Thursday, April 22, 2010

Why Worry About The Earth?

Bob Dutko thinks earth day has turned in to a "religion". Bunch of silliness. Good that he sees religion as silliness. He took calls to see if his listeners agree.

His first caller says "My daughter made a great point. Why are we worrying about this earth that God is going to destroy anyway? We should be worrying about saving souls." Bob agrees enthusiastically.

Second caller: "We should do what little we can, but the earth is the Lord's. He'll take care of it."

Third caller: "I told the screener (Jan) a joke that we should really just leave all our lights on and cars idling since this is all so silly. All this man made global warming stuff is a hoax. They just want to control our lives."

Fourth caller: "My son said Happy Earth Day to me just jokingly knowing it annoys me. I was about to wash out his mouth with soap. It's all ridiculous. The devil uses these fancy techniques to trick us just like he does regarding dinosaurs and denial that the earth is 6000 years old."

Fifth caller: "It's just people trying to make money. They want to sell carbon credits, etc." Bob disagrees strenuously (and surprisingly rudely). It's religion, not money.

Sixth caller: "Sure, I may grow a garden and conserve electricity, but that's for financial reasons, not because I'm some sort of environmentalist."

We're screwed.

6 comments:

Darf Ferrara said...

You can read an atheist economist who says the same thing. Read Steven Landsberg final chapter of The Armchair Economist.

Jon said...

He says why worry because Jesus is coming back?

I put all callers down just for completeness. Perhaps saving money is the primary reason why I shut off lights. I don't have a huge problem with callers 5 and 6. It's just that I've been told by some Christians that the whole "Jesus is coming back so why worry" thing is not true for many evangelicals. I think it is. These people don't worry about the destruction of the human species, whether by aggravating foreigners and prompting nuclear Armageddon or environmental catastrophe.

Darf Ferrara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darf Ferrara said...

He says that environmentalism is a religion which he does not practice. He makes the case that environmentalism has the characteristics of the worst parts of religion. It's a good book. You should read it, but it might cut in to time reading Chomsky explain how democracy solves everything.

DagoodS said...

Coincidentally, I caught bits and pieces of this program.

I found it fascinating, one person mentioned the Plastic Island in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas, and Mr. Dutko didn’t know anything about it. When pressed, Mr. Dutkso stated he couldn’t respond, as he didn’t know anything, and therefore it would be inappropriate to give an opinion on something he didn’t know.

Yet later in the program, he indicated nothing was going to change his mind, regardless what the Earth Day people showed. (I don’t remember the exact quote, something like, “Go ahead and try; you aren’t going to change my mind.”) Yet he just admitted there was information out there he knew nothing about!

The more prudent position would be, “This is what I think with what I know. If there is other information one would like to present, I will research it, and may change my mind on the new information.”

Jon said...

And why would I want to cut in to Chomsky time to read about something I already know and don't dispute. This post is about how evangelical Christians don't worry about environmental catastrophe because Jesus will take care of everything.