Algore's book, "Earth in the Balance -- Ecology and the Human Spirit" is so filled with religious terminology, one wonders how the government could possibly implement his plan without an outcry that it is an intrusion of the state into religion. Terms like: "mission," "save," "heretical," "moral," "spirit," "sacred," "spiritual sense of our place in nature," "precinct of the disembodied intellect," "earth goddess," "this belief system," etc. are sprinkled throughout the text.
Algore presumptuously assumes for himself the authority to instruct on matters clearly outside his realm of expertise. He pretends to have training in theology, philosophy, science and history. Yet he errs. So when he offers environmental answers to economic and sociological problems, one cannot help but question his conclusions. When the foundation is cracked, the edifice falls.
Algore arrogantly criticizes ministers for their noninvolvement in environmental affairs. (pp. 245-248) Yet he quotes "the great universalist religions" of the East (pp. 21): "We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment ... Man is organic with the world" (from the Baha'i religion).
