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Those of us who are religious declare a dedication to Truth. Truth is one of the attributes of God. Some theologians speak
of God as "Ultimate Truth," "Truth-itself" or "Reality-itself." For that reason, any person
who professes a trust in God will also welcome any expression of truth from any source. Even "inconvenient truths."
The Church doesn't have such a good track record for welcoming truth, however. When Galileo was demonstrating with mathematics
and experiments his convincing evidence that the earth rotates around the sun, Pope Pius V declared such Copernican theories
as heresy and silenced him. Galileo tried again with a new Pope Urban VIII, but he was sent to the Inquisition and declared
a heretic. Upon his death Galileo was refused burial in consecrated ground. The Church has since apologized.
Today we have some religious leaders who attack the thoroughly successful science of evolution. Evolutionary studies
have proved to be so helpful in explaining the nature of biological life that the fundamentals of evolutionary theory is now
settled science. Lay people incorrectly dismiss evolution as a theory, mixing street language with scientific usage. On
the street, a theory is just an unproven idea -- if you cross your fingers your wish will come true. In science, a theory
is the answer that best corresponds to reality. Evolution as an answer has worked so well that it is treated more as a law
than a theory in scientific circles.
Back in 1650 Anglican Archbishop James Usher offered a theory based on his calculations from scripture that the creation
of the earth occurred in 4004 BC. It was the best theory he could come up with using the limited lens of the biblical accounts
as his sole base of evidence. Some Christians who prefer to limit the aperture of their vision of reality to scripture alone
still promote his theory, even though it took a hit in 1997 when the world didn't end. Believers (citing 2 Peter 3:8 "with
the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day") predicted that the earth's span would logically
be 6,000 years, corresponding to the six days of creation. Mathematically that worked out to 4004 years before Christ and
1997 years afterward -- the Millennium. It sounded scientific and scholarly, but it wasn't.
Some of that apocalyptic expectation has fueled contemporary dismissals of the importance of environmental stewardship
-- why care for the earth if Jesus is coming? It has also energized some excited speculation whenever the Middle East erupts
with tragic violence. Some hands fairly shake with eagerness when they hear of the renewed horrors and bloodshed there.
Maybe it's a sign of "the End." Secretary of State Rice unwisely pandered to such "theories" by speaking
of the "birth pangs" of a new Middle East. That's code language for the apocalypse. (Mark 13:8; Revelation 12:2)
Bad theology, bad exegesis, bad politics.
Forget the apocalypse. Jesus said no one knows the time, not even him. So stop speculating and take care of the earth
and its suffering people now.
An inconvenient truth -- the earth is warming dangerously. It is our fault. We are charged as God's stewards to take
care of God's creation. We've got to do something now. The science is settled on the subject. That's the truth. Director
of the NASA Goddard Institute James Hansen and others say we have about ten years to halt the increasing carbon emissions
or we'll hit tipping points of environmental catastrophe beyond our control. That's an apocalypse whose time we know. Instead
of censoring scientists as CBS 60 Minutes reported Sunday, our leaders need to be acting responsibly.
Protection of the earth should be a cause that Christians of various theologies can endorse. "The earth is the Lord's,
and everything in it." (Psalm 24:1 and 1 Corinthians 10:26) "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. ...And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1 & 2) Jesus promised to return to
the earth, and we don't want to greet him having ruined it. There is an excellent resource on the website of the Evangelical
Environmental Network at www.creationcare.org/.
Wouldn't it be nice if Christians listened to the wisdom of science in our generation and responded energetically to the
truth revealed to us in our lifetime. What if we got it right this century and helped save the environment. After all, how
do you apologize to a dead Galileo? How do you apologize for a dead earth?
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