Preventing Extinctions

Damasta · Post by **Damasta** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:55 am

I'm surprised the writers didn't mention that we should conserve species because they're God's creations. If He thought they were important enough to create, shouldn't we think they're important enough to rescue from extinction? I think part of having dominion and stewardship over all the earth is not killing all the members of a particular species.

Dragon Lady · Post by **Dragon Lady** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:20 pm

Doesn't God also allow natural selection? Isn't it possible that some creatures are supposed to die out eventually? So by saving them, are we helping or hindering God's plan?

I think what the Board writers were saying is that if we had just left that area alone, it's possible that those creatures/plants would have died out anyway. However, we sped up the process by cutting down their habitat and spraying pesticides everywhere. We caused damage, now it's our responsibility to repair said damage to the best of our ability.

If there is an animal going extinct in the middle of Antarctica, somewhere humans have never set foot, is it our responsibility to seek it out and find it? What if we just happened to come across the knowledge that it is going extinct. Then is it our duty to save it?

(PS - I don't have an answer. Just pointing out other facets.)

bismark · Post by **bismark** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:52 pm

Whoa Dragon Lady, you just argued for organic evolution. Good for you.

Dragon Lady · Post by **Dragon Lady** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:58 pm

I never said I was against the idea of evolution. Human evolution? Yeah, I don't so much agree with that. (Though, if God tells me I'm wrong someday, I'll accept that.)

Amazed that people other than you have non-traditional opinions?

bismark · Post by **bismark** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 10:22 pm

Damasta · Post by **Damasta** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:44 am

Dragon Lady wrote:Doesn't God also allow natural selection? Isn't it possible that some creatures are supposed to die out eventually? So by saving them, are we helping or hindering God's plan?

I think what the Board writers were saying is that if we had just left that area alone, it's possible that those creatures/plants would have died out anyway. However, we sped up the process by cutting down their habitat and spraying pesticides everywhere. We caused damage, now it's our responsibility to repair said damage to the best of our ability.

If there is an animal going extinct in the middle of Antarctica, somewhere humans have never set foot, is it our responsibility to seek it out and find it? What if we just happened to come across the knowledge that it is going extinct. Then is it our duty to save it?

(PS - I don't have an answer. Just pointing out other facets.)

Oh, I totally agree. I was only referring to extinctions that are the direct result of human activity. But even so, there are too many extinctions happening for us to prevent them all. So we have to evaluate which species are most important to save. The June Sucker or the Loggerhead Sea Turtle or the Asian Elephant? Or Black Cabbage Tree, for that matter?

I also believe in organic evolution (including humans) and I've often pondered that conservation is an attempt to hold genetic variation in a target population static. So if we could fast forward one million years into the future, would we find that practically all the macroscopic life forms were essentially unchanged because humanity prevented natural selection?