Rev. Michael Dowd brings a progressive Christian spin to apocalyptic environmentalism.

photo by: Skeptiko

On this episode of Skeptiko:

Alex Tsakiris: [00:00:02] If you’re talking about climate change and you’re talking about doing something about it.

Michael Dowd: [00:00:09] No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t talk about doing something about it Alex, I talk about doing something in your own heart to prepare for what’s inevitable.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:00:18] I’m just saying, if we buy into what you’re saying, isn’t that the inevitable future. It’s not 20 people getting together and deciding they’re going to live a different way, that isn’t going to be the future.

Michael Dowd: [00:00:31] You’re wasting time by talking about something I don’t give a shit about. I don’t care about the climate sciences hoax, I don’t care about where some scientists were, I don’t care about that.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:00:43] That’s the vibe I got from you from the beginning Michael, and I get from so many people, the death cult environmentalists, they don’t want to waste their time listening to the other side of it.

Michael Dowd: [00:00:53] In my world, there’s not another side.

Alex Tsakiris: [00:00:58] You’re still calling yourself a Christian.

Michael Dowd: [00:00:59] I’m an evolutionary Christian, I’m a Christian…

Alex Tsakiris: [00:01:02] You’re a Christian, you haven’t broken free from it.

Michael Dowd: [00:01:11] I am a Christian naturalist, I have no supernatural beliefs or other worldly beliefs at all, zip, nada, not one. I’m a Christian naturalist. So if you’re interpreting…

Alex Tsakiris: [00:01:21] You have no supernatural beliefs, when you talk about your relationship with Jesus, wasn’t that a supernatural relationship?

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Alex Tsakiris: [00:01:38] Welcome to Skeptiko where we explore controversial science and spirituality with leading researchers, thinkers and their critics. I’m your host Alex Tsakiris, and as a lot of you know, I’m a big fan of the Skeptiko Forum. I love it because you all are so damn smart, I’m always learning stuff from you guys. Take, for example, today’s topic global warming or as a lot of people like to say, climate change. This is a topic that’s been thoroughly hashed out on the Skeptiko Forum, really from all sides, and In a lot of ways I’m super grateful for that because it’s such a great Skeptiko topic, I mean it checks all the boxes. There is the science angle, I mean, what do we really know about climate? What do we know about these climate models, are they reliable scientifically? Can we trust the scientists and who is qualified to speak on climate science? These are all great questions, the kind of stuff that we love to dig into on Skeptiko.

But there are other angles to this topic that I think are just so fascinating, again, if we kind of broaden the lens. There’s the political, dare I say conspiratorial aspect of climate, and we certainly get into a lot of that stuff on this show, and I think we can handle it on this topic as well. I mean, what would it mean,