I grew up in a small town in the Bible Belt of Eastern Kentucky and most of the older people in that town don’t have a clue what global warming is, or if they do, think that it is a government conspiracy or scare tactic that is being used to get people’s money or to control people’s lives. Now, understandably, these people grew up in a time when they didn’t have much reason to trust the government, but to disregard something as big, something as important, as global warming, without listening to all the facts and logic, seems, to me at least, a bit ignorant. I started up a conversation with an old man in town once and our talk went as follows, to the best of my memory:
Me: What do you think about this global warming everyone is talking about?
Him: Just a bunch of bullshit government talk. There ain’t such a thing.
Me: Well, I think that there is a lot of proof concerning some of the points behind it.
Him: Don’t let them fool you or pull you in.
Me: Huh?
Him: Don’t be fooled by their bullshit.
Me: [Remembering that he is a farmer, so he should know a lot about the seasons and such.] But what about how weird the seasons have been? It should have snowed by now, or at least been iced over a few times, right?
Him: Yup, should have snowed a foot or so by now. Why when I was a boy we got snowed in once or twice each winter. I guess that’s just God’s way of telling us our time on Earth is almost up.
As we have just come out of the warmest March in the history of the United States (http://www.usatoday.com/...), I know that this old man has noticed how different this March has been from many he has seen in the past. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that he seems to completely disregard scientific evidence for the fundamentalist religion that consumes his life.
Now, remembering this conversation makes me laugh and I think this wonderful old man is slightly ridiculous, saying that his God has something to do with an obviously man-made catastrophe, but our conversation represents the majority of the views on global warming in my hometown. For the most part, the older generations in town are strongly religious and this causes them to view the “global warming bullshit” as a sign from their God that the world is coming to an end.
As a non-religious person, I value evidence and often find it hard to “just have faith” as many members of my community have suggested I do. I tend to prefer proof—cold hard facts—about a topic before I allow myself to form an opinion about it. So when seeking to understand the logic behind thinking global warming is just God’s will toward mankind, I come up confused every time.
You see, based on these older people’s logic, God is basically killing us off by baking us alive or freezing us to death. Or maybe there will be another great flood, since the sea levels are rising. And since deforestation and degradation is happening all around us, Noah might not be able to find enough quality lumber to build a big old boat to put us all on this time. But never worry, never fear, for this is God’s plan. And what God says is always right, so why should we even be concerned with this bullshit theory, this global warming conspiracy?
If I ever make it back to my hometown, and see this old farmer again, I have a few things I would like to say to him: You can be religious and still think that science has some relevance, some importance. Although science and religion often seem to work against each other, it doesn’t have to be this way. I mean, growing up in a very religious household, I have learned to think about religion in a somewhat unbiased manner; if you believe in God, shouldn’t you want to take care of the Earth that He has so kindly provided for you? You need not devalue your religious views in order to agree that scientific evidence has a lot of weight. Why should religion become concerned with reasons global warming doesn’t exist? You can be religious and still think that taking action to alleviate the effects global warming has and is causing is a pertinent topic.
Regardless of your religion or your non-religion, the fact that global warming is happening all around us needs not be debated. It is happening, so let’s focus on ways that we can “fix the problem.” Let’s not disregard the issue; let’s not skirt around the topic. Putting all differences aside, we, the human race, can, and should be, working together to make this world a better and more comfortable place for us all to live in. Doesn’t this directly involve taking action? Shouldn’t we all be working to solve this burning issue, this government conspiracy, this bullshit theory of global warming?
And to you, readers of Dailykos, I would ask that you not judge this man and others living with this mindset too harshly. Think about the life these amazing people have lived. They are truly victims of inequality and this mindset is the result of that. They received limited educations. Most of the townspeople who are in their generation stopped going to school around the seventh or eighth grade. They were taught, all of their childhoods, that religion was the most important thing in life. They were conditioned to believe that God controlled every aspect of their lives. With this in mind, how can any of you fault them in their rigid beliefs?
Saying that “you can’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in their shoes” may be cliché, but in this case, is true. If you haven’t lived the farmer’s life, how can you fully understand? These people are valuable resources to my community. They have skill sets that I could never hope of having—they can tell what was last planted in a field just by what the soil tastes and smells like, for example—and these things can’t be learned from books. So while these viewpoints, these mindsets, are frustrating and challenging for me, I value their thoughts and I learn from them.