Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

[Coloradomtnman]

Here's one to stir up the beehive!

If Christians are expecting the Rapture, do they worry about what we're doing to the planet? It seems that they wouldn't have much motivation to make the extra effort to reduce their impact on the environment because, at any moment, they will be physically transported to Heaven.

And to quote the Bible:

Genesis: "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.""

Not a very ecologically sustainable philosophy.

The Republican Party supports interests counter to the environment, such as continued use of fossil fuels, more drilling, anti-recycling propaganda, promotion of land development, opposition to wilderness designation, promoting mining, opposition to the EPA, opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, opposition to regulations on fuel efficiency, anti-global warming propaganda, opposition to the Endangered Species Act, etc. etc.

The Christian Conservatives tend to vote Repubican and, by default, support the interests of the Republican Party.

So, does Christianty not promote responsible environmental stewardship or ecologically sustainable philosophies?

 

[ItsFairmont]

That's a BROAD question you ask there, friend.

I am a Christian, and I don't really know the best way to answer that. I can say whatever I want about the environment, but I wear plastic clothes (polyester, nylon) sometimes, drive a car (one a gas sipper, the other a guzzler), type on a plastic keyboard, use electricity, buy packaged and fast food, drink too much beer, use spray paint, fly on airplanes several times per year (and never for business), buy Chinese-made products, burn wood, eat animals of all kinds (well, almost all kinds: I like cows, chickens, pigs and occasionally lamb or goat and fish), buy cut flowers, own three dogs, have two kids, and do a lot of other stuff that many people say is bad (although they do it themselves).

I'm a liberal, but don't drive around with bumper stickers that say we borrow the earth from our kids, etc. Anytime I see a bumper sticker on a car that advertises environmentalism I can't help but note the irony of a CAR that BURNS GAS with said sticker on board.

A sticker on a bike makes more sense.

Save the rainforest? I wouldn't even know where to begin. I ate a Quarter Pounder and a six-piece chicken nugget meal, so I probably killed an acre right there.


But I do support a limit on killing endagered species, be they on the land or in the sea. I think killing rhinos for their horns is rediculous, as is cutting off the fins of sharks. Killing a cow is one thing. We won't run out of cows.


For me, I look at the Biblical passage about being fruitful and subduing the earth and think, "Check."

We succeeded in that one (for the most part). Sure, we can't stop hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes, but that's right around the corner.

I think clearcutting is extremely unattractive, as I often drive by it here in Georgia and notice how ugly it looks when the loggers get through with it. It pisses me off all the way to Home Depot where I buy lumber to build a fence to keep my dogs from pooping in the neighbors' yards.

I also marvel at how my dogs eat well, sleep wherever they want (beds, couch, floor, fireplace, etc.) and then drive by rusty old trailer parks and think, "Gee, my dogs live better than those people." That kind of makes me sad. Of course, most those people never took their FREE education seriously, so they probably have themselves to blame for a lot of their situation.

I feel sorry for people in India and China who don't get enough to eat, and then wonder why they don't use birth control.

I feel sorry for people with AIDS, even though the disease could be completely eradicated in one generation if people would use a condom.

I am glad that sewage has to be treated twice before it's released back into the rivers, streams and lakes. I'm drinking a beer right now that was made from water out of the Chatahoochee River in Georgia (says so on the bottle). That river, about thirty miles upstream from the brewery, gets 30 million gallons of treated sewage poured into it each day. I imagine this beer would taste a lot different if the sewage was raw (which actually happens sometimes when it rains too much).


So, in summary: I think the problem we all face is overpopulation. We should say to God, "We did it." We definitely subdued the earth. So, now we should rest (God did) and start having less kids.

And it's not a hardship. If each couple had two kids (that's one kid for each adult in the world), the world's population would slowly decrease, because not all those kids would reach adulthood, and not all those who did reach adulthood would have kids.


Overpopulation is the problem. Go talk to the Mormons and Catholics. It's their fault. And the Chinese and Indians.

