The Vatican came out recently against what they perceive as Avatar‘s attack on religion. As they see it, Avatar preaches a gospel of nature rather than God, of naturalism rather than theism. I’ve heard this criticism echoed as a broader critique of environmentalist policies and general beliefs about caring for and preserving the environment.
I agree that, when taken too far, reverence for nature can distort or supplant traditional worship of God. But it doesn’t necessarily have to. In fact, many religious environmentalists have managed to balance belief in God and protectiveness for God’s creations.
I’ll be the first to admit Avatar can be overly preachy at time. It is clearly advocating a number of agendas at the same time, one of which is environmentalism. But, just because someone or something is pro-environment does not mean they are somehow anti-God or anti-religion. Maybe their environmentalism is supplanting some other obsession.
In my opinion, Avatar is not replacing the God of religion with the god of nature, but is instead putting the god of nature above the god of money. Avatar‘s environmental message is not that we should stop worshiping the God of the Bible, but that we should reconsider our obsession with financial gain ignorant of the world around us.
Maybe the god of profit doesn’t always justify abuse of the creations we’re here to defend as stewards.
