Is it a sin to pollute the environment?

Question

for example... throwing trash on the side of the road

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

We are called to be stewards of our planet. So yes, being a bad steward is missing the mark, the very definition of sin.

Answer 3

If nothing else by throwing garbage out your windo you are a slob.  it is fine however to toss out things like apple cores that will be eaten or break down

Answer 4

yes becaues you are destroying the earth!! if you insist on doing so...then bury it if its biodegradable

Answer 5

of course it is, what right have you or i as individuals to trash and spoil something that doesnt actually belong to us?  Even if you think it does just coz you paid someone lots of money for your particular piece of it, you really dont own land, it is for every living being, to share........

Answer 6

Your example may or may not be a sin, depending on what trash.

Trash could be grass clippings as I mow the grass beside the road. Now this would be a non-sin.

If your trash is infectious material from a hospital that should have been incinerated... get where I am going?

You should also consider whether it is a sin to allow trash to remain on a street, in a field that will grow the food people eat, in a river bed, or on a beach,

In other words is it a sin of omission? If it is not a sin of omission, how can the act of littering be a sin?

Answer 7

If environmentalism is a religion as Michael Crichton suggests at the link below, then of course polluting the environment is a sin in the eyes of the "believers."

For those who lack the faith, the notion that pollution = sin simply "does not compute."

Answer 8

Yes I'd consider that a sin, especially when there are bins nearby.  Just tossing stuff out of a car window say, is pure laziness.

Answer 9

It can be.  Littering certainly is.

Answer 10

You may want to check out some of the arguments and linked sites through the National Religious Partnership for the Environment:  http://www.nrpe.org/  They provide responses based on Jewish, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Christian, mainline Protestant, and Evangelical Christian points of view, as well as an interfaith standpoint.

some other sites are listed here:  http://www.christianecology.org/

and Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Christian church has declared that pollution is our sin against the world (destruction of God's Creation)...

http://www.ec-patr.org/docdisplay.php?la...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/204056...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...

and Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II also declared as much with a joint signing with Patriarch Bartholomew back in 1990.

You also have the sins of pride (man's dominion over the earth) and greed (overuse and poor environmental management) to consider, as well.