This brilliant and timely post was found at the website of Answers in Genesis (AIG), the creationist ministry of Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo) — the ayatollah of Appalachia, the world’s holiest man who knows more about religion and science than everyone else. It’s titled The End of the World Is Coming Soon! — Unless It Doesn’t!, and it was written by Hambo himself, so you know there’s nothing better. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis, and occasional Curmudgeonly interjections that look [like this]:
How long do we have left before doomsday scenarios begin to play out? Well, that depends on who you ask. A recent article [At Fox News!] highlighted several answers from prominent politicians and activists who argue we must take “immediate action” or crisis will arise by 2030; the “Climate Clock” says we must make drastic changes by 2029; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [The AOC creature!] said in 2019 that the world would end in twelve years; and still others say “the planet is dying” and we just have a few years left.
Egad, we’re doomed! Or are we? Hambo says:
But, as the article points out,
[Hambo quotes the article:] Advocates of combating climate change are increasingly invoking doomsday scenarios to pressure President Biden to take unilateral action to lower greenhouse gas emissions, despite a history of such claims falling flat. [emphasis added]
So who do we believe? Only Hambo can clear things up for us. He explains:
The “doom and gloom” claims of the past simply haven’t come to be. (I’m old enough to remember when global cooling was the perceived threat, and then it was global warming, and now it’s just climate change!) For example, Al Gore [Hee hee!] predicted the North Pole would likely be ice free for at least part of the summer by 2013. That has yet to happen.
This is so confusing! Hambo continues:
Really, this zealous climate activism is a false religion with false prophets. [Gasp!] These activists and scientists have no idea what is really happening or what is going to happen. And they ignore much of the history concerning climate data. That’s why the predictions are constantly wrong! They have the wrong starting point (man’s word) and the wrong history (evolution and millions of years), so they come to wrong conclusions about the future.
There’s nothing worse than a false religion. Fortunately, Hambo will guide us to The Truth™. Let’s read on:
This false religion is inconsistent because, from their secular perspective, when these people die, they’re done. [Egad!] That’s it; they won’t exist anymore. Eventually everyone dies and ceases to exist, and someday even the universe dies. So, life is ultimately purposeless and meaningless — so why even care?
What a horrible religion! Hambo explains:
Well, it’s ultimately all about them being their own god and worshipping themselves and the creation, rather than the Creator (see Romans chapter 1). It’s their religion as they attempt to make some supposed “purpose” for themselves in their (self-inflicted) meaningless existence. It’s what happens when people worship the creature rather than the Creator.
Truly, that’s a horrible religion! But fear not — in his final paragraph, Hambo clarifies everything:
But we don’t need to wail and bemoan the future. The only true Creator has promised, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).
Now you know everything you need to know. All that talk about climate change is for fools! Isn’t Hambo wonderful?
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
It’s endlessly frustrating that these idiots are willing — nay, eager — to destroy my children’s future just to protect their bad theology.
Ham can only think in terms of religion. Every opinion is a religious opinion. And he is, in addition, an extreme authoritarian. He can only see the world in terms of black and white, good and evil, goodies and baddies. So every thought that varies from his is the product of a religion opposed to his. And since it is opposed to his, and his is the only true religion, it must not only be false, but evil as well.
I don’t say that Ham himself is actually conscious of that syllogism. Probably it never really surfaces in his stream of conscious thought. But it’s how he thinks.
“True religion”, now. There is an entirely sensible and rational rule for assessing the worth and rightness of religion. Ham probably knows of it, somewhere in the stew of internal conflicts that constitutes his mind: “By their fruits, you shall know them”. What are the fruits of Ken Ham’s religion?
But I’ll leave that question to be answered by others.
Hambone once again shows he didn’t pay attention on high school science class. Global warming due to increasing CO2 has been known since the mid 1890s when Svante Arrhenius studied the absorption and emission of infrared light by CO2 and predicted that increasing CO2 in the atmosphere due to humans burning fuel in manufacturing processes would increase the temperature of the earth. I realize that’s not something Mesopotamian clerics would have known and written about, so Hambone probably is unaware of it.
“Well, it’s ultimately all about them being their own god and worshipping themselves and the creation, rather than the Creator (see Romans chapter 1).”
So tell the Creator to be a little more obvious instead of having the lame excuses. Nobody ever accused the Creator of having an IQ higher than a turnip.
It is my understanding that the global cooling threat was mainly a worry of journalists who were following a few of their colleagues who had indulged in excessive extrapolation. I don’t have a reference at hand but years ago I read a study by someone who surveyed the scientific literature and concluded that at the height of the cooling concern twice as many climatologists were concerned about global warming. Of course, adding energy into the system, with varying amounts at different seasons, latitudes, altitudes and so on, will of course alter the climate. But that seems to be beyond Ken’s ken.
For sure, there were scientists who did argue for an increase in temperature due to increase in certain gases in the atmosphere. There may have been other scientists at some time, who argued for a decrease, for some reason.
It is common for there be scientific dispute until the matter is settled. There are many famous disputes. Any of us can mention recent ones, where there is no point in mentioning the dispute, except in understanding how science comes to conclusions. Which it does.
