Senator James Inhofe: Bible Refutes Climate Change

[Tx4obama]

On Christian Youth America‘s Crosstalk radio show.

Inhofe: Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.

http://www.alan.com/2012/03/08/sen-james-inhofe-bible-refutes-climate-change/

It is way past time to vote ALL the Republicans out of office!!!

[hedgehog]

1. Yet we know that humanity turned the lands around the Mediterranean

into deserts in the last couple thousand years!

[xtraxritical]

50. Could we skip the Bible b.s. on DU? I thought this was a political forum, not human interest

especially religion.

[Angry Dragon]

101. Are you calling the Bible bs??

How are we suppose to respond to a Senator that uses religion to respond to today's issues??

[SkyDaddy7]

107. If the Bible is used in politics...

Then it deserves all the scrutiny that any other politics claim, legislation would get! And so do the elected officials like Inhofe who use the Bible as a political weapon!

[ellisonz]

111. lol

Get ready to rumble!

[HopeHoops]

2. Yeah, but that was 6,000 years ago. What did God know about the future?

[BobbyBoring]

38. Wait a tick!

Isn't 6000 years ago when god created the earth?

[HopeHoops]

83. So I've heard. Damn was he clever to hide all those bones, and the mosquitos in amber.

They invented carbon dating, what, like 3000 years ago?

- it is fun to toy with people who think that's how things unfolded. I'm sure T-Rex was a very pleasant companion on the ark and the REALLY huge ones shrunk into little sponges in a gelatin capsule until the trip was over and Noah put them in a glass of water.

[stopbush]

3. Repeat as necessary: THE. BIBLE. IS. MAKE. BELIEVE.

[tularetom]

4. Well, if the bible says it that's all I need to know

Jeezus effing christ, how stupid do we look to the rest of the world that no longer buys this voodoo shit.

[1ProudAtheist]

5. If JeezBush Says So, Then It Is So

[IMG][/IMG]

[JBoy]

6. Seriously. I don't know how y'all put a man on the moon with Senators like this.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. We may have had a better caliber of Senators back in the '60s

J. William Fulbright, Frank Church, Mike Mansfield, Robert Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy, Birch Bayh, Bill McClellan... Heck, there were even quite a few decent Republican Senators, like Everett Dirksen, Charles Percy and Edward Brooke.

[lastlib]

24. The Senate went to hell when Jesse Helms got in it. It's been stupid ever since.

[obxhead]

32. We had to.

It was the only way to develop a reliable system to launch our nuclear weapons to any point on the planet in less than an hour.

[solarman350]

74. Mission to the Moon Showed Our "Enemies" that We Can Precisely Place a Nuke ANYWHERE on Earth

The human flight to the Moon and back was all just a dog and pony show...for national pride, but also to show the Russians that we could precisely place a payload (aka "nuclear weapon&quot ANYWHERE on Planet Earth...with a high degree of accuracy. That's the true backroom inference from our Apollo Lunar Mission. It was merely a Cold War Tactic.

[sikorsky]

7. He's another of those who are sure their god has a plan for every moment...but they pray for Her

to change that plan whenever they want something. If that's not a clear indication of insanity, I can't imagine what would be.

[donquijoterocket]

68. how about

On top of them knowing the plan to the point they know changes would be fruitless and maybe harmful and it just coincidentally matches up with their plan. Their universe is not only more insane than we imagine it might be more insane than we CAN imagine.

[longship]

8. They speak differently to their own.

That is where they are vulnerable. We can use their own words to hoist them by their petards.

E.G., The Dover Trial showed how these nut cases cannot help themselves. They can't stop witnessing for Jesus because that's their sole goal --- all other politics or opinions are secondary.

I don't know how we're going to stop this march towards theocracy, but I shudder to think what might happen if these people managed to get all three branches of the US government.

[xxqqqzme]

27. We had it for 6 years

from 2001- 2007. Environmental laws ignored/changed; 21st century crusade started; civil rights trampled and the Constitution shredded. We had an attorney general who had his father annoint him w/ oil before he took office and who covered the statue of Justice in a velvet drape.

That was just for starters.

[longship]

41. That's precisely why we need to fight them now

And stop trying to get along with them. One cannot be bipartisan with a political adversary who thinks they have the absolute truth.

This bullshit began in the late 70's when that fucking Jerry Falwell --- of whom Christopher Hitchens said, if he would have been given an enema he could have been buried in a matchbox. He's the one along with other fundies who started the US down the path to theocracy.

