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The Institute of Religion in
an Age of Science (IRAS) will host the Fiftieth
Annual Star Island Conference on “Ecomorality”
during July 26–August 17, 2003. This conference
will focus on issues surrounding the human responsibility
for the environment.
The international
Earth Charter states that “the protection
of the Earth’s vitality, diversity, and beauty
is a sacred trust.” In this conference we
will explore this thesis, noting that such a trust
will best flourish if it is undertaken as a moral
commitment—an ecomorality—infused with
such qualities as mindfulness, empathy, fairmindedness,
courage, reverence, and shared responsibility.
This thesis generates
three core questions:
- What are human moral sensibilities
and where do they come from?
- What motivates a person to make
moral choices even when such choices appear
to be contrary to self-interest?
- Why, or in what sense, should
choices about protection of the Earth be considered
moral choices?
During the plenary
sessions, ethologists, neurobiologists, and philosophers
will consider what is known and posited about
the evolutionary roots and psychodynamics of human
moral experience and motivation; religionists
will consider how moral experience and motivation
are conceptualized and celebrated in the understandings
of Abrahamic, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, and
Indiginous traditions; and artists will invoke
our ecosensibilities. Our goal will be to articulate
ways to foster an abiding moral orientation toward
the Earth, in ourselves, and in our children.
Afternoon sessions will focus on political and
economic responses to particular environmental
concerns such as population, habitat and species
preservation, agriculture, climate, pollution,
environmental justice, and the distribution of
global resources.
Inherent in our approach throughout the week will
be an orientation in the evolutionary story and
its emergent understanding that creatures are
deeply interrelated in their genetic histories,
their life cycles, and their dependence on an
Earth that maintains a sense of balance.
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