragedy, “it is the conflict not between right and wrong but between right and right.” But the following analysis on the repercussions of the pollution in the modern world state that it is the conflict between right and right. Thus degradation or pollution is problem in morality.

THE ETHICAL RESPONSE

 Introduction

“Earth is our mother whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth." Environmental degradation, even though, is not a new problem there are much hue and cry made on its impact today everywhere. In our epoch of scientific and industrial revolution, when the whole earth is becoming the object of man’s activity as a single whole, it is reasonable to speak of the need for ecological or environmental ethic.  It is always inclusive, so it has become a global crisis. In addition it must be ethically evaluated since it harms the whole universe. 

 Environmental Ethics

            It is branch of special ethics which studies the rightfulness and wrongfulness of a human action that is done knowingly and willingly. Environmental ethic is defined as a scientific study which applies the principles in ethics to resolve the problems and challenges related to the correlation between human beings and the environment.

            

Hitch for Future

             No one has a crystal ball to tell us exactly what lies ahead, but we can look at past trends and current data to make future predictions. Any pollution always leaves a lasting effect on the environment. It took millions of year to form the earth for living but many parts of the earth have already been killed by humans and the process still continues through various ways of pollution. There will be an end for this nature and the children born will not know the natural summer and other seasons. There is also a possibility of cultural change since the environment has a role to form a culture. If thus continues the present hitch will become permanent problem.

Environmental Issues

The Environmental issues are huge. Whether it is the rapidly dropping water tables, mass deforestation, land degradation or river contamination, world has it all and on a massive scale. Below you can find information on most serious environmental problems.Water pollution,the largest of the environmental issues is inadequate or lack of access to vital fresh water resources. The rivers are on the front line of pollution. Millions of people depend on them for their livelihoods but they are slowly being polluted and destroyed by sewage, chemicals and other agricultural and industrial waste. Today there is a worst quality of air in the world. Without a doubt the main contributor of air pollution is the transport system.  In the big cities millions of old and very dirty diesel engines churn out more sulfur than partly because of being old and partly because of the diesel.

The story of deforestation is another one of the highly serious environmental issues. Most of the trees are being chopped down for housing, industrialization and river projects. It is estimated that the number of Mangrove Forests have more than halved in the last 20 years.Plastics and Other Waste is not in any urgency to degrade but the people don't seem to recognize this as they throw every unwanted item onto the floor wherever they are. Of course, the victims of these environmental issues are the future generations and the animals.

Extinction of Species

Pollution brings an end to most of the rare wild species. The extinction is being driven by the effects of just one single species, homo sapience. Such a mass extinction has never occurred before. The change to the earth biology includes a rapidly developing mass extinction event. There are species like Aras superciliasa (sea bird),Macropus gigantus (the grey kangaroo) and some 34 species of ants are on the edge of their and various parts of the world due to the decline of the boundaries of many islands (an effect of pollution) highways, new plantation, the fencing-off of certain areas, the damming of water sources, and similar developments, crowd out natural habitats and at times, break them up in such a way that animal populations can no longer migrate or roam freely. As a result, some species face extinction.  “It is not only the global loss of flora and fauna but also the erosion of genetic diversity.”

Global Warming

            Global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere which acts as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. As we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas for energy or cut down and burn forests to create pastures and plantations, carbon accumulates and overloads our atmosphere.

            Another havoc produced by those GHG is global warming. Only after much study about global warming through Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC) the UNO has started talking about this devastation. Almost 0.2 0c of heat is increasing per decade. The effects are obvious as Mr.R.K. Panchuri, the chairman of IPCC says, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident form observation of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising of sea level.”

Ozone Depletion

            Planet Earth has its own natural sunscreen that shields us from the sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation. It's called the ozone layer which can harm living creatures. But this layer is constantly being damaged by Green House Gases (GHG) like CO2 and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).Scientists have found that the ozone layer has become thinner over Antarctica each spring since the 1970s. This depletion can even cause skin cancer, defect in the eye and immune system. This also causes up the rising of sea level.Stopping ozone layer depletion is one of the major challenges facing the world today. The stakes are incredibly high. For the ozone layer is truly a conserver of life, it is essential to the survival of all living things.

Ozone Depletion

            Planet Earth has its own natural sunscreen that shields us from the sun's damaging ultraviolet radiation. It's called the ozone layer which can harm living creatures. But this layer is constantly being damaged by Green House Gases (GHG) like CO2 and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).Scientists have found that the ozone layer has become thinner over Antarctica each spring since the 1970s. This depletion can even cause skin cancer, defect in the eye and immune system. This also causes up the rising of sea level.Stopping ozone layer depletion is one of the major challenges facing the world today. The stakes are incredibly high. For the ozone layer is truly a conserver of life, it is essential to the survival of all living things.