We're going to have to expose this for what it is and I have no idea how to do that but to tell the truth and document their lunacies.

[xxqqqzme]

44. You get no argument from me.

Lakoff has often pointed out that the one thing the rabid religious rong will NOT do is compromise on anything. They do not care if it all falls apart, they will not budge - that has been out failing.

[liberal N proud]

9. This will turn out to be one those storie where God sent a warning message...

But man ignored that message, so he sent another and still man ignored it. So God sent the third message which was also ignored.

We are on the second or third warning.

[saras]

64. What? SECOND warning? My count is up in seven figures by now.

[liberal N proud]

65. True

[BadgerKid]

11. Hallowed are the Ori!

Come to think of it, I doubt there is mention of nuclear weapons in the Bible, yet we've managed to create enough to really mess with the planet -- as in dinosaur-extinction level.

[AsahinaKimi]

70. love your refrence

To Star Gate SG1...

[Jim Lane]

12. Doesn't the Bible also say "Blessed are the peacemakers"?

I always thought it did, but I'm an agnostic, so I suppose I must defer to Senator Inhofe's superior theological learning.

At any rate, he certainly doesn't act as if the Bible says that.

[FiveGoodMen]

51. That turned out to be something to do with dairy products

[Wait Wut]

13. Whew.

I feel better now. Good thing all that stuff is in the Bible. All the scientists can go home, now.

[nxylas]

14. "As long as the Earth remains"

Which the Republicans are doing their best to ensure is not that long.

[Tom Ripley]

15. "...the Genesis 8:22 that I use..." and which divinely inspired edition is that, Jimbo?

[DallasNE]

16. So It Was God Who Killed Off The Dinasaurs

To make way for humans to follow? I didn't know. God seems pretty cruel if that is the case.

[donquijoterocket]

67. not just

The dinosaurs but pretty much most of the species that have ever existed on this planet. Besides the K-T layer ( the dinosaur) extinction there have been 4 other mass extinction events- the greatest, in terms of species gone extinct, was the Permian-Triassic event which eliminated 90% of all species extant at the time.
Not sure about cruel , but evidently a Piss -poor designer and forward thinker wasteful and poorly organized.

[FailureToCommunicate]

17. Another hypocrite that needs schooling...

Pres. Jed Bartlett could straighten Inhofe out:

[NoQuarter]

90. My favorite West Wing moment.

EVER!

[nickinSTL]

104. I LOVE this

an awful lot of rw nuts need to listen to this.

Not that it would matter. They pick and choose what parts of the Bible to follow - and that's only those things that can be twisted to support their bigotry.

[Arugula Latte]

18. And yet we're supposed to "respect" religion and not say jack about how effing stupid it is

and we're told this regularly on DU. The problem is religion doesn't exist in a bubble, it's idiocy permeates all aspects of our lives and our public policy.

[tmy236]

19. good enough for me

If the Bible says it, that's good enough for me. I think i'll just go ahead and keep my tire fire going for another 5 years.

[krispos42]

20. Panama Canal. Suez Canal. Mountaintop-removal mining.

Deepwater Horizons. Etc., etc., etc.

[Iliyah]

21. There they are again

using the Bible as a cover. Where in the Bible does it say that? Yet again, these goppers use Bible, guns, God, fear and everything that creates hatred in their committment to destroy America.

Reminds me of a desperate person using a victim as a shield.

[polichick]

22. Yep - it's way past time to vote ALL Republifools out of office!

[Jack Rabbit]

23. Science cannot prove the existence/nonexistence of God

However, Biblical literalism has taken a fatal blow in the modern era and Senator Inhofe is just a childish fool.

[AllyCat]

25. And we should all eat raw meat all the time because we shouldn't cook it and change it?

This argument of his makes not one lick of sense. But then, he's a Republican and they never make sense anyway.

[jopeli]

26. Inhofe's interpretation is not supported by sound biblical doctrines.

I am a solid christian and I can tell you that Inhofe's interpretation is not supported by sound biblical doctrines.
Global warming is a fact.The cause of it is what is being argued about.
According to the bible,man does have the ability to destroy the earth and he will until he is eventually stopped.

[raouldukelives]

28. My Bible says things like "Bless your enemies"

Haven't come across the climate change part but I'm willing to hear him out if he's willing to follow the basics of the Sermon on the Mount.
God gave us the earth to use and to have dominion over. When he comes back he's going to want to see how we have increased the bounty of the treasure he left with us.
He ain't gonna be happy.

