By Dr. Michael S. Coffman Ph. D.
September 29, 2003
NewsWithViews.com
Though few Christians are aware of it, the cry to “save the earth,” “be sustainable” and “live in harmony with nature” is rooted in the ancient pantheistic religions that dominated the Egyptian, Babylonian, Grecian and Roman Empires. Former Vice President Gore even promotes them in his book Earth in the Balance, “…the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things…. It seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us new insights into the nature of the human experience.”
Diametrically opposite to Christianity, Judaism and Islam pantheistic beliefs make no allowance for a one true God who created all things of nature. Instead, pantheism holds that all earth and all of nature is god, comprised of many gods and goddesses, all of whom demand total worship and obedience from every human. Failure to do so will evoke the wrath of these gods. Over the past 30 years, these pantheistic beliefs have gradually dominated the environmental policies of both the United States and the United Nations. And, they are interwoven into every environmental international treaty, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity.
In a cliffhanger race to the wire, the Convention on Biological Diversity came within an hour of ratification in the United States Senate on September 30, 1994. It was only stopped when Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) introduced irrefutable evidence that the treaty is based on the pantheistic dogma that nature’s fragile ecosystems must be protected from human use. The evidence came in the form of a draft copy of the United Nations (UN) Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA), which was written to partially fulfill Article 25 of the treaty to help write its implementing language.
The UN GBA blames the environmental problems plaguing the world today squarely on Western civilization. The Western worldview, argues the GBA, “is characteristic of large-scale societies…. It is a world view that is characterized by the denial of sacred attributes of nature…[which] became firmly established about 2000 years [ago] with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious traditions.”
Not only does the UN GBA demonize monotheistic beliefs, but specifically singles out Christianity, “Societies dominated by Islam, and especially Christianity have gone farthest in setting humans apart from nature… In the process, … nature lost its sacred qualities.”
Conversely, the “traditional” or pantheistic worldview is hailed as a model for the world in the 21st Century by the UN GBA:
The world view of traditional societies tends to be strikingly different from the modern world view. They tend to view themselves as members of a community that not only includes other humans, but also plants and animals as well as rocks, springs and pools. People are then members of a community of beings-living and non-living. Thus rivers may be viewed as mothers. Animals may be treated as kin…. The many restraints on the use of natural resources,… may have evolved culturally in response to the need to ensure more sustainable use of…biological diversity. Compliance…is typically assured through two devices: fear of the wrath of offended nature spirits and social sanctions against offenders.
Continuing its pantheistic bent, the GBA asserts that earth must be protected from mankind by treating “certain sites as sacred, where most human activities are prohibited.” Based on this theology, the GBA calls for the implementation of The Wildlands Project, mandating up to 50 percent of America be put into wilderness where “most human activities are prohibited.”
Incredibly, the UN told the U.S. Senate a month earlier in August 1994 that the GBA did not exist, nor did the UN intend to write it. When Senator Hutchinson exposed this supposedly non-existent, anti-human document on the Senate Floor, along with a map illustrating this plan, the U.S. Senate withdrew the treaty from consideration.
Although the treaty was defeated, former President Clinton launched numerous federal programs designed to lock up land as prescribed by the Wildlands Project. Under the feel-good banner of sustainable development, Clinton created The Clean Water Initiative, American Heritage Rivers Initiative, greenways and open space smart growth planning and many others. They all have one thing in common – the Wildlands Project at their core. The denial of Klamath Falls farmers to their own irrigation water in 2001 is but one of many examples of using the Endangered Species Act to destroy rural families thereby depopulating areas for the Wildlands Project.
Environmental leadership and overzealous bureaucrats are perverting the law to attack American citizens from all walks of life while implementing their pantheistically based agenda. Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the defeat of the pantheistically oriented Convention on Biological Diversity in the U.S. Senate. So far, the treaty has never been reintroduced – although it could at any time.
© 2003 Michael Coffman – All Rights Reserved
Dr. Michael S. Coffman received his BS in Forestry and MS in Biology at Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff, Arizona and his Ph.D. in Forest Science at the University of Idaho at Moscow in 1966,1967, and 1970 respectively. Since then he has become a respected scientist and ecologist who has been involved in ecosystem research for over twenty years in both academia and industry. He taught courses and conducted research in forest ecology and forest community dynamics for ten years at Michigan Technological UniversityCa leading forestry school in the Midwest. While there, he published a book on forest ecosystem classification in Upper Michigan and Northern Wisconsin, which has become the standard for classification in the region. He also assisted the U.S. Forest Service in developing an Ecological Land Classification System for each of the National Forests in Region-9.
Until 1992 Dr. Coffman was a manager for Champion International, a leading forest and paper products company in the United States. During his tenure with Champion, he became Chairman of the Forest Health Group within NCASI (National Council for the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement), a respected scientific research group for the Paper Industry. In this, and other related responsibilities, he was responsible for millions of dollars of research and became intimately involved in such national and international issues as acid rain, global climate change, wetlands, cumulative effects and biological diversity. During this time he was a spokesperson for the Paper Industry for the media.
Dr. Coffman is currently President of Environmental Perspectives, Inc. He also serves as Executive Director of Sovereignty International, Inc and the Local Environment and Resource Network (LEARN). He provides professional guidance and training in defining environmental problems and conflicts, and developing solutions to specific issues as well as the hidden dangers of international treaties and agreements that threaten our Constitutional protections, especially property rights. He played a key role in stopping the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Biodiversity Treaty) in the U.S. Senate one hour before the ratification vote by anticipating and exposing the unbelievable agenda behind the treaty. He has written three books exposing the environmentalist phenomenon; The Birth of World Government, Saviors of the Earth? The Politics and Religion of Environmentalism, and Environmentalism! The Dawn of Aquarius or the Twilight of a new Dark Age?
In his present capacity as Exec. Director of Sovereignty International, Inc. he is intimately involved with the science that drives the issue of global warming and sustainable development and global political agenda behind the effort to create global governance. Dr. Coffman speaks to a variety of groups nationally who are interested in the scientific truth and political agenda behind global warming and other environmental issues to advance global governance.
LEARN provides knowledge to local citizens on how to help local government attain equal powers with the federal and state governments in implementing environmental laws in order to protect both the environment and the rights of local citizens. E-Mail: mcoffman@adelphia.net
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