I try to be respectful of religion, and I know that this guy is not necessarily representative, but the problem is that he’s not an isolated case, either.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) is taking a run at becoming the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Apparently he’s going to skip the science stuff and go with a more Biblical approach to environmental policy. He says that climate change should not bother us because God has already promised not to destroy the earth.
Shimkus already serves on the committee. During a hearing in 2009, he dismissed the dangers of climate change and the warnings of the scientific community by quoting the Bible.
First, he noted God’s post-Flood promise to Noah in Genesis 8:21-22.
“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though all inclinations of his heart are evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.”
“I believe that’s the infallible word of God, and that’s the way it’s going to be for his creation,” Shimkus said.
Then he quoted Matthew 24:31.
“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.”
“The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood,” Shimkus asserted. “I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”
I hope the more religious minded among you can appreciate my problem with this sort of thing. It’s no longer a personal belief that helps you with day-to-day problems. Now it’s being used as a blinder, causing a public official to ignore scientific evidence that contradicts his religious belief in matters directly related to his role in shaping public policy. It’s when religious belief of others has the potential to make my world and my children’s world a worse place that I start getting agitated. (And, this post shouldn’t be about whether or not climate change is man-made or real; rather the idea of ignoring scientific evidence — even evidence ultimately outweighed by other evidence — because it’s incompatible with your religious belief.)
I had similar thoughts yesterday afternoon listening to an NPR report on an Iraqi girl who had been kidnapped and possibly raped and was facing the prospect of being killed by her family for bringing shame on them by getting herself raped. I don’t know that this is an arbitrary religious standard or merely an arbitrary cultural standard, but it’s just another example of people making their world worse for no good reason.
First, my religion does just that – gets me through, helps to frame how I relate to the world and gives me solace when I need it. But it’s my faith and I hope I don’t come across as trying to push it. Mostly, I’d hope I would throw some good light on the institutions I support, but the way I live my life. I doubt I’m good at that, but I am an imperfect being.
That being said, this guy is freakin’ nuts. Science and knowledge are in my mind two of the things that God gives us. He doesn’t have time to be involved in every puny thing I want or need.. he gave me and you intellect to be able to see the signs and determine the right course.. not just for myself, but for the world.
To directly ignore the contributions that scientific thought have produced is IGNORANT. I doubt that this guy refuses medicines (created by scientists) or wants to get food that is tainted (protected by scientific regulations).. etc. But when confronted with scientific facts that would make a corporation change its ways or force us to be less gluttonous/ pay more… what an ignoramous.
Wait, I should say — CHAIRMAN IGNORAMOUS.
Reminds me of the story about the guy in a flood who declines rescue by boat and helicopter, each time saying “No thanks, God will take care of me.” Eventually he drowns. After he’s dead, he talks to God, “I thought you’d save me.” God says, “what are you talking about? I sent you a boat and helicopter!”
Can we start the countdown on John Shimkus being caught with a live boy or a dead hooker now, or should we wait until the 112th is sworn in?
And let’s say this again, as often as necessary: live your faith, uphold your principles, or STFU. Refuse your lifetime socialized medicine deal–God provides, and we don’t need no stinkin’ Germ Theory of Disease. Ban usury. Ban blood transfusions. Ban all activity on the Sabbath. Require gleaning as a condition of all economic activity. Try beatin’ a sword into a plowshare for once in your miserable, hypocritical life.
The infallible word of God, unfortunately, is not self-interpreting. But not to worry: it has tens of millions self-appointed popes with varying interpretations (which, many of them will insist, are not interpretations at all, but the simple, literal meaning, no interpretation required).
That God won’t again destroy the earth by flood doesn’t absolve us from acting responsibly – whatever the evidence tells us “responsibly” means. And it doesn’t mean that we won’t destroy it ourselves. That’s the simple literal sense of “never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done,” isn’t it?
All sarcasm aside, one cannot help but be influenced by how he views reality at the deepest level – whether that deepest level is religious, philosophical, ideological, or proceeds under some other name. The slacktivist, for instance, took issue with Tim LaHaye a few blogs ago because LaHaye was writing fictional characters that were not behaving the way human beings behave. In other words, both he and LaHaye have an anthropological grid or filter through which they view things.
Rep. Shimkus’ problem is not that his deepest views are religious, but that they are stupid and simplistic. Chairman or not, his opposition in 2012 onto have an absolute field day not only with his being foolish enough to utter his opinion, but at the foolishness of the opinion itself.
Well said, Roger. What makes me more nervous than Shimkus is the suspicion that there are plenty of voters who think his position is perfectly sensible.
Hypocrites like this make me ashamed to call myself Christian. My grandma always says “God helps those who help themselves.” God didn’t cause our environmental problems and he’s not going to fix them either. I agree that he’s picking out the parts of the bible that fit his argument. But what about the parts that say we should take care of the Earth and all we’ve been given? People who put religion before common sense and scientific fact make me question their mental health. At some point relgious fanaticism becomes a mental illness. And electing these people to make decisions for us scares me.
“I like your Christ. I do not like Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”
-Mahatma Ghandi
Just have to wonder if some forget a basic premise: God helps those who help themselves.
god works in mysterious ways: perhaps we are all just his little party joke to entertain his drinking buddies?
Tipsy Teetotaler :
“The infallible word of God, unfortunately, is not self-interpreting.”
But the problem is that ‘only liberals interpret’.So most of those I know back in the old neighborhood would agree that truth(the infallible word of God) is not self-interpreting…but true believers ‘never interpret’,so they are exempt from scrutiny.’Interpret’ is a liberal concept.That’s what lawyers and judges do and ‘they have ruined this country’.
Believers don’t interpret.
I’m just repeating some wisdom from the hinterlands,in this case Illinois,Shimkus-land.
That was my take away from the Book of Job.
Misti, God helps those who help themselves. isn’t found in the Bible. It actually goes against some of what the Bible says.
That said, the Bible does say that we are supposed to be caretakers of this planet. Turning a blind eye to the damage we’re causing to this planet is a “F.U.” to God. I can’t stand Christians that refuse to understand this.
Even if you think Global Warming is a myth, you would be even more of an idiot to think that coal & oil don’t pollute. If you doubt that, try eating some. You can ignore Global Warming yet still work to eliminate pollution if you want to do what God commanded of you.
All of that said, I actually want idiots like Shimkus to be free to say what he said, and I hope you would too, Doug. If we said that he can’t say those things in public, we wouldn’t know how stupid he actually is & wouldn’t know how badly he needs to be replaced. His actions are more damaging than his words in this case, and banning his speech would not change his actions.
In other words, give these guys enough rope to hang themselves.