[Arugula Latte]

63. "God" didn't "give" us the Earth.

That is mythology from the Bronze Age. You might as well look to the Epic of Gilgamesh for guidance.

The Earth has been here for several billion years. Modern humans are primates and are not a special class of lifeforms in the vast universe of billions of galaxies except that they are currently smarter than most other lifeforms on this planet and also more able to manipulate and dominate the environment.

If you think God "gave" the Earth to humans, well, I guess that your deity "gave" the Earth to dinosaurs for exponentially longer than it gave it to the bald apes. Dinosaurs dominated the planet for hundreds of millions of years; we've only been here in this form for tens of thousands of years. The Bible is a storybook written a blip of time ago.

[raouldukelives]

89. That of course is true. But my Bible doesn't say that.

As I'm positive the Senators doesn't as well. I was just trying to show the fallacy in his stance using his own source material.

[lunasun]

92. ""to use and to have dominion over""

Stupid talk like that always makes me

[raouldukelives]

102. Agreed. But that is what they take from the Bible

And that is what they use to justify extracting every last dollar from the earth for the use of Wall St exploitation to the delight of millions of investors and 401k holders.

[lunasun]

103. although I am neither, I always remind others to check what their "funds" are comprised of

By law, corporations are beholden to make $$$ for the shareholders .
My friend who was all anti - walmart did as I asked and found out they were making a profit ( in what many would call unfair ways) for him!!!
They were part of fund he was in and of course he had been happy to see a good return on
Invest responsible people
...just a side note off topic I know ...
..... stepping off soap box now

[raouldukelives]

105. Yeah, they call it "fiduciary responsibility"

Speaking of phrases which make us

Glad to hear you woke your friend up! All it takes many times is a little nudge and a bit of information about what is being done for their benefit to make em rethink what they want to leave as a legacy to this planet.

[davidthegnome]

29. What a moron

If there is a God - I am unsure either way, but if there is a God then God gave us free will. We certainly have the power to destroy the climate - to destroy everything on this planet, many times over. Anyone who thinks that the bible is a solid argument against climate change needs to have their frigging head examined.

Inhofe, what's stunning about your arrogance is that you seem to think we have no responsibility for the climate. Easier to shrug it off and say "God will take care of it." That may help you sleep at night Senator, but it's time to face reality before it's too late. Humanity has caused the climate to change, we are altering it further with every passing year. We are altering it to such an extent that there may be nothing left for the generations to come.

By Inhofe's "logic", every terrible thing on earth happens because God wills it so. We are apparently powerless tools of fate, unable to change our own futures or alter the world we live in. This gives the lie to any claim by Inhofe that he is capable of (or practices) personal accountability. When you have a "God" that is responsible for everything, it is so very easy to sit back and do nothing, hoping - or actually believing, that this mighty power will solve everything itself in due course.

Fortunately, I think Inhofe's God is the thing of fairy tales. If there is one, I strongly suspect that such a being would leave us to our own devices. There are countless planets in the Universe to watch over, so many species of life on this Earth alone. What makes some arrogant enough to believe that we are somehow more significant than any of them? On the contrary, I suspect that there is truly intelligent life somewhere out there, possibly even listening in on occasion. If such life exists, we have not yet been contacted by it because we have "Senators" like Inhofe. Even to an educated person the man seems primitive in intelligence.

[Martin Eden]

31. What about the morons who vote him into office?

Pretty sad commentary on his constituents.

[treestar]

96. I recall during the Cold War learning how nuclear war could destroy the entire planet

So we need to ask Inhofe why God let us have that power. He let us figure it all out.

[Larry Ogg]

30. The marriage of church and state is an extremely lethal combination in the age of nuclear technology

[Shadowflash]

33. The bible also says....

That virgins give birth, the dead come back to life and snakes can talk, so I really wouldn't bet the future of the planet on a obviously flawed document that contains stories handed down from illiterate bronze-age goat herders.

[davidthegnome]

35. Disagree

I strongly suspect that Inhofe is a snake that has somehow taken on the form of a man and learned to talk. Maybe the result of some twisted science experiment. Or maybe one of the dead, who's brain mostly rotted while he lay buried, until he was resurrected by God. Maybe a resurrected dead snake with severe brain damage.

[Shadowflash]

36. Ha!

You just may have me there.

