16/04: False Modesty
Rush Limbaugh, and others, have asserted that humanity cannot change the earth's climate, because we are too small and weak; furthermore, to hold otherwise is to exalt humanity to god-like status. Only God can change climate.
While such an assertion sounds pious, in motive and content it is not. I have trouble believing that the motive for making such a statement is a desire to promote God's glory; more likely the motive is to protect the American standard of living and the environmental damage it does.
As a Christian, I judge the content of this assertion non-pious because it gives too little regard to the witness of Scripture. Genesis 1 teaches that humanity was created in the image of God and given dominion over the earth. While Genesis 3 teaches the Fall of humanity, that fall seems explained in the rest of Scripture as depravation, not deprivation. In other words, human power is depraved, bent in on itself away from God; it is not removed (deprived) from humanity.
Psalm 8:4-6 "what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou has made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands, . . ."
John 10:35 "If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), . . ."
We are the species that has made tracks on the moon, utilizes the fission of atoms for energy and the fission and fusion of atoms for weapons, mapped the human genome, makes clones, made dams on rivers like the Columbia and Nile, and drills miles beneath the earth for oil. Don't sell us short on the damage we can do.
While such an assertion sounds pious, in motive and content it is not. I have trouble believing that the motive for making such a statement is a desire to promote God's glory; more likely the motive is to protect the American standard of living and the environmental damage it does.
As a Christian, I judge the content of this assertion non-pious because it gives too little regard to the witness of Scripture. Genesis 1 teaches that humanity was created in the image of God and given dominion over the earth. While Genesis 3 teaches the Fall of humanity, that fall seems explained in the rest of Scripture as depravation, not deprivation. In other words, human power is depraved, bent in on itself away from God; it is not removed (deprived) from humanity.
Psalm 8:4-6 "what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou has made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands, . . ."
John 10:35 "If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), . . ."
We are the species that has made tracks on the moon, utilizes the fission of atoms for energy and the fission and fusion of atoms for weapons, mapped the human genome, makes clones, made dams on rivers like the Columbia and Nile, and drills miles beneath the earth for oil. Don't sell us short on the damage we can do.
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