Comments on: climate change: a test? (or here he goes again)

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:30:01 +0000

Perhaps the reason so many Christians are suspicious and mistrusting of climate change is because the people promoting it have been proven time and again to be liars and promoting their own self interests. They are also led by the Holy Spirit who leads us in all truth. Many who promote earth healing are really in effect promoting harm to their fellow man in their frantic attempt to heal the climate. We are told to feed the hungry. Many of the goals of the climate change proponents will cause the starvation of millions in addition to those already starving. It does nothing to promote the kingdom of heaven. If God wanted us to tackle this issue in the church we would have been given some guidance in the Bible. There is nothing about making a “small footprint” in there. There is alot about being aggressive in our efforts to make our fellow man’s lives easier and spreading the gospel. I just got a newletter from our church filled with climate change news. It even went so far as to say that during Lent we should concentrate on healing earth! Jesus Christ is being pushed out of the center the church by climate change and earth worship. We are to have no other God’s before him. That includes the planet we were given to live on. Most Chirstian have not forgotten that God is still in control of all nature and will be until the end of time. We rest in faith that He will make all things work together for good for them that are called according to his purpose. If there is a test of the church it is this faith: that we must depend on Him to take care of nature while we in the church carry out his orders…feed the poor, clothe the naked, heal the sick, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian getting all wrapped up in Climate change fears, you should sit down with your bible and read it. Then have a long heart to heart with the one true and living God and ask him for direction in your life. Then you should wait for him to answer. And then only then, should you go telling everyone what God wants them to do about Climate change. Last time I read my Bible, it didn’t have alot to say about the church getting their talking points directly from government.
On a purely secular note, (since it seems that is how you want to handle the climate subject), you should also do some digging into the facts. Just because you watched a shiny, whiz bang, movie with lots of scary graphs doesn’t mean you have been educated. It does mean you are easily misled because you don’t check facts. There are many people who have put themselves and their families at great risk to get the truth of climate change out to the public. Placed side by side the evidence is blatantly obvious that this is fabricated science created from profit driven motives. So my question is this: Why is the church so interested in climbing on this profit driven band wagon?

By: Faith Boman

Faith Boman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:53:17 +0000

Ken,
As a scientist myself, having received my PhD in an environmental physical chemistry lab, it saddens me that people are blind to climate change and its anthropogenic causes. I have never met a legitimate scientist that does not accept this. I wish people would investigate the real scientific facts and not buy into the propaganda. Yes, people are trying to capitalize on climate change. but is anyone really surprised? How does the corruption of some negate all the alarming environmental changes in our world? We would be better served by trying to preserve our country and be good stewards than by just denying the obvious.
Faith

By: happylad

happylad — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:54:19 +0000

Kirk Donalson, you said:

“I also find it interesting that critics like happylad first bash global warming science and then proceed to suggest behaviors that would help solve the problem they started out by denying.”

A person doesn’t have to believe in global warming to want to be responsible to care for God’s creation. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. I saw pollution and littering on a monumental scale. I have always loved nature. Therefore, it is no surprise that I want to preserve God’s creation in all it’s beauty. That doesn’t require that I believe in global warming, caused by man-made carbon emissions.

Geologists and those who study ice core samples will tell us that the earth has gone through warming and cooling trends for millennium. These warming and cooling trends had little to do with man-made carbon emissions. This doesn’t negate my desire for good stewardship of the earth if I believe that the earth is simply going through one of many cycles of warming and cooling.

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:22:27 +0000

Hi, Ken.

Thanks for continuing to speak the truth in love to the Christian community. You take a beating for it, but I hear you’re in good company.

It’s hard for me to understand why other Christians are so bent on trying to disprove climate change science. As you point out, the science of climate change is as sound as that of the toxicity of smoking. AND, the story of climate change fits the Biblical story: The earth and all its inhabitants are in a fallen state and greatly in need of redemption. God has a plan for that redemption, but he requires that we participate in that work. He’s just waiting for us to get started.

I bet Satan has a good chuckle when we waste energy trying to disprove climate change science, rather than putting that energy toward healing and saving to the world. When we kick against the goads (plain, scientific facts) like that, it’s all sweat, spit, and frustration. But if we would get the vision of working with God to renew his creation, I believe we would find enabling energy and grace from his Spirit.

God bless all.

By: ken

ken — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:02:31 +0000

Joao, sounds like you need a climate break! My only interest in this topic is in relation to evangelism, service, and communion with God.

