Follow the Bible and reproduce, or listen to the environmentalists and stop population growth
I don’t see the same divide between the Christians and the environmentalists that others see. They’re both right, but it depends on what your goals are. The problem is that local incentives don’t align with global incentives.
Let’s suppose that the Bible is correct and true AND that
the environmentalists are correct and true. I’ll make a case for each one and then I’ll get into my compatiblist approach to making sense of both.
The environmentalists worry about global warming, natural resource exhaustion, deforestation, and biodiversity. The argument is that we’re in a Petri dish with a limited amount of resources and that soon we’ll run out. Scientists say global warming is caused by C02 increase. This may or may not be true, but the point is that it’s possible that we’re contributing and that this can have a serious destabilizing effect. It’s hard to estimate when we’ll stop finding natural resources. We can only estimate based on the information we have.
The secular case for the Bible is that one of its primary purposes is to keep families and consequentially societies together. The Bible tells us to go forth and multiply. It reduces conflict within the home by putting a single person in charge (the father). It discourages sex before marriage. In fact, sex + cohabitation seems to be THE definition for marriage. It discourages divorce, and says both the husband and wife have a right to each other’s bodies for the purpose of sex. The Bible also encourages you to spread the word. In short, the Bible sets up the conditions for believers to produce as many children as possible.
How do we reconcile the Bible with the environmentalists? Suppose both are correct. If so, the fundamental conflict is not faith vs. science. It’s a conflict in goals. One encourages reproduction and therefore resource use, the discourages resource use and therefore encourages population control. Humans are the biggest threat to the environment. If we mess with nature too much, we’re at risk of unleashing chain reactions that cannot be undone. We can outpace nature in our capacity to innovate. Animals cannot evolve fast enough to keep up with the changes we’re introducing.
They also fear conflicting unknowns. Christians fear the judgment of God. Put in secular terms, the fear eternal damnation is fear that their genetic line dies out. I expect this point to be contested, but the Jordan Peterson types might find the secular comparison to be helpful. The environmentalists fear the unknown as well. They’re afraid of over extraction of resources.
The environmentalists are smart for seeing what they see. They are conservative in that they want to conserve the environment. Christians are conservative in persevering traditional family values that have worked well for many generations. Environmentalists are likely to destroy themselves via their own philosophy. Besides recycling, the ultimate sacrifice they make is one of refusing to reproduce. They martyr their personal future to save the global future. In return, environmentalists are free to have sex for pleasure and focus on momentary wants. To the Christians this sounds like a deal with the devil. The Christian ideal is to bear your cross and to give up worldly pleasures for a future beyond your own existence. The two ideologies are at odds, but ultimately, the Christian ideology is likely to win.
Some solutions
We’ve got three general solutions. Separate yourself, try to convince them, or dominate them. Don’t try to dominate, and try to talk to them . If you can’t talk to them, separate yourself from them.
I’m tempted to encourage conservatives to quiet down about the left, duck their heads, and let the disastrous movement pass over them. Don’t try to engage the environmentalists, don't try to change them. Don’t preach to them. Essentially, be very Jewish and stop doing outreach. This will have the nice effect of allowing you to win while expending the least possible effort. However, the environmentalists detest what they see as the uneducated, dirty, racist conservatives. Even if you get out of their way, these people might come for you instead. They’re already trying.
You can try to stay more quiet about your beliefs. This may help a bit. Be nice and courteous and don’t draw too much attention to yourself. There are Christians in Hollywood. Most people don’t know who they are. Be like them and just blend in. Don’t judge others or make fun of them or be confrontational. Just allow them to coexist with you. Don’t give them a reason to dislike you.
On to practical concerns: what about the internet, jobs, and education? You don’t want to be fired for your views. One way to counter this is to not work in cities. It’s best to work in tight knit communities, or to work online where your identity doesn’t matter. You can work in tech remotely. You can work in local services. You want to limit the chance of getting fired for your views.
If you do engage, I think it’s best not to mock them or make them feel stupid. After all, part of my goal in writing this post is to give you a glimpse into how their minds work. But I also want conservatives to take the environment seriously. See the environmentalists as accidental allies. But also, I think Christians have a better chance of coming up with a successful strategy for climate change than to simply run population control.