THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS IMPACT UPON RELIGIOUS ETHICS - A CROSS-CULTURAL-STUDY

This study explores the ability of variations in the natural environme nt to predict variations in the religious-ethical views espoused by di fferent cultural groups. Drawing from the theoretical perspectives of William James and Max Weber, it was hypothesized that societies with e nvironmental conditions of potentially life-jeopardizing water scarcit y would be significantly more likely to show an elective affinity for a morally concerned Supreme Deity in order to promote the prosocial us e of natural resources and contribute to societal survival. To test th is hypothesis, a worldwide survey was conducted by using the 186 cultu ral groups in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. After the influence of missionization was controlled for, the findings confirmed that in s ocieties with a marginally,sufficient water supply, a Supreme Deity wa s significantly more likely to be understood as concerned with, and su pportive of, human morality. In contrast, in societies in which water was abundant, the Supreme Deity typically was not concerned with the m orality of human behavior These findings have implications for develop ing more fruitful understandings of religious environmental ethics.