Recently I have been partly intrigued, yet generally disgusted, by the attention that global warming has received in the press. What is it about our post-Christian culture that is so intrigued by the earth warming a degree or two and possibly running out of oxygen far in the future? Why are we so convinced that we could/should change the biological future of our world?
Americans are afraid of death. The idea of the human race being wiped off the face of the earth (or the earth itself burning up) terrifies them. Without Christianity, people have no hope tied to the future beyond a faint idea that all their current problems would cease (thus, the high suicide rates). On the flip side, modern science aspires to play God and create huge sun-shields, fake volcanoes, massive photosynthesizing algae colonies, artificial oxygen making trees, etc. in order to save the human race. [Seriously, look at some of the solutions inventors have devised, it’s an interesting way to waste time.] Reminds me of another group of ambitious human beings in Babel . . .
However, from a Christian viewpoint this media phenomenon is rather insignificant. First of all, heaven and the life after death is exactly that, a new life—something to look forward to. We will all have our personal death and judgment sooner or later, and technically, God could have the whole earth hurled off course and into the sun 5 minutes from now, if He so willed. [Now that you all are having nightmares…] Shall we work for the preservation of human life? Of course, but let us pour our financial support, time, and prayers into fighting the scourge of abortion and related anti-life issues before saving the whole planet. Shall we work to preserve our environment? Yes, but not to the point of obsession. God has taken care of the earth for a rather long time, I suppose He will continue to do so.
Let me know what you think!
7 responses so far ↓
1 EX man // Mar 21, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Maybe you should watch ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ I’m Catholic and I think we should be careful not to cause irreversible damage to the environment. Just because someone is Catholic does not mean he or she has to be inconsiderate of the environment. Furthermore, everyone is afraid of death you [Ed: insult deleted]. And scientific research is hard; if it was easy, we would have already come up with a cure for AIDS and cancer. Science does not try to play God, it only aspires to explain the mechanism of the physical universe (whether you believe in God or not). Please stop posting these kinds of comments, it is embarrassing to Catholics like me in the Scientific field. (”Post-Christian era”, is this some made up term you came up with; last time I checked there were 2 billion Christians in the world).
2 Dave // Mar 21, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Hear, hear! For further consideration of this increasingly shrill ‘debate’, check out this very against-the-grain documentary: http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2007/03/devastating.html
3 Al // Mar 27, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Technically, isn’t it about ceasing to change the biological future of the world? That’s the angle I usually see it from, more of a Frankenstein, or “Our machines are going to kill us.”
4 Dave // Mar 28, 2007 at 6:27 pm
EX man,
A Catholic scientist, if confident in his conclusions, need not resort to name-calling to prove his point. Had you read carefully, you would have seen that Kelly wrote “Post-Christian culture”, and was not making a claim about which boxes people check in Gallup polls on religious affiliation. You would also have noticed that, contrary to what your comment implies, she did not advocate disregarding the health of the environment–I believe her point was about developing a right sense of proportion.
5 Kelly // Mar 28, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I apologize if my light attitude offended anyone in the scientific community. I did not intend to degrade your field of study. However, I believe that in any field of study there can be aspects or theories taken to an extreme or blown out of proportion by the media, and that is what I attempted to light-heartedly address. As Dave kindly noted above, my comment was meant to encourage a proportionate concern for the world Our God gave us (since He did entrust us with the duty to “till and keep” it) and not to say that we should totally disregard the effects that humans and the environment have on each other.
6 Naomi // Mar 30, 2007 at 1:13 am
“It is not all or nothing.” a favorite professor of mine would gently remind us when the class got wrapped up in a heated debate. At first this posting made me sad to see once again “green” presented as opposed to “Christian”. And while I think Kelly’s call for perspective is important, we must also look with perspective at the issue of Global Warming. I am no scientist, but I know from experience that environmental issues hit the poor first and hardest. Who lives near or on top of old garbage dumps? Who could not afford to escape New Orleans in order to safely wait out Hurricane Katrina? Which countries will suffer most from the drought and flooding that we already see as results of these few degrees of temperature change?
It is the poor. In countries like Kenya, where water is scarce and rescources few; in countries like Honduras where water is overabundant and infrastructure poor, here is where those few degrees become a matter of life and death. We are a people who follow the One who cared so deeply and specially for the poor. It is not only for ourselves that we ought to reduce the emissions of our first-world cars. Caring for the environment, while some, sadly, let it take the place of the Gospel, is part (though certainly not all) of living the Gospel. And it does not take much time either. It can be done on a personal level effortlessly, habitually, if we will let ourselves form the habits.
Yes, we will all die sooner or later. And as Christians we have to great gift of knowing that death is not to be feared. (I just finished C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet… read it for a great perspective on salvation). But the call of the Gospel is to live this life well, and as far as I see it, that includes worrying a little about this thing called Global Warming.
7 Prayer Warrior // Aug 11, 2007 at 11:47 pm
It is true. The media has run with the whole global warning and we are going to melt. How many years ago it was the opposite. The scientific community was stating the earth was progressively getting colder. Hmmmm quite interesting.
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