Comments on: The Easter Island Path to Perdition could show where humanity is heading

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:33:45 +0000

Iran has an active and enthusiastic young landscape architecture profession but it is split between (1) a desire to be forward-looking and modernistic (2) a desire to be true to Islam by avoiding westernization.
Many of the other Islamic countries are either so poor that they cannot afford what is seen as a luxury profession, quite wrongly, or they are so rich that they employ foreigners to do the work.
Mecca is always making provision for increased visitor numbers but if present trends continue the visitors will have to be rushed past the Kaaba on banks of high-speed travelators. Hajj pilgrims were once Saudi Arabia’s main source of foreign currency and may be so again when the oil runs out. So investment in promoting Islam and Islamic tourism makes good financial and religious sense.
Do you mean that Christians and Muslims may be wealthier than aethists?

By: christine

christine — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:43:33 +0000

I would be interested to know if landscape architecture is a formal discipline within Islam. There is such a strong garden tradition that it would be surprising if it was not a formal area of study at some period within the Islamic cultural flowering.

Perhaps accommodating increased pilgrimage numbers to Mecca in the future has already been considered?

I wonder whether faith adherence generally increases or decreases with education and wealth? This seems to be the case presently with Christianity. Is the Islamic experience different?

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:07:43 +0000

My very-outsiders view is that Islam was a very-enlightened faith at the time of its inception but that a ‘mistake’ was made in stating that because the Koran is the word of God the faith can never change. There are indeed ‘many differences in how the Islamic faith is understood’ – so presumably some of them are right/wrong, good/bad, better/worse. Therefore the faith must change even if the Koran never changes.
An interesting problem for Muslims is that if there is no God but Allah then all the world’s 7,000,000,000 people should convert to Islam – and all of them should visit Mecca at least once in their lives and during the 4 months of the Hajj. At present the world has about 1,100,000,000 muslims and the city receives about 3,500,000 visitors/year, because many muslims visit the city frequently. Could Mecca accommodate 22,272,727+m visitors/year? Certainly, they should educate many muslims in landscape architecture.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:03:06 +0000

Yes, it would certainly be a worthy thing if ‘all sacred trees’ could be respected.

Eastern rite catholic priests do marry. Here is an interesting article on the topic for you to consider. [ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_24_40/ai_n6013191/ ]

What would be the next question? Can married priests be bishops? Can married priests divorce?
[ http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/004395.html ]

After that of course, would be, can divorced priests remarry? Can divorced priests be bishops?

I suppose there are as many differences in how the Islamic faith is understood, lived and practiced as there are of the Buddhist faith. This website provides a good introduction, and perhaps helpfully illustrates some misconceptions that may exist in Islam about Christianity.
[ http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/beginnings/beliefs.html ]

Perhaps most enlightening for me, is the idea that the Islamic faith does not believe in original sin. The would be consequences flowing from this for the Islamic understanding of the human condition.

Perhaps someone of the muslim faith could clarify this for me?

Christianity certainly believes women have souls and does not believe that women are inherently evil.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:48:24 +0000

Most religions appear to need a New Testament at the rate of approximately one per millennium. For example: tree worshipers should extend their scope from ‘our sacred trees’ to ‘all sacred trees’; Muslims should re-consider the position of women in society; Catholics should re-consider whether priests can marry.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:39:36 +0000

I sure the Pacific nations were pleased that Japanese plans for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere were never fully realized.

It seems that the sacredness of particular trees are religion and culture specific. Therefore the cutting down of another’s sacred tree[s] is not considered taboo?
[ http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/trees.html ]

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 05:39:57 +0000

I guess it was only sacred groves which received the protection of ‘sacredness’ – and that industry was more important than religion. I feel offended at the idea of sacred trees being cut down on principle. It is also interesting that Japan’s forests were and are protected because of a belief in their value. So the Japanese import their timber from what was once called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (大東亜共栄圏 Dai-tō-a Kyōeiken).

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:58:11 +0000

Hmmm. Apparently by the time of Pliny Italy was almost stripped of its forest cover:

“For this reason the Romans had to import most of the timber from all parts of the Empire and metalurgic industries, which depended heavily on charcoal, moved out of Italy. The centres of mining and metal smelting became the most deforested areas of the Roman Empire. Pliny must have realised that human industry and activities put forests at risk of destruction. In a world where trees were a scarce resource it is not surprising that Pliny wrote with awe about the massive forests in Germany..”

[ http://www.eh-resources.org/wood.html ]

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:40:18 +0000

Interesting that John Croumbie-Brown uses ‘about the commencement of the Christian era’ in this context – because the Roman invaders and the British peoples they conquered seem to have been in broad agreement on religious issues. They were pagan and shared an Indo-European cultural heritage, including a respect for trees and forests. Christianity came later and was no more than a minority urban religion in the final years of the Roman imperium.

By: Christine

Christine — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:06:44 +0000

John Croumbie-Brown in ‘The Forests of England, and the Management of the Them in Bygone Times’ notes that:

“When Britain was invaded by the Romans, about the commencement of the Christian era, the country was extensively covered with forests…Caesar found upon the South Coast people engaged in agriculture, and some towns inhabited by traders between Britain and the Continent; but all beyond appeared to be a vast and horrid forest;…”