Casting Down Imaginings: Is Global Warming a Man-made Phenomenon?

The good scientists over at ICR have published an eye-opening article about the relationship between global warming and greenhouse gases, that turns the standard explanation on it's head.

Many climatologists, including Dr. Larry Vardiman, disagree about the role of CO2 in this respect. They have found that the observed increase in CO2 (whether produced by human activity or not) is not causing global warming, but is perhaps caused by it!4 Dr. Vardiman was featured in a video presentation in which he referenced a graph showing that the fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 follow after corresponding fluctuations in atmospheric temperature.

In addition, “the detailed temperature record since 1850 shows a temperature decline between 1940 and 1970 [a time when massive amounts of industrial CO2 were entering the atmosphere], which flies in the face of the explanation that a continuous exponential increase in carbon dioxide causes global warming.”4 Dr. Vardiman has also demonstrated the remarkably close overlaps of temperature to sunspots, indicating that solar cycles are more likely the cause of global warming.

Bet you haven't heard that in the media. It reminds me of Earl Nightingale's advice, "If you want to be successful in life, simply watch what most people would do in a given situation, and then do the total opposite--nine times out of ten, you'll receive greater rewards." In this case, listen to what most scientists say about global warming, then believe the opposite. Not, perhaps, as good a rule of thumb as Nightingale's advice, but eerily appropriate in this instance.

Since I have never blogged about ICR before, I'll just take a moment to introduce them. The Institute for Creation Research is a Creation Science ministry that conducts scholarly scientific investigations and hosts a Graduate School. Their mission is to equip "believers with evidence of the Bible's accuracy and authority through scientific research, educational programs, and media presentations, all conducted within a thoroughly biblical framework." They use good science to uphold the straight forward teaching of God's word, and fulfill Paul's commission in 2Cor 10:5:

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God

Keep an eye open for shared articles from ICR in the right sidebar.

A.Word.A.Day Keeps the Boredom Away

Since I'm already on a roll today of recommending other websites, I'd like to commend to you A.Word.A.Day. A.W.A.D. is the creation of Anu Garg and has been around for ages (in Internet years). In fact, I originally subscribed to their mailing list back around 1995! Thankfully the list has matured along with the Net, and Anu is now broadcasting in RSS as well as email. That's where I learned the funny sounding, but absolutely appropriate for conversation word fard.

Each week A.W.A.D. sends out a group of oddball, obscure, or highbrow words on a particular theme. Many of them are not really made for normal, day-to-day conversation, unless your friends are all linguaphiles, though periodically, he features series of words intended for daily discussions. But, they're all bona fide words from the English dictionary that might just help you work through some wordy prose and definitely will stretch your brain.

Though I do not agree with Anu's worldview (which he shares in drips & drabs in his introductory comments each week, and via the attached quotations), I applaud his dedication to this project over the last fourteen-plus years. If you're on the hunt for quick ways to increase your brain power, give A.W.A.D. a try.

Just Why Would You Believe That?

In the sidebar, you'll see I shared a post from the STR blog called Facts vs. Beliefs, which refers to this article from National Review. The NRO article very succinctly summarizes a problem I often run into while attempting to debate people about matters of faith. In short, the skeptic will often resort to blatantly disregarding my arguments from science, logic, or inference, and dogmatically asserting that my Christian beliefs are taken on blind-faith, while his Naturalistic beliefs are based on solid facts of science.

For a good example of this, please refer to the last response to me from Tom Clark in his Naturalism vs. Nihilism thread. I decided not to continue the conversation because he seemed unable to address any of my arguments, but just kept playing the Science vs. Faith card. In fact, he was almost malicious the way he twisted my words in order to make it look like I base my Christian faith on science rather than using science to show that Christian faith is not blind.

I'm learning how to handle this sort of belligerence in a face-to-face conversation (look for a post in the future re: Tactics in Defending the Faith), but online, it's much more difficult due to the nature of the medium. You just can't put someone on the spot and demand that they address your arguments based on their merits, rather than the pre-supposed lack-of-validity of the thing you're arguing for.

It would be refreshing to have a conversation with a skeptic in which he actually considered the validity of my arguments based on their merit of lack thereof.

A good quote is like a finely cut diamond, incredibly compact yet endlessly fascinating.

Dr. Mardy Grothe has done it again. He has recently released a new book called I Never Metahpor I Didn't Like. As with his other three books, Dr. Mardy explores a specific niche of wordplay - in this case, analogies, metaphors, and similes - through poignant and pithy quotations taken from some of the world's greatest wordsmiths.

I first heard of Dr. Mardy around ten years ago when he released his first book, Never Let A Fool Kiss You, or a Kiss Fool You. I immediately fell in love with chiasmus as a rhetorical device and jumped into Dr. Mardy's competition with both feet. In our correspondence, I found Dr. Mardy to be warm, friendly, and receptive then, and I'm delighted to say he was just the same when I recently emailed him.

Though I haven't yet, I look forward to reading I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like. However, based on his past writings, I will commend it to adults with a love of language and wordplay. Adults, please consider carefully before allowing your children read it, however. As a secular writer, Dr. Mardy does not exclude quotes of a sensual and/or sexual nature; expect them to be mostly confined to the sex section (Chapter 10) with a few sprinkled throughout other categories.

Dr. Mardy, via A.Word.A.Day