Day 030 – Southport, NC > Conway, SC

I watched a few movies last night and got caught up on my sleep and it felt really, really good. The idea of creating space to talk about our differences is a big theme on my mind right now, especially after the great conversation I had with Robert in Wilmington. He said that he doesn’t believe man is causing global warming for two reasons: global warming and cooling happens in cycles and this is just another cycle and also because man is not capable of altering the earth so drastically because it is God’s domain (I think that is the gist of how he put it since I’m not recording these conversations or actively taking notes) I’ve heard the cycle argument before, but not the Christian argument against humans being able to alter God’s creation.

I’m an atheist that believes the scientific process is the best way to understand the world around me so there is a gap between Robert and I both in our faith and our way of processing scientific discovery. I have no interest in challenging the faith of anyone in and of itself, but I would like to find ways to present factual information in a way that works within the framework of that faith. I was listening to  NPR last night and heard a really interesting piece on devout Christian Katharine Hayhoe who is an atmospheric scientist and the director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. She believes humans are responsible for global warming and it does not challenge her faith. In fact, she has been going around to church groups presenting on man made global warming and it’s implications. Two things she said jumped out at me, “God gave us the brains to make good choices and there’s consequences to the choices that we make” and also some people have said to her “wouldn’t it mean giving up my identity, turning into somebody else – somebody who I might not like very much to care about climate change?” I agree with anyone that says we need to use our brains to make choices and I sure wouldn’t want to become someone else to care about climate change or anything else for that matter. It’s a 7.5 minute piece and can be found here.

Katharine seems like a nice person from listening to the piece and probably comes across as very likable in person. She is concerned about climate change, has a scientific background in it and wants to help people within her faith to see the scientific facts for what they are in the context of their faith. I think it would be great to collaborate with her on a short film project that could be distributed amongst churches, but I need to learn more about how she presents the information.

I think there are also a lot of politicians on the right and a few on the left as well that could use global warming information presented to them in a way that they can understand and that is not challenging to their identity or beliefs.