“Drill, baby, drill” is the message one West Virginia politician has for environmental advocates who say we are doing irreversible damage to our planet by mining fossil fuels.
Not to worry, he says, God will protect us from climate change.
In response to high prices at the gas pump courtesy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many politicians have proposed increasing domestic oil production at home to alleviate some of those gas pump woes.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice was one such politician. In a recent public address, Justice implored the federal government to call on his state to help, and let them ramp up fossil fuel production.
And as for the climate impact? Governor Justice has hand-waved that away, saying it's in someone else’s hands entirely: God’s.
Drill, Baby Jesus, Drill
“I believe with all in me, that we’ll have time and [God] will give us time as we go forward,” Justice said in his March 14th briefing. “If there is such a thing, and I underline if, if there is such a thing as climate change, I believe that He will give us time and the smart people will fix it.”
Justice has repeatedly cited God when pressed on the possibility of exploring renewable energy options versus continued dependence on gas, oil, and coal.
Just a few days prior, he issued a similar refrain, stating that “God will give us time for the smart people of the world to solve the riddle. If there is truly climate change going on, He will give us time.”
A 3,675-page report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says drastic action is needed now, and that nearly half the population of the world is already vulnerable to dangerous changes. They predict everything from lack of farmland seriously impacting the world’s food supply, to rising seas threatening coastal cities, to potential humanitarian crises of immense magnitude.
The report issued a dire warning, stating plainly that “delay means death” when it comes to climate change.
But maybe the big man upstairs will come to the rescue?
Will God Save Us?
That God will save us from ourselves is not an unheard-of idea. After President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement back in 2017, a Michigan congressman made headlines by claiming that everyone was freaking out for no reason, because God will come to our rescue if needed.
“I believe there's climate change. I believe there's been climate change since the beginning of time. Do I think man has some impact? Yeah, of course,” said Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg. “As a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I'm confident that, if there's a real problem, He can take care of it."
Faith leaders have repeated this theory as well, claiming that we shouldn’t worry too much about climate change because in the end, God is the one who will decide the fate of the world.
“We need not fear the doomsday predictions of global warming activists because the Bible already tells us that God will determine the end of the earth, not human activity,” says Pastor Tim Dinkins, of Grace Baptist Church in Lemoore. He continues: “God has already established a time when the earth will be destroyed, not by water but by fire at the time of Christ’s return, and then the earth will be remade."
But environmental scientists say we really shouldn’t bank on God to save us, especially when there are actionable things we can do right now to help reverse climate change.
Citing the hole in the ozone layer as an example, environmentalists point out the global cooperation and quick corrective action that took place worldwide; 197 nations signed the Montreal Protocol, which regulates ozone-depleting gases. Decades later, the ozone has largely repaired itself.
Of course, it’s hard to imagine such global cooperation today.
What are your thoughts? When it comes to climate change, is it in our hands, or God’s?
59 comments
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
Didn't God name man as the stewards of his creation? By not acting on climate change, politicians are defying God.
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Lionheart
No...how could something that hasn't been proved to exist name anything? How can we defy something that obviously doesn't exist...unless of course, you have some sort of demonstrable evidence that it does exist?
It's very strange to me that mankind is left to try and attempt to prove any god is real when it would be much easier for any god to do it for itself.
If any of my children that I love have any doubt I am real, and truly exist, I can always show up for them. That's what fathers do...right? You don't need to try and do that for me. Just let me know, and I'll show up.
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Timothy Lee Stewart
Hmmmm,🤔 can you truly say that? You don't believe in what you can't see, yet you believe in the atoms and molecules that have come together in multitude to form the body in which you reside. Do you not See a Tree? Do you not See a Bird? Do you not See a Mountain!? As you are made up of all the little things you Can't See... Can God be made up of all the little things he can't see🤔 if you can feel you are hurting, happy, stressed, worried, are we to assume that since we can't see it, it's not happening to you? 🤔 Can we just for a moment believe that all the atoms and molecules that come together to make you, that all the beautiful things around us including you.... Come together to make God? Yeah just a thought.
Minister, T. Stewart
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Lionheart
No Timothy, you are missing basic 101 science, we cannot see some gaseous atomic particles, BUT we can demonstrate they are there, and test for it to prove they are.
