Associated Press
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a leading opponent of climate science, appeared on a Christian radio talk show this week to present an odd argument: the far-right senator's interpretation of Scripture helps bolster his hostility towards scientific data.
In particular, Inhofe told Voice of Christian Youth America's Vic Eliason about his favorite Biblical citation included in his new anti-climate book, "The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future."
"[T]he Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that 'as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.' My point is, God's still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous."
Obviously, the senator's spiritual beliefs are his business, but even a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis does not refute climate science. No one is arguing that temperature variation and seasons will simply disappear as a consequence of global warming.
Rather, the point is that we're currently pumping about 90 million tons of carbon emissions into the air every day. This creates the conditions that lead to global warming, and the seriousness of the crisis continues to get worse. There's nothing in Scripture that tells us the evidence is wrong.
Incidentally, if Republicans claim the Senate majority in the 2012 elections, Inhofe will be the chairman of the Senate committee on the environment. That he believes the Bible debunks all of climate science is not exactly encouraging.
Update: Inhofe will be a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show on Tuesday. Don't miss it.
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"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish
of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and
over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26
As a Muskogee Native, I do not see myself above any other creature, and to do so is arrogant.
Tell that to the people who recently died in Tornado's attack in your bible belt. Guess God wants to take down your numbers. Or maybe their is climate change.
Good Luck Fighting With GOD! Their he Blows
God is kicking you out of this garden called earth. Guess he changed his mind about your ability to rule!
A convenient interpretation by the secretly godless in order to justify their despoiling of the earth for personal profit.
God also gave strict instructions about how man was to use the land. In our arrogance, we ignore what He told us. Prime example: The Dust Bowl...when we thought we could go into a beautiful grassland with little water and make it into fields of wheat and corn. That worked out so well, eh?
Yes, and G-d gave "man" the ability to reason and analyze and to have enough "common sense" to recognize that this land has finite resources - which "man" should understand that we must manage properly for future generations!!
And yet the sheeple avoid reason, logic, and "common sense"......
@Joe Henry Lamb, arguing with God is what is ignorant pal. God gave you several responsabilities, to oversee the plants, birds and beasts of His Creation was one, to honor and obey His Word was yet another, you seem to be striking out on all counts!
Go get 'em Jim. Science and evidence just pisses me off, too.
This scripture, and others like it, in no way say nor imply we should treat God's creation as abusively as we are. In fact, I take such scriptures to mean that we are expected to be and will be held responsible for the sort of stewards of creation we were. All through the Bible Jesus depicts authority and leadership as a service position, and not a free pass to use and abuse.
If Senator Inhoff is an example of man created in the image of God, then thank God I'm an atheist.
I always took that verse to be about being responsible, culpable and compassionate toward the earth; not rape it of all resources, beauties and life-giving properties. And then moving on, of course, to the next available planet.
When you go to the dictionary and look up "Okie moron" you find a photograph of Inhofe there. You'd think the guy would be an embarrassment to fundamentalists, but you'd only think that if you had never been to Oklahoma, the state in serious contention with South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi for "Home of the Stupidest White People on Earth."
Q) Why did they create the state of Oklahoma?
A) To give the folks in Arkansas someone to make fun of.
They created the state of Oklahoma to give the last Indian Territory to the white people who craved it.
Hey, Hey, Hey, I live in Oklahoma, don't stereotype us all. In 1960, registered voters in Oklahoma were 82% Democrat, 17.6% Republican and .04% Independent. The latest voter registration figures say Democrats are at the lowest in state history at 47.2% and Republicans are at an all-time high at 41.4%, with Independents at 11.4%. Our average teacher salaries are always in the bottom half of any list. I am not trying to downgrade teachers, but I doubt if we are getting the cream of the crop. So maybe when you have poorly educated people combined with lots of church attendance, this is what you get. The Oklahoma Republican Party should be called the Oklahoma Religious Party, as our politicians base their leadership on the bible. It seems the redder our state gets, the more religious and undereducated our politicians are.
The south has an image problem, I know lots of people in the south who are kind, friendly and intelligent.
But the ones who aren't are just so prominent.
It's not that there aren't idiots in the north or out in California, there are, believe me.
But the South's idiots are just so much better at putting themselves out there.
Watch your mouth, Benen, or Inhofe “ will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” Ezekiel 25:17:
And, if that doesn't work, Inhofe is gonna call a couple of hard-pipe-hittin' niggas to go to work on you with a pair o' pliers and a blow torch. You hear me talking hillbilly boy? I aight through wit chu not a damn sight. I'm gonna get medieval on your ass!
Jeez... do we have to do a cover of Jungle Boogie again, or what?
Sounds like someone needs to visit http://www.bmfwallets.com
Day for the last time man you have to start including /snark over or #sarcasm. I've made this mistake myself before- take it from me!
