Perception of Nature

Knowledge of world view can help us understand a culture's perception of nature. Environmentalists have long blamed biblical tradition - specifically God's injunction to man in Genesis to subdue the earth — for providing cultural and religious sanction for the Industrial Revolution and the misuse of natural resources. Other religions or world views lead to different attitudes. The Shinto¹ religion of Japan suggests that there is an aesthetic appreciation of nature in which the focus is on reality and not heaven, a reality that makes nature supreme. Shintoism prescribes a love of the land as a whole and of each part of it in the form of an aesthetic love of things and places. Every hill and lake, every mountain and river is dear. Cherry trees, shrines, and scenic resorts are indispensable to a full life. People perceive them as lasting things among which their ancestors lived and died. Here their ancestral spirits look on and their families still abide. People preserve nature so that nature can preserve the family.

Role of Religion

Our world view originates in our culture. And one of the predominant elements of culture that gives us our world view is religion. All religions imply in one way or another that human beings do not and cannot stand alone. For well over four thousands years, people have concluded that they depend on powers in nature or elsewhere that are external to themselves.

Religion has helped people explain things that they could not otherwise understand or explain. Whether it be conceptions of a first cause of all things or natural occurrences such as comets, floods, lighting, thunder, drought, disease, or abundance, people have relied on religious explanations for understanding.

Religion has also helped people recognize where they come from, why they die, and what happens when they die. The diversity of human behaviour in these cir­cumstances depends upon the religious view that has developed and prevailed in a culture. According to the Koran, death is like entering the original Garden of Eden, with abundant fruits and many maidens.

Religion teaches values, in part, through taboos. The eating of pork, for instance, is a Jewish social taboo; the Jain² of India prohibit the eating of all meat. And among the taboos of Islam is a prohibition against the consumption of alcohol.

The teaching of taboos serves a useful social function in giving direction for socially acceptable behaviour. Knowing about religions can provide insight into values and behaviour or at least offer explanations for perceived behaviour.

People in Ireland, the United States and Spain have strong beliefs in the devil, but people in France, Denmark, and Sweden do not. People in the United States tend to believe in heaven; Hindus in India believe in reincarnation. These belief differences have some impact on the behaviour of the people.

Major Religions

Although there are literally thousands of religions, they can be set into a few major categories, each of which has a view of God, a founder, sacred writings, holy places, holy days, sacred symbols, and the like.

If we divide the world's population proportionally into these various categories of religion, we find that about 33 percent of the world's population is Christian.

The second largest religion and the newest is Islam, with approximately 21 percent.

Hinduism is next, with about 15 percent, followed by Buddhism and other Eastern religions with 9 percent. Judaism comprises less than 1 percent, tribal and shamanist traditions 2.5 percent.

Nonreligious or atheist views account for approximately 19 percent.