We know the chemical atomic make up of flora, fauna, and the earths geological formations. This even extends to the chemical makeup of all interstellar matter. However, what we don't know is if any deities are real. There is currently no demonstrable way to test, and prove, deities are real. It's postulated a deity, or deities, do exist because we currently cannot conceive something comes from nothing, but then again, where do they come from if they do exist? Who created them? Anyway, until we can have some form of concrete demonstrable evidence any god is real, we have to assume they don't.
Do fairies exist, what many pagans might call "elementals"? Again, we have no demonstrable evidence to show they do.
We can have many beautiful thoughts, Timothy, as you suggest we try and do for a moment, but we also can have horrendous thoughts that nature can conjure up killing so many people flora, and fauna through natural disasters. Do those natural disasters come together to make a god also?
Just a thought!🤔
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Robert James Ruhnke
The gods will not do for man, what man can do for himself. At this point maybe it’s time we just build bunker cities and hope for the best. Humanity is at a dark crossroads being led by the blind and foolish. We as people must take back our world from greed and ignorant superstition. Our repository of over all knowledge has increased a thousand fold in the last century and yet we still allow these superstitious hate mongers to lead? Ridiculous.
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Krystina S.
You hit the nail on the head. The greedy foment ignorant superstition among the masses for their benefit.
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Chris
We need to get rid of any politician who lets their religion dictate their policy. There's a reason this was never intended to be a Christian Nation. Morons like this need to be removed from office.
That being said, how would you think God feels about what we've done to this earth he created for us? If you created a home for your children and they trashed it, would you feel inclined to keep repairing it for them or would you be inclined to let it all burn? I mean, he allegedly tried to teach us a lesson multiple times according to that big book y'all keep waving around. Maybe it's time for y'all to actually READ it and LEARN from it.
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JaZe
Faith, trust, prayer are all very well, but action is also needed since angels do not seem inclined to come over and take care of it. Earth is a school, the teacher/lecturer etc wont write our paper.
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John D. Partin
Tom Thackeray, your post brings to mind one of Aesop's Fables, in which a man driving a cart had one of the wheels suddenly break down. Instead of even trying to fix it himself, he Immediately began praying to the god of strength Hercules to fix his cart for him. Hercules looked down, disgustedly, and said "You lazybones!! Put your shoulder to the wheel and try to fix it!". Moral: The gods help those who help themselves. Human beings made global warming and climate change through pollution and what man has made, man should unmake and fix, and not always expect God to save us from the consequences of our own actions. This is part of the reason why all prayers aren't answered or answered in the way that some people think that they should be.
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Ealdormon Piparskeggr Robinson
I reference the fable about Heracles and the cart driver quite often.
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flugo
ALL is in God's hands! He is control! Colossians 1:16, Revelation 21:6, Romans 11:33, Jeremiah 32:17, Psalm 103:19, among hundreds of other claims.
It's with confident peace and assurance and we can trust our future into His hands.
We're not expected to understand all that this implies, but to know this all-knowing, all-powerful, loving, eternal, all-wise, forgiving, living Gods does NOT make mistakes
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Krystina S.
No, but humans DO make mistakes. "really smart people" are ALREADY finding solutions to our heinous destruction of our planet. It is ALREADY TIME to ameliorate the situation. I don't understand it: even were the climate situation NOT to have such urgency as it does, WHY would we be against CLEAN energy and CLEANING up the planet God gave us? It is idiocy.
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David A Griffith
Where is the actual scientific proof to back what you write. It sounds to me like your lazy and you’re wanting to have someone or something else do the dirty work. You made the mess, you clean-up the mess.
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Lionheart
Climate changes come and go, whether man is here or not. It happens on all planets. Volcanoes push out more trash into the atmosphere than we do. Is it all because of our oil? Why do we have an oil shortage? Well.....nobody bothered to check the oil level. We just didn't know we were getting low. The reason is purely geographical.
OUR OIL IS LOCATED IN: Alaska, Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.
But: OUR DIPSTICK IS LOCATED IN: the White House. 🤔
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Shelly Arave
I like your way of thinking :)
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Marathuzula
While I don't disagree, I think it is important to do what we can where we can affect change. Solar technology has come really far in the last 10-15 years because we threw money at the industry and embraced it more than ever before.