Note: The seat of Christianity right now is Italy. They have the lowest birthrate in Europe.

 

[Old Rocks]

Most of my family are evangelical. Assembly of God. And most are quite conservative. Yet they are also very conservationaly minded. There basis for that is the Parable of the Good Steward.

They also support alternative energies, although doubting the science of Global Warming, simply because of the implications for National Security and clean air.

I cannot see any Christian wanting to leave to his children a world poorer than he found it because of his actions.

 

[FactFinder]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

 

[k2skier]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

Then why do you deny all factual data that shows our planet is warming up?

 

[FactFinder]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

Then why do you deny all factual data that shows our planet is warming up?

I don't. I agree that it was warming up till 2001. since then it has been cooling.
I attribute the warming to the solar maximum. We are now in an extended (above average) solar minimum hence we are cooling. Since the data shows we are cooling, attributing arctic melting to air temperature warming sounds a bit assinine, heh?

Much more logical that the volcanic activity would be causing it, partcularly given the isolated thinning in the Antarctic.

 

[k2skier]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

Then why do you deny all factual data that shows our planet is warming up?

I don't. I agree that it was warming up till 2001. since then it has been cooling.
I attribute the warming to the solar maximum. We are now in an extended (above average) solar minimum hence we are cooling. Since the data shows we are cooling, attributing arctic melting to air temperature warming sounds a bit assinine, heh?

Much more logical that the volcanic activity would be causing it, partcularly given the isolated thinning in the Antarctic.

Here's data from different sources that shows we are still warming; where's you data that were cooling?

NCDC: U.S. Annual Climate

NOAA News Online (Story 2772)


Jan. 9, 2007 � The 2006 average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. was the warmest on record and nearly identical to the record set in 1998, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Seven months in 2006 were much warmer than average, including December, which ended as the fourth warmest December since records began in 1895. (Click NOAA image for larger view of U.S. state temperature rankings for 2006. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)


*******2005 hottest year on record — 2004 forth hottest, 2003 third hottest, 2002 and 2001 tied as second hottest *****The WE News Archives********

NASA - 2005 Warmest Year in Over a Century

NASA - 2006 Was Earth's Fifth Warmest Year

 

[RodISHI]

I think to make such a statement is simply hype to stir the pot on your part.

If Christians are expecting the Rapture, do they worry about what we're doing to the planet? It seems that they wouldn't have much motivation to make the extra effort to reduce their impact on the environment because, at any moment, they will be physically transported to Heaven.

 

[Maple]

I am a Christian consevative, an avid hiker in the mountains of Colorado and I am an environmentalist. I pick up other people's trash when I find it. I don't go so far as to beleive that global warming is caused by humans, that just has not been proven to me yet. I don't beleive that the cap and trade will do anything but put an unfair tax on American business and cost the consumer, us, thousands of dollars extra in energy bills. I beleive in green energy, but when I see the wacko environmentalists who don't want to let companies put wind machines out in the California desert, because a brid might fly into it, it's absurd. I beleive in drilling in our own country, nuclear engery, you name it, it can all be done enviromentally friendly, but the wackos will find something wrong with it and therefore we stay dependent of foriegn oil.

 

[FactFinder]

Then why do you deny all factual data that shows our planet is warming up?

I don't. I agree that it was warming up till 2001. since then it has been cooling.
I attribute the warming to the solar maximum. We are now in an extended (above average) solar minimum hence we are cooling. Since the data shows we are cooling, attributing arctic melting to air temperature warming sounds a bit assinine, heh?

Much more logical that the volcanic activity would be causing it, partcularly given the isolated thinning in the Antarctic.

Here's data from different sources that shows we are still warming; where's you data that were cooling?

