There is no global warming. No really.

Recently, sixteen scientists (mostly from companies and institutions who derive huge income from the hydro-carbon industry) signed a letter in the Wall Street Journal that they see no evidence for man’s involvement in Global Warming. None.

Some went on to say; they see no sign of Global Warming (or climate change as I am told it is now called) at all.  None.

Placed apart and in opposition from those sixteen are literally thousands of scientists and engineers and technicians who can report to you otherwise through empirical data that the globe is heating. And some say at an alarming rate.  Sixteen versus thousands.  You do that math.

Against that backdrop I had a conversation not long ago with a family friend, who blurted out in mid -conversation, as if he had been holding this in for years, “There is no global warming.  It is all a conspiracy of the humanists.”

“Wow!” I said in astonishment, not realizing that the humanist movement had gotten into the fray.  “Where did you get this information, Jack?”

“Our pastor told us at Bible study last night.”

“Your pastor?”

“Yep.  He said that the liberals and the humanist were creating a movement to sell the world on global warming change.”

“And your pastor is a meteorologist or does he have a specialty in geophysics?”

“Nope, he just went to divinity school.”

“So, where does he get his information?” I wanted to know.

“Rush and the Bible.” He looked at me and in all sincerity followed this revelation with, “That’s all you need.”

My argument was over.  The Bible and Rush Limbaugh were the entire source of knowledge that this gentleman needed to make up his mind that Earth was in no trouble at all and that the real trouble lay in the media believing liberals and conservationists and meteorologists and scientists and humanists. “Al Gore started all the trouble,” he proclaimed.

Right. Al Gore is to blame.

Suddenly I knew I had no argument with this man. Not that he was right.  No.  Not by a long shot. But it his belief system (as it is with many people like him) that leads him to think that what comes out of talk radio, Fox News or the Bible is the end all in the world of science. Forget that the polar ice caps are shrinking or that National Geographic pictured this week from an areal shot, a huge chunk of a southern polar glacier starting to break off the shelf and slide into the ocean: a huge chunk- with a crack 18 miles long forged by changing temperatures in the ice. (Think of those sheets of ice that slide off your roof as spring thaws warm us after a frigid winter.) Forget that the leading scientist who staged the argument against global warming, and who took thousands of research dollars from the Koch Brothers to debunk the “myth” of global warming, changed his position by 180 degrees, when he studied all the scientific data about the warming trends. (For those of you a tad slow on math, 180 degrees is an about face.  He went in the opposite direction.)

But forget all that.  The Bible and Rush is all we need to know that there is no climate change going on.  Even with all the hot air Rush spews into the environment, nothing is changing.  Nothing.

And so I realized how treacherous this anti-scientific reasoning is in our country.  Anti-intellectualism has become a high art form. From the groups who claim to be the stalwarts of family values saying that gay parents will ruin families in America to the guys like Jack, who believe their pastor when he says that Rush and the Bible say it is just not so when it comes to climate change.

You can’t argue with these people.  They are lost.

But the real worry is that there is a huge population in our country starting to fall prey to this brand of pop reasoning. WWJD was popular when my kids were growing up.  Now it should be WDRS.  What Did Rush Say?

Is Rush a scientist?  Nope.  Does he have an advanced degree in meteorology or geosciences?  None. Does the Bible explain continental drift, heating oceans, or even where the dinosaurs went? Sorry– a bit vague on these and other scientific details.

Yet, people are going to listen to these sources as fact. Now, I have nothing against reading the bible.  In fact, I think you should.  Just don’t do it wearing wool and cotton at the same time because you can get killed for that.  (One of those strange quirks in the Holy Scriptures…and there are many.)  But you should read it and learn its lessons.  Love, forgiveness, and helping your fellow man.  Plus there’s a small section of the Bible dedicated to telling man that he is the steward of this Earth.  That means God left him here to take care of the place.  Not to choke it off with his noxious gasses and talk radio show hosts fumes.

But alas, those poor simple-minded fools who want to say there is no global warming and that it is a left-wing conspiracy, will continue to do so without studying the TRUE facts: the science.  Because they don’t need to.  They have Rush and the Bible.

And to that, I say God, help us.