The 38th through 41st chapters of the Book of Job are among the most majestic, awe-inspiring passages in all literature, inside and outside the Bible. I cannot read them and not feel small, humbled by the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of God. They record questions God hurls rapid-fire, “out of the whirlwind,” at Job to impress on him his utter inability to control or even to explain the day-to-day events of the world. Here are a few, from Job 38:4–20: Where were you when I laid … [Read more...]
Protect Endangered Species on Valentine’s Day?
Valentine's Day. A day for lovers. But according to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), it could be a very bad day for biodiversity. That's because, so goes the argument, what lovers (heterosexual lovers, anyway) do---not just on Valentine's Day but all year long---threatens to increase human population. And, as everyone knows, growing human population leads to more species extinctions. The CBD, citing Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, claims that "30,000 species per year (or three … [Read more...]
Why Are Older Scientists More Likely to Doubt Climate Alarmism?
Back in 1984, Richard Lamm, then Democratic Governor of Colorado, gained infamy for having said the terminally ill elderly have "a duty to die and get out of the way." Such disrespect for age persists among Progressives. Bill Nye "the Science Guy," a major proponent of global warming alarmism, blames climate skepticism on age. "Climate change deniers, by way of example, are older. It's generational," Nye told the Los Angeles Times, adding, "We're just going to have to wait for those people … [Read more...]
Does the Trump Administration Put Science in Jeopardy?
It's hard to imagine a more thoroughly ignorant statement than this: “The discipline of science is one where the facts, once they are peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals, are fixed. They’re not open to interpretation, or at least not much.” That's the opinion of Jeffrey Kluger and Justin Worland, writing in "How a war on science could hurt the U.S.---and its citizens." in Time magazine. The truth, of course, for these two apparent neophytes to science, is quite the … [Read more...]
Who Does John Tierney Think He Is to Challenge Chris Mooney about “Science Denial”?
Leftwing environmentalist Washington Post columnist Chris Mooney has made something of a cottage industry out of lampooning what he considers conservatives' "science denial" in four books. Count 'em: The Republican War on Science, 2005 Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming, 2007 Unscientific America---How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, 2009 (with Sheril Kirshenbaum, who holds Ph.D.'s graduate degrees in meteorology and climatology marine … [Read more...]
How are Climate Alarmists Like Icarus?
In Greek mythology, the god Icarus tries, with his father Daedalus, to escape from Crete by flying, using wings Daedalus made from wax and feathers. Proudly ignoring his father's warning not to fly too close to the sun lest the wax in the wings melt, Icarus did so and fell into the sea. Ever since then, Icarus has been synonymous with hubris---a foolish combination of pride and over-confidence. Michael Hart, Professor Emeritus and inaugural holder of the Simon Reisman chair in trade policy at … [Read more...]
Who Are the Real Science Deniers?
So you think of science (or maybe I should say “science”?) as a solid, objective, trustworthy activity? Certainly a whole lot more credible than, say, philosophy, or theology, or fortune telling? Before I go on, let me assure you that I value science (without the scare quotes) a great deal. (Philosophy and theology, too—but not fortune telling!) But today a lot of what goes by the name of science deserves the scare quotes. And that should scare us, for a lot of reasons, because it means we’re … [Read more...]
How Theology Can, and Should, Contribute to Scientific and Public Discourse about Anthropogenic Global Warming
A paper presented to the Round Table on Theology, Climate Change, and Politics, University of Western Ontario, May 29, 2012 Paleoanthropologist and philosopher Loren Eiseley (1907–1977), who though religious in the tradition of American Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was certainly no orthodox Christian theist, on reflecting on the kind of soil in which science could flourish, wrote, “In one of those strange permutations of which history yields … [Read more...]
Finding Nemo Suffocated?
One hardly knows where to begin in assessing the sanity of the recent claim that "climate change" (aka dangerous manmade global warming renamed to hide the fact that far less warming is happening than predicted) could suffocate---yes, suffocate!---sea creatures by reducing ocean oxygen levels. The scary story comes mainly from popular reports. Take, for example, how blogger Cat DiStasio ("a writer, storyteller, and community architect" who "holds a B.A. in Ethnic, Gender, and Labor … [Read more...]
The Theologization of Global Warming Among American Evangelicals: Who Says Religion and Science Can’t Mix?
[Note: This essay was written in the summer of 2010 at the request of Dr. Patrick Michaels, intended for a book he was editing. His publisher declined to include it in the book because of its religious content. It was never published elsewhere until now. We hope it remains a helpful survey of the history of the debate over global warming among evangelicals up to that time.—ECB, March 11, 2016] Introduction In the last half decade there has been a blossoming of public concern about global … [Read more...]
