I think most Global Warming denial is from Religious people's anger over science and Evolution

[Quixote1818]

I work with a lot of Fundamentalist Christian types. Many are actually cool people who I like a lot however I recently got into a discussion / debate about Global Warming with several of these co-workers on Facebook. Most of them were unaware that every scientific organization in the world had come down on the side of human caused global warming and only a hand full being no-committal. Of course you can guess what their answer was to this. Yep, they don't trust scientists because they say: "the theory of Evolution is a fact". In a nut shell this totally pisses them off. What I realized is these folks are primed to look for any reason to go against science, because science undercuts their whole foundation and values and the idea that their might be this wonderful place called heaven waiting for them after death. I could give them a billion facts but it simply won't matter if they don't trust science. In a nut shell, these people are a lost cause unless they start to believe in things like Evolution.


So here was my answer to them which I am sure will have zero impact:

"It's common knowledge that all those scientific organizations come down on the side of global warming, feel free to go to each of their web sites and see for yourself, but if you don't trust scientists then that wont mean much to you. However it would be one hell of a conspiracy theory to imagine all those organizations and scientists making all this up behind the scenes and there are a lot of Christian and religious scientists mixed into those numbers. Keep in mind that most of the leading voices on climate denial like Patrick J. Michaels are part of the CATO institute and they get a ton of money from the oil and gas industry. Michaels even admits it in this video that 40% of his funding comes from Big Oil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fguJod_voPc Just like the scientists who worked for Phillip Morris that said cigarette smoke was not bad for you the oil and gas company has a crop of the same kind of scientists.

As for Evolution, even the Catholic Church is now moving toward a belief in Evolution. They still believe that God created the Universe but when you can see light from galaxies that is tens of billions of years old, one has to wonder why the Bible says the universe is only a few thousand years old. Things like a hike from the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where there are very simple life forms in the oldest layers of rock and very complex life forms in the top young layers, have caused even the most religious people to realize that they need to re-think their understanding of the universe and it doesn't mean they have to abandon a belief in God, it just makes it more mysterious and big! People had very limited understanding of things 2,000 years ago. Even simple things like thinking the sun revolved around the earth. Cheers"

Don't worry fellow DUers, I am not holding my breath that this will change their thinking. Anyway, it's a nice civil conversation so far.

[thaddeus_flowe]

1. thanks

Your username got me thinking.
Cervantes understood the problem with filling one's head with garbage.
Replace books with Fox News, and that explains intelligent design and other nonsense.

"He so immersed himself in those romances that he spent whole days and nights over his books; and thus with little sleeping and much reading his brains dried up to such a degree that he lost the use of his reason" (Book 1, Part 1).

[Quixote1818]

2. I became a fan of Cervantes a long time ago after reading a book about Thomas Jefferson's

Jefferson was fascinated in the conversations Sancho and Don Quixote had between the two of them as though they were symbolic of the conversations we have with ourselves in our own minds to try and figure the world out. Think of Jefferson's essay "My Heart and my Head". Jefferson understood that there needed to be a balance between the dreamer and the skeptic but also that they both had something to offer the world as long as you had the wisdom to know which part of your personality should lead at any particular point in time. If I can remember the quote by Franklin, something like "If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins."

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. You are correct

here is a book I recommend as well.

The Chrysalis Effect.

[Quixote1818]

4. Thanks, I will check it out. nt

[guardian]

5. That's one theory

the other is that it comes from the fact that people are freezing their ass off.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. The same sort of "logic" that says "it's snowing, so global warming must be a hoax"

is the kind that says "if people evolved from apes, how come there are still apes?"



I do think a lot of it is religious in nature; most of the hard core Global Warming science deniers (as opposed to the people who go "it's happening, but we can't do anything about it, so fuck it") seem to have some religious conviction that only Jesus can control the weather.

Beyond that, I blame the sorry state of education- science as well as nuts n' bolts critical thinking- in this country.

[Rex]

6. Space, time and dimensions.

Atoms. Not Adam. Apples.

[Enthusiast]

8. You are correct.

You won't change their beliefs. Because it is a product of long time indoctrination.

[Motown_Johnny]

9. Yep, your answer to them will have zero impact. Mine is much simpler

Don't you believe what the Bible says?


Doesn't the Bible say that God gave Man dominion over the Earth?


Because Man now has dominion over the Earth doesn't it mean that God will allow us to change the climate or did he not really give us dominion over the Earth? Did he leave the training wheels on or something and if so where does the Bible say that?






Once you get past the source of their denial (that it can't be happening because they expect some miracle from an almighty being would stop it) you can start a conversation that they will eventually walk away from because they can't handle it. It won't convince them but it has more impact than talking science to them. You need to speak their language or they won't understand anything you say.

[pinboy3niner]

10. "I've always rebelled against the thinking that ideology can trump fact"

So says one Republican scientist whom science has convinced of the reality of man-made climate change (and he's now considering changing his party affiliation):

Scientist proves conservatism and belief in climate change aren't incompatible
MIT professor Kerry Emanuel is among a rare breed of conservative scientists who are sounding the alarm for climate change and criticizing Republicans' 'agenda of denial' and 'anti-science stance.'

By Neela Banerjee, Washington Bureau
January 5, 2011

Reporting from Cambridge, Mass. —

According to the conventional wisdom that liberals accept climate change and conservatives don't, Kerry Emanuel is an oxymoron.

Emanuel sees himself as a conservative. He believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He backs a strong military. He almost always votes Republican and admires Ronald Reagan.

Emanuel is also a highly regarded professor of atmospheric science at MIT. And based on his work on hurricanes and the research of his peers, Emanuel has concluded that the scientific data show a powerful link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

"There was never a light-bulb moment but a gradual realization based on the evidence," Emanuel said. "I became convinced by the basic physics and by the better and better observation of the climate that it was changing and it was a risk that had to be considered."

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scientist-climate-20110105,0,6481221.story

[gatorboy]

11. It's pretty obvious they don't believe in Global Warming because we already had our "Great Flood".

To them, God had already promised never to flood the world again. Unfortunately, global warming goes against this thinking. These people will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever believe in global warming because if the world ever flooded again, it would mean God was... Wrong.