Last month Rush Limbaugh put on his pastor’s bonnet and proceeded to hand out religious advice to his audience of glassy-eyed dittoheads.
Limbaugh: In my humble opinion, folks, if you believe in God, then intellectually you cannot believe in manmade global warming. You must be either agnostic or atheistic to believe that man controls something he can’t create.
How Limbaugh arrives at this spurious conclusion is never clearly explained. Obviously humans control many things that they can’t create. We split atoms, we clear-cut forests, we drive animal species into extinction, we destroy cancer cells, we defy gravity. What would make Limbaugh think that our excessive disbursement of pollutants wouldn’t have an effect on the atmosphere?
Limbaugh also makes a logical leap that a belief in God, which has a faith, rather than intellectual basis, can be a foundation for intellectually refuting science. It’s like saying that if you believe in Santa Claus, then intellectually you can’t believe in Hasbro. But it’s not as if Limbaugh’s ecumenical guidance has ever been held in high esteem. And that is still the case today as a coalition of 200 evangelical scientists smack down Limbaugh’s absurd biblical analysis, saying that they “were appalled at the ignorance behind Rush Limbaugh’s statement but we weren’t surprised.”
“For us, global warming is not a matter of belief – it is about applying our understanding of science to the climate of this planet. The author of Hebrews tells us, ‘faith is … the evidence of things not seen.’ We believe in God through faith. Science, on the other hand, is the evidence of our eyes. We can measure the extent to which natural levels of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere regulate and maintain our climate. We can track how excess heat-trapping gases, beyond what would naturally occur, are being added to the atmosphere every day by human activities. We can calculate how this artificially warms the Earth’s surface, increasing risks of extreme heat, rain, and drought. We can see how these impacts often fall disproportionately on those with the least resources to adapt, the very people we are told to care for by our faith.
“While our expertise allows us to understand the complexity of a changing climate and its causes, it is our faith that compels us to speak out and motivates us to push forward despite the opposition from voices like Rush Limbaugh and gridlock in Washington.”
In July these observant scientists sent a letter to Congress urging them to reduce carbon pollution and adopt policies consistent with God’s instructions to care for his creation. They cite scripture and verse attesting to the fact that Christians have a responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth.
This is something that Limbaugh apparently cannot comprehend in his pedestrian, political, and self-serving exploitation of faith. And it is evidence that anyone who takes Limbaugh’s spiritual advice is as foolish as anyone who takes his political advice. All of it is crafted without facts or reason, specifically for an audience that Limbaugh himself characterizes as so incapable of cogent thinking that they can only repeat his ignorant nit-witticisms.
“Science, on the other hand, is the evidence of our eyes.”
And you know, it’s not like most of the Rushbo followers are incapable of believing their own eyes, they’re just lazy. They’d rather have someone do their thinking for them.
Plus, they get to hear someone voice their own social views without the public embarrassment of having to acknowledge they have some of those same views.
And a lot of them are not very bright, either, so there’s that. (Science is probably not their forte.) You can always spot them as they will defend him.
I always love when Rush starts his remarks with, ” …in my humble opinion”, that means he’s about to deliver one of his biggest whoppers. The only church Rushbo belongs to is ‘The Church of How Much Was Shoveled Into My Bank Account Today’ aka St. Ronnie’s. I wish I could be there to watch that fat man try to get into Heaven! If cynical lying is a sin Hell will be chock full of Republican pundits come Judgment Day.
Conflating environmentalism with nonbelief in the Judeo-Christian version of God has been part of Limbaugh’s shtick from the very beginning. I remember years ago I was listening (I used to do that occasionally) when he referred to the earth being millions of years old. A few minutes later some fundie called to “correct” him. How did he handle it? He deftly changed the subject.
I am a Christian myself, a strong believer in God, but can’t helping seeing what Rush and Beck and the others are doing and think about what Karl Marx said about religion being the opiate of the people. Marx was wrong – it is only the misuse, or even abuse, of religion which is the opiate of the people. And Rush and company opiate their listeners by assuring them that God will magically prevent the planet from suffering the consequences of our self serving actions — in other words, we have a God given right to be fat and comfy in our affluence, and there will be no consequences for our grandchildren because “God is up there!”
It is obvious that God allows consequences to occur to us as individuals – if you smoke cigarettes, God will not prevent you from having health problems. If gamble away your paycheck, God will not make your monthly bills disappear. The also allows whole communities, whole nations, the whole human race to have to face up to the consequences of their actions.
Thank you. Your comment is sensible, concise, and attacks no one. Very refreshing!
When you really read and comprehend what you are reading you will understand that the Bible is teaching people to take responsibility of your choices. Even when you think that you have no choice you really do and you alone are responsible for the choice that you make. It is hard to do and I stumble with it every week. The first job that God gave man was to care for the plants and creatures of the Garden. Only a fool can not see that we can and probably will destroy this Earth. This Earth will not always be here that is already stated in the Bible.
It makes me so mad when self proclaimed religious leaders make claims like “GOD IS PUNISHING US BY THIS NATURAL DISASTER” when the Bible makes clear that is not the case. God uses these natural disasters to have people show their faith (or lack there of) by how they care for the victims.
I never understood why conservatives are so religious. It’s so backwards. It contradicts every principal and political belief they hold. And the modern day batshits just love to inject it into political discourse. I guess they don’t know that it’s an ancient system of suppressive government designed to coerce the ignorant and weak into compliance and subservience. Even today, it’s just about consolidated pseudo power in Europe and Asia. In the brilliant words of Jean-Luc Picard, shedding oneself of belief in the supernatural and superstitious is an achievement. Why be blind and dumb when you have human history filled with the words brilliant men and women to guide us. Jesus was a passive altruist, not supernatural.
Conservatives and religion makes as much sense as eating candy to whiten your teeth. Well, other than irrationally holding onto the past that is.
Funny; he usually leaves the religious pronouncements to his holier-than-thou brother, David.
Of course, if the scientists believe in global warming, they aren’t REAL CHRISTIANS™.