NCDC: U.S. Annual Climate

NOAA News Online (Story 2772)


Jan. 9, 2007 � The 2006 average annual temperature for the contiguous U.S. was the warmest on record and nearly identical to the record set in 1998, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Seven months in 2006 were much warmer than average, including December, which ended as the fourth warmest December since records began in 1895. (Click NOAA image for larger view of U.S. state temperature rankings for 2006. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)


*******2005 hottest year on record — 2004 forth hottest, 2003 third hottest, 2002 and 2001 tied as second hottest *****The WE News Archives********

NASA - 2005 Warmest Year in Over a Century

NASA - 2006 Was Earth's Fifth Warmest Year

Since 2001 we have been coming down from a peak. of course the temps were still high just as you would still be high if you were just descending from Everest.

The reason why?

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

Sunspot number: 0
What is the sunspot number?
Updated 11 Apr 2009

NEW: Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 16 days
2009 total: 88 days (87%)
Since 2004: 599 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days

 

[k2skier]

A nice looking graph, but still no data.

 

[FactFinder]

A nice looking graph, but still no data.

Just take the 4 sources on the graph and crunch the numbers yourself.

Oh and I trust nothing out of the climate arena of NASA due to James Hansen being in charge.

Update: NASA, James Hansen, and the Politicization of Science
DailyTech - Update: NASA, James Hansen, and the Politicization of Science

He likes to cook the books when the data doesn't agree with AGW.

Google Hansen cook the books

 

[Care4all]

Here's one to stir up the beehive!

If Christians are expecting the Rapture, do they worry about what we're doing to the planet? It seems that they wouldn't have much motivation to make the extra effort to reduce their impact on the environment because, at any moment, they will be physically transported to Heaven.


FYI
Not all Christians believe the Rapture takes place PRETRIBULATION, some believe it comes midtribulation, and some beieve it is post tribulation, and millions...don't believe in a physical rapture at all.

And to quote the Bible:

Genesis: "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.""

Not a very ecologically sustainable philosophy.

What in that statement is NOT ecologically sustainable? Dominion over every living creature, as we have achieved? Ruling over every creature does not mean this should be done without great stewardship responsibility Colorado?

Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

The Republican Party supports interests counter to the environment, such as continued use of fossil fuels, more drilling, anti-recycling propaganda, promotion of land development, opposition to wilderness designation, promoting mining, opposition to the EPA, opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, opposition to regulations on fuel efficiency, anti-global warming propaganda, opposition to the Endangered Species Act, etc. etc.

The Christian Conservatives tend to vote Repubican and, by default, support the interests of the Republican Party.

So, does Christianty not promote responsible environmental stewardship or ecologically sustainable philosophies?

YES, of course Christianity promotes responsible environmental stewardship!

If we don't then we know our FATE!

Revelation 11:18 (Contemporary English Version)
18When the nations got angry,

you became angry too!

Now the time has come

for the dead

to be judged.

It is time for you to reward

your servants the prophets

and all of your people

who honor your name,

no matter who they are.

It is time to destroy everyone

who has destroyed

the earth."

care

 

[slackjawed]

As shown in the lyrics of one of his songs, Bob Marley believed that humans had no control over the earth as a whole:

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfil de book.
Bob was a rastafarian, a kind of christian.
I am not christian, but I do know several christians of the more mainstream faiths that espouse this view.

 

[Old Rocks]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

You say so. Every Scientific Society, every National Academy of Science, and every major University in the world says otherwise. So who am I to believe? Not that hard of a decision.

 

[Old Rocks]

I am a Christian consevative, an avid hiker in the mountains of Colorado and I am an environmentalist. I pick up other people's trash when I find it. I don't go so far as to beleive that global warming is caused by humans, that just has not been proven to me yet. I don't beleive that the cap and trade will do anything but put an unfair tax on American business and cost the consumer, us, thousands of dollars extra in energy bills. I beleive in green energy, but when I see the wacko environmentalists who don't want to let companies put wind machines out in the California desert, because a brid might fly into it, it's absurd. I beleive in drilling in our own country, nuclear engery, you name it, it can all be done enviromentally friendly, but the wackos will find something wrong with it and therefore we stay dependent of foriegn oil.

