CREATION CARE QUESTIONS

I've been wrestling with some questions as of late:

1. How can I care for creation, while ensuring that I do it as an act of worship of the Creator and not the created?

2. Is it really evil to live in a suburban house or drive an SUV? These two things have become the symbolic epicenters of the image of all things godless and evil among some Christian writers/bloggers I've been reading lately. Are they right or wrong and why do I agree or disagree with them?

3. Is there ever such a thing as "over-populating the earth"? Or is overpopulation actually really about sin and selfishness more than resource management?

4. How many of our planet's resources are actually being used up for the sole purpose of keeping human beings from stealing what is not theirs? I wonder how many more products are being made to replace ones that are stolen or destroyed? I wonder how many trees have died and how many millions of tons of plastics have been created to keep people from stealing the product? Isn't this the reason my son's 2" toy must come in a 12" box or the reason my digital camera SD card must come in a box 500 times it's volume. Maybe part of it is marketing, but how much? I think the sin of stealing causes a huge percentage of the earth's resources to be unnecessarily used up. I wonder if all stealing stopped, how it would change our world economy and the planet as a whole?

5. If we were living perfectly in harmony with the earth, do we really believe that means the earth stops changing? Any run of the mill geologist would tell us that volcanoes are still building new mountains, while erosion of snow and rain is destroying others. Continents are shifting, climates are changing,and life is in a constant state of change. Most scientists even believe we at one point had an "ice age" and that one could even return in the future. Some changes I can influence. Some I'm merely at the mercy of the earth and God on. So if that's the case, perhaps the real question is how can I live in harmony with the earth, the Creator, and it's changes without being a catalyst to unnecessary planet change or harm due negligence on my part?


still thinking.....