God and Climate Change

[WonderingWanderer]

I've noticed a trend amongst my family, friends, and pastors. Whenever they hear any mention of "Climate Change" they tell me that it doesn't matter too much because the world is going to burn anyways (according to the book of Revelation). I'm curious as to how common of a sentiment this is.

Maybe I'm missing some information but, no matter how many times I think on this issue, I keep coming to a single conclusion. Let me show you my thought process:

If God made this planet for humanity to live on (much like a father builds a home for his children), then humans must try and treat the Earth with respect-- out of reverence for God. To follow my dad analogy, let's imagine as a youth you decided you were not going to maintain the well being of your parent's home. Let's imagine you decided to never clean your room, you never repaired any leaky pipes or broken windows, you walked around the house with dirty shoes, and you never took the trash out. This would be an act of disrespect to your parents and the home they provided you with. So, my question is, does this same type of situation map over to humans? Since God gifted us this earth to live on, are we supposed to be guardians of it?

One verse that comes to mind is Genesis 1:28, God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

I began to wonder if verses like these were influencing people's opinions on climate change.
I became particularly interested in investigating if the way we structure our relation to the Earth affects our opinions on ecological issues.

This has been on my mind for a long time, and so, I decided to do a school project on it. I have created a survey that compares both how and individual places one's self in relation to the Earth and how one feels about climate change. I am really curious to see if most people see themselves as dominators of the Earth, or if they see themselves as co-depedent on the planet and its ecosystem.

I'd be extremely grateful to anyone who is willing to complete this questionnaire as they would be helping me tremendously. It requires no personal information and all responses are anonymous.

Also, I'd love to hear your personal opinions on this matter and get a discussion going; comments are more than welcome.

I am eager to hear your responses, thanks for reading my post and thanks for you time!


SP17 Worldview and Views on Global Warming Survey

 

[Grandpa2390]

I've noticed a trend amongst my family, friends, and pastors. Whenever they hear any mention of "Climate Change" they tell me that it doesn't matter too much because the world is going to burn anyways (according to the book of Revelation). I'm curious as to how common of a sentiment this is.

Sorry I didn't read your entire post. I had to stop right here. This is a dumb sentiment. We are supposed to be good stewards of the creation God has placed in our hands.

It's like saying, I might as well do drugs and destroy my body because I'm going to die anyway...

 

[Grandpa2390]

I tried to do your survey, but the questions were too vague for me.

Such as, I believe all animals/plants/etc are interconnected..

interconnected how? spiritually, physically, etc? I'd strongly agree, but I'd want to be clear what it is I agree with.

 

[Saucy]

I think the common thread among those of us who think like way is that God is in control of everything. We trust that the earth won't be doomed by global warning. Most of us also tend to the believe that the world will end very soon anyway, that we're near the end.

We don't tend to be staunch environmentalists. I'm not, but I'm all for clean water and clean air. If I were president, I'd continue to try and develop clean energy and solar technology, and I'm a conservative!

Moreover, a lot of us also aren't convinced. We see that whole industry as trying to inflate the facts to maintain funding. Much like Coke might fund a study on sugar that benefits the company more than the customers. It just came out recently that global warming numbers were manipulated before a recent Paris conference to dupe the world leaders who gathered.

World leaders duped by manipulated global warming data | Daily Mail Online

http://www.politico.eu/article/is-un-guilty-of-exaggerating-fears-over-climate-change/

Fake News of Polar Bears Dying From Global Warming Exposed — Again

The Role of Emotion in Global Warming Policy Support and Opposition

World's top climate scientists confess: Global warming is just QUARTER what we thought - and computers got the effects of greenhouse gases wrong | Daily Mail Online

World will start COOLING DOWN in 2017, claims one of planet's top climate change experts

Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/07...cooling-rips-obama-for-hollow-climate-claims/

I mean, stories like this are out there, but we're ripped as idiots because we don't accept the narrative.

 

[Adstar]

People should look after the earth because we are only given use of it for our life times and our decendants will need to be able to use it as we have.. So all efforts must be made to repair any damage caused by civilization..

But when it comes to climate change one can agree that climate change is happening but disagree that it is being caused by human produced carbon emissions..

Personally i believe the Sun has much more effect on the temperature and climate of the earth then human produced carbon emmisions..

 

[WonderingWanderer]

I tried to do your survey, but the questions were too vague for me.

Such as, I believe all animals/plants/etc are interconnected..

interconnected how? spiritually, physically, etc? I'd strongly agree, but I'd want to be clear what it is I agree with.

I think that's a fair criticism Grandpa2390, I will try to make that adjustment soon.

 

[Grandpa2390]

I think that's a fair criticism Grandpa2390, I will try to make that adjustment soon.

I guess normally we wouldn't think of things like that. But I have worked with and spoken to people who believe all of the spiritually connected stuff. And I don't want my responses to be confused. As opposed to saying we are all connected via the ecosystem, environment (trees cycling oxygen and CO2) etc.

 

[Monna]

I began to wonder if verses like these were influencing people's opinions on climate change.