[paparush]

34. Can that asshat quote the CONSTITUTION with such aplomb?

[tooeyeten]

91. Highly doubtful "Constitution....

is just another word for nothing there to read..."

[sakabatou]

37. Right, because all humans came from two people made from dust and a dirty rib

[alfredo]

42. Did Adam grow a new rib to replace the one taken from him?

[sakabatou]

49. Some still believe that guys have 1 less rib than girls

[alfredo]

55. That could be why we like BBQ ribs so much.

[sakabatou]

62. I'm not into ribs.

[alfredo]

69. You just haven't had them like my wife makes them.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

82. Adams rib proves two things

A. god used genetic engineering to clone Jane. Eve. Whoever.

B. god is a fuck up. After building Adam Mark 1, God forgot how to do it?

[alfredo]

86. A wise man said that sex is proof God has a sense of humor.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

88. Didn't Mark Twain say something along those lines?

As American wits go, he was one of the finest. There are several others, but damn, that man had a way with words.

[alfredo]

93. It was probably him.

[Lucky Luciano]

39. I guess that settles it then.

[alfredo]

40. So Inhofe is taking the word of some dark-skinned foreigners?

[biggles1]

43. That would be the same Bible that says...

that insects crawl on all FOURS...

that bats are BIRDS....

and that you get multicoloured goats by having the breeding pair stare at striped sticks while they're doing the wild thing.................right!?

[handmade34]

45. OMFG!!

...way past time to vote (all fundamentalists) out of office...

I just want to scream... these people are such dolts!!! ...and they make the rules for us???


"...as long as the earth remains..." are key here, because if these people are in charge the earth won't 'remain'

[mysuzuki2]

46. So Imhofe believes bronze age mythology over several decades

of scientific observation by people who actually have been educated in the subject of climatology? And we actually elect people like this?

[DFW]

80. Oklahoma elects people like this.

Not all states do. Luckily for the country.

[Dont call me Shirley]

47. ALL of these right=wrong wingers are on crack or some longevity hormone has wrought them

INSANE!

[OnyxCollie]

48. Yes, the Bible refutes Climate Change.

It says so right here.

Oh, wait. That's the memo on the check from the American Petroleum Institute.

Whatever.

[Texas-Limerick]

112. Koch industries

A climatologist who had never been unethical
To the scientific method, not once antithetical
But he found himself broke
And wound up with David Koch
Now of AGW, and his morality, he is skeptical

[OnyxCollie]

114. Nice!

[montanto]

52. God doesn't clean toilets Inhofe.

[Texas-Limerick]

113. He did in "Steambath"

[JJW]

53. Problems is that...

Inhofe's god is Halliburton's $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ in off shore tax havens.

[Botany]

54. Tell me the story about the man living in the whale's stomach again Jim

[HughBeaumont]

56. This is a multi-term elected offical.

Step back and ponder that, if you will.

This is what's allowed to hold office, continually, in America.

Fundamentalpatients, cranks, racists, sexual assaulters, revisionists, idiots and assholes.

Some, like Jimminy Inhofe there, are several of these combined into one.

[Smilo]

57. A very wise man said this.........

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi

[sarcasmo]

58. American Religious Party

They can put any spin on any verse. "God's still up there" bat shit crazy.

[The Wizard]

59. Just think

This nut is allowed to drive on public roads and he belongs in restraints.

[BootinUp]

60. Every time he says something like that a liberal somewhere goes quietly insane. nt

[Swede Atlanta]

61. Oh for pete's sake....

Even as a Christian I recognize that man absolutely can impact the global climate. How does Inhofe explain, for example, man's descent into sin in the Garden of Eden, if God was always in control? You can't have it both ways brother Inhofe.

Me thinks God created things and set things in motion but he isn't much involved in the day-to-day. He's busy with other worlds and other realities...but that's just me speaking.

Inhofe should retire to a home for the mentally infirm (and hopefully impotent). The last thing we need is another one of his offspring running around loose on this planet.

[relayerbob]

66. He's got a point ...

It doesn't say anything about humans surviving .... it'ss true, the earth will keep spinning after we extinct ourselves

[TheKentuckian]

71. A goofy misinterpretation, in any event.

What temperture will be hot and cold? Does Mars not have seasons? Will the harvest be food good for us to eat?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

72. What did God do with the Ice Ages?

[McCamy Taylor]

77. He was having a Slushy party for His friends.

[blackspade]

73. When you bring you god to a science arguement....

You have automatically lost it.

