You can believe in gremlins, elves, pixies, gods, and the tooth fairy. Reading the science, observing the natural world, paying attention to the evidence of your senses is not a belief system. It's a rational conclusion. Human intelligence is the only edge we have on the rest of the animals. Human stupidity makes us less than them.

I've said this before but my extreme fundamentalist brother tells me that Christians should"inherit the earth" by using it up, making as much from it as we can because none of it matters, pollution doesn't matter.... Jesus is coming and the earth means nothing.

That's the extreme fundy line from the Dominionist point of view. Many tea bagger politicians are Dominionists.

Hatrack; I agree with you. But religious understandings and beliefs are only a small part of the tools used by weather change deniers.

Climate Science is just that, it is a science. Science is not a religion, a philosophy, a political ideology or an endeavor to manage and control human thought. Science is the closest thing to truth that can be achieved by humankind. The beauty of science is that it a study or thought of a premise that can be proved and disproved. Science is the only truth as we can know it. The seed of science is to desire to know the "why" of something. What is it, what is it made of, how is it made, can I make it, how far away is it, how old is it, what is alive, what is not alive, what is bad, what is good, can good become bad, can bad be come good, and so on.

Since the dawn of humankind, there was only reality and that was explained by the curious to find out the "why" of things. What one could see, feel, smell and taste were unexplained. There is a great need in humans to believe there is a reason for everything that can be contemplated. And thereby is the rub, don't you see. A need to explain the unexplained. We tend to explain things with what we experience and tell a thought or explanation to understand what we don't understand. History, from the words; (His story) was for the most part, a story and it was accepted by the less curious and lasted until a person with more curiosity came up with a better or seemingly better story and so it has gone for millions of years.

Our ancient ancestors, who wore animal skins and sat around an open fire in a cave for shelter, who amazed at the glow and warmth that fire gave. It was wonderful and unexplained; so they made it a god. Slowly over countless millenniums, most of these gods have evaporated be cause of discovery. The discovery of "fire" and the "wheel" were the seeds of science.

More than two hundred years ago, John Adams, out of frustration with developing our country, told his wife, Abigael; "Most men are ignorant and vicious." Harsh words from one of the fathers of our country, however, he was right. Two hundred years later, we sit around a table, in our air-conditioned housing structure, enjoying a meal prepared with a host of electronic gadgets, wearing our Armani styled clothing and with our I-phones in our pockets, discussing world matters. Besides these things we now enjoy, not much has changed in two hundred years, since John Adams spoke those words.

Besides the human aspect for the need to understand the unexplained, we are saddled with disdain for change, especially when it challenges our long held belief in a story that cannot be proved or disproved.
There is also a strong compulsion for control. Control is the main force for control of human beings by religion and political thinking. And a very close second is the power of wealth. Control; religion and wealth = power. As Henry Kissinger said," Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

In the denial of man-made climate change, one must realize that besides the pain of change to overcome we have to be aware of the power of wealth active in the world and especially in our country. More so than anytime in American history has our government been bought and paid for by the oligarchy here in this country.

I leave you with this quote;

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of the colleagues, the wrath of society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change the world that yields most painfully to change."

Robert Kennedy

It's great to have you with us!