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posted by mrpg on Monday February 26 2018, @01:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the dinosaurs-are-oil dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 26 2018, @03:58PM (2 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Monday February 26 2018, @03:58PM (#643980) Journal

    Does it help to be contemptuous, no matter how deserving? We're stuck with somewhere between a quarter and a third of the population being ripe for exploitation because thinking is hard work and they'd rather someone else do it for them. For them, the world is a scary place, full of enemies.

    It's a big problem and we don't as yet have an answer for it. We don't even have a good understand of the causes. For instance, does peacetime and easy living cause a rise in the percentage of people who are poor thinkers? Is peacetime a time when there is less evolutionary pressure weeding out the violent and stupid? If that's so, it doesn't make for good conclusions, like that we need wars. Or that however smart and serene you are, if you help achieve Peace On Earth and it actually comes about, your great grandkids will evolve into violent morons who feel stifled and contemptuous of the peace you worked so hard to give them. Perhaps other less damaging activities such as sports can be substituted for war.

    Or, what of pollution? Lead poisoning is known to reduce intelligence and increase violence in the afflicted. One of the leading explanations of the fall of Rome is lead poisoning. Lot of heavy metals are bad for our health.

    At the least, dividing people into groups, such as "the evangelists" and everyone else, and then stating that the minority group is a bunch of idiots or is morally depraved or whatever other insult, even if it's true, lays groundwork for a fight. We love to do that, and maybe it's unavoidable, but we should refrain from gratuitous divisions. Love thy neighbor as thyself.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by turgid on Monday February 26 2018, @08:22PM (1 child)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 26 2018, @08:22PM (#644154) Journal

    Does it help to be contemptuous, no matter how deserving? We're stuck with somewhere between a quarter and a third of the population being ripe for exploitation because thinking is hard work and they'd rather someone else do it for them. For them, the world is a scary place, full of enemies.

    I hear what you say. However, there is only so much abuse you can take without defending yourself.

    From out of nowhere a couple of years back, I, and people like me, started to be labeled with pejorative terms like "liberal fascist" "Marxist" "traitor" "quisling" "liberal Metropolitan Elite" and being accused of "sneering" and condescension. Our well-meaning attempts at discourse have been derailed by vacuous soundbites, continuously repeated untruths, bigotry, willful ignorance and personal insults.

    A war has been waged against some mysterious "liberal elite" and our societies destabilised, apparently to be led by "men of the people" who are no more than an illiberal elite of very wealthy and greedy individuals with dubious attitudes to their fellow human beings.

    Ordinary human values of compassion and the pursuit of knowledge are now apparently popularly regarded as being abhorrent. We have apparently "had enough of experts" and "liberals." We are too serious to appreciate irony and satire. We have had enough of "human rights." Only criminals could possibly need those. We have had enough of social security. Only the work shy and selfish could possibly need that. We begrudge contributing to children's education from which we as a society benefit. Apparently the parents should pay for it all themselves. And parents who fall on hard times should never have had the children in the first place. We begrudge paying for the sick to have proper medical care. We denounce facts we don't care to hear "fake news."

    In the immortal words of Captain Solo, "It's not my fault." I did my best and it wasn't good enough. I don't know what to do now. Any suggestions?

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:03PM (#644241)

      Carry on, be a single data point of reason. Hope that this cultural shifting point turns out alright, and not to worry about the hot air from the GOP. The political spectrum is already shifting, many GOP supporters are finally coming to terms with the fact they they have been repeatedly lied to and red states are suddenly going blue! We'll need deeper reforms to fix the political shitshow, but at least this current cesspool has generated a cleansing storm.