So [President Obama] announced last week at the U.N. climate change summit, where he said the threat is so "serious" and "urgent" that unless all nations act "boldly, swiftly and together" -- "time . . . is running out" -- we risk "irreversible catastrophe." Prince Charles agrees. In March, seven months ago, he said humanity had 100 months -- until July 2017 -- to prevent "catastrophic climate change and the unimaginable horrors that this would bring." Evidently humanity will prevent this. Charles Moore of the Spectator notes that in July, the prince said that by 2050 the planet will be imperiled by the existence of 9 billion people, a large portion of them consuming as much as Western people now do.
I don't pretend to be an expert on climate change- whether it is happening or not. I do know that Will is right to say that most mainstream media claim a consensus when there is not one simply because I've read scientific research in scientific journals that question the establishment's position. I'm also skeptical that carbon is a pollutant- kind of weird since plants need carbon dioxide and all.
But I want to challenge a different assumption: the idea that the creation is more important than humanity. You can see this subtle hint in Prince Charles' statement. To alarmists and climate change folks, humans are a parasite on the earth. We consume resources and we pollute, according to them. Their worldview contains a deficient view of humanity, which means they are only a step away from endorsing human control population, steriliy treatments, and the inhibition of our free exercise of economy. Obama is in the same camp if he thinks the world should act "together" and "boldly" (read: forcefully by the state).
Humanity is the pinnacle of creation and is created in the image of God (Gen. 1). Let us be wary of any view that inhibits our free exercise and propagation within creation.
Posts
2 comments:
I would agree... with the sometimes-forgotten caveat that creation is also good, and it is good in its own right, not merely as a resource for humans to use. God declared created things to be good before he created humans, and that should inform what we think of when we exercise our vice-regency over creation. We're certainly better than parasites - we're stewards, which implies a much greater degree of responsibility.
Yes, creation is good. We're not using comparative terms here. Humanity is good, made in the image of good. Creation is also good. But if we're comparing, then humanity takes precedence over creation in our legal code.
The line of thinking that creation is good often goes awry, even in Christian circles, when stewardship becomes worship.
Post a Comment