Science and Christianity.
Friends or Foes. (Part 4 of 5)
Dr. Rick L. Lindroth – Creation Care in a Changing World.
“Nonscientists
generally view major environmental issues as problems of science and
technology, not as problems of the human condition. We must understand that Christianity provides
answers central to the resolution of these issues. Environmental problems are, fundamentally,
sin problems.” - R. L. Lindroth
I must admit that when I read the topic list for the
Apologetics seminar, this was by far the topic of least interest to me. I did not think of myself as ‘green’ or even
necessarily motivated to be ‘green’.
I’ll recycle my bottles and cans, turn off the lights when I’m not in
the room, and maybe bike to work during the summer instead of driving. Beyond
that I don’t really pay much mind to the environmental crisis that we seem to
be faced with. I have not gone out of my
way to research the efficacy of ethanol fueled vehicles or not buying products
from environmentally unfriendly companies.
It’s not that I didn’t care about the environment, it’s that I saw it as
small potatoes in comparison to the litany of other concerns that plague my
everyday attempts to lead a Christian life.
I was in for the shock of a lifetime. Dr. Lindroth’s talk was probably my second
favorite discussion to Dr. Becker’s. For
starters, being a man of such high academia, his level of statistical analysis
and the figures he presented were both numerous and undeniably compelling.
He began with a discussion of environmental degradation. The first statistic he presented was the fact
that Humanity’s ecological footprint right now is 25% greater than the size of the earth. What does that mean? That means that right now. Even if we were to stop all green house
gases, all pollution of water, etc. the earth could not recover. We would need an earth 25% larger than the
earth now, and the absence of mankind for millennia for the earth to repair
itself. In the US,
we have become ambivalent to the effects that our greenhouse gas emissions have
on global warming because it has had minimal impact on our everyday lives. A frightening and sad diagram he showed (that
I have been unable to find but was compiled by the Nature Conservancy and
viewable in the online seminars here: http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/media_handlers/show_sermon.php?id=342&size=large
) was one that correlated the biggest greenhouse emissions countries to the
lowest greenhouse emissions countries, and then the countries least affected by
global warming and the countries most affected by global warming. The images were inversely related. Countries with the highest greenhouse
emissions (US, Europe, India, China, Japan) experienced the least affects of
global warming while the countries with the lowest greenhouse emissions (100%
of Africa, parts of south America, Australia) had the highest rates of
significant climate change (droughts, tsunamis, flooding, etc.); taken into
account with the fact that these diagrams were also correlated to relative
prosperity levels of countries made me pretty damn ashamed that I drove the six
blocks to church instead of walking.
It was his argument that God has entrusted us with the responsibility of
caring for all creation.
“Concern for God’s creation is not
only a legitmate Christian concern,
but a fundamental one for building a
proper view of who God is – as both creator and redeemer – and what He has
called us to do in building His kingdom on Earth” – R. Lindroth
To know Him as the creator of everything we need to worship Him as Creator
and as a part of worship, celebrate and care for His creation. To know Him as redeemer means to love that
which He loves and participate in His full work of redemption and
reconciliation.
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