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Memo Pad

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Senator: Climate Change Is Impossible, Because 'God's Still Up There'

March 8th, 2012 8:29 pm Henry Decker

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), author of the book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, is claiming that climate change is impossible because “God’s still up there.”

Inhofe made the claim during an appearance on “Crosstalk with Vic Eliason,” the radio program of Voice of Christian Youth America. Audio of Inhofe’s remarks is available at People For The American Way’s Right Wing Watch.

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  • Howz 1

    This points to how the adherence to faith in place of science is dangerous. The passage that Inhofe is quoting was written 500 BC according to religious scholars. They claim that Genesis was written to promote Yaweh above all the other gods as the true master of the universe. The acient Israelis were begining to decend back into worship of a many god belief system, and Genesis was written to counter that slide. The fact that this true believer dosen’t know this shows how ignorant he is about acient texts. None of the modern convienences that he uses including cell phones, computers, cars and planes were envisioned in the old and new testament. The people who wrote that thought the world was flat, didn’t know that there were people in Africa, Asia, and North or South America, let alone dinasours, whales bacteria or any of the natural world we know about today. To quote something he has little knowledge of is reclass and dangerous. He shows why religion has become banqrupt and gives us none of the tools we need to survive today. He should tell people in areas of repeated violent storms and record setting tornados that it’s a hoax. What amazes me is the really stupid people who elected him to represent them.

  • envscience55

    It comes as not surprise to me that Inhofe would espouse such rhetoric. I recall while I was a student at the U of Tulsa Inhofe put his hat into the ring for a senate spot in OK. Many of us were mortified of his opportunistic methodology since we were pre-med students and did not want to be equated with the ilks like him. It was hard for us to fathom a trained medical doctor espousing the Bible as his platform in OK, but once again we were reminded of where we were at geographically in the big picture instead of being at one of the top universities in the west. It is so amazing that this man would to this day denie climate change except for the fact he is party to the oil and gas demigods of OK and was so quick to remove water quality rights from the tribes in OK through a rider on a state bill. It just goes to show he does not care about living in a polluted world as long as the dollare continues to flow into the pockets of the oil and gas barons of OK not to mention fattening his war chest. It does bring shame to me that I ever had anything to do with that state except for the fact my family has been there since 1832 due to a federal mandate to bring us there. OK is one of the most ignorant states in the Union where people are still living 75 years in the past. It makes me wonder what is in the water that causes essentially good people to behave like they do willing to pollute their lands when the average citizens gain nothing from the actions of people like Inhofe and his supporters the oil and gas industry. I will say I did receive a top shelf education at Tulsa unsurpassed by any higher education system in America. It is hard to believe ther is such a contrast between OK and its higher education system.

  • malakia16

    I say hooray for Pat Robertson in his opinion that the penalties for possession of Marijuana are too harsh. I wonder if he realizes that minimum mandatory sentencing for such offenses were initiated by politicians of the ‘right-leaning’ persuasion, who for the past 30 years have been demonizing those who make mistakes and throwing them in prisons with no view toward ‘rehabilitation’ what-so-ever. I can only think he must have had some personal experience with this issue.
    Many may not realize that the push by the right to build private for-profit prisons, required there be prisoners to populate them…their solution? Make laws that put people there…harsh sentencing for non-violent crime is an effort to do just that. We now know if those convicted of non-violent crimes were released from our prisons…there would be no over-crowding…therefore no need to build more, nor any for-profit prisons. Think about this when you hear Republicans talk about privatizing Medicare, or schools, or continuing to fight against President Obama’s vision of healthcare. If there is a way to use or make money from these social institutions, those on the right are all for it, no matter what the individual consequence.

  • JohnR in NC

    Back in the good old days when the Church was the Government, the Roman Inquisition tried Galileo for claiming that the Sun revolved around the Earth instead of vice versa. He was declared a heretic, forced to recant and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. We know the dangers of theocratic regimes – human history is full of examples, not the least of which include the Taliban and radical Islam. Our constitution allows for freedom of speech so Sen. Inhofe can write and say whatever he wishes. However, when our leaders try to govern from a basis of faith instead of evidence (and service to ALL of us) then the voices of reason need to make themselves heard. Climate change is a fact in the geological record. Ice caps & glaciers have grown and receded repeatedly for hundreds of thousands of years. Can human activity impact those cycles? The question has been studied for the better part of 30 years and the answer is “Yes, we can!”. Unfortunately, guys like this get elected and start influencing not only policy, but how the data gets collected to direct policy. Inhofe and his conservative colleagues have overseen the dismantling of our space program to the extent that we no longer have our own satellites in the proper locations around the poles to allow us to collect the data needed to track and make decisions about climate change. Let’s not go back to the Dark Ages and rely solely on God to make decisions about fixing problems [that we have created for ourselves]. Let’s use the brains that we’ve been given and vote for intelligence, objectivity, and the willingness to act for the greatest good; not just a narrow, single-minded agenda.

