Just today I read this portion of a speech given by Bishop N.T. Wright at a recent conference, in which he talks about how Gnosticism has creeped into contemporary Christianity in the West. I think it speaks volumes to how we view the subject matter at hand:

When I was in college we studied Gnosticism as a strange ancient phenomenon, little imagining that it was already alive and well in western culture and that it would sweep through our world dramatically, not only in obvious things like The Da Vinci Code but in the subtext of half the Hollywood movies and, more sadly, half the would-be theological thinking in our church.

Two features stand out. First, a radical dualism in which the created order is irrelevant because we, the enlightened ones, are just passing through it and can use or ignore it as we please. At this point the Gnosticism of the right says, “We can do what we like with our planet, because it’s all going to be destroyed soon and we’ll be snatched away to a distant heaven.” And the Gnosticism of the left says, “We can do what we like with our bodies, because they are irrelevant to the reality within us.”

And both are held in place by the larger Gnosticism of the western Enlightenment itself which has said, for the last two hundred years, “We westerners are the enlightened ones, with our modern science and technology; we can make up the rules, we can saunter around the world exploiting its resources and its people, we can drop bombs on people to make whole countries do what we want, and it doesn’t matter much because we, the enlightened ones, are the natural possessors of justice, freedom and peace so those other people don’t matter as much as we do.”

The entire speech can be found here.

Me and my wife have one car that gets 30mpg. We both work less than 5 miles from where we live. I work in a nursery. We live within walking distance of a mall, numerous stores, etc., where we do our shopping. We recycle.

When I look at all these things though, they are all financial decisions that happen to be good for the environment as well. Perhaps there is a link between the two that doesn’t require billions of dollars in research to figure out. Can it be that pollution is a symptom of the love of money? Perhaps redeemed people means a redeemed planet, and not the other way around.

Therefore people’s desire for a cleaner earth is simply a desire to be close to God, whether they realize it or not. The danger is in elevating the Creation above the Creator. This is where we, as Christians, need to point to God as the Creator.

I’m not sure we can believe any of the scientists or politicians 100% on this issue, to be honest, unless we’re sure they have nothing to gain by taking a particular position. There is little doubt, however, that environmental atrocities are occurring around the world on a daily basis, and closer to home, the choices individuals are making contribute to the problem.

I basically think this issue comes down to a theological argument. If we believe that God is restoring all of Creation, and in a mysterious way Christians can play a part in this work, then we will do everything we can to tend to Creation responsibly. If we believe that God is one day going to destroy the Earth after rapturing his followers, then caring for the world (which is on a collision course with destruction anyway) doesn’t matter much.

As you can probably tell, I believe the former. =)

Or what it says is that they have learned that they were wrong and changed their mind according to the facts.

I honestly do appreciate you Steve, as I said before, for helping us think about these things. Remember though that just because you disagree with an article doesn’t mean it isn’t constructive. And when making a point such as “one must be very careful when throwing stats around” doesn’t hold much credence when that’s exactly what the discussion is about. The stats that the GW™ people are touting are suspect.

“You can use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true. Facts shmacts!” ~ Homer Simpson

But you could be right. What does the government know about anything? Or scientists for that matter?

I suppose you could read any of the twenty or so articles just below it as well. I think they all give proper constructive criticism to the discussion as much as any of the other articles or websites thrown around here. Or am I “overcompensating”?

What they tell, however, is not that man-made GW is a lie, but that the majority of the papers published between 2004 and 2007 are neutral with regard to the “consensus” view on GW (that humans have any impact on the gradual warming of the planet). From 1993-2003, however, research revealed that the majority of papers published supported the consensus view on GW. The title of the blog post — Less Than Half of All Published Scientists Endorse Global Warming Theory — is even more unclear. It implies that less than half of every scientist who has ever been published [ever] disagrees with GW theory, which is not what the 2007 findings revealed. They simply revealed that during a certain time period, this was true.

These statistics about published scientists and what not are a tough sell, imho, especially given that Exxon was writing $10,000 checks for GW skeptics to write papers. (here’s the link) I find it curious that one of the biggest critique leveraged against the science behind GW skepticism in the early 2000s was the lack of peer-reviewed papers going against the “consensus,” and all of a sudden there’s an influx between 2004-2007. Curious indeed.

A wise person once said, “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” One must be very careful when throwing stats around as a means to prove one’s point. No disrespect at all, Tim, but I just don’t think your article moves this discussion forward in any constructive manner.

Less Than Half of All Published Scientists Endorse Global Warming Theory

The point isn’t for us to bind more things upon each other. The point is to push people towards discipleship which manifests itself in different ways for different people, and also to challenge one another to do better where we can.

Thank you for your patience with my ignorance. Here’s one thing you said:

“War, poverty, environmental destruction, these are all communal sins of which we are guilty, but God has given us grace for those mistakes, and has called us to a completely different way of living, one that does not operate the same way the current world does… with violence, retribution, selfishness, greed, etc. Its a different Kingdom that operates in a completely different way, and we are called in the great commission to make disciples of this way… the way of Jesus, the way of God.”

I agree that the kingdom of God operates in a completely different way, and we are called to make disciples of this way. No doubt about it. But isn’t this whole discussion of global warming and taking care of the earth exactly the world’s way of doing things? I don’t see that the pro or con side has any more Bible on their side than the other. I don’t see the ethics of the Kingdom swinging toward the side that says, “Get rid of cars and go back to bicycles” or toward the side that says, “Start drilling off our coasts now and lower gas prices.” Both sides oppress the poor, one by raising gas prices and wrecking the economy and the other by making it more difficult to get to work and make a living; and neither can claim to be entirely selfless. We would have an obligation to speak prophetically to both sides, wouldn’t we?

I think that 3% of any kind of warming is man-made. 3% of that 3% is from CO2. It’s so small, we’re not going to be able to fix it since we didn’t cause it.

The reason that this discussion is taking place is that many are coming to a new (or really an old) understanding of salvation and mission. Our mission is not to obtain mental assent to a certain set of principles and then dunking them under water. Salvation is bigger than just a post mortem issue. Salvation is not only forgiveness of personal sins, but the sins of the community of the world, many of which lead to the problems that we end up debating here. War, poverty, environmental destruction, these are all communal sins of which we are guilty, but God has given us grace for those mistakes, and has called us to a completely different way of living, one that does not operate the same way the current world does… with violence, retribution, selfishness, greed, etc. Its a different Kingdom that operates in a completely different way, and we are called in the great commission to make disciples of this way… the way of Jesus, the way of God.

No one here is putting global warming ahead of saving people, we’ve just come to the conclusion that salvation means more than we previously understood, and we feel called to speak prophetically, to speak truth to power. So when the Kingdoms of this world act in ways that are contrary to the gospel, we make light of those things as a witness to the way we think is better, and proclaim the reign of God to the world.

For the record though, as a huge meteorology nerd, I do believe that warming has been occurring and that some of that warming could be man made, but the vast majority of it has to do with other factors. I also don’t think that more government regulation is the answer… but I still believe that we as the church need to think about the results of our actions, and change our behavior accordingly.