Nature, Natural Environment, and Environmental Protection from the Perspectives of Commonsense, Religion, and Science

This paper applies observation, comparison, juxtaposition, generalization, and extrapolation to explore nature, the natural environment, and environmental protection in relation to individuals and individual life, societies and social change, and human species and human evolution across three worlds of human experience. In the world of commonsense, nature and the natural environment constitute material conditions by which humans earn a living. Environmental protection is to preserve the land, water, and air upon which people survive. In the world of religion, nature and the natural environment serve as stages where humans perform to achieve blessing, redemption, and salvation. Environmental protection is to admire the almighty and his creations. In the world of science, nature and the natural environment exist as objective facts against which humans set out to explore, study, and understand. Environmental protection is to follow universal laws inherent in nature so that all environmental elements and forces can operate with their natural rhythms.