Introduction:

If you believe the science and scientists who gave you modern conveniences, including smartphones and microwave ovens, then you need to believe that climate change is real, near immediate, as in getting to carbon neutral in 30 years or so, and dire in its consequences if we don't. The same scientists and the same science that gave us those modern tech tools, are saying that climate change is real and must be dealt with sooner rather than later. That is the core message that I received from today's guest, Alexander Slocum, Walter M. May and A Hazel May Professor of Mechanical engineering at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That is the subject of today's episode.

Continuing:

Today's blog is not a transcript of the call, but it contains the same facts and arguments written by Dr. Slocum.

"My goal:  I wish I could get deeply faithful Christians (especially  evangelicals) to read, think, pray… and I think they would see the light and push this forward…

Climate change, far left screams we are doomed, give up everything, far right howls God will save us, so what is a citizen to do?

Many believe human’s ability to look at the world around them and choose their path originates from the story of Adam and Eve.  This raises the question if “God” could predict everything in advance, why was the snake allowed in the tree? Judging by history, humans have always been free to choose their own path, and it is by this that they will be judged, as evidenced by society’s laws and their enforcement.  Indeed, societies formed and spread as Humans exercised dominion over the earth by means of their brains and opposable thumbs; however, as is now apparent, humans have flourished at the expense of the natural world of which many seem to forget they are also a part.

As we came from Nature, we are thus part of it; and just as if we do not take of ourselves we wither, so it shall be with our environment and hence ourselves.  Nature itself actually could care less, for even after the great asteroid ended the reign of the dinosaurs and most life, Nature bounced back J.  Balance is needed, but how is it best achieved?

God having created everything also knows about science and engineering (the internet could not exist without science).  And science and engineering are run by the Natural Laws that God also created (and scientists and engineers discover and use).  Laws such as discovered by Einstein and a host of other brilliant people that have given us the miraculous civilization in which we live.  Chief among these laws is the 2nd law of thermodynamics which states entropy always increases, and thus perpetual motion is impossible.  This law thus means in order for something to happen, there must be a source of energy; and in our universe there is one fundamental source of energy from which all others evolve. That source is when two atoms of the simplest element, hydrogen, fuse to form a new atom, helium, that has a slightly lower mass than that of the two hydrogen atoms individually.  What happened to the little bit of mass lost?  It was turned into pure energy: “light” with all its brightness, warmth, and glory to spread out in all directions.  This is E=mc2: energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

People from every religion read by light, talk on cell phones, access the internet.  Many travel weekly by car to visit places of worship to learn more about God’s words and some travel by air now and then to visit Holy places.  And all of these modern marvels that make possible the spreading of God’s words and laws are made possible by the discovery and understanding of God’s Natural Laws.

Scientists and engineers have not only discovered many of God’s Natural Laws, they have learned that they can put them in a form that needs no discussion with God...