We Are Not The Gods of Climate, or Of Anything Else, For That Matter

I had a business lunch today, and after we talked about, well, business, and the plates were cleared, our conversation took a turn.

Everyone’s heard by now about the multi-trillions of dollars Democratic presidential candidates are promising to spend in pursuit of “saving the Earth” or “fighting climate change”. I don’t know the party affiliations of anyone at that table, but I can tell you every one of them was stunned at the audacity of it all.

Imagine what just a fraction of that money could do to cure cancer, or solve the diabolical mystery of dementia?

You know, it’s not the money. I mean, the amounts are cartoonish, and would be ruinous if ever confiscated for this or any purpose. But the money is not the point.

These politicians are on an ego trip in which they are gods. Man is not part of nature, they seem to say, but is a threat to or enemy of nature.

Christians believe God created man in the course of, and as the crowning achievement of, creating our planet. By our lights, we are part of nature, like birds, bugs and trees, unique but part of it. Meant to live and thrive in nature. Adam and Eve started life in a garden, literally and figuratively!

To swallow the candidates’ vision, you have to believe that mankind is a scourge of nature. Its enemy.  And that they, the politicians, are very, very, very special humans with god-like virtue and integrity, to whom we can entrust the salvation of the planet.

Talk about your messianic complex!

I remember once hearing a story of a boy flying a kite. It was a very foggy day. You couldn’t see the tops of trees or the roofs of  tall buildings. There he stood with a spool of string in his hand. Someone asked him what he was doing. “Flying my kite,” was his response.

“But you can’t see it,” the passerby said. “How do you know?”

“I can feel the tug of it,” said the boy.

That’s what having faith in God is like. You feel the tug of him in your heart, and you believe in the unseen end of the string.

I don’t believe in politicians, or any human beings that way.

No matter what they promise.