宗教護生信念與生物多樣性的對話

A Dialogue between Religious Beliefs Concerning the“Protection of Life”and Biodiversity

「護生」是古老的宗教信念，「生物多樣性」則是被廣泛接受的生態指標，但在宗教的護生實踐和生物多樣性的保育倫理間卻存在著不小的落差。本文試圖透過魯曼的社會系統理論來觀察此一現象，並在科學、宗教和道德的系統關連中勾勒出一條語意銜接的路徑。本文主張，宗教的護生信念可以透過道德的中介，與保育生物學的生物多樣性產生積極的互動。為達此一目標，本文要以物種滅絕與棲地破壞這兩方面的保育課題為主軸，討論宗教傳統如何在既有的生命觀和價值觀的基礎上，為傳統的護生信念賦予生態意義，尋求建構具有宗教性的保育倫理的契機。

While beliefs concerning the“protection of life＂have been part of religions since ancient times, there is now a significant gap between religious practices of protecting life and conservation eth¬ics regarding biodiversity, a widely accepted ecological indicator. This article attempts to examine this phenomenon through Luh¬mann´s social systems theory, outlining a path of semantic link for the systematic connection of science, religion, and morality. This article argues that religious beliefs concerning the“protection of life＂can sustain constructive interactions with the concept of biodiversity in conservation biology through the intermediary of morality. For this purpose, this article will focus on the conserva¬tion issues of species extinction and habitat destruction, discussing how religious traditions can endow their own views of life and value systems with ecological meaning in searching for opportuni¬ties to construct their own conservation ethics.