God has made some beautiful things. It is up to us to appreciate these things and take care of them for him these are his gifts to us how dare we destroy his gifts. The meek shall inherit the Earth but, are we going to want it after they get done filling it with holes. Greed kills. The way to help lower gas prices is to lower consumption of it. My idea that would end the Oil crisis is to close all the businesses on Sunday. Only important businesses should be open. What kind of cars are these hired Representatives driving? Their God is the Almighty dollar.
The truth is that if we dug holes everywhere that there might be oil and got it, it would still be at least 8 years before it got to your local pump. Which is not going to decrease prices this year or next. Your thought on lowering consumption is good, except Big Oil wants the same profit margin and and if demand goes down so will their production.
I'm going to in sert this in the middle of this food fight this is for Rachel,think she'll love it, from the same Bible the Republican quoted from.He and all the rest of them need to get a grip on this.
The Earth dries up and withers,
the World languishes and withers
the Heavens languish together with the Earth.
The Earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants;
For they have transgressed Laws.
violated the Statutes,
Broken the Everlasting Covenant.
Isaiah 24:4-5 king James Version
Isaiah was talking about ritual pollution, rather than the kind we think of, but still it's a powerful bit of poetry. And, more to the point, it conveys the idea that humans can negatively impact the world around them by their actions.
In the Old Testament broadly, there is always the idea of God as the lawgiver. Primarily by law is meant the law given to Moses, but there is frequently the assumption that there are laws in the natural world as well. (I could pile up quotes proving that, but I won't as I desperately want to go to bed now because I have a very early morning.) That's fairly important considering Inhofe's position on the matter, because where there are laws there may also be violations of the laws, and the breaking of laws always has consequences (hence Isaiah's apocalypse).
It's worth nothing, also, that while we got the scientific method from the ancient Greeks, we got the idea of natural laws from the ancient Hebrews. Greek gods are capricious. YHWH makes and enforces laws, and fixes penalties for violations. Inhofe may want to consider whether he is actually invoking the Jewish God, or Zeus.
Okay, see, I'm actually on cold medicine right now, so I don't know what to make of this. This is a hallucination, right. When I stop being sick, I'm going to come back on here and this will be an article about Jobs, or Environmental Conservatism from the party that started it, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon, it was Nixon wasn't it? Who signed the EPA into law.
Cause I just can't tell, The termites have been at the foundation of public discourse this election season, the rotten joists have given way and the overton window has become the overton open wall. There's so much crazy that's been talked about, between the contraceptives and the moon colony and the dog on the car roof, and Rush and his Islamic Secularism.
Honestly, how am I supposed to know whether this is just the latest in the long line of nutjob statements or the medication talking.
I need some chicken noodle soup, and a degree in political science.
I can appreciate your confusion, Vox. And I may have a suggestion. First, just don't stop taking the cold medicine. Not til mid-November.
Start each day by checking in to The Onion. Find out what is being treated with brilliant absurdity first. Then, most articles will fall into place in their logically appropriate mental circular files. Again, the codeine helps.
Instead of counting sheep to get to sleep, try predictions for the next day. Who, what, how can the Absurdists plunge even further into the rough while in this (supposedly) elite PGA ranked tournament to the White House? Now, in your mind, double down and translate it into a SNL skit. Nothing that happens tomorrow will truly surprise you.
The degree in poli sci will only make you weep. I'm heating my chicken noodle soup now.
Where do Republicans expect to live when the planet finally chokes to death on all this pollution? Do they have some Twilight Zone-esque rocket ship to Mars scheme going?
Don't be silly, you know it's the moon.
Maybe they'll all take off for the moon colony pre-emptively and we'll be shut of them. Take a deep breath and hope.
Nope, they are putting all their money on the rapture. Why bother with preserving the natural world when it will just roll away in fire anyways?
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Ignore the FONcall thing, not sure why I cannot delete that lol
Don't forget the "rapture" when some of us will be "left behind" to suffer!! LOL!!!
God I'm sure wants to keep heaven clean and beautiful. Living on earth maybe a test of whether you have taken care of it or not.
Ann Coulter said she is in favor of filling up the earth until there is standing room only then moving on to Mars. Now that's a conservative vision for you!!
The key words that he may have missed in quoting the Bible are --As long as the earth remains. I certainly would like for the Earth to remain we may have to take care of the earth in order for this to be true.
Never mind that the Bible was 1) written by humans, and 2) written at a time when nobody could even concieve of manufacturing plants, chemicals, combustion engines and pollution on any scale, much less the one we have now. Inhofe thinks we can do whatever we want to the planet and God will take care of us? What an idiot!!!
