I am consistently amazed at the crazy ignorance of many in the religious right. I never understand their reluctance to even acknowledge that global warming is a reality and that maybe it’s a bad idea to continually destroy the earth, take what we want, and pump toxins into the air, land, and water all so we can keep on consuming.
Their rejection of science in this area seems to run counter to what Jesus would teach if he was here today, in my opinion. He was a humble guy, lived modestly, repeatedly told people to give up worldly possessions, it doesn’t seem to me that he would advocate for the rampant consumerism in the US today. He also talked about how every tree, plant, bird was important to God, so I would think his followers would be more concerned with saving them.
Sadly, that is not the case for the most part. Once again while reading our local blogs I ran across Carisa Wells’ ignorant ranting on how global warming is a hoax invented by Al Gore. I’m not sure what she thinks the motivation is for such a hoax but she is very adamant about it. See this article for more of her nonsense. There are things in her article that I somewhat agree with but for the most part I find her ignorant and self righteous. We’ve butted heads quite a few times.
So, back to my original point, I can think of only one reason the Christians of our nation dismiss our climate crisis and our duty to the environment; because they sincerely believe that they will be raptured soon so none of it will matter. If this seems crazy to you, that’s a good sign. While Christians have long been planning the “imminent” return of their Christ, they have also done a horrible job of planning for any other outcome.
I recently attended church service in my home town which I haven’t done for over 5 years, and the message shared, while delivered very well by my cousin, was the very same message as five years ago. The church was on the threshhold of moving to the next level of God’s plans for it. He was going to use this church to change the community and the region. Of course, there were no concrete plans shared, or even ideas thrown about. Everyone is just supposed to be ready for that next step, the same one they were supposed to be ready for 5 years ago, 10 years ago, and as far back as I can remember.
Because Christians are basically just living until the rapture, they become stagnant and repetitive and their ignorance just increases. They don’t move forward in their knowledge, they don’t adapt to the changes happening around them, they stay in their cocoon of isolation waiting for the day Jesus comes down from the clouds and takes them home. So what if Earth is dying a slow, painful, preventable death, they won’t be around to see it.
~ Summer Ludwig ~ WWJV4.com
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2008-01-17 07:13:55
Summer, I’m not surprised that no one seems to read your blog. Your entire thesis seems to be that all Christians are ignorant and bury their head in the sand waiting for the rapture to occur.
As far as Global Warming is concerned, there is more scientific evidence to suggest that the cyclical changes in the earth’s mean temperatures is due to periodic fluctuations in solar output, not anthropocentric causes, then there is to support Goreic Global Warming (TM).
One of your heroes, Stephen Jay Gould wrote in “Bully For Brontosaurus” : ‘Nothing within our power can come close to conditions and catastrophes that the earth has often passed through and beyond. The worst scenario of global warming under greenhouse models yields an earth substantially cooler than many ahppay and prosperous times of prehuman past.’
BTW, check your style manual, ‘earth’ is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence. Anyone who doesn’t know that is ignorant.
2008-01-17 14:08:09
Ignorance is forgivable. Stupidity is not.
2008-01-17 09:08:43
thanks For the Tip on thE proPEr waY to capitaLize earth wE seeM tO HavE misPlaceD oUr STylE manUal. i DonT knOw wHo StePheN jay gOuld is buT yOu sHoulD wRitE anD teLl hIm hOw tO sPelL haPpY. aLso, hoW coUld prE-huMan paSt Be hAppY and proSperoUs? wHo wouLd haVe bEen aRounD tO bE HaPpy aNd ProspeRous? oR iS thAt wHat wE haVe tO loOk ForWard to? A hAppY aNd PrOspeRous earth DevoId of HumAn lIfE bEcauSe oF gloBaL waRmiNg?
2008-01-18 12:29:17
The global warming movement is is being promoted to attack capitalism. One goal of the the global warming (GW)leadership is to impose more taxes on everyone and use a pending environmental crisis as a reason to accomplish that goal. The other goal is to increase more control over the lives of people. For example the California congress was promoting the idea of centrally controlled thermostats. The government sets your thermostat in your house. GW is a hoax. The idea that people have the power to raise global temperature is dumb. Plus it is silly to think a climatologist can predict weather years in advance, when meteorologist fail to accurately predict the number of hurricanes and severity of them, for a given year. Any ideas why people on the left side of politics eagerly glom on to GW? Must be the power-grab and hate for capitalism, etc., etc. That is my guess.
2008-01-18 13:16:16
Sean, you fail to realize that even the most aggressive measures to slow down global warming would have extremely minor effects on the economy. According the Christian Science Monitor this would be as little as a 0.12% reduction in economic growth. But, like Summer said, the long term effects on the planet just aren’t important to conservative Christians. Your all expecting to be raptured away soon so you better make as much money as you can before that happens.
2008-01-18 14:32:01
The Kyota climate change treaty is centerpiece proposal of GW (global warming) promoters. William H Lash III made the following conclusions of Kyota treaty on the US economy and he based these findings on various studies - depress wage growth by an average of 5 to 10 percent and increase domestic energy costs by as much as 86 percent;
decrease the income of the average American family by $2,700 annually;
require a 25 percent reduction of U.S. domestic consumption of fossil fuels - the equivalent of stopping all highway, rail, air, and sea traffic permanently, and;
increase U.S. farm production costs by $10-20 billion annually and depress farm income annually by 24 to 48 percent, resulting in higher food prices, fewer agricultural exports, and the loss of many small farms.
You see I’m not at all concerned with a christian’s belief of the rapture, but I am worried about a radical enviromentalist’ belief of man-made global warming. The real threat is the environmentalist who wants to depress our wages, raise energy costs, raise food costs, and impoverish us.
By the way, I Thessalonians 4:16,17 speaks of resurrection from the dead - …the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air…”
and please note the parallel verse in Romans 2:4-10 - …Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”[a] 7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil
and there are many others, so you get the idea.
2008-01-21 15:23:25
God promised never to flood the earth again. That is why Christians aren’t worried about Global warming.