The Creator, Not Creation

I lost count how many times the Bible says we must worship the Creator, not Creation.
Biblical religion does not reverence Mother Earth. That does not excuse profligate pollution and other abuses, because those are unjust in God’s view. What it does do is recognize the earth is a living thing, that just like you and I, it can tolerate a certain amount of suffering and sorrow and recover because God heals things all the time.
The issue rests upon His Justice, AKA His Laws. It’s not simply the mechanics of how we do things with nature and the ecology. God is watching over His Word to actively enforce it. He keeps His hand on Creation so it doesn’t dissolve into its constituent parts. You’ll never find a scientific answer why matter doesn’t explode as the positive and negative particles separate because the answer is God Almighty invasively reaching into His Creation and taking care of things. At the point He decides it’s done, He lets go and it all disappears. His revelation defines our part in this whole picture and is God’s guarantee things will keep working as He designed them.
Do we still have rainbows in the sky? Then the Law of Noah remains in effect.
The focus of the Law of Noah is keeping social stability. In turn, God will maintain natural stability. That was the promise. We might remain aware of how our activities affect nature, but the focus is justice among humans. Humans are not a virus infesting the earth; they are fundamental to the purpose of Creation itself. God’s Justice among humans will always take precedence over our perceptions of what might be good environmental science. If we cling to His Justice, He’ll take care of the earth according to His plans. It works like magic, if you will.
If your activities place an unnecessary burden on others — such as pollution — then you are doing evil. Not because it’s an attack on nature, but you are attacking God’s justice. Don’t leave a mess someone else has to clean up before they can live. That applies to land, sea and air. If your actions are consistent with God’s demands, you have nothing to fear.
We worship the Creator, not His Creation, nor any element of it.