You might want to go back and reread my comment. All I said was that they were ‘possibly - who knows?’ kinder to trees. And no smileys - or flippancy - involved in that comment. I don’t think a single soul really has the answer, in all honesty. I even SAID that I don’t personally actually prefer digital texts, and I don’t as a general thing. I merely that there are some advantages to them.
Thankyou in all sincerity for planting seven trees on your property last year. Would that everyone did - not nearly everyone does. Not nearly everyone cares as much as you do about conservation issues.
I’d also be interested to know (because I don’t pretend to) how much wood (ie how many trees) it takes to make the average book or newspaper. And how many books and newspapers are sold each day. And how much electricity is needed to power the sawmills, woodchipping plants, paper factories, printing presses etc etc that go into the process of producing them. And how many rivers are polluted by the chemicals used in those same processes.
And how much space is needed to store all the resulting product - resulting in bigger rooms in our houses, or more libraries, more land cleared to build them, more timber used in their building, more electricity needed to heat or air condition and light them. Which would be largely unnecessary if everything were digitally stored. And so on.
What I’m getting at is that neither of us, if we are honest, has the answer as to which is better. And only one of us seems to be pretending to, and it isn’t me.
There is no more justifiable use of God’s creation than to use it to glorify God. No tree can be used for a more glorious use than to be cut down and turned into a Bible, or a Roman Missal which sits on the altar and from which the priest reads the words of consecration, or a chair where a priest sits at Mass, or a crucifix. .
In the Genesis 1, God creates things in a specific order. The order in which he creates things tells us how he intended things to be ordered in creation.
Day 1: Light and dark
Day 2: The sky and the heavens
Day 3: Seas, dry land and vegitation.
Day 4: Sun, moon, stars and the seasons
Day 5: Fish and birds
Day 6: The beasts, and finally man.
That which serves is created before that which it serves. Man is last. All else serves man, and man serves God.
The second creation story tells us that man was created first. God then creates all the beasts, and brings them to man to see what he would call them. Names are important in the Bible, and God changes the names of people to change their identity and their purpose. He renames Abram to Abraham, and renames Simon to Peter. One who has dominion and power over another gets to name the other. The one who is named gets his identity and his purpose from the one who names him. In Genesis 2, man names the beasts. The fact that God names man shows that man gets his identity from God, and the fact that man names the beasts shows that they get their indentify and purpose from man.
This is truth revealed to us by God.
We can argue about whether men have been good stewards of God’s creation, and what being good stewards means. That is a valid discussion. Blessed Pope John Paul II taught often about man’s responsibility to be good stewards of God’s gift of creation. His teaching was difficult for many social conservative, pro-business Catholics to embrace. He is 100% right, and the discussion is important. Creation however, is a gift from God to man. Man has no idenity and purpose apart from God, and the rest of creation has no identity and no purpose apart from Man. If man, created in the image and likeness of God, were not present in creation, then it would have no purpose, and no value. Man has a responsiblity to minister to creation, to be good stewards of creation because it is a gift from God to man. But creation serves man, not the other way around.
Where I live, trees and paper mills give jobs to many people who would not otherwise be able to feed their family. That’s a perfect example of creation serving man. Man in return, protects creation - he shouldn’t pour his drained motor oil into the ground - thats suicide.
There is nothing more glorious on earth today than the Eucharist, and after that the vessels in which it is kept and the tabernacle in which it is reposed. Third is the Sacred Scriptures and Holy Books of the Church. The Holy Bible - God’s communication to man and to me personally - is the third most sacred, most holy, most special and most prized thing in all of creation.
If it took twenty square miles of wheat and two factories to produce one host to be consecrated into the Eucharist for one person to recieve, it would be worth it. That land would be holy, and sacred, and cherished, and protected.
If it took five power plants and ten forests to produce one Bible for one person to read the Gospel of John once, it would be worth it.
-Tim-
( , it was a question, and i thank you all for responding!! if anyone else needs to add some (name removed by moderator)ut, feel free, but please, no sarcasm!!