Can we stop that Volcanism is like 90% of the earths climate change mechanism... not really... and also yes. We do know that Trees go a long way to combat it, we know that raising cattle, does a lot as well... does it compare to a volcano? No... but they do release methane and we often clear cut forests to raise cattle. It just comes down to the question of doing what we can where we can when we understand that we can.-
Lionheart
Yes I agree, Marathuzula, that we all need to try and do our bit to improved the climate we live in, as long is it’s not forced down our throats to do so. I just love the freedom and liberty that we all enjoy. Sadly, this freedom and liberty that we enjoy seems to be constantly taken away from us by government. Thank you for your comment. 🤗
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Michael K. Mac Munn
In the article I read is he referring to the same God that made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights, or destroyed a city with fire and brimstone. as far as I've always been aware it's also been said that the good Lord helps those who help themselves and it's never shown much pity for the foolish.
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Greg Formoe
This is ridiculous. Does God prevent wars? Natural disasters? Why would he save us from our own stupidity?
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Marcella J Schieffelin
We are partners in bringing Heaven down to Earth. We are here for a reason. Have you ever heard the story of the man who pleaded to Gd to win the lottery, except he didn’t win because he never bought a lottery ticket? Similarly, if we don’t play along, we cannot win. 🙏🏼😇😉
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Lionheart
The climate will continue to change like it has done for millennia. Temperatures will go up and down like they always have done. Open cast mining will continue to scar the landscape for Lithium to make batteries in an attempt to control climate change by not using fossil fuels. In 15 or 20 years time millions of huge old car batteries will no doubt be land filled somewhere contaminating the earth.
The earths man-made gods will of course continue to do what they have always done best……nothing.
If Putin has his way, there may soon not be an earth left to even worry about climate change, or religion. We could soon just become yet another astroid belt orbiting the sun. Perhaps that is how the other one in our solar system was created 🤷🏼
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Douglas Robert Spindler
@Lionheart You are correct and wrong at the same time. "Yes the climate will continue to change like it has done for millennia." That is true, but mans definition of climate change is not millennia but on the order of less than one tenth of a millennia. Huge difference. Just as you can be deathly ill when your body temperature is just two degrees above normal, same applies to the earth.
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Douglas Robert Spindler
We have a Christian God of diminishing return. • 10,000 years ago, God creates the universe, man and woman. • 5000 years ago, God parts the Red Sea. • 2000 years ago, virgin birth and resurrection. • 200 years ago, heals the sick, less frequently as medicine advances. • 20 years ago, God speaks to televangelists, usually to tell them to ask for money. • 2 years ago, Jesus appears on a slice of toast. • 2 days ago, God causes a slight breeze.
It's hard to believe God who is allowing the climate to change would lift a finger to cause it to stop. Last time God allowed the climate it didn't turnout so well, there was a huge flood. God's plan is to kill everyone again. God can't save the animals this time as God let many of them go extinct.
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Stacey Owens
First of all there is no such thing as a Christian God, God is the Word. The I am that I am. God never called Himself a christian God. His name is the Word, Life, the Light of the world.
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Lionheart
So....that's it then? Are you just paraphrasing from that old book that was collated by people that never knew anyone that was being written about?
How do you know that anything you wrote here is true? Do you like......."get a very warm feeling" that it is? If that is the case, I hope you never have to sit on a jury. Jurors have been thrown off jury panels for saying things like that, even when they have said in court that they didn't know for sure, but god has told them the person was guilty, or innocent.
Anyway, thank you Stacey for your comment.
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Stacey Owens
I don't understand why people blame the Word is going to destroy the world? Man is going to do it. The god man who believes is going to save the world will destroy it. Those who are the gain Sayers: The Christian god.
Man was created to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it and not destroy it. Yet Man has succeeded in his success in gaining billions of dollars in milking the earth of its natural resources while plundering killing and destroying life to achieve ill gotten gain. Yet their is a so called Christian god who blessed them and they call this fruitfulness.
The Word never said, Conquer the earth. The Word never said Kill and have dominion over man. The Word only said, "replenish the earth".
"The Word says let us make man after our image after our likeness". The Word only blessed the spirit of man not the form (the Flesh). It doesn't say the flesh will be saved. The flesh is filthy rages. This is why the Word says, my people suffer destruction form a lack of knowledge.
Heaven and earth will pass away but the Word will never pass away.