  • dawnowens

    The world will not become a truly civilized place until all the religious books are burned and an entire generation goes by and this idiocy is forgotten or just laughed at. This man is not fit for any kind of office. When are the people of Oklahoma going to come to their senses? Either that, or they need to renounce all the technology they are currently using. Oklahoma, how do you explain tornadoes? By saying if one misses you, it’s a miracle?

  • ScewyLouie

    It makes me very nervous to see that we have congressmen who can’t distinguish between science and ancient passages lifted out of context from a very old religious text the history of which he probably knows little. The Bible is not a scientific reference book; neither is a science text the same as the Bible. If there is one thing I’ve learned in life, its that when confronted with reality one must recognize it and react rationally based on fact if one wants to survive. To read of a United States congressman who confuses religion with science, which is based on hard data and cogent reasoning, is horrifying.

  • itsadogslife

    I sit before my screen trying to write, but find myself speechless in the face of such ignorance and hypocrisy. There are no words to get past the walls that would give a person the courage to say such things. Their “faith” is their way to hide from reality, their inherent cruelty and ignorance. They will never hear what others have to say or can prove. Their blind faith puts people around them health and wellbeing at risk, but they could care less – because their God will protect them. The only power we have against people like this is our vote. So please, I beg you who agree with me to vote and to adopt one other person who you know would hate to live in a world ruled by the radical right, who you think, may not vote and nag them until they do.

  • lou krouse

    While I wholehearted agree with Henry Decker, I was disappointed at the lack of proofreading this article received. Too many typos and misspelled words detract from the article’s veracity. Some get put off by this and it is easily corrected.
    Thanks

  • bostnbille

    It may (MAY) be necessary to chronicle every elected official’s public statements, but somehow we must break the habit of treating every pol’s outrageous claim that is “backed” by the Bible as if the speaker (or anyone else in the civilized world) actually meant to discuss the manifest content. Educated people must take responsibility for helping everyone discern the difference between a sermon being preached for the guidance of the faithful and a litmus test being used to divert our critical attention away from the evidence that the true conservative agenda has become contaminated by sectarian interests that are anything but religious. The framers of the Constitution did not include any religious references. Senator Inhofe is welcome to speak with authority within his own church, but I did not invite him into my home or ask for his guidance. I am highly offended by his rudeness.

  • roachpruf

    i stopped believing in god when i was in my teens. i stopped going to church and hanging with fellow church goers because of the hypocrisy of so called believers. when i look back i am glad i took the intellectuals view point on religion. religion is and has been a primitive illusion .the wars and the shedding of blood in the name of god is mind boggling.the world we live in is ruled by the nonsensical misgivings of religion. i believe in UFOs . i believe in extraterrestrial genetic experimentation with early humans.mainly within the Essene Jewish brotherhood. can this be the reason the Jews teach that they are the chosen people of god? what if some of the stories in the bible are tales of alien beings interacting with humans.MEDITATE ON THIS POSSIBILITY.

  • Marcella

    I am Catholic and find great joy in my faith. I also recognize that the Bible was written by many individuals over a period of years and tells about the faith experience of a group of people. Whatever support for biblical history provided by the Discovery, History and other channels, I have never viewed the Bible as a historical document that is literally true. As a child, I listened to my mother tell stories of her friendships and interactions as I child. I understood that she was teaching me about relationships, and fairness, and truth-telling and many other important messages. Her objective was teaching me very important lessons about living in my time and place, not to provide me with historical data and detail. I also look to the Bible about learning to live in a particular society within the context of time and others. My reading of the Bible clearly demonstrates that time and context change or clarify the message, but there is certainly not historical consistency such that one could do a one-to-to one match of Biblical teaching. The Source by Michenor
    I also attended a Catholic high school and learned about evolution in science classes. There was no

  • Marcella

    Oops, I was suggesting The Source by James Michener as a means of watching beliefs develop in the context of a people over time.

    I attended Catholic high school and was taught evolution. Not creationism and other versions of creation that happened only recently despite the human record and geological evidence to the contrary. We Catholics believe many things that don’t bear rational scrutiny. But creation through evolution is well-established. More particularly, I believe that God could have used an evolutionary process to create==Belief does not mean that you support magic such as poof Adam, poof snakes, poof oceans, poof…Besides, anyone who has ever bred dogs and cats and watched characteristics change over time are running their own evolutionary line.

    I have free will to make choices like decisions about my health care and millions of other things. I can’t imagine being constrained by a belief system that denies climate change in the face of so much evidence. People certainly have been modifying their environments, people, pets, erosion of soil and coasts, and on and on for ages.

