Recently I was talking with a friend about a presentation that he sat through at his work.  The presentation was from a secular organisation about how their workplace could be more environmentally aware.  The two presenters showed a number of ways that my friend could recycle, reduce or reuse in the workplace.  My friend raised the topic not because of the great presentation but because he said it was obvious that one of the presenters was an atheist and he commented “how could you care for the environment and not believe in God?”

I have sat with that question for a whole week now, “how can you care for the environment and not believe in God?”. If a person doesn’t believe in any spiritual being why care? I am sure that there are many reasons that atheists care about the environment but the environment shows so many signs of the wonder of God it is hard for that not to rub off on a person.  But it also highlights that our beliefs system should determine our actions or else people will judge our belief system by our actions.

Before he was a federal politician I heard a talk by Peter Garrett, the front man of the Aussie rock band Midnight Oil.  When asked which can first his care for the environment or his love of God, he replied that it was his belief in God that compelled him to care for the environment.  For this environmentalist his faith lead him to care for the environment, it seem natural to him that one lead to the other.

For any person with the mark of faith on their life, it should be obvious from their actions what their belief system is.  Whether you care for the environment or not, do your actions match your beliefs?  Or like the atheist environmentalist do your actions seem confusing to others when they find out you are a Christian?

Sometimes we fall short in acting out what we believe, but if we never reflect on this then others will always judge our belief system by our actions.

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