Re: [asa] Religious Groups Differ on Climate Change

I think it has something to do with the fact that many evangelicals
have embraced conservative economics. Walter Williams, a conservative
economist, has written about global warming:
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/GlobalWarmingRope-A-Dope.htm
I don't know Williams religious persuasion. Other conservative
economists generally deplore doomsday theories (e.g. Julian Simon
http://www.juliansimon.com/)
Perhaps another factor is the belief that God is in control -- the
world will end at time of God's choosing, not before, not after (Matt
24:36)

For my part I wouldn't call myself an AGW skeptic, but before we adopt
government-mandated solutions that require massive adjustments and may
lead to extreme poverty in many parts of the world, we'd better know
what we're talking about. One series of papers that makes me wonder if
IPCC has considered all the evidence may be found in the work of
Nicola Scafetta and his colleagues.
http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/. The IPCC's arguments seem to be
based primarily on the increase of atmospheric CO2 in the past
century. They discount the solar irradiance as a factor because it
varies by only 0.1 percent. However, Scafetta et. al. analyze the
sun/earth heat propagation using stochastic resonance theory and find
that there is indeed a resonance-like phenomenon that makes the solar
contribution much greater than 0.1 percent. This does not negate
global warming, but may establish that considerably more of it is due
to solar irradiance than IPCC believes. Scafetta et. al.'s papers are
not easy reading. However I have written a review that provides a
road map through them, a first draft of which I will be glad to email
to anyone interested. (I'll put it on my blog as soon as I can get
around to editing some of the HTML I need)

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 2:41 AM, Iain Strachan <igd.strachan@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://scienceandreligiontoday.blogspot.com/2009/04/religious-groups-disagree-on-climate.html
>
>
> See above from the Science and Religion Today Blog.
>
> It pretty much says what we already know, but I am puzzled, and perhaps
> someone over your side can explain to me.  Why is it that white evangelical
> protestants seem to have the biggest opposition to the notion that climate
> change is caused by human activity?
>
> I can't see the connection with Christian belief.  I can understand why
> fundamentalists oppose evolution & see it as a threat to their faith.  But
> why climate change (in particular as caused by human activity)?
>
> Just a naive question that I hope someone can explain to me.
>
> Iain
>
>
> --
> -----------
> Non timeo sed caveo
>
> -----------
>

-- 
William E (Bill) Hamilton Jr., Ph.D.
Member American Scientific Affiliation
Austin, TX
248 821 8156
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