(With a pelvic thrust, gun hands, a wink and a clicking noise to "Bay of Fundie". Isn't that cooler than a hat tip? It will henceforth be known as a PTGHWAC. Bookmark this page.)
I was thinking about climate change deniers and how their denial of the science relates to their religion, and something occurred to me.
Accepting the fact that human activities can affect the climate puts a human limit on god's creation, and therefore god's power.
It's as simple as that, possums, and at the same time not nearly that simple.
The reasons that many fundies don't dig on environmental issues are legion, my children, and the issue is complicated by nefarious political alleigances, the communism/capitalism dichotomy, free will, the fact that evangelism is strongest in the US, and just palin distrust of science in general. But I think one of the strongest contributing factors is this god's creation angle.
If you believe that god created the planet for us, and then accept that we are fucking it up, the implications are staggering.
First, it's Eden all over again. We've been given limits, and we've exceeded them. Thus, it's original sin in a larger, dirtier, and more popular form.
Second, it means that god's not looking out for us anymore, not even the faithful. Christians are losing their homes in forest fires, being drowned when the levee breaks, and are being killed in foreign wars over resources. Christian children are starving to death because of drought. ANd in fact, Christian children might be part of the problem. I joked the other night that, environmentally speaking, the only thing worse than having a Canadian baby is having an American baby.
Third, to reiterate, it means that, once again, humans are fucking up god's plans, and that makes him less than omnipotent or omniscient. He should have seen this coming, and he should have prevented it. Worse, this destruction hasn't even been deliberate. Man's carelessness is more powerful than god's creation.
Fourth, the American Way of Life is supposed to be a reward for bing good Christians. If that reward is hollow, then it calls into question the authorship of the reward. Maybe it wasn't god on our side all these years...
And finally, it underscores the inherent foolishness, arrogance, and inefficiency of the belief that a god created an entire fucking universe just as a terrarium for a few billion monkeys. Monkeys who, incidentally, are flinging poo all over the whole place.
As I've said, there are a bunch of other reasons for denying anthropic (is that the word) climate change. And the most immediate is that changing is going to be a pain in the ass. But I think creation theology is definitely a factor.
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