Today was Earth Day, 2014. For many, it was a day to celebrate the Earth, to give thanks for its fruitfulness, and to express concern about threats to both the planet and we humans that inhabit it. As a Christian, I also rejoice on Earth Day in the Creator, who has graciously placed us both …
Continue reading Earth Day 2014 — Conservative environmentalism — seeking balance
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. …
There have been a number of articles on the web the past few weeks that deserve a long analysis, but some short notes will have to do. THE ICE AGE (SINGULAR) OCCURRED BETWEEN 2250 AND 2000 B.C. -- Answers in Genesis posted an article in February by Andrew Snelling and Mike Matthews entitled When Was …
I have updated the "Best of the GeoChristian" link up at the top of the page. There is a good variety: posts on Christianity, geology, creationism, the environment, atheism, apologetics, and more. I would be interested to hear if there is a post that has been especially meaningful or helpful to you, or one that …
"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has." -- Proverbs 21:20 (NIV 1984) This proverb condemns the fool who consumes all he has with no regard for the future. As a Christian who believes that it is as much a sin to be …
Continue reading GeoScriptures — Proverbs 21:20 — Sustainability
In between sessions at the young-Earth creation seminar I attended last month, there was a promotion for an upcoming anti-environmentalist documentary entitled "Axed: The End of Green," created by Montana filmmaker J.D. King. According to the promotional video, the objective of the documentary will be to expose "the dark side of the green movement for …
Continue reading There is more than one way to be really wrong about the environment
"There is nothing that has been created without some reason, even if human nature is incapable of knowing precisely the reason for them all." -- John Chrysostom (c. 347-407, Archbishop of Constantinople), Homilies on Genesis 7.14
From NASA Earth Observatory: 2011 Sea Ice Minimum From the description (emphasis added): In September 2011, sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Satellite data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) showed that the summertime ice cover narrowly avoided a new record low. [...] …
Continue reading Thin ice and the importance of Quaternary geology
From FoxNews: U.N. Prepares to Debate Whether 'Mother Earth' Deserves Human Rights Status United Nations diplomats on Wednesday will set aside pressing issues of international peace and security to devote an entire day debating the rights of “Mother Earth.” A bloc of mostly socialist governments lead by Bolivia have put the issue on the General …
Continue reading Does dirt have the same value as a human? Some thoughts on Bolivian Mother Earthism
Helping the poor and caring for the creation often go hand in hand. From Scott Sabin of Plant With Purpose: The Connection Between the Poor and the Earth. Here are a couple quotes: I frequently get asked how we, as Christians, choose between caring for the poor and caring for creation, as if we have …
Pope John Paul II had much to say about the environment and human responsibility for good stewardship of the creation. Here are a few quotes: "When man turns his back on the Creator's plan, he provokes a disorder which has inevitable repercussions on the rest of the created order. If man is not at peace …
Continue reading Creation care quotes from Pope John Paul II
From T.S. Eliot's essay, "The Idea of a Christian Society": A wrong attitude toward nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude toward God. Grace and Peace
From Yahoo News: Polar bears destroy BBC documentary cameras.
News of surprising biochemistry: Thriving on Arsenic (NASA Astrobiology Magazine) NASA microbiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon has discovered bacteria that apparently can use arsenic in its DNA in place of phosphorus. Most biochemistry can be done with six elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur (CHONPS). Smaller amounts of a variety of other elements are also …
From Yahoo! News/AP -- One scientist's hobby: recreating the ice age CHERSKY, Russia – Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer. …
"There is nothing that has been created without some reason, even if human nature is incapable of knowing precisely the reason for them all." -- St. John Chrysostom (ca. 354-407), Homilies on Genesis
Francis Schaeffer, in Pollution and the Death of Man, wrote that "we should treat each thing with integrity because it is the way God has made it" (chapter 4, p. 54). He went on to write about trees: "The tree in the field is to be treated with respect. It is not to be romanticized... …
Why should Christians be interested in the health of the environment? Is it only for some pragmatic reason, such as "clean air is good for us" or is there a Biblical support for stewardship of the environment? Many believers are put off by the new age-iness of some "tree huggers;" is this sufficient reason to …
I was reading sections out of Principles of Conservation Biology (Meffe et al., I have the 2nd edition) tonight just for fun*. The first two chapters lay a philosophical foundation for conservation biology, exploring various perspectives on environmental ethics and biodiversity. In chapter 1---What is Conservation Biology?---the authors discuss the philosophical movements that have led …
Continue reading Environmental philosophies – some preliminary thoughts
GeoChristian 