Creation Care Beliefs Inventory

The possible answers given for each question below are not necessarily exhaustive or mutually exclusive. Use them as a jumping off point for you to describe (on a separate sheet of paper) what you believe and why!

(1) What do you see when you look at nature? Some possible answers:

• "Matter in motion" without purpose.
• Material but "more than material."
• Sacred and holy.
• Nature is all there is.
• Radically interconnected so there is no differentiation between the parts of nature.
• Best understood through aesthetics (e.g., wonder, beauty, etc.).

(2) What kind of value does nature have and how do you weigh values, both the value nature has and other values? Some possible answers:

• Kind of value nature has:
  • Value dependent on people's valuing of nature.
  • Value dependent on God's valuing of nature.
  • Intrinsic value that all living things have.
  • Intrinsic value that ecosystems (and other abstract constructs) have.
• How do we weigh values:
  • Think about values in terms of which ones are duties (a.k.a. categorical imperatives) and which are not (deontology).
  • Look at what results from living out each value and evaluate on that basis (consequentialism).
  • Focus on becoming a certain kind of person rather than what rules we use to decide between actions (virtue ethics).
  • Extract rules or principles based upon what nature is and who human beings are (Natural Law).

(3) What kind of authority does science have? Some possible answers

• Scientific truth is additive (i.e., it accumulates with time) and has high-levels of authority.
• Scientific consensus has high-levels of authority.
• Science describes only the material, not the non-material.
• Negative results are very authoritative in the way science knows, and thus consensus has limited authority.
• Social processes play a major role in the construction of scientific knowledge, and so scientific truth is just as reliable as other forms of knowing.
• Scientific knowledge outweighs other forms of knowledge (e.g., philosophy, theology, revelation, etc.).

(4) How should we connect science to policy? Which of the following models are preferred and why?

• Policy prescriptive.
• Fact-value dualism.
• Supporting Role (Science is Neutral).
• Honest Broker of Policy Alternatives.
• Supporting Role (Science May Not Be Neutral).

(5) How should a shared life be organized and power be allocated? Some possible answers:

• Government plays the most prominent role regarding environmental stewardship.
• Private organizations and individuals play the most prominent role regarding environmental stewardship.
• Environmental regulation plays the most prominent role in environmental stewardship.
• Non-regulatory governance systems (e.g., common law, private cooperatives, voluntary measures, etc.) play the most prominent role in environmental stewardship.
• The value of __________ (e.g., liberty, freedom, justice, equity, etc.) is a categorical imperative when organizing power.

(6) How should money and resources be allocated? Some possible answers:

• Government should play the pre-eminent role in an economic system.
• The free-market should play the pre-eminent role in an economic system.
• Shared, non-tangible, and difficult to value aspects of nature should be included into economic systems and analyses by __________.
• The value of __________ (e.g., liberty, freedom, justice, equity, etc.) is a categorical imperative when allocating resources.

For more on the topics addressed in this inventory, please see the book The Nature of Environmental Stewardship.

Updated: Wednesday, 04-Apr-2018 13:11:53 PDT. Disclaimer. Privacy Policy. Valid CSS, HTML. Author: Johnny Lin <email address>. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.