We got a little taste of this nonsense in 'Jesus Camp', I think. Scary stuff. And I'm pretty sure Newt Gingrich is to blame.

Yay! Men from the iron age have come to save us with the power of 2,000 year old scientific know-how!

Although I'm not sure how much help they'll be now that we have moved on to a non-demon-based meteorological model.

"Leading creationist scientists." I might laugh if I wasn't shaking my head in frustration and despair.

There are people who think that appending the word creationist to the word scientist actually increases scientific respectability. And they have a voice in deciding our future. A loud voice.

Are we doomed?

Actually, Newt Gingrich is working to help prevent Climate Change. Really. http://www.wecansolveit.org/content/pages/151/

He's appeared in commercials with Nancy Pelosi and everything. He may be a tool otherwise, but not there at least.

That DVD looks horrifying, though.

There are two important themes in the biblical record.

A big flood and the plagues of Egypt.

From these accurate lessons we learn that rising seas are predictable and that a boat builder had enough time to save the farm from a local flood.

We also learned that after an iron deposit seepage into the Nile, many species died setting off chain reactions of biologic diversification that negatively impacted the local people and their livestock.

Also, Santornini erupted and the debris field included the mideast causing significant problems.

So we can take some of the biblical accounts and make sense of them if we use a perspective of an uneducated person observing large scale changes in his environment at the same time being wrapped in mystical meanderings.

Now Christians, which are not at all related to any of these people need to understand that just because their exhaust is raping the earth and dimming the sun, changing rainfall patterns for Africa in such a way as to cause drought and famine for millions, that Christians don't need to change their polluting consumption because they believe they are imperfect, and God will forgive them.

Besides being a real Christian is too inconvenient. That dioamond engagement ring may have been paid for with the blood of African children, but the women in the wednesday study group are amazed at how the color and clarity are so pretty.

If we let Christians have there way, we are doomed.

Now for those few who actually model their lives after Jesus, they have stopped driving as much as possible, grow there own food, only buy recyclable containers, want all of our troops to return home and to stop building the Mexican border fence.

Do unto others... turn the other cheek... those two fundamentals of Jesus are what is missing from Christiins today.

"Actually, Newt Gingrich is working to help prevent Climate Change" - Count

I am happy to see that Newt has come around. I was referring to the anti-science campaign he lead as Speaker in the 90's.

Seems everyone that believes in global warming also hate Christians. At least that is consistent thinking, consistently wrong.

Seems everyone that believes in global warming also hate Christians.

Put away your martyrdom complex. You sound like a whiny fool.

People are ridiculing Christians here because this documentary is an explicitly Christian production with Christian reasoning.

Global warming as a scientific theory is a matter of chemistry and thermodynamics. No one has to 'believe' anything. The experimental data is there, verified by hundreds of international scientists and reverified by thousands more. The fact that you even use the word believe says volumes about how you think, or don't.

Wait...I thought this DVD was informing us that Global Warming was real? So the Christians who made it hate Christians?

...That explains a lot, actually.

It's not that people hate Christians, it's that they don't really trust an ancient book of parables
to help with modern scientific problems. If you want to use the Bible as a moral guide, feel free. But when you start using it as a basis for scientific belief you've officially entered Wackytown.

Why he would assume hatred is part of the persecution complex associated with religiosity. A section of the brain stimulated by emotions surrounding unknows.

Like "What is that shining object in the night sky?"

It is the moon, but it started out being God, bringer of night light.

Christians are not something to hate at all, they should be studied, as we study dolphins and chimpanzees. All of them will help us adapt in some way.

It is always important to understand how people will react to reality. A burning forest usually forces the flight instint. Christians however, may want to roast marshmallows for Jesus.

We need to know this ahead of time, if possible. Rescue teams may have to lure them away with chocolate and graham crackers.

Wretched den of heathens! Mixed fiber clothes? Allowing unmarried non-virgins to live? I bet you eat shellfish and think dolphins are cute too. Abominations, all of you! Ooooh, you're gonna get such a smiting, just wait and see... aaaany second now... well... just assume that all the bad things that happen to you from now on are smitings. Next time you run out of toilet paper in a public restroom or get a cold sore, or stub your toe on the stairs... you'll remember your blasphemy and respect the awesome might of God's omnipotent wrath.

Repent!

Christians are not something to hate at all, they should be studied, as we study dolphins and chimpanzees. All of them will help us adapt in some way.
--Earl E

Bigots are so cute when they're pretending they're not bigots...

I am consistently amazed that when dealing with matters of science, people will choose to believe the political and religious leaders rather than scientists.

I really hate to show off my naivete, but it truly amazes me.

It's even more amazing to me that many educated religious people in wealthy countries like the US are able to pick and choose which specific areas of science to "believe" in.

Gravity, electromagnetism, germ theory, mechanics, nuclear fission, heat transfer, fluid mechanics... these religious people "believe" in all of this and literally put their lives in the hands of scientists and engineers every day, and they actually know that throughout history, whenever religion and science have clashed, science has proven to be correct in the long haul, despite the often violent forces of religion vigorously defending the status quo.

