Sunday November 3rd… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below at the very end of this daily blog. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Climate Change and the Wrath of God…Dr. Katherine Heyhoe’s Take in the Climate Crisis
It’s been a while since I have professed my own faith on this blog, tackling the climate issue from a Christian perspective. If Jesus were alive today, what would he say about the environment? I’m sure that he knows that the climate crisis brought about by man’s inventions can be solved between a new marriage of divinely guided faith and science. After all, we would not have gotten into this climate mess unless God allowed the Industrial Revolution and human history to pan out as it did since the 1800s. Greed and an unwillingness to follow guidelines revealed by new science will only make conditions that much worse for future generations. I’ve often written that I believe that science is God’s revelation of the secrets of His creation and should not be scoffed at by those professing faith. We know what generated power via oil and coal was now, just a stepping stone towards a brighter future here on Earth. Now God through his wisdom and providence is leading us towards a greener, more peaceful path than that of our oily past, which has sometimes led to war such as that between Iraq and the U.S.
My “sister with a PHD,” Dr. Katherine Hayhoe encapsulates some of my sentiments in this piece, which I will reprint for today’s main topic:
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe: I’m a climate scientist who believes in God. Hear me out. – Global warming will strike hardest against the very people we’re told to love: the poor and vulnerable
Portrait of Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University. Photo: Katharine Hayhoe
By Katharine Hayhoe
31 October 2019
(The New York Times) – I’m a climate scientist. I’m also an evangelical Christian.
And I’m Canadian, which is why it took me so long to realize the first two things were supposed to be entirely incompatible.
I grew up in a Christian family with a science-teacher dad who taught us that science is the study of God’s creation. If we truly believe that God created this amazing universe, bringing matter and energy to life out of a formless empty void of nothing, then how could studying his creation ever be in conflict with his written word?
I chose what to study precisely because of my faith, because climate change disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable, those already most at risk today. To me, caring about and acting on climate was a way to live out my calling to love others as we’ve been loved ourselves by God.
“I refuse to give it up, because I am a theological evangelical, one of those who can be simply defined as someone who takes the Bible seriously. This stands in stark contrast to today’s political evangelicals, whose statement of faith is written first by their politics and only a distant second by the Bible and who, if the two conflict, will prioritize their political ideology over theology.”
I realized, distantly, that there were people on both “sides” who fundamentally believed and were even dedicated to promoting the idea that faith and science were in conflict. But it wasn’t until after I’d moved to the United States for graduate school that it dawned on me, to my disbelief, that divisions within the science-faith arena, originally focused on questions of human origins and the age of the universe, were expanding to include climate change.
Now, this discrepancy is pointed out to me nearly every day: often by people with Bible verses in their social media profiles who accuse me of spreading Satan’s lies, or sometimes by others who share my concerns about climate change but wonder why I bother talking to “those people.” The attacks I receive come via email, Twitter, Facebook comments, phone calls and even handwritten letters.
I track them all, and I’ve noticed two common denominators in how most of the authors choose to identify themselves: first, as political conservatives, no matter what country they’re from; and second, in the United States, as conservative Christians, because the label “evangelical” has itself been co-opted as shorthand for a particular political ideology these days.
But I refuse to give it up, because I am a theological evangelical, one of those who can be simply defined as someone who takes the Bible seriously. This stands in stark contrast to today’s political evangelicals, whose statement of faith is written first by their politics and only a distant second by the Bible and who, if the two conflict, will prioritize their political ideology over theology. […]
But if caring about climate change is such a profoundly Christian value, then why do surveys in the United States consistently show white evangelicals and white Catholics at the bottom of those Americans concerned about the changing climate?
It turns out, it’s not where we go to church (or don’t) that determines our opinion on climate. It’s not even our religious affiliation. Hispanic Catholics are significantly more likely than other Catholics to say the earth is getting warmer, according to a 2015 survey, and they have the same pope. It’s because of the alliance between conservative theology and conservative politics that has been deliberately engineered and fostered over decades of increasingly divisive politics on issues of race, abortion and now climate change, to the point where the best predictor of whether we agree with the science is simply where we fall on the political spectrum. [more]
I’m a Climate Scientist Who Believes in God. Hear Me Out.
On top of what Dr. Hayhoe has written let me go back to the Bible where it refers to “false prophets,” those who would make people stray from God’s plan. I truly believe that those who know that they are harming the least among us are not part of God and should be shunned. Unfortunately, like Dr. Hayhoe, I do believe that political evangelicals have to a great degree hijacked the climate issue, denying science and delaying necessary societal changes, sometimes in the name of “freedom.”
I do believe that eventually the wrath of God will fall on these climate change denying people, either in this world or the next, since most deep down know how much harm they are doing.
The Bible also says, paraphrasing, “We will know them by their deeds and acts.” From:Matthew 7:1616By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
As of late 2019 it is very clear how we need to move forward towards seeing a better world. Without naming any names, we should know who to vote for in coming elections by the fruit that they offer to bear, which will be critical for the climate. Let’s all make sure that candidates pass scientifically, and yes morally faith based, tests for the sake of God’s creation.
Here is more climate and weather news from Sunday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
(If you like these posts and my work please contribute via the PayPal widget, which has recently been added to this site. Thanks in advance for any support.)
Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”