I'm in the belief business, have been for almost thirty
years as a teacher and a preacher of the Christian faith. To believe: that is when you or I trust
something as true, and in the religious realm, when we have faith in the
veracity of a spiritual claim. Like, say,
the statement, "God exists". The thing to remember about this truth
claim is that it always relies upon the sincere belief of an individual or a
people or an institution and is not necessarily based in verifiable, scientific
or provable fact. So I have good friends who are atheists or agnostics who wouldn't
agree with my unshakeable belief that God does exist. I have Muslim, Jewish and
Hindu neighbors who do not understand Jesus in the exact same way that I do.
And that's okay.
Because when it comes to certain kinds of belief, it is always
more about faith than facts. More about mystery than mathematics. More about profound
feelings than concrete scientific law. Unlike,
for example, what we as humans, or what our "leaders" might
"believe" about something like, say, climate change.
Last week a team of more than 300 researchers and scientists
from thirteen federal agencies issued a report about where our nation stands
vis a vis the effects of global warming. It includes comments from more than
1,000 participants in forty workshops held in cities around the country and was
peer reviewed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The Global Change Research Act of 1990 mandates that the U.S. Global Change
Research Program (USGCRP) issue this report to Congress and the President no
less than every four years.
The news is not good. Highlights of the report include these
facts: the earth's climate is changing faster than at any other time in
recorded history and this most likely results from human activity. Average
temperatures in the U.S.
have increased by 2 degrees Fahrenheit in just 100 years. Climate change could
cut gross domestic product by 10 percent or two trillion dollars by 2100,
losses comparable to the Great Depression.
News flash: I believe in the climate change described in
that report, but not as a matter of faith. Not as an opinion. Not as a polemic
or a political posture. I believe in climate change because I believe in the
integrity of and I trust the overwhelming majority of scientists worldwide who
conclude that global warming is real, is man made and is a dire threat to our
existence as a species.
Too bad our Commander in Chief doesn't "believe"
the report, nor so many other folks in the media and politics, who pushed back
last week, labeling the study a fraud or false or somehow a conspiracy on the
part of scientists who are all making this stuff up. Yup--that's what was said
and I can't make that stuff up. So even though global warming is real, is a
fact scientifically, some in power still refuse to believe this. This fact
perhaps scares me even more than the increasing frequency of super storms or
the reality that in mere decades, the Back Bay of Boston might become an actual
bay again.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, absolutely; no
one is entitled to their own scientific facts. I wish those who refuse to accept
the reality of climate change would be honest about why they really so vehemently oppose the report's
conclusions. To so many of them, profits always matter more than people and
stockholders more than the environment. The earth is a human owned resource to
be sucked dry and exploited for economic gain at any cost. And since we are
still okay in this generation, what's the big deal? Let future generations deal
with it.
In the story of Creation, when God finishes making the
universe and the heavens and earth and all that is within it, God makes a
beautiful and simple declaration. "God saw everything that He had made,
and indeed, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) My faith tells me that this belief is
indisputable. I believe the world is a very good place, is created perfectly,
and is ours' for a home, but only if we are very careful and wise stewards of
planet earth.
Fact: the world is warming. Fact: left unchecked this will
eventually damage Creation beyond repair. Fact: if our leaders do nothing, we
are going to be in very, very deep trouble, and very, very soon.
And those facts? Not very good. No. Not at all.
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