Dylan, are you claiming that there is an objective ethics, and objective concept of beauty, imposed by some immaterial agent? Maybe it would make our conservation work easier if there were some god who ordered everyone to take care of the world. Is that a good reason to believe such a thing? No, obviously not. We should believe in things something we have evidence that it is true, not because it would be nice if it were true. There is no credible evidence for such a god, and conservation is not served by fooling ourselves and others about this. Honesty is essential in conservation. Lots of people often repeat the false idea that tropical forests are the lungs of the world, and make our oxygen. If this were true, it would be a great reason to conserve forests. Does that mean we should believe it, and use it to motivate conservation? Of course not. It is not true, and our wishing it was does not make it so. Eventually, informed anti-conservationists will point out the lie, and it will cast doubt on our credibility and our other conservation arguments. In the same way, bringing in imaginary higher powers or religious sentiments to defend conservation can only backfire, because these myths have no credible evidence to back them up. Lou