By: joao

joao — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:03:55 +0000

Just a thought.

Aren’t we spending far too much energy discussing an issue that obviously is not agreed upon by those in the christian community?

Maybe we are beating a dead horse. Aren’t other issues, like evangelism, service and communion with God more pressing?

Speaking for myself, I find myself obsessing over this whole global warming thing and having little energy left for these other concerns I just mentioned.

Maybe if I spend more time pursuing God just to get to know Him better, then I would end up more open to the holy spirit’s promptings on the real importance of these issues in relation to other issues I may be ignoring.

By: ken

ken — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:02:37 +0000

nick, Again, your comment about not being able to trust the peer review process is yet another way of saying you have no confidence in the scientific enterprise. This is a pretty extreme position. How will you pick and choose what science to regard as trustworthy? Science that agrees with your view of the world already? Or some other criteria? There’s a lot at stake here because the scientific process is responsbible for a great deal of alleviation of suffering. But it’s useless if people don’t trust the results of the process. Why not smoke? How can you be sure that the link between cancer and smoking isn’t yet another government attempt to gain more power over the individual, a tax grab?

By: Nickolas Hiemstra

Nickolas Hiemstra — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:51:45 +0000

Oh, another thing that bugs me . . . the whole issue of “Carbon Credits.” So, I can pollute the air, but if I BUY some permits, that makes it okay and balances it all out? Hmmmm. Sounds suspicious to me.

By: Nickolas Hiemstra

Nickolas Hiemstra — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:44:28 +0000

I didn’t say lies or deceptions, I think the “Climategate” emails tell us that. But who is inline to profit from Global Warming/Climate Change? Follow the money . . .

Amit Chatterjee, CEO of Hara, a company that sells carbon credits, which is bankrolled by an investment firm partnered with Al Gore.

After admitting that the “carbon market” will be worth a trillion dollars by 2015, and that his company will rake in billions, but then denying that he will profit from lobbying for cap and trade laws as well as any link to Al Gore.

“We don’t have any direct relationship with Al Gore,” claims Chatterjee, despite a June 2009 Reuters report headlined, “Gore-backed Hara sees profit from low-carbon economy.”

“Hara, a 25-employee company that debuted in 2008, provides online software to help companies reduce their carbon footprint — a $2.5 billion market that will grow 10-fold if the proposed energy bill, which will require companies to get permits for emissions, becomes law, Chief Executive Amit Chatterjee said,” states the report.

The Reuters report states that Hara is “An environmental start-up backed by Al Gore’s venture capital firm.”

I guess I become skeptical any time someone shouts, “It’s an emergency, we need to do something now . . .” If I hear a salesman tell me that I have to decide right NOW, my answer is, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

I would suggest more studies be done, but since we can’t trust “peer reviews,” I guess we are stuck. I read many papers and articles, from a variety of sources (http://conservativemeanderings.wordpress.com/category/global-warming/) that seems there is vastly contradictory information.

Some researchers are more inclined to believe we are entering a “mini-ice age.” As much as I hate Winter (ooh, Always winter, but never Christmas . . . I heard about that), anyway, I am convinced there is something within the pyche of man that “needs” a crisis. If it isn’t Global Warming, it’s a Tsunami or an asteroid that will fall on my garage (or all of our garages).

By: ken

ken — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:15:03 +0000

Nick, Do you hear what you’re saying? The science that says climate is warming and human activity is a probable cause (90% probablitity according to the 2007 IPCC report) is a deception. This is what many fellow evangelicals believe. It is a highly suspicious posture to take toward science. It suggests that we should be extremely suspect of science in general, because it proceeds by grants and renewal of grants. Someone wrote to tell me that the Spirit told them global warming was a “lie”–which is another word for deception. Lies, deception–Very strong words in deed. Meanwhile the polar sea ice melts, the Greenland ice sheet melts, the Himalayan ice sheet melts, sea levels rise, the ocean is getting more acidic (an effect of increasing carbon stored there, if I’ve got my facts straight), Polynesian island nations are scrambling to figure out where they might relocate their populations. The national academies of science for 80 different nations concur that these are an effect of warming, and that warming is increased by carbon poured into the atmosphere. Consider, for a moment the missional implications of your perspective. Does this help or hinder the spread of the gospel among those who have not welcomed the gospel, because they can’t trust that the gospel they hear isn’t highly influenced by cultural and political assumptions that may or may not have anything to do with Jesus?