Despite knowing all of this, some people can still confidently select little bits of science to ignore or ridicule for no rational reason. That's truly amazing. It's almost like someone who uses calculus every day telling you that there are certain laws of algebra that they just don't believe in... because it conflicts with a story someone told them. The level of self-deception is astounding.

Then again, many people pick and choose which parts of the Bible/Koran to believe (or at least their religious vendor chooses and interprets the parts for them), so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I actually have a lot more respect for uneducated people who take everything in their Holy books literally out of pure ignorance. At least they aren't building some convoluted rationalization to disguise their own hypocrisy from themselves (not that we all don't do that from time to time in smaller ways).

Woooowwwwwwwwww.
Glittering generalizations abound.

All people with religious beliefs are ignorant bigots?
Science is able to answer every single question about human existance?

Or am I overreacting, and that's not what commentors on this post have been meaning to say?

I mean, ok, not everybody subscribes to the idea that God exists, and that's a belief I respect. But some of these comments are...ugly. Sheesh.

Ok, just reread, and the "bigots" comment was not in fact referring to Christians at large...sorry about that. The "ignorant" comments still chafe a bit, but it's ok, I can take it :>

Well, yeah, some religious people are ignorant. But, unfortunately, a good portion of PEOPLE are ignorant, and religious beliefs is only one of many factors that construct a personality (including its flaws). Besides which, Christianity itself is pretty diverse within itself regarding the interpretation of religious texts -- two people who both claim to be Christians can have very differing beliefs and/or levels of ignorance. (I could go into the idea that ignorance and bigotry are counterintuitive to Christian principles, and are therefore an example of hypocrisy and not necessarily the best yardstick for gauging the validity of the religion itself, but I don't want to play "good cop, bad cop," and besides somebody else already mentioned it. But I thought it was worthy of parentheses).

Anyway, my point was, given that Christianity isn't practiced in a uniform manner and that religious beliefs are, at the end of the day, deeply personal and individual....I don't think anybody on this site would tolerate making huge sweeping blanket statements like "Christians are not something we should hate at all, they should be studied as with dolphins and chimpanzees" and "If we let Christians have their way, we are doomed" about any other group of people. At least I hope not.

I would be willing to make sweeping generalizations about Visigoths. Screw them. And spiders. I think MaryAnn should make a rule: No spiders or Visigoths allowed.

Bigot is often used as a pejorative term against a person who is obstinately devoted to prejudices even when these views are challenged or proven to be false or not universally applicable or acceptable.

So when I said they(Christians) should be studied, I meant we need to understand how the human brain works, so we can then communicate science in ways they will understand.

For example:
When we talk about droughts and forest fires with Christians we should try and parallel the book of Revelation with human behavoir.

Drive a car, help God rain fire from the heavens laying waste to the cattle and sinners, or something like that.

If you need a Christian to help build a wall to prevent a flood, tell them that hell is fire and awaits all who resist evil. God is in the rain, a flood therefor, can be resisted.

I know this doesn't make sense, but Peter and Jesus both said that we shall not need jobs, nor should we require government or laws.

Ask and ye shall receive.

However there are about 2 million drowning families in India right now asking, and the only thing their government gave them was a plastic sheet.

So God must be giving them their ticket to heaven, except they weren't asking to be taken away just yet.

So its weird how you argue with a Christian, who thinks that on one hand you can support the war in Iraq, and on the other call me a bigot for trying to understand human religious rituals.

My ex-mother-in-law told me that she actually heard God himself tell her that she needed to quit smoking.

Maybe she didn't notice the fine print on the box every time she lit up.

But the odds are she heard it again and again, and then at some point heard it in her head or something.

And if God is in each of us, she actually did hear God, only it was herself.

So if I can't appeal to your need to do something about your behavoir which leads to climate destabilization, and I can't educate you in a way to change your behavoir, then I have to try that American prayer that we pray all the time, God make me ingenious enough to develope an alternative solution to the problem that Christians will willingly participate in.

So far the women at the Christian Academy are driving hummers with yellow ribbons to pick up their kid during smog alerts.

Christianity says we are imperfect hence all your sins are forgiven. So sin away! You are forgiven.

Shock and awe them. Hell, vote McCain in for 100 more years of Iraq.

Follow Cheney to Georgia, maybe we can field test those nuclear guns, they shoot small nukes only miles... wow a new weapons testing facility..

When you stop hurting others, give freely of all your wealth, and never defend your own life, you will be living the life Jesus asked you to live.

So if you don't resist evil, then you can resist heaven. Heaven is like asteroids, mass coronal ejections, whole particle radiation, burning coal, driving 50ft to buy beer and cigs, individually wrapped slices of cheese.

You know, pouring your excess medications into the toilet, changing the biodiversity of the microbial world.

If we don't kill ourselves quickly, we'll watch mother nature do it while rolling over in bed.

The only reason why humanity evolved is the one you give it. If you ain't around, there ain't no reason for it.

Check out the fossil record. How big were the new creatures after each of the seven mass extinctions?

Any big mammals?

What you do may be the most important thing in the success of human survival. If that means one person can change the world, then all people probably can tinker with the climate.

And isn't the kid playing with the model the one who always breaks it?

We are infants, we hardly know why we think there is a God. How could we know we were impacting more systems than we knew existed?