How about some other verses:
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Quoted by Paul in
1 Corinthians 10:26 and 28
For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.

Psalm 33:5
He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 104:24
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

Roman 8:19-23 (RSV)
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

The earth and everything in it belongs to God - because he made it. That should be reason enough to respect and look after it. According to Genesis he put Adam "in a garden" and told him to look after it. As the creature most able to look beyond it's own species, to understand systems, and to project future scenarios, humankind has a special ability and responsibility to be a faithful steward of God's creation. Believers who see the creation as God's doing should (IMHO) be in the forefront of caring for the environment and the biosphere especially. Unfortunately, many see creation (both physical and biological) as a present from God to treat as they like, with impunity. These forget Jesus' parable of the King and his stewards. God has always wanted to work in partnership with people, whether at the personal, community level, or in terms of wisely managing the earth and its multiple resources. That desire is founded in his characteristic love. He saw his creation "and it was good." God loved all he saw.

Paul makes it clear that the rest of creation is looking to redeemed humankind for its own redemption. So when Jesus said "God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son..." it is perfectly legitimate to interpret the world to include all of creation. When Jesus defeated death, it was for all of creation. That is another reason for the believer to be active as a wise steward of "the earth and all therein."

Another factor that has led to people not caring about the environment, and especially the biosphere, is urbanisation (not only people gathering in settlements, but people everywhere taking on "urban lifestyles"). Urbanisation has removed us from direct contact with nature to a large extent. In many cities people have never seen the night sky in all its glory; people don't know where their food comes from or how it came to be. Because we have lost (direct) touch with nature we are not fully aware of the degeneration that our extreme consumerism is causing. People in the middle of a continent wonder why they should care about the whales in the ocean (whales are part of a chain of processes that bring nutrients from the deep ocean to our forest soils! Amazing but true.) But actually ignorance is not an excuse, and willful ignorance is particularly dangerous.

Personally, I see the incessant debate on climate change's cause as a refusal to examine objectively one's own behaviour in relationship to the earth and atmosphere. We know that there are quite a few greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is one of them. We have a very good idea of how much CO2 we produce. Whether or not humans cause the climate change that we see happening, we also know that reducing the production of greenhouse gases would have a positive impact. (We have already curtailed some that had other negative impacts, and we are seeing positive change.) We also know that the technologies to do so exist, are economic, and have other benefits. IMHO it's a no-brainer to get on with it. And there's a lot more on other environmental issues that we should be doing beyond the climate change ones, that are necessary if our grandchildren are going to have a decent world to live in.

 

[joshua 1 9]

I've noticed a trend amongst my family, friends, and pastors. Whenever they hear any mention of "Climate Change" they tell me that it doesn't matter too much because the world is going to burn anyways (according to the book of Revelation). I'm curious as to how common of a sentiment this is.

Maybe I'm missing some information but, no matter how many times I think on this issue, I keep coming to a single conclusion. Let me show you my thought process:

If God made this planet for humanity to live on (much like a father builds a home for his children), then humans must try and treat the Earth with respect-- out of reverence for God. To follow my dad analogy, let's imagine as a youth you decided you were not going to maintain the well being of your parent's home. Let's imagine you decided to never clean your room, you never repaired any leaky pipes or broken windows, you walked around the house with dirty shoes, and you never took the trash out. This would be an act of disrespect to your parents and the home they provided you with. So, my question is, does this same type of situation map over to humans? Since God gifted us this earth to live on, are we supposed to be guardians of it?

One verse that comes to mind is Genesis 1:28, God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

I began to wonder if verses like these were influencing people's opinions on climate change.
I became particularly interested in investigating if the way we structure our relation to the Earth affects our opinions on ecological issues.

This has been on my mind for a long time, and so, I decided to do a school project on it. I have created a survey that compares both how and individual places one's self in relation to the Earth and how one feels about climate change. I am really curious to see if most people see themselves as dominators of the Earth, or if they see themselves as co-depedent on the planet and its ecosystem.

I'd be extremely grateful to anyone who is willing to complete this questionnaire as they would be helping me tremendously. It requires no personal information and all responses are anonymous.

Also, I'd love to hear your personal opinions on this matter and get a discussion going; comments are more than welcome.

I am eager to hear your responses, thanks for reading my post and thanks for you time!


SP17 Worldview and Views on Global Warming Survey

Anyone that watches the news knows that someone somewhere in the world on any given day is going to have to deal with a natural disaster. California is a good example of this because natural disasters are a weekly if not a daily event there.

The principal of my high school escaped the holocaust in Germany before the war. He taught me that it is important to read the news and keep up with current events. Your life may depend on it. I had a dorm father that survived a prisoner of war camp. He survived by making himself a pole vault and using it to get over the fence to escape. His advice was to keep healthy and in good physical condition, your life may depend on it. Can't say that I have followed their advice over the years but the WW2 people did learn some lessons during the war.

 

[Jesus_is_Saint]

We love the Earth, we should protect her.
Anyhow, the earth will pass away one day, God will re-create everything when Jesus comes back.
That's God's job.
For us, we should not destroy the nature.