Is Creation “Very Good” in the Face of Climate Change?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
EDITORIAL : This is one of the key problems with organized religion. People listen to their religious leaders and behave accordingly. Instead of taking seriously the scientific findings on anthropogenic factors (e.g. carbon emissions) that are negatively (and seriously) impacting our environment, those who 'trust' the likes of Ken Ham will behave as though God has our backs and would never allow anything bad to happen to our environment.
Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.
By Ken Ham:
Can we call creation “very good” in the face of climate change? That’s the question posed by “eco-theologian” and Presbyterian minister Dr. Neddy Astudillo in a recent article . She describes the alleged challenges our world will face—food shortages, wildfires, heat waves, coastal flooding, and poverty—if climate change continues and then writes, “this impending reality challenges my understanding of creation as good.” But does she have the correct view of what “very good” means in the first place?
Dr. Astudillo whole-heartedly believes climate change is caused by humans and that it will be devastating to life on earth. Now, climate change is real. We can observe that climates change. But much of climate change science is driven by an erroneous interpretation of the past. You see, if you approach the evidence with an evolutionary worldview and the idea that climates have remained relatively stable since the last ice age 12,000 years ago, you will interpret the small changes in our climate today as a result of modern human activity and be much more likely to extrapolate these into huge changes for the environment.
But believers must start with the history in God’s Word. And that history tells us something very different. And Dr. Astrudillo would do well to pay heed to that history. She writes, “If human presence in this land led the Genesis writer to declare God’s creation as ‘very good,’ how can I hold the findings of this report alongside my statement of faith in humanity?”
First of all, it wasn’t only human presence that made God’s creation “very good” (although humans, uniquely made in his image, are the pinnacle of his creation and it was only after the 6th day when land animals and then man were made, that God called all of creation very good). Genesis 1:31 (the sixth day) tells us God saw everything he had made, and it was very good (throughout Genesis 1, at the end of each day, with the exception of day 2 , God looks at what he has made and declares it good ). All of God’s completed creation was very good in the beginning.
WHEN ADAM AND EVE REBELLED AGAINST GOD, CREATION WAS BROKEN.
But all of that changed with sin (something Dr. Astrudillo never mentions). When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, creation was broken. It was no longer very good—and that includes the climate! As Romans describes, the creation today groans because of sin—it’s a fallen creation. Then the global flood of Noah’s day (about 4,300 years ago) radically changed the climate, resulting in a post-flood ice age shortly thereafter. Earth has been slowly settling down since this catastrophic event. So, from a biblical perspective, small changes in the climate are not alarming and not necessarily directly caused by man’s activities. And such changes have been going on ever since the flood.
Dr. Astrudillo appears to be claiming that God’s creation is no longer “very good” because of recent human-caused climate change. But, the truth is, God’s creation—including the climate—is no longer “very good” because of man’s sin 6000 years ago. It’s our sin that is responsible for creation’s brokenness.
While we should certainly strive to protect our planet and care for it, we as believers can look forward to a day when we will have a new heavens and new earth that will not be affected by sin. What a glorious day that will be!
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Everything will be fine because the Bible says so.
It's like saying "Hey, I know I 'borrowed' your car without asking and hit a tree on my way home from a bar that kicked me out at 2 AM for demanding they serve me more alcohol, but it's okay, my brothers roommate works at a body shop so I'll have him fix it and everything will be okay...".
Most religious conservatives living in the Midwest have three things that basically disqualify them from any impartiality when it comes to climate change, work dependent on the fossil fuel industry, little to no scientific education and an unhealthy dependence on an invisible wizard in the sky that they believe can fix any mistakes they may make even if that mistake is catastrophically ruining the earth for humans with their myopic view of global climate change.
Apparently Ken Ham's sky fairy is too weak or too disinterested to bother to fix his own creation.
Interesting too that it could be "broken" so easily. Sounds like a defective design by an incompetent designer.
I have known hundreds of Christian pastors and it seems to me a fairly current phenomenon of Christian preachers routinely dismissing the known threats to our environment. Historically it was considered a tenant of Christian faith that we should all be mindful of protecting God's Creation. Conservation of nature was, I thought, a mainstay of Christian faith. What Changed? The politics did. The advent of evangelical fundamentalism as a political force also resulted in some Christians taking political positions that would have been completely at odds with the traditional views of mainline Christianity. Even the Catholics had mostly reconciled themselves with modern science. Maybe it existed on the fringes but modern science denial on the scale we see today is a fairly recent development which grew side by side with the evangelical fundamentalist political movement...
Why would an all powerful creator make a planet, (presumably the only one with creations made of his own image) doomed for destruction, not just talking about climate change but the whole we are slowly drifting closer to the sun and the sun will actually die and engulf the earth at some point. Also why would an all powerful creator not just create us with knowledge of the world and not force his creation to fumble thousands of years before having the knowledge to make something like Steel or indoor plumbing. Why would someone create a being that is susceptible to disease, cancer, injury. (the devil did it) isn't the creator more powerful than the devil that he also created and able to reverse anything the devil does, or even erase the devil.
It is almost as if we were not created at all but just came to be through some other means of life.