I'm beginning to see the need for a second Goodwin's law.
If you invoke the Christian, or any other god for that matter, to win an arguement, you lose.

Inhofe+god=Fail

Inhofe: Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’

Someone needs to explain to sparky that nothing in the climate change science contradicts this anyway. Apparently Inofony doesn't understand that the bible doesn't say WHERE seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night will be. There is no stipulation that it will remain the same in any particular place.

What a dumbfuck.

[excuse not to write]

75. What a fool

Last edited Sat Mar 10, 2012, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm glad I don't live in OK.

[McCamy Taylor]

76. Say so in the Book of Big Oil 12:13

"And the polar bears rejoiceth in the burning of the fossil fuels, and the walrus lies down with the coal powered utility plants. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow, I will not take a ride on Amtrak. For the Lord delighteth in the smell of ozone and takes pleasure in the wheezing of asthmatic children. And when the seventh seal is opened, Jesus will appear driving a Hummer."

It's a secret Bible book that only right wingers have access to.

[NICO9000]

78. When is Jesus going to smite these clowns?

Ah, Inhofe - dumber than a bag of hammers and proud of it.

[eppur_se_muova]

79. God's promise isn't true now, and has never been.

There are deserts. There are the polar regions. Neither has a seed time nor harvest to speak of. The polar regions don't even have day or night for months at a time. Famine has been a reality of human existence for all of history. Promises my ass.

If you insist on interpreting the Bible literally, almost immediately you are forced to the conclusion that the Bible is WRONG. The only arrogance here is Inhofe's insisting that the Bible must be literally true in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.

[DFW]

81. This is the same guy who almost killed some people (and himself) while playing kamikaze pilot

Despite instructions from the tower, while piloting a small private plane, he landed on the wrong runway,
where others were on it at the time. He barely missed them.

When the authorities were called, he basically told them to fuck off, he was a US Senator, etc etc.

[ThomThom]

84. yes the earth will continue but in what form?

the fact is this planet could explode from within that could make us all extinct but that to will pass. A comet could end it all at anytime.
Someone needs to put a warning on that book and shelve it in fiction.

[patrice]

85. I'm thinking a bunch of us just got duped into giving Inhofe some click-assets in a charity scam.

Kony 2012.

So, is that why anyone is listening to this guy? He has somekind of rhetorical cred on the internet?

[SHRED]

87. The planet is dying...

...and the public discourse is Rush Limbaugh and contraception.

We are doomed.

[saras]

94. It would be amusing in a sick way to list what ELSE is refuted by Genesis taken literally...

...and if you're going to take it literally, it really is an all-or-nothing proposition.

[treestar]

95. God has allowed us to change all kinds of shit

He's allowed us to interfere in His will when it comes to diseases killing people and let us find a way to get around some of His fatal diseases. God has even let us land on the moon! God allowed us to figure out how to make polluting factories! Do these people even listen to themselves? They'd realize how stupid they sound.

[JJW]

97. Inhofe the fascist!

"Fascism will come wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible." ~ Sinclair Lewis

[fujiyama]

98. Here's a quandary...

Which state has worse senators?

SC or OK?

SC: Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint

OK: Inhoffe and Tom Coburn

[RoccoR5955]

99. LMAO... a book of mythology refutes science?!?!?!

That's a laugher. This moron is just deranged.

[blues lover]

100. MY GOD SAYS

If you declare that a position in a debate is favored by God, then you automatically lose as a result of not seeing that god favors BOTH sides in any disagreement. After all she has to have some entertainment watching us monkeys...

[rwsanders]

106. Don't blame the bible for those that teach a perverted gospel

I believe it was Reverend Jim Wallis who used that term in "God's Politics". Anyway I doubt if Inhofe has ever read the bible. He just goes by what he is sure is in there. But if he had read it he'd know the verse Micah 7:13, that says: The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.

[tclambert]

108. So if the Bible says the Sun goes around the Earth, we should believe it?

(Which, by the way, it does. It also says the value of Pi is 3.0 exactly.) I reject his entire premise that the Bible trumps science. If science disagrees with the Bible, it's the Bible that's wrong.

Maybe you should have titled this post: "Sen. Inhofe uses science to prove the Bible is in error."

[benld74]

109. This man gets VOTED into office! THAT is SCARY in itself!!!!

[DFW]

110. Welllllll.....

only in Oklahoma, if that's any consolation......