#760 (2/4) "Galileo, Climate Change and an Embattled Religion"

NEWS ALERT! - "Islamists Murder 99 in Attack on Nigeria Village" - January 28, 2014; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/January/Islamists-Murder-99-in-Attack-on-Nigeria-Village/ - Islamic terrorists, using bombs and heavy guns, killed at least 99 people in an attack on a Christian village of Wada Chakawa in northeast Nigeria. Villagers say the attackers stormed a Roman Catholic Church during Sunday morning service.Spraying the congregation with bullets and setting off bombs, the terrorists killed dozens inside the church and held others hostage during a five-hour siege.They also burned down hundreds of homes. Officials say it's one of the highest death tolls in attacks by extremists. The militant Boko Horam has not taken credit for the attack, but it's been waging a war against the government in the north. PRAY FOR THE TERRORISTS TO BE REPELLED; FOR THE VILLAGERS AFFECTED TO KNOW GOD'S COMFORT AND PROVISION; 

SIGN NEW PETITION - (Jan. 27) American Pastor Saheed Abidini -  An Iranian leader has said that clemency for the pastor after almost 1 and 1/2 years being falsely imprisoned. Please sign this new petition at: http://beheardproject.com/

SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november

WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:

Prayer Alert! - Soci, Russia, Olympics > Let's be sure to be praying for God to move against all who would bring harm to the athletes and others. Pray that the security forces would be effective in rooting out any terrorist plans and preventing them from being carried out. Pray for the families of the athletes who must be very anxious for their loved ones being in harm's way. 

Oct. 23: "Christians Fleeing IRAQ Area Once Considered Safe," - CBNNews.com, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/October/Christians-Fleeing-Iraq-Area-Once-Considered-Safe/ PRAY that believers in Iraq will know God's protection and provision; that believers will know[ whether they are called to flee or remain and persevere; and that their persecutors  may come to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. - Stan] 

Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]  

Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"-  CBNNews.com,  Aug 14, 2013  http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/  - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.] Monday, 

November 04, 2013 - Saeed's Life in [Greater] Jeopardy After Prison Transfer - CBNNews.com, ; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Saeeds-Life-in-Jeopardy-after-Prison-Transfer/ IRAN - Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world 

PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\

- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him

- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ

- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans

- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release

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"Galileo, Climate Change and an Embattled Religion" - Dale Hurd, Jan. 7, 2014;
http://blogs.cbn.com/hurdontheweb/archive/2014/01/07/galileo-climate-change-and-an-embattled-religion.aspx  [NOTE: The following was supposed  to have been published earlier last month but for some reason it was not. It is posted here because it is still relevant. - Stan]


Far more interesting to me than the debate over man-made climate change is the way followers of this apocalyptic vision desperately cling to it in the face of scandals like Climategate and the actual climate data itself (the trusted data, not the stuff that is cooked and processed for political purposes and to attract funding).

Some of the climate faithful become absolutely apoplectic-white knuckle-frothing at the mouth in the face of criticism from the unbelieving. You’d think someone was defending their mother’s honor.This week Jon Stewart of the Daily Show used the F-word in barking that Fox Anchor Stuart Varney’s “opinion (that Climate Change is baloney) is not as valid as scientific fact!”  It’s weird.

Yes, CO2 does become trapped in the atmosphere and does hold in heat, although carbon dioxide is dwarfed in volume by the largest greenhouse gas, water vapor. (Never fear, scientists have devised a reason why modern man is responsible for more water vapor in the atmosphere, too--Seeing a pattern here?)

And, yes, the Earth has warmed in the past 100 years. Some scientists think the climate is still recovering from Little Ice Age in the 1600s to 1800s. And current temperatures today are not nearly as warm as they were in what is called the Medieval Warm Period (from 950 to 1250 A.D.), a time when no one drove a Hummer or ate at McDonalds, but the Earth was still very hot.

But the profound spiritual crisis for those who desperately need the climate change narrative to be true is the cold fact that the Earth stopped warming between 15 and 17 years ago. That means the climate change model that is the holy scripture for so much planned, global social engineering--environmentalism's global evangelization project--is fatally flawed.

The climate change establishment has countered that 15 to 17 years is not time enough for climate to disprove a climate model. And one finds that, ultimately, nothing can disprove climate change for the believing, which then takes it from the realm of science to religious dogma.

Has climate change become a religion for some? Of course. In Paris, French philosopher Pascal Bruckner told me it has all the marks of "a pagan religion." Bruckner has written The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse (Le fanatisme de l'Apocalypse).Although Bruckner supports environmentalism, he likens the climate change alarmism to a religious cult.

"Because it uses all the elements of traditional religion, especially the theme of the apocalypse," he said. "You have this culture of fear: 'You have sinned and now you have to be punished.'"

Climate skeptics are treated as religious heretics in need of a good public shaming or worse.When French scientist and politician Claude Allegre came out with the book, The Climate Deception (L'imposture Climatique), 400 French scientists signed a petition asking the government to denounce the book.Academic freedom, anyone? Belgian TV featured a program devoted to "exposing" so-called "climate criminals;" experts like Allegre who don't believe in global warming.

What would the great astronomer Galileo say about all this if he were alive? In 1633 Galileo was convicted of “grave suspicion of heresy” for "following the position of Copernicus (that the Earth revolves around the Sun), which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture.” Galileo had become a subversive. He was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. One gets the feeling that some climate change fanatics would love to put skeptics under house arrest, and take away their computers.


Galileo would also have something to say about another phenomenon happening today: the lack of sunspot activity. Beginning in 1611, Galileo began to document the lack of sunspots during what is called the Maunder Minimum. His drawings from that period still survive.And what came next in weather history? Little Ice Age.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]