Like Thoreau and Emerson, Muir had a very romantic view of nature that extended to the religious. To Muir, the trees were divine and Americans had a moral and ethical duty to save them. He defined the redwoods as Christ-figures being crucified by loggers. Muir's arguments were not scientific models for conservation and stewardship. They were, however, effective in touching the spiritual core between of the relationship between nature and man.