  • RobertRoettenbacher

    I listen to people say they are good christians and i once said the very same thing; I came to the truth after GW Bush opened my eyes. religion is used by sad people when they want to pull the wool over your eyes. Bush was a drug addict, alcoholic, womanizer but he said he was born again so he was clean and fit to be the leader of our country. He was neither; in texas if a black man in jail said that he found jesus and was safe to get out of jail they would poo poo him and say we are not fooled by your BS. Bush says the same thing and next thing you know he is the president. The catholics rape and molest little boys and if you went by the bible the preist should have had millstones tied around their necks and tossed into the sea but they covered it up for the good of the church. If you look back in history at the atrocities done in the name of religion you find the real god and should run as fast as you can for the nearest exit. I did and I am now free. The phrases I hear that scare me the most are: I am a good christian, Hi, I am from the church of…, and This is what it says in the bible. I believe if there is money involved it is either controlled by religion or the GOP and neither want what is best for the people. I don’t believe in UFOs and et either.

  • Obozo Must Go

    Those of you on here criticize religion while simultaneously espousing faith in environmentalism like it’s a religion. I have not read Inhof’s book, but I understand it’s about the fact that the data that has been used to support global warming theories has been completely cooked by the scientists at East Anglia U. Their own emails prove this fact. Read them. You wont like it, but its true. The data used to create the famous “hockey stick” chart was also manufactured. While those of us out here who are sane enough to understand that there is no proof of man-made global warming, but there is no proof there is not man-made global warming either. It’s just inconclusive. The problem most of have with it is that it is a political football used predominantly by leftist nutjobs as a means of control over people, private property, commerce, and resources. It’s a leftist political tool to redistribute wealth based upon how they see fit. If tomorrow they learned that the earth could possibly reverse it’s rotation and spin the other way, if there was a 1 in a million shot this crazy event could occur, rest assured that some leftist nutjob politician would concoct yet more strategies to stick their grimey hands in my pocket and come up with more ways to tell me how I must live my life. Now that is the most true statement on this thread! Have a nice day!

  • Clark_Kent

    Has Bozo seen the supposed emails from East Anglia U? Has anyone even heard of East Anglia U? Here is a fact that right-wing kooks can not refute: Ice core samples taken in Greenland and other frigid places show that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere began rising with the industrial revolution and have accelerated sharply in the past 60 years. They are higher now than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years. Bozo can go take his own samples and see for himself. Heat is the engine of climate. There isn’t much weather on Mars, and the violent storms and fires the world has been experiencing in recent years is no accident.

  • concernedusa7

    NO SUCH THING AS CLIMATE CHANGE, EXCEPT IT CONFRONTS US IN SO MENY VISIBLE, CONNECTED WAYS. PLEASE DO NOT GET ME WRONG, I HAVE ENJOYED THE PRIVILIDGE OF KNOWING MANY OKLAHOMAN’S AND FOUND THEM TO BE SUPERB DOWN TO EARTH FOLKS, BUT, I CAN ALSO RELATE THAT I MET A FEW THAT DID NOT RELATE TO THE SAME UNIVERSE I RESIDE IN. UNFORTUNATELY A COUPLE OF THOSE WERE ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFICE.

  • OkieGal

    As a native Oklahoman, I assure you that many of us are incredibly embarrassed by Jim Inhofe. Those of us who are intelligent Christians are embarrassed by his lack of knowledge of Biblical history and his fundamentalism. As for the comment that the science for global warming was “disproved” by one instance of poorly written emails, that is equally nonsensical. Basically, Inhofe is an oil man, and as such, doesn’t want any restrictions on oil production. Correction please, our other “illustrious” senator, Tom Coburn, is the physician and we aren’t too proud of him either, sometimes.

  • pabrown

    They can pretend there isn’t climate change going on, but he can also explain why multinationals are setting up so called ‘research’ centers in the Antarctica. Might they be waiting for the millions of years of ice to melt so they can access the resources under that ice? And they’re also lining up making plans to use the newly opened Northwest Passage that will be open to transport ships in the next few decades.

    The melting has been recorded and filmed. You can deny someone’s words, but go there and see for yourself or watch films and it’s all too clear. The northern regions ARE melting. Frankly, whether that’s due to human activity or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s happening and nothing Inhofe’s God does is going to change that. We might want to figure out how we’re going to handle the rising water levels now instead of waiting for it to fill the streets of Washington and New York City.

  • leckroth

    There were so many misspellings in this article that I stopped trying to keep track of them.
    Don’t you do spell checks?

  • metrognome

    Obozomustgo returns to let us all know how stupid and ridiculous we all are. Obozo, not to be confused with Obama, explains to us how global warming has been disproved through e-mails between scientists, proving that global warming was all cooked up. Apparently he doesn’t know that the e-mails themselves were largely disavowed and disapproved. But then he freely admits he doesn’t bother read much.