OK, Maple, here is the physics of it, as published by the American Institute of Physics;

The Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect

 

[Old Rocks]

Here's one to stir up the beehive!

If Christians are expecting the Rapture, do they worry about what we're doing to the planet? It seems that they wouldn't have much motivation to make the extra effort to reduce their impact on the environment because, at any moment, they will be physically transported to Heaven.


FYI
Not all Christians believe the Rapture takes place PRETRIBULATION, some believe it comes midtribulation, and some beieve it is post tribulation, and millions...don't believe in a physical rapture at all.

And to quote the Bible:

Genesis: "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.""

Not a very ecologically sustainable philosophy.

What in that statement is NOT ecologically sustainable? Dominion over every living creature, as we have achieved? Ruling over every creature does not mean this should be done without great stewardship responsibility Colorado?



The Republican Party supports interests counter to the environment, such as continued use of fossil fuels, more drilling, anti-recycling propaganda, promotion of land development, opposition to wilderness designation, promoting mining, opposition to the EPA, opposition to the Kyoto Protocol, opposition to regulations on fuel efficiency, anti-global warming propaganda, opposition to the Endangered Species Act, etc. etc.

The Christian Conservatives tend to vote Repubican and, by default, support the interests of the Republican Party.

So, does Christianty not promote responsible environmental stewardship or ecologically sustainable philosophies?

YES, of course Christianity promotes responsible environmental stewardship!

If we don't then we know our FATE!

Revelation 11:18 (Contemporary English Version)
18When the nations got angry,

you became angry too!

Now the time has come

for the dead

to be judged.

It is time for you to reward

your servants the prophets

and all of your people

who honor your name,

no matter who they are.

It is time to destroy everyone

who has destroyed

the earth."

care

The idea of a Rapture is Darbyism, and has very tenuous basis in the Bible.Essay: Dispensationalism

 

[Coloradomtnman]

I think to make such a statement is simply hype to stir the pot on your part.

If Christians are expecting the Rapture, do they worry about what we're doing to the planet? It seems that they wouldn't have much motivation to make the extra effort to reduce their impact on the environment because, at any moment, they will be physically transported to Heaven.

Oh, it totally was, RodISHI. That was the point!

 

[FactFinder]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

You say so. Every Scientific Society, every National Academy of Science, and every major University in the world says otherwise. So who am I to believe? Not that hard of a decision.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/deetest/deetmp.10183.png
Consensus Shattered As Major Scientific Study Says Global Warming Is Natural « noworldsystem.com
Proved: There is no climate crisis
Global Warming Hoax: U.S. Senate Report Debunks “Consensus” - Over 400 Prominent Scientists Dispute Man-Made Global Warming
The Global Warming Scam by IPCC Reviewer, Dr Vincent Gray
Exposing the Global Warming Hoax | Altermedia Scotland

I can find many more if you need them. There is no international consensus.

 

[k2skier]

Does Christianty Not Promote Responsible Environmental Stewardship?

Yes it does. You make sound decisions based on truth not hype. AGW has been found to be lacking in both truth and accuracy. It would be the irresponsible thing to follow such tripe.

You say so. Every Scientific Society, every National Academy of Science, and every major University in the world says otherwise. So who am I to believe? Not that hard of a decision.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/deetest/deetmp.10183.png
Consensus Shattered As Major Scientific Study Says Global Warming Is Natural « noworldsystem.com
Proved: There is no climate crisis
Global Warming Hoax: U.S. Senate Report Debunks “Consensus” - Over 400 Prominent Scientists Dispute Man-Made Global Warming
The Global Warming Scam by IPCC Reviewer, Dr Vincent Gray
Exposing the Global Warming Hoax | Altermedia Scotland

I can find many more if you need them. There is no international consensus.

One year of ice data and peoples "opinions", isn't temperature data, you need real proof and hard data to claim the sky is green