ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the correlation between anthropocentrism and ethnocentrism are central to the understanding of anthropocentrism. It examines the relationships of Christian doctrinal orthodoxy and religious orientation to anthropocentric beliefs as measured by the Anthropocentrism Scale, thereby adding to the research on religio-psychological variables of environmental concern. Given the correlation between anthropocentrism and ethnocentrism, it was hypothesized that individuals scoring high in doctrinal orthodoxy would tend to be more anthropocentric, as they tend to be more ethnocentric. Similar to its correlation with a lack of environmental concern discussed, fundamentalism has also been found to correlate moderately with many other discriminatory attitudes regarding race, gender, sexual orientation, and political ideology. Persons with this orientation may find religion useful in a variety of ways—to provide security and solace, sociability and distraction, status and self-justification. The chapter also examines that the independent effects of the specified measures of religious orientation on the dependent variable, a zero-order intercorrelation matrix was computed.