Menaces to Nature

            Nature is sublime a bequest that mankind relishes generation after generation.It was given profound respect by being addressed as Mother, God, etc. but the greed in man forced him to consider nature as a mere instrument. The technological sophistication causes a large –scale of biodiversity.

             There is a worst quality of air in the world. The main contributor of air pollution is the transport system and industrial smoke.In the big cities very dirty diesel engines churn out millions of turns more sulphur because of being old and partly because of the diesel. The largest of the environmental issues that people are facing is the inadequate or lack of access to vital fresh water resources. As industries get bigger so the amount of water they require and the amount of waste today is composed is astonishing. The story of deforestation is another of the highly serious environmental issues.Most of the trees are chopped down for housing, industrialization and river projects.Whether it's the rapidly dropping water tables, mass deforestation, land degradation or river contamination, the whole ecosystem is polluted. This rumination through pollution persists in multifarious ways. Few examples can help us understand this unremitting destruction.

GLOBAL CRISIS

            “The major problems in the world are the result of the differences between the way nature works and the way people think.”

,It is not wonder to study that degradation is a global crisis. It is obvious to say that the whole world suffers due to degradation. But it is amazing to learn how even domestic pollution generates into a universal predicament. The pollution in the northern hemisphere can have its impact in the southern hemisphere. The natural devastation in Europe can affect the normal life of Asia. For example the volcanic eruption in 2010 on one of the islands of Greenland created a layer made up of the ashes in the atmosphere of many European countries. In addition the smoke became a barrier for the transport.It also paralyzed the Indian airways. This is a mere effect of natural calamities but the result will be worse when the same pollution is created by human beings. 

Environmental Contribution to Human Well-Being

 Humans are part of nature and interact constantly with it in many ways.This interaction is deeply beneficial to humans, especially with the growing prevalence of depression caused by nature deprivation, which is largely due to amount of time spent in front of televisions and computers. Apart from meeting some of our most basic needs, nature relaxes and refreshes us.

We find nature deeply healing and experience its impact on our wellbeing.   Nature has a way of affecting our moods and it can force us to change our plans.  When it is sunny and bright outside, we feel cheerful inside.  When it is cloudy and rainy, we often feel gloomy.  When there is a beautiful and starry night, the moonlight makes us feel romantic. When we smell the freshness of spring, new hope comes to us. Nature is responsible for the sun, clouds, rain, and snow. Nature is truly an intrinsic part of our lives.

When we wake and see a sunrise, when we walk and feel the breeze, when we gaze at the mountains and the splendor of the seas, when we see the earth renew its beauty at each season of the year, and when the stars shine at night, we should be so very thankful to the Lord for giving us all these wonderful and miraculous things.  Learning to become more aware of nature can truly have a good effect on our lives, in the way we look at things and in the way we feel about ourselves

       

What is Hindu nationalism and when did it start?

Hindu nationalism is a political ideology that encompasses different groups. Broadly, these groups all define Indian culture and politics in terms of Hindu religious values. The Sangh Parivar, or “family of organizations” is a loose grouping of Hindu nationalists, which has its roots in the 19^th century confrontation between colonial Europeans and Indians yearning for a national identity. Hindu nationalism developed as a way to form a specifically Indian national identity which stood against both the British colonizers and the Islamic dynasty that preceded it. This was articulated by Vinayak Savarkar – an atheist – who wrote a pamphlet in 1928 called “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?” in which he said that a Hindu was someone who regards India as both a fatherland and a holy land. In the 1920s, the movement gained traction among poorer Hindus (the lower caste) who felt oppressed by the ruling Hindu elite and for whom the idea of returning India to its "pure Hindu roots". In an interview before the election, Modi said that “Hinduism is 

Witness as a Celibate Person in the Contemporary World.

        At this point we are forced to think on the relationship between the option of celibate love and the situation in which our society exists. Christian love has to assume the sin of the world, has to recover that sin by patient, hope, and must try to make again what sin has destroyed. In the same way the person who has chosen a life of celibacy must spend his life rediscovering the genuine quality of love, and liberating man who is oppressed by being wrapped up in himself.

This work for the liberation of man has its first manifestation in the very presence of the man who by the maturity of his choice, his disinterestedness in self in favours others, makes impact which is a call to something better. His dedication itself creates forms of presence among those who suffer from the exploitation of sex, forms the consequences of considering people as mere tools or machines.

In short this way the celibate person, when he lives a life of genuine love, as outlined above, meets again the family, for every family becomes his family and is possessed in the freedom of the children of God. In this way the celibate gives witness to the love of God as the foundation of all.   

