Original (Carbon) Sin?

As the world careers full-pelt towards ecocide, is the potential solution a return to that most controversial Christian belief - Original Sin?

That's the startling conclusion of the latest 'blog post by George Monbiot here. What's interesting here is not so much that the man who's previously described himself as an 'Evangelical Agnostic' has recanted, repented and turned towards orthodox Christian faith. I don't think for a minute that's not what's going on here. But there is something curious in his declaration. Effective and enduring environmental action, simply cannot be done by incentives and persuasion alone. There needs to be a deeper, some might say spiritual, impulse.

Our whole society is geared up to consume more, and the incentives for a greener, more equitable life are neither economic or rational. The current incentives for the environmental good life are more for those who are attracted to 'do gooder' sensibilities, or those who are fond of fringe lifestyles anyway. Of course, there are those who have a genuine sense of fairness and desire to do the right thing. I do think though that it's desire, not reason that draws people into environmental actions.

That seems to be Monbiot's point here too. That we can have all the education and awareness raising we want, but people will carry on being selfish - that's just what we do. Particularly when the scales are tipped in favour of the unethical choice most often. (It's often cheeper and easier to fly than drive, take the car in place of public transport, etc.) In order to alter our unsustainable, harmful lifestyles we do need something akin to a conversion experience. A harmful lifestyle incidentally that most of us didn't choose, or just blindly stumbled into. The parallels between this and Original Sin I find fascinating.

Interestingly, in another news story this week, the law has now put environmental beliefs on a par with religious ones. I think the more equitable lifestyle does require a taming of greedy instincts that desire more, more, more. It's paramount that we learn how to tame these soon, collectively. If religious thinkers have for years wrestled with how to salve matters of the soul (which greed no doubt is), then it makes sense to have them on board in dealing with these issues. Likewise, a Christianity searching for contemporary relevance could do far worse than direct it's efforts towards being an effective agent for environmental justice.

Original (Carbon) Sin? Maybe it's not such a bad doctrine after all.