Five major polls in recent days definitively show Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum as the new front-runner for his party's nomination. Much of Santorum's ascension has been credited to his unwavering conservative beliefs -- among the GOP field, he is undoubtedly the strongest contrast to President Obama. A contrast that was highlighted earlier this month when Santorum said he has never believed in the "hoax of global warming" calling the science of man-made climate change "bogus". This long held belief of Santorum's may be the most shining example of how his policies do not reflect much of the fundamental principles of his faith.
He again incited faith to contrast he and the president last Saturday to a Tea Party audience saying, "the president's agenda" is "not about you... It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your job... It's about some phony ideal, some phony theology," Santorum said to applause. "Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology." Since that speech, Santorum has claimed that his comments were not made to cast doubt on the president's personal faith but rather to highlight Obama's theological worldview. A view he says "elevates the Earth above man... we can't take those resources because we're going to harm the Earth by things that frankly are just not scientifically proven -- for example, that politicization of the whole global-warming debate... this is just all an attempt to centralize power and to give more power to the government... I'm talking about, you know, the belief that man should be in charge of the Earth and should have dominion over it and should be good stewards of it."
But good stewards we have not been. While it has been proven over and over by at least ninety-eight percent of the leading scientists around the globe that climate change is in fact a real and catastrophic threat to our planet, and is also in fact man-made, it is not Santorum's inability to embrace the scientific data on man-made climate change that makes his stance so appalling. It is his repeated lack of desire to protect 'God's Green Earth' and his lack of compassion for the millions of people who have already been harmed by the devastating effects of climate change that makes his stance so wildly un-Christian.
Climate change is no longer just a cause for hippies trying to save the spotted owl. The fact that it is liberals and moderates like Al Gore and President Obama who have lead the charge to curb the disastrous effects of climate change has made it, in the eyes of conservatives, a partisan issue. Ironically, it is conservative Republicans who often tout the importance of Christian values in governing, that are so tragically ignoring the suffering of people all around the world, including those here at home. In 2005 a United Nations group found that there were at least 20 million environmental refugees worldwide -- more than those displaced by war and political conflicts combined. Recent estimates show that the numbers of refugees directly affected by climate change could reach 50 million by 2020. Last summer the UN proclaimed, "Around the world, hundreds of millions of people are in danger of going short of food and water." They also found that "competition between communities and countries for scarce resources -- especially water -- is increasing, exacerbating old security dilemmas and creating new ones. Environmental refugees are reshaping the human geography of the planet, a trend that will only increase as deserts advance, forests are felled, and sea levels rise. Mega crises may well become the new normal. These are all threats to human security, as well as to international peace..."
When 98% of the world's leading climate scientists and researchers say that climate change and its effects are both man-made and fully active in our world we can either respond to this as humanitarians, as well as conservationists, or we can discount them as part of a mass conspiracy, as Rick Santorum has done. If the former Senator were to walk in the shoes of a child displaced from his or her home due to rising flood waters, drought, thirst or starvation due to climate change, would he still belittle those who are trying to help? Is Santorum simply afraid that if we give science any credence at all that it will take away from religion's own power and influence? It would seem so. In turn we have seen a recent, and unfounded, narrative from the Republican Presidential field claiming that President Obama has waged war on religion, but the legitimate battle we face is that of one on sciences -- sciences that have been warning us for decades that how we physically treat our planet effects not just mother nature but the human race. When Rick Santorum chooses to not embrace the good that science can do for all of 'God's children', he may make for a more attractive conservative candidate for his base, but a good Christian he is not.
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Mallory McDuff, Ph.D.: Making Headlines: Finding Consensus on Climate Change Through Religion
The best evidence suggests that there has been no increase in average global surface temperature since 1997. AGW is not only not a fact, it's not even a viable scientific hypothesis any longer.
Also, merely stating that climate scientists believe in what is in climate science' best interest, is kind of like saying 98% of christian scientists believe in god. It's called argument from majority, and it's a fallacy.
Genesis 1:28....Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Also, they believe the Earth will be destroyed when the end times come, which is any day now. As my dad used to say all the time, "it's all gonna burn" so why bother conserving it?
As for whether or not these views are "Christian", I think they are definitely based on the bible. As I state repeatedly on this website, there is support for almost any view depending on where you look in the bible, considering it's just a collection of documents written by various authors over thousands of years and thrown together with no thought to consistency.
Christianity teaches people to care for each other, for animals, for nature, yes, but that doesn't mean that if you don't believe in something like global warming you're not a good Christian. It puts global warming on the same level as beliefs like the flat earth and the sun turning around the earth. What we believe today in science might be proven wrong decades from now.
Let's consider recent usage of the word "theology" by Democrats:
A. Clinton in an recent interview with CNN's Blitzer said: "Ryan rejected it because it was against their theology. Because it had both new revenues and spending..."
B. Jay Carney, in a December 13 press briefing said: "Now, what we have seen from Republicans in Congress is the promulgation of this idea that passing a tax cut for middle-class Americans is somehow a favor they would be doing for the President of the United States. Most of my adult life, the Republican theology has been tax cuts for everyone are the highest priority."
For proof I offer a few verses from Revelation 11 where you will note that God is specifically asked to destroy those who are destroying the earth. Apparently God has always been aware that humans are unruly creatures willfully blind to the damage they inflict on His creation and Mr. Santortum would seem to be one of them.
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven. 16 Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones in front of God threw themselves face downward and worshiped God,17 saying:
Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was!
We thank you that you have taken your great power
and have begun to rule!
18 The heathen were filled with rage,
because the time for your anger has come,
the time for the dead to be judged.
The time has come to reward your servants, the prophets,
and all your people, all who have reverence for you,
great and small alike.
The time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth!
I realize that it is mind shattering but it does appear that God actually desires to have a relationship with His creatures, I know it sounds unbelievably beyond our bounds but look at all the scriptures from many lands and the Holy emissaries who have proclaimed the personality and intentions of God.
If God has chosen to let us know what He thinks about things, what His requirements are if we want to please Him, how and why to approach Him for guidance and comfort, from this evidence we could say that God has reached out for us in an effort to reveal His truth if we will accept it.
Of course if we accept it we are obliged to try and please God by being gentle, kind, forgiving, patient and humble and this is not an attractive set of values for most people, they have other things to do with their time. From what I hear those who can incorporate those values into their hearts are rewarded by a peace of mind that is impossible to have otherwise, there should also be a secession of anger, worries and fear as it is replaced with a confident faith in the reality and fullness of God.
And you might want to first understand how the words "fact" and "theory" are used in science. Gould 1996: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_fact-and-theory.html
"While there is evidence of a warming trend in the climate, and one cause that has been explored is CO2 levels in the atmosphere, it is far from certain that it is man-made."
Ghosh and Brand (2003: http://www.bgc.mpg.de/service/iso_gas_lab/publications/PG_WB_IJMS.pdf) used mass spectrometry to show that the added CO2 in the atmosphere was of human origin from burning fossil fuels. Harries et al. (2001: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v410/n6826/abs/410355a0.html) used satellite measurements to show that increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere trapped increasing amounts of infrared.