Re: CO2 - Plane vs Train

asdf wrote:
> I have seen it seriously argued that, since oil takes millions of
> years to form and the Earth is only around 6000 years old, God must
> have created the Earth with all this oil already there
I suppose that's a view...

> which means we must be supposed to use it.
.... but of course that's merely a conclusion of convenience. Why doesn't
the same logic mean that we should be drinking the sea dry as well?

> Furthermore, since the end of the world ("Rapture" etc) will be taking
> place soon, there is no need to conserve the environment.
I can't see that at all. The people you are talking about place an undue
emphasis on the words of Genesis, where (2:5, 2:15) human beings are
created to till the ground and keep it, not to destroy it. Moreover, the
"soon" you speak of is relative, not absolute. Fundamentalists know full
well that "no man knows the hour". Are you sure you're not talking about
a parody of their viewpoint, rather than the real thing?

> And of course, all this is on the authority of the Bible which is
> "inerrant" and any amount of evidence to the contrary must simply be
> wrong.
Well, yes, although the Bible doesn't itself say anywhere that it is
inerrant. That's a decision people make for themselves about how they
are going to read it. And IMV there are other far clever decisions they
could make about how to read it.

> There's no need to be so quick to leap onto the defensive - criticism
> of such viewpoints should not be taken as criticism of religion in
> general.
It appeared so to me. If newsgroup postings contained tone-of-voice
information, I would have more data with which to work.

> I agree with what you say about the dollar being the motivating factor
> behind policy, but reasoning like this allows bad things to be done,
> and supported, with a clear conscience.
But it's the laziest of reasoning and easily shown to be at fault. There
is a point at which those who use their religion as a reason for
everything serve only to bring that religion into disrepute by so doing.
That, I suppose is why people have come to half-expect the word
"Islamic" to be followed by the word "terrorist". Most followers of
Islam are no doubt just as frustrated by the efforts of their
fundamentalists as those of Christianity are by ours.

--
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p9632921.html
(40 088 at Crewe Locomotive Works scrap line, 1986)
.

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