Posted on 10/15/2005 3:16:30 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Science and religion may differ on how we got here, but increasingly there is little disagreement on where we are headed if we don't begin to address the causes of climate change. Scientists have long warned of the dangers of global warming attributed to our profligate use of fossil fuels. Now, one of the nation's most influential religious groups is delivering the same message, if based on an alternative standard of proof.
"I had a conversion experience on the climate issue not unlike my conversion to Christ," Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, told the environmental magazine Grist. "I was at a conference in Oxford where Sir John Houghton, an evangelical scientist, was presenting evidence of shrinking ice caps, temperatures tracked for millennia through ice-core data, increasing hurricane intensity, drought patterns, and so on. I realized all at once, with sudden awe, that climate change is a phenomenon of truly biblical proportions."
The 30-million-member association, which Cizik says is one of the strongest voices in the Republican Party, isn't just talking about global warming. It is taking action. Calling the doctrine "creation care," the association is conducting a scripture-based campaign to convince its members that they are "commissioned by God the Almighty to be stewards of the earth."
Cizik doesn't rule out formal collaboration with secular environmental groups such as the Sierra Club. And the association is preparing a position paper on global warming policy.
For his part, Cizik is practicing what he preaches. "We sold our RV, which got about five miles per gallon, and bought a Prius, which gets about 10 times that," he told Grist. "I oughta get a commission from Toyota for the number of people I've converted to the Prius."
Soon, there will be no haven for those who continue to ignore the environmental challenges ahead.
I tend to believe there is an interpretation of his quote that is Scripturally sound, however, it might also be easily distorted out of context into a false doctrine.
Man-made global warming would be a lot easier for me to believe in if there weren't so many nut jobs preaching it.
WhiteKnight
Only the sun is powerful enough to cause global warming, and if we are indeed suffering global warming there is no man made solution.
Thanks for those terrific links, backhoe! And thanks for the thread, CW; you always find some of the most interesting stuff!
As for the notion that these guys "suddenly" understand our role as stewards of the Creation because they've been convinced by junk science, I say: Hokum! The first and second Chapters of Genesis are models of what our Creator expects in our stewardship. We have been entrusted with CARE of our fellow creatures and all creation.
Absolutely right. I resent the way the environmental movement got highjacked by people with an anti-people, anti-business agenda.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a clean environment, not being wasteful- in my opinion, those are good, even conservative values.
If you cut a stand of trees, you should replant them, so you or others can use them again if needed. It makes sense to reuse what you can- I just get annoyed with how "recycling" has been turned into a cheapjack, quasi-religion by some.
I'll give you a good example- on the Island I grew up on, recycling was mandated for years, and every week people would take their carefully separated trash to the old Air Guard armory, and carefully place each bag in the properly-labeled bin... then...
The county garbage trucks would haul it to the mainland, where it all got dumped into the same hole in the landfill, and a bulldozer flattened it all together.
A few years ago, the local news hounds finally ran this little fact down, and a great upheaval ensued, several politicians losing their seats to reformers.
Needless to say, the recycling bins went away- but I still recall all those duped citizens- many old, semi-ambulatory retirees- worshiping at the little tin God of the "properly-labeled dumpsters."
Having said that, we should be good stewards of the Earth, and the beasts of the field- not only because of the Biblical charge laid upon us, but because life has a way of giving back what you put into it.
"when confusion reigns, they then frame the complete issue in their words and terms. they really do a great job."
That sums it up real well. Spot on.
Oh yeah ... there will be a "global wamring"
WHEN
2Pet.3:10,12
[10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
[12] Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
"WHEN" the Good LOrd comes, again.
There is NO global warming NOW.
Nah. Don't think so.
Right. Global warming is caused by the sun. This is a very difficult concept for the liberal brain to grasp, because liberals are ignorant, but very self-important. They think styrofoam cups cause holes in the ozone, etc. One explosion of Mount St. Helens is equivalent to about 50 years of LA smog. What man does on earth is of little significance compared to natural forces, such as earthquakes, the temperature at the core of the earth, minute changes in the path of the earth through space, changes in the sun itself....The sun will eventually die, and so will the earth.
RV's are used for camping and traveling a Prius is used for traveling around town, I guess the Rev. decided not to go camping anymore.
Since the RV was so easy to get rid of I imagine that it was not his first car and set in his yard and was not used much. Now he's probably sold it to a guy that will use it way more than the Rev. and thus pump more CO2 into the air than ever. A true greenie would have destroyed the RV. and got a bike.
Shouldn't they be more concerned for men's souls?
No, they don't want men's soles going there.
Smite the SUVs saith the Lord!
Imagine being SUV'ed. When I went on a long hike on a rainy day, I got home, put up my feet, set my shoes by the fireplace and said, "These are the times that dry men's soles. "
LOL!
Great, so now someone else is driving the SUV and there are two cars where there was only one before--some kind of ecological relief that will bring--what a dumbell.
Thanks. I better take back the SUV pun, but I'll leave the rest. I could have said something about putting them under the New York Times:).
Fleas have no fear or reluctance about attacking an elephant. As far as they are concerned, the bigger they are, the more generations of fleas they will feed.
Nor do I have any reluctance to display human arrogance. I think we can, and should, influence and control the climate, not only on Earth, but also on Mars.
Here's the gist of my arrogant thinking: We need to be in space to protect Earth from random asteroids and comets, if we can detect and influence them early enough.
If we have to be there anyway, why not do other productive things? Eventually, the Sun will follow its natural progression and start getting warmer anyway, why not make a start at dealing with the problem now?
We can deflect sunlight with mirrors, and also absorb it for energy production with solar cell farms.
Arrogant? Yes. But what else are we going to do while we're here, fight with each other?
The solutions are obvious. A child could recite them.
But it will take considerable engineering effort and expertise, not to mention political cooperation, to implement the solutions.
A relatively small amount of aluminum could do quite a bit to reduce the amount of incoming sunlight, if it were properly positioned. Does anyone remember one of the complaints about setting up solar-cell farms and solar furnaces? -- that they would affect the environment!
All one has to do is to see to it that the effects go in the direction one wishes. Too much incoming sunlight? Place mirrors, or at least reflecting roofs, where the dark materials and roofs are now. Pass ordinances that parking lots must have shade trees. Stop constructing buildings in an "upside-down" energy pattern.
Lots of things we could do. Childishly simple, really.
But we won't, will we? We'd rather bicker until the world ends, not with a bang, not with a whimper, but in the screaming voices of a "heated" discussion.
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