       

Critics on the Love of Celibate Person.

        It is important to remember that the celibate person is not in himself a sign of the kingdom of God. The fact of having no family, no children, and no relationship with the person of the opposite sex does not mean that one has made one’s choice in accordance with the Gospel. In certain case this might be a selfish form of life and so contrary to the Gospel. For example, if under the pretext of embracing evangelical perfection, one were to renounce love or refuse to allow oneself to be loved, one would be denying the essence of the Gospel. The vocation to love in the celibate state, since it demands total liberty for oneself, and must create room for full liberty for others, must of necessity be a life lived in painful purification. This purification must lead towards a full or perfect charity. Therefore this state must be one of uncertainty or tension, which is after finds the submission in hope.   

The Call to Celibacy and Virginity.

God created man …..Male and female he created them. (Gen.1, 27). In this very simple formula God’s plan for human relationship was shown. In it is affirmed the unity, the diversity and the complimentary quality of male and female. From this God’s plan for all men is clear and we can say that man is a social being, and most engage in dialogue.

The union between male and female constitutes the first form of sharing among persons, and in this man expresses his basic calling to be a person. That is to say, through or for others, and with others he becomes “something more”. This vocation is one which he makes real by a free and informed choice and in the way he unfolds his being for and being with others. In addition man as a social being, engaging in dialogue, called to reveal himself to others and to accept and welcome them, manifests his character or nature as God’s image.

In order that men, not only Christians, may be constantly reminded of the clear defined value of others, and that their own final destiny is liberty, the being in communion with, but without having some are called by God to love with a celibate or virginal love. This love is free from nay form of having. This vocation implies loving with a love which tends to confirm another in his otherness, in his being different, in his being an individual. Consequently, it includes the renunciation of all forms of possessing another so as to permit that other to affirm his own liberty. It means giving all that one is so that another may be completely himself.  

Loving with celibate love means to love each one as if he were the only one, as well as all with the same entirety as one would love one alone. Or we can say, to love each in his individuality and all in their unity. Virginal love tends primarily towards universality, because it loves intensively and extensively the greater number of persons possible; it has as its horizon the sum total of humanity. Just as conjugal love embodies the worth of one, virginal love expresses the worth of all. Again, just as marriage primarily means communion or sharing, so celibate or virginal love proclaims in the first place the liberty and individuality of each. On this based the fact that these vocations are complementary to each other.

Celibate love gives testimony to that love which is the basis of existence. Therefore this form of life which tends towards becoming rooted in being for others and so, if lived with intensity it comes very close to the witness shown by the martyrs. 

The Meaning of Chastity as One of the Evangelical Counsels  

              Chastity is the gift of grace. Chastity liberates the human heart in a unique way and causes it to burn with grater love for God and all mankind. It is quite thrilling to hear that chastity has something to do with the human heart; it liberates and causes it to burn. But that is what the gift of invisible grace of God. Chastity is basically friendship with Christ or marriage with Christ. Pope John Paul II in his consecrated life says: The evangelical counsel of chastity, assumed on behalf of the kingdom of God, and being a sign of future life and the source of an abundant fruitfulness bears with it the duty of perfect continence. Chastity is resulted in the fruitful charity towards God and towards others.    

CHASTITY

Introduction.

The world ….. is that of men, the whole human family along with the some of those realities in the midst of which that family lives. the world which is the theatre of man’s history, and carries the marks of his energies, his tragedies, and his triumphs; that world which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker’s (God’s) love, even fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ. He was crucified and rose again to break the monopoly of personified evil, so that this world might be fashioned anew according to God’s design and reach its fulfillment.” The continuation of Jesus’ mission is handed over to the some of the peoples who are in the world but not of the world, namely religious people.

Religious people live consecrated life through the profession of the evangelical counsels; poverty, chastity, obedience, it is a stable form of living in which the faithful follow Jesus Christ more closely under the action of the holy spirit and totally dedicated by God, who is supremely loved. Every religious must project the characteristics of the risen Christ on the screen of the world. Through the religious profession, the Holy Spirit makes Christ visible, audible, and tangible. The priesthood of Christ is expressed through the religious poverty, Poverty places one of the postures of availability for self-donation wherever and whenever the Spirit desires. Christ the prophet speaks through the obedience of its members, obedience in the word of God which binds religious together gives birth to their prophetic character. Christ the king reigns through consecrated chastity. Chastity most obviously shows the power of grace, which raises love beyond the human beings.

Religious families, traditionally mention at first the vow of poverty. But the father of the II Vat. Council treat the vows of chastity before the vows of poverty and obedience. According to II Vat. Council, chastity is considered as the determining commitment of the state of consecrated life.  Therefore now let’s probe into the vow of chastity as we move further.