What a coincidence.
Today when I was cycling, I noticed that whenever there was a thicket of trees, in an otherwise treeless landscape, it was because such trees embraced a shrine or a temple.
Like this one.
And I thought to myself, 'Thank fck these temples and shrines exist because their very existence is conserving forest.'
Well, right now, I am listening to a Best Of Natural History Radio Podcast, as one does, and the topic is precisely this;
Basically, how 'religious forest sites' have acted indirectly to preserve and protect forests.
Ethiopia has 35,000 'religious forest fragments'.
India between 150,000 and 200,000 sacred groves.
Ghana - 1,900.
Mongolia - 800.
Interesting huh.
Hmm. I just did a little bit of googling and discovered that the word for forest in Japanese 'mori', can also be written using the kanji for 'sacred grove'.
It is refreshing to find something positive coming out of organised religion- not that Buddhism or Shintoism have ever been on a par with the rest of the organised BS- but still, to know that nature is being protected because it's on church land or whatever, well, there is some light, after all.
Today when I was cycling, I noticed that whenever there was a thicket of trees, in an otherwise treeless landscape, it was because such trees embraced a shrine or a temple.
Like this one.
Well, right now, I am listening to a Best Of Natural History Radio Podcast, as one does, and the topic is precisely this;
Basically, how 'religious forest sites' have acted indirectly to preserve and protect forests.
Ethiopia has 35,000 'religious forest fragments'.
India between 150,000 and 200,000 sacred groves.
Ghana - 1,900.
Mongolia - 800.
Interesting huh.
Hmm. I just did a little bit of googling and discovered that the word for forest in Japanese 'mori', can also be written using the kanji for 'sacred grove'.
It is refreshing to find something positive coming out of organised religion- not that Buddhism or Shintoism have ever been on a par with the rest of the organised BS- but still, to know that nature is being protected because it's on church land or whatever, well, there is some light, after all.
1 comment:
If Christian churches didn't exist, child buggery would've almost completely died out by now.
Post a Comment