Man is on a collision coarse to destruction. But those who believe that He is the life, will not see destruction but ever lasting Life. Because they are sons and daughters of God who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
The flesh profits nothing.
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Lionheart
It's totally ok admitting you don't understand Stacey. It's basically the result of deep indoctrination. Try and be critical of your thought structure. Thanks anyway.🤗
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Krystina S.
Comment removed by user.
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Krystina S.
Oops, I've never tried to edit a comment before. As I was saying... It is not God destroying our Planet. It is Humans. It is for Humans to repair it. If I were to cut off my own leg, how could I expect God to repair it? As my loving mother always says, "Clean up your Own Mess!!!"
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David Arthur Lewis
The "smart people" already figured out how to stop climate change - just stop burning stuff. But they have not figured out how to fix stupid. Or greedy.
Yeah, right, the Christian god will save us, just like he saved the Roman Empire where everyone was Christian.
Jim Justice practices politics based on his stock portfolio.
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Tom
Our slogan mandates that we help our planet, for us all...
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George Lacy
The Jews during the Holocaust are indisputable proof; there is no god that will save even his "chosen" people.
Why people still hold on to the belief that some deity will save them is beyond me.
As far as polluting the earth and dying from it... If you break it. You buy it. Applies here.
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Shelly Arave
You are so right
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John Casillo
Relax.....there is no way out....rev john
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Daniel Ginther
There's no such thing as fossil fuel. The earth will always produce more oil than anyone will ever need, it does not come from dinosaur bones, how ridiculous.
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Victoria Meixell
Pretty sure Jesus said something along the lines of “tend my vineyard,” not “burn my vineyard to the ground.”
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Shelly Arave
I love reading everyone’s comments, very enlightening
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Nicholas J Page
First of all we have heard it from the UK Government and experts for some 30 years denying global warming. Now look its happening now Mankind is slowly destroying our planet The Govt closed coal pits and mines in the 70s. Now everyone is urging us to go tracking.Not exactly sure what that is But with all the Trouble caused by Putinour gas supplies come from Russia How about producing our own.Surely we haven't run out of North Sea gas and its like petrol or gas as you call it.Can't we manufacture our own .With petrol a very expensive commodity surely we can do something to reduce our energy bills I'm lucky being disabled I am currently leasing a mobility scooter all I have to pay for is charging it up!
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Krystina S.
With a solar panel, your scooter could be powered by the SUN!
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Rev Mark D
St Timothy says that you will know God's saved people by their works. A safe person reflects that salvation by having done good works. That seems to answer the question. Saved by grace means you don't earn salvation by your works, but if you don't have good works you may not have been saved, you may have been passed over since being saved is reflected by good works.
So the question is is drilling and burning up the world and polluting the world with more and more and more heavy metals, poisons, carcinogens, degenerants, acids, and putting millions of unfavorable people in heavy disease creating air water and soil pollution zones with industrial chemicals, while others live better, fuller, richer, wealthier healthier longer lives, with much less suffering and much longer lives because they're not forced into those zones or pollution is concentrated in those areas where such people reside?
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Krystina S.
Also James said "Faith without Works is DEAD." So there's that. Different Christian sects have different viewpoints on the efficacy and need of Works. And there are so many other faith traditions, which also have different viewpoints on the faith/works axes. Remember one important axiom: First, DO NO HARM.
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The Right Reverend D. Batch
God placed Natural Resources on Earth for His Children to use. They are here to sustain us until Jesus's Second Coming.
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Timothy Newell
And He's coming sooner than we think! I admire WV governor for expressing his belief. That's not to say that there aren't checks and balances in state government just like the federal government. He---whether he's Democrat or Republican--has every right to display his faith in God.
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Lionheart
I guess faith is all you have....right? Demonstrable evidence would be nice, but I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon. People have been waiting for over 2000 years...so good luck with that.
Question is...was there ever a first coming let a lone a second....was he ever real? Did he really exist? Why didn't people that knew about him at the time ever write about him? Why did people who never met him write about him decades later, relying solely on stories that had been handed down?
Any evidence is so amazingly sketchy, and yet people will actually attempt to utter his words implying thats what he actually said, but only because they have read it in a book written by those that never knew him. Weird....right?
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William Dorsch
That's a really ignorant statement.
