rationalskepticism.org

Approximately eighteen months ago, a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on my door: one woman in her twenties and one man in his forties. We engaged in a conversation which meandered around for a while and then I said that one of my problems with some people's take on Christianity is that they tend to dismiss science a lot of the time. For instance, the denial of the reality of man-made global warming, about which the scientific community is pretty well unanimous. These so-called Christians then make no attempt to help with that problem. The male Jehovah's Witness then replied, “That's the beauty of it; we haven't got to worry about that kind of thing because God will take care of it!”

Although, of course, this is not a Jehovah's Witness congregation, it is apparent that the same problem exists across all denominations of Christianity - as seen most saliently in the US Republican Party's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accord. Incidentally, the USA is the only country in the world to have withdrawn from that treaty. Donald Trump and his party are, of course, overwhelmingly deeply nominally Christian as opposed, by and large, to the Democrats - even reinstating weekly Bible study groups in the White House for the President and his senior staff for the first time since the colonial era. Protestant Christianity is the dominant Christian flavour in the US, not Jehovah's Witness.

I believe these so-called Christians, who sit idly by smiling at the sky without a care in the world thinking they can just recline and relax in God's arms, are in error. What disappointing creatures we would be to God if we didn't try to do right by our fellow humans and, indeed, animals and the planet as a whole. I think it's pretty obvious how Jesus would lead by example on this issue, as with any other, tirelessly and selflessly labouring to alleviate the suffering of others and basically attempt to improve the situation in general.

Man-made climate change, also known as anthropogenic global warming (AGW for short), is one of the two most terrifyingly powerful threats to the prosperity of mankind according to the late great Professor Stephen Hawking, as he wrote shortly before his passing. The other threat he identified is strong artificial intelligence, but that's off topic. Personally, a part of me would like to own a car and fly around visiting foreign countries, but the carbon emissions from such transport methods just don't sit well with me. Jet air plane travel, which dumps huge amounts of damaging emissions straight into the upper atmosphere, is particularly damaging, as my university environmental economics professor taught us.

As some of you may know, I am technically an atheist although I see many very fine and praiseworthy things in Christianity which is part of the reason that Sarah, Dave and their colleagues make me feel so welcome here, I think. There is no reason to think that atheists are the only people who should act to counter the spectre of man-made climate change. However, in fact, nothing should (could?)be further from the truth if the teachings of Jesus are followed accurately as decent Christians know him, in my opinion. Thanks for listening, there are printouts of this text available in the lobby. Feel free to take as many copies as you like. in fact, the more the better!