The difference between Christianity failed predictions and the (allegedly) Al Gore failed prediction is that the ice caps not melting is not exactly a disappointment. It’s great that they didn’t melt. But the Christian failed predictions of billions of dead anguishing people is the most disappointing thing ever for Christianity, even though you would think it would be the most not disappointing thing ever. Disappointing is when you see Jonathan Frakes producing garbage conspiracy shows and you realize not all former Star Trek actors are hip cool like they are supposed to be.
@SC, You are late to the party. All the creationist organisations deny or minimise the significance of climate change, and have done so for years. The YECs have to do this because they regard the Ice Age(s) as recent, and because of what God said to Noah. The DI does this because it undermines their extreme version (which I know you do not share) of the Free Market Superstition. Membership is interlinked. The founder-president of the climate change denialist Cornwall Alliance (which is also YEC) is a regular correspondent for AiG, and our friend Jay W Richards of the DI is a board member of the Heartland Institute and an adviser to the Cornwall Alliance. The edition of the Bible annotated by John “Earth is a disposable planet https://theconversation.com/god-intended-it-as-a-disposable-planet-meet-the-us-pastor-preaching-climate-change-denial-147712 ” MacArthur is on sale at the Creation Museum souvenir shop.
I would be happy to learn of other examples of interaction and overlap between creationists and climate science deniers
“Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.”
You would think they would worship rainbows more than they do. Every time there is a rainbow, God is like “Hey, I remember my covenant. Rainbows are a great mnemonic.” Why don’t the Abrahamic religions worship rainbows more.
@Paul Braterman, one of the few conservative Christian organizations that’s given even weak-willed support to environment causes is Word Of Life, and it’s notable that their main offices are in an area of New York that was gravely affected by man-made pollution and reclaimed by human action. And not just “in an area,” but for some time Schroon Lake was unswimmable until the EPA, chiefly through local action, cleaned things up.
Since that time, though, their support has become more and more tepid.
What we do know about the future of the Earth: Due to Quantum Mechanical effects and the vis- a-vis theorem, the luminosity of the Sun is gradually increasing and is now about 25% more luminous than it was 4.5 billion years ago. In about one billion years from now the Sun will become so luminous that factors that cool the Earth will be overwhelmed and the oceans will boil off. At that point the Earth will still exist but not be inhabitable. In about 5 billion years the Sun will exhaust the Hydrogen in its core, causing the core to contract to the point that the helium in the core will start to fuse into carbon through the triple alpha reaction. This will the Sun to expand into a Red Giant and will engulf Mercury and Venus but there is still uncertainty as to whether or not it will reach the Earth. If it does reach the Earth, our planet will be vaporized and we might say that would be the end of the world. After the Red Giant phase the Sun will collapse into a Degenerate White Dwarf and if the Earth still exists it will be a frozen body. The Earth and Sun will then be in stable states except for the Sun gradually cooling over billions of years into a Degenerate Black Dwarf. The Universe will continue to expand but the frozen Earth will continue to orbit the frozen Sun into the infinite future.
As for how difficult life might become on Earth due to climate change in the coming decades, it astounds me to see how anyone living in Kentucky right now can not at least consider the possibility of anthropogenic climate change.
Phillip Johnson, the early proponent of Intelligent Design, was also a denier of HIV as a cause of AIDS.
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).”
I hate to nitpick but has Ken ever been to the desert? If the verse doesn’t apply to everywhere on Earth, and the verse is still technically true, then 99% of the world could be fried, with the 1% remainder still good, and the verse would still technically be true. When a turnip can do a better job than the Creator of making sense, then it’s time for the Creator to go back to English class.
So the expert in god-made floods totally skips sharing his analysis of the flooding in his own state. A great example of god smiting Kentucky … or climate change. Which is it, Hammy?
I have seen the seediest part of the earth and it’s definitely Kentucky!
Richard asks “Why don’t the Abrahamic religions worship rainbows more.”
Maybe they don’t want to drag YHWH/Yeshua/Allah out of the closet.
Besides, people may remember that according to Gilgamesh, the rainbow is Ishtar’s jewels
@Paul Braterman
I read through the Epic of Gilgamesh in the Oxford World’s Classics edition, but I didn’t see anything about the rainbow. There is a bit where Ishtar says, after the Flood, that “i shall never forget … my lapis lazuli necklace. I shall remember these times, and I shall never forget.”
@TomS, I do indeed equate Ishtar’s neclace with the rainbow, given the context. You don’t see it that way. I don’t think we can resolve this without more knowledge of how such a metaphor would have been seen at the time of writing
@Paul Braterman
I don’t claim any knowledge about Gilgamesh or Ishtar. Just curious.
@TomS,likewise. I find much to admire inGilgamesh, incuding even a plea for respect for sex workers
I wouldn’t worry about climate change either if I was sloshed all the time like Noah was. Dude could put away the brewskis that’s for sure.
Wikipedia has an article “Gilgamesh flood myth” which has a topic comparing “Atrahasis” with “Gilgamesh”. A also has a mention of the lapis lazuli necklace as a reminder of the events of the Flood.