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Reverend Kurt
Is Governor Jim Justice a clone of Scott Morrison? Our Prime minister goes on holidays to Hawaii while the country burns, Goes to the stadium to see his favourite team play all the while Covid is ravaging the country and electioneering in the places devastated by the worst flood in living memory. Governor Jim Justice still has a lot to learn, he could not get a better teacher that Scott Morrison (Scott is a Hillsong christian )
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Rev Mark D
Not only a clone of your PM, but also most of our Republicans, including all of them in the Senate.
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
For all of us “Pantheists” (especially those who self-Identity as “Secular Humanist Pantheists) if we “fornicate-up” and reflexively ask “God to help us” — what we’re in fact doing, is asking nature to help us.
Because nature and God are the same thing.
However, we are intellectually aware that nature doesn’t give a “poo-poo” about what we ask nature to do, and if we want nature to do something, we have to take human action, (akin to building a dam) to get nature headed in the right direction.
Native Americans (some) had “rain dances” in their attempts to get nature to provide rain; and occasionally they worked — but usually didn’t.
Those of us SHP’ers, who thank the “Sun” for nurturing humankind every day - have our requests for-filled everyday, which reminds us that “if you must worship something, worship the Sun, because the Sun is the source of all life.”
ULC’ers, who need a provable God (because they are candidates for public office, or need a God to believe in, so as to maintain family harmony) have such a provable God, as soon as they realize that nature and God are the same thing.
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Dr. Jerry Moyes
God has empowered us to save ourselves. No matter what faith or belief system you follow, it contains stories teliing of the consequence of profaning the divine. Creation, this planet, is the divine.
This is a stoy about a man justifying doing the wrong thing, because it profits him.
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Michael Barton
God wouldn't intervene unless everything was going to end. But if you ask, God gives you what you ask for. When many ask, and many don't; you get the World we have now.
As for climate change and oil and stupid lithium batteries. At the end of the day, science says that oil is safer. There are many things that oil is used for that low IQ have no idea about. Our power grids aren't even powerful enough to handle all the EVs. Think California. They shut off the power at certain times. Think about how bad that would be if everyone had an EV...
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Lady Celynia
As someone else pointed out, if we get rid of fossil fuels we will then become dependent on batteries which are another contaminant. The only way is to put more money into R&D into renewable energy and finally learn how fission works for sustainable amounts of time.
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Marathuzula
Ah yes, because the lord of Genocides doesn't mind killing people... oh wait, no ones kill count is as high as the 'god' of the bible.
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Jeffery Wayne Weatherholtz
In Genesis God gave man dominion over the earth...that means we have to manage it responsibly. When people use the Bible incorrectly we should step up and make sure they know it's wrong.
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Timothy Botens
I think we have all lost the fact that this is GOD's world. We are here until he or she says we are not. What we are taught to be are guardians of our bodies for the glorification of the creator. If you believe there is not a creator than you are already lost to him. To those that don't believe this is not a big deal as their souls go nowhere. I myself believe that my Creator (disputed but not conclusively) wants me to celebrate with him and my love ones forever. If you don't believe there is a higher power than us than promote your own agenda. I. The end my belief is the only ending is the one my GOD has told us there will be.
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William Waugh
Drill baby drill!......Well, there it is!....the dumbest thing I've heard today!
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Angel, Dr. Press/ Jedi Soul Therapist.
And the grave worship earthquake in Sardis a religious sapphire moved wonder Sapphira The pillar most strong sum brought few Her provender And little to dart.
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Pastor Charlene, Ph.D
The climate will continue to change as long as we contaminate with pollution. My thoughts...my opinion..right or wrong...but Global warming is real. Been to LA lately?
God hasn't shown any inclination towards saving us from our own stupidity. Actually, the one time he did Noah built a boat.
I am reminded of the sailor swept off his boat. A lifeboat comes by and he declines saying "God will save me." Then a raft with the same response. Again when a helicopter tries to rescue him. After drowning he appears before God and asks "Why didn't you save me?" God replies "I sent you a lifeboat, a raft and a helicopter--what did you want?"
While we're waiting for God's salvation, it behooves us to do what we can to save ourselves. Ignoring climate change because it's inconvenient or hard is stupid. How long can you tread water?
Yes. This ^^^^^^^^^^.
Fantastic! Elegant almost, yet still will not wake Conservative Christians to the truth.
Thank you for your excellent thoughts.
Doc