You are wrong about that. The thing is, the Catholic church in the 1500s decided to leave a number of books out of the Bible. Some of those books are :
the Book of Chevrolet
the Book of Jobs (Steve)
the Book of DuPont
the Book of Exxon
the Book of Gore (Al)
So, if they left those in, we would have known all about it by now.
Good one - isn't that the same Catholic church that touts its morality when it comes to contraception, yet holds a festival every year in my town that raises money with a huge beer tent full of secular music (think Lynyrd Skynyrd), dirty dancing, and large-scale drunkenness?
He missed the dust bowl in history class, as well as passenger pigeons and buffalo. I would imagine he would support a law to combat locusts despite the fact that it was a favorite Biblical plague. How about a leper colony in OK?
If he does go back to class, perhaps someone can teach him the difference between weather and climate.
what an craven greedy idiot. The bible also says that the city of Tyre was destroyed by this god and that it would never ever be found again by anyone. Of course, Tyre is a thriving city, with plenty of ruins around it. The bible claims an "exodus" and there is noevidence whatsoever of this. Teh bible claims that some magical man rose from the dead with a earthquake, zombies and a dark sun, all of which no one noticed at the time. All showing the bible is full of BS.
Some use the bible to justify all kinds of nonsense and despicable behavior. They drag it out to explain their bigotry towards Blacks and Gays and why they believe women are deceitful and must be controlled. Now we can add why they don’t believe in climate change to the list. It’s pitiful.
It's time to gather all these Evangelicals together in one place and force them to listen to XTC "Dear God" not that it's a anti God song but just to allow them to thinh and question things
Every man is entitled to his own ignorance, but this guy should just leave it private.
Rachel, it continues to amaze me how any of these Teathuglikkkons ever got in office. Is America this stupid? If I carried his thought out to its logical conclusion we would end up with the earth destroyed at the hands of humans. I believe in God and I believe in Jesus as my savior. BUT!! I cannot and will not believe that God is going to correct the idiocy created by humans on this earth. Did that once, if you subscribe to the old testament, how'd that work out for the human race? What needs to be done is this moron needs to be voted out and get someone in that will help legislate the smokestacks, exhaust pipes and the criminals that continue to promote their idiotic agenda.
While this idiot is free to BELIEVE whatever he chooses... pick a mythology, be it Greek or Abrahamic biblical -- but science is SCIENCE, provable, whereas "god" is a delusion created by people trying to express the inexplicable long before science. Grow up.
I love how the tealiban pick and choose which parts of the bible and religion they want to follow. And no matter what they do, they always find Jesus even if it's between the legs of some babe.
Human beings could also launch 20,000 nuclear weapons at each other and turn the Earth's surface into glass. Does Sen. Inhofe doubt the efficacy of a nuclear deterrent based on the same principle as climate change?
He doesn't have a clue what that kind of bomb would do. He thinks if it is "over there" it won't affect us. What they all do not realize is this is one great big planet and it will take us all down with it!
Wasn't he the guy who made an absolute fool of himself in the Copenhagen talks on climate change?
Does being affiliated with oil interests automatically make you both reactionary and abysmally stupid? I wonder.
Maybe because the people in the extraction industries are ridden with such guilt for eating into Mother Earth that they have a psychological reaction-formation, leading them to defend to the death the defiling.
The arrogance of that man to 1) make decisions that affect humanity based on the belief in weak myths, and 2) he claims to speak FOR those myths... makes him unfit for office.
Arguing which theory is more accurate or debating "conclusions" is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic. The continued polluting of the air and water will have consequences...what these might be is subject for discussions but should not be used as excuses not to address the issue.
I assume Senator Inhofe would also agree that we, as human beings, could never affect God's creation through a massive nuclear war and the radiation, contamination, and nuclear winter that wouldn't occur.
If God loves the Bible Belt Christians then why does he keep sending killer tornadoes to their areas?
He's trying to send them a message, but they just don't get it.
Ah Jesus Christ...
Hoof-in-Mouth (quasi-diseased moron) quotes scripture to address climate science, get the feck out already..
Did you know that The Bible condones smoking? Neither did I until I read this:
"And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the Camel." - Genesis 24:64
Better repeal all those anti-smoking laws...God commands it!
Which just goes to show it's all in the interpretation and the context.
Spud: Good one!
According to one of the Godly board members of the Landover Baptist Church forum Jesus himself had a two-pack a day habit.
(DISCLAIMER--this board satarizes Inhofe's brand of fundamiltalism and does not speak for Baptists in general.)
So for arguments sake, lets just pretend for a second that the funny crazy man is right, and we can't change what "God" is doing weather wise....that still leaves the issue that we, NOT "GOD", are polluting the earth...we can change that though since it is us doing it, not "God"...right? Right?
Then again, if we go with the funny crazy man's theory (theology), then that means pollution is all "God's" fault. That would be a relief, no more guilt when I am running the AC when in park!