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In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Scott Pruitt, EPA Chief, said that the Bible tells people to use all the resources available to us, including fossil fuels:
"The biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we've been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind".
According to Vox: "But as far as his biblical assertion goes, Pruitt's words reflect a wider trend among American evangelicals, who largely have not embraced scientific thought on environmentalism or global warming."
The Trump administration has used a variety of excuses to legitimize its record-setting rollbacks on environmental protections: calling global warming a hoax, or arguing that the economic consequences of increased regulation would outweigh their benefit.
The latest justification? The Bible.
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, a media outlet that also seems to double as a propaganda arm of the Trump administration, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said his Christian convictions led him to conclude that America should use gas and coal freely because natural resources exist purely for man's benefit.
[...] That's why evangelical groups have, therefore, been historically resistant to environmentalist causes. Creationist lobbying groups frequently fund initiatives like the Louisiana Science Education Act, which mandates a "balanced" (and climate change-denying) approach to teaching environmental issues in public schools.
Please read the linked article as it explains the connection between contempt for science and protecting the environment and the beliefs of evangelicals.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @03:58PM (10 children)
There are two parts: The Old Testament and The New Testament. Pruit is rambling on about stuff found in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is about providing context for The New Testament and showing how things used to suck even worse before Jesus helped out. A lot of Jesus' life and actions were prophesized centuries before he turned up and these prophesies are in the Old Testament. Some congregations don't even hand out the Old Testament for regular reading. Jesus himself is not even in the Old Testament, despite prophesies. Christianity is about Christ (Jesus) so Pruit should be following the NT.
He is probably one of those Prosperity Gospel [dallasnews.com] types which ignore Christ, his teachings, and just about everything in the NT in order to cherry pick from the bad old days in the OT and ignore Christ and thus Christianity since Christianity is defined by Jesus.
2 Peter 2:1,
2 Timothy 4:3-4,
Acts 20:28-30
and all that.
The New Testament is about Christianity because it's all about Jesus The Christ and his works, goals, and guidance. Putting it into computing terms, the New Testament deprecates the Old Testament and Pruit is citing deprecated material.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @04:15PM (6 children)
I'll try an opposing post implementing standard SN automotive analogy:
New testament is like fuel injection and old testament is like carburetor, and Pruit is talking about the responsibilities of the water pump so in specific context he's not quoting deprecated technology.
As a style nitpick your post follows the general style of the linked article in not being very academically rigorous, lots of "should" and "probably" provided as proof, combined with a logical fallacy as an argument where by definition we'll say he sux in an unrelated field (politics) therefore his religion or perhaps all Christians also sux merely by association, which is pretty weak sauce.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @04:21PM (5 children)
I see your analogy but disagree. John 3:16 deprecates the OT. That is rather the kernel of the NT.
The OT is a mixture of a lot of things but it is deprecated so to speak. Otherwise he might as well be quoting the jollier parts like Ezekiel 23:19-21
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @05:56PM (4 children)
Jesus warned us about people like you. Just try to change one letter of the law and you'll find yourself in hell and those of us in heaven will consider you the least.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @07:23PM (3 children)
Matthew 22:36-40
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday February 26 2018, @08:21PM (1 child)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 26 2018, @08:37PM
Less, because we see cars every day. It's always funny to watch people with different versions of The One Truth sling shit at one another though.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @09:04PM
Derpy 13:37
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @04:16PM (1 child)
*snort*! lol!
You meet any Christians lately?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:06PM
Go talk to a laestadian - the entire sect is based off of a no true Scotsman argument.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:01AM
Let me make sure I've got this straight. You're elevating one set of fictions over a different, related set of fictions and suggesting that your preferred set of fictions should be the basis for policy making. Is that about the size of it?
I'm going to assume that you're attempting (poorly) to baffle us with bullshit [goodreads.com].
Stanislaw Lem [goodreads.com], is that you?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr