It’s a matter of faith

To the Editor:

In the world around us everything we say or do falls into one of the following categories: true, untrue and faith. The problem starts when we confuse any one of those with the other.

Religion is a matter of faith. One of the best questions ever asked: Prove God exists. The only answer that one can give: Prove he doesn’t. In other words, it’s a matter of faith.

Gravity exists. True. We can watch an acorn fall from a tree.

Man walks on all fours. Untrue. We can watch a man walk on two legs – most of the time.

Needless to say the most commonly confused are true and untrue, but by far the most destructive is faith and truth.

What if you decide against all available evidence that you’re right even when the majority opinion is opposed? You’re unable to prove your hypothesis, unwilling to hear other ideas and you still believe. It must be faith, or you could just be wrong. But let’s go with faith, I’m sure you’re too smart to be wrong.

Atheism used to be the lack of faith, but now it’s become a religion in and of itself. Every day people go to court to fight over something they don’t believe in?

I don’t believe in tea, therefore I’m going to court to stop its import. Now that makes as much sense as this mindless effort to remove religion and its symbols from public view because I’m an atheist and afraid to look at it for fear I’m going to be magically transformed from a non-believer to a believer status. It’s a matter of faith trumping truth.

Perhaps a better example might be global cooling – I’m sorry, global warming. Rats! I mean climate change. Got it.

This has become a faith-based idea that could be transformed to true if they (the Gore-ites) would simply accept that climate has been and always will be changing.

Global cooling (caused by human activity) was proven wrong in the late ‘70s when the climate began to warm (caused by human activity).

For the last 10-plus years the climate has been cooling again (caused by human activity) and in another decade or so we can go after the grant money to prove that the planet and mankind as a whole are doomed (caused by human activity)!

I’d like to cite a couple of facts, not that they will change the mind of a true believer because they have faith and all I have are facts.

First, the oceans have been cooling which is contrary to the Gore-ites climate model predictions. The 3,300 ocean buoys that keep track of water temperature around the globe indicate it’s been dropping the last decade. National Snow and Ice Data Center, NASA and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System also show that the overall trend of ocean temperatures since 2002 is one of cooling in spite of a recent short lived El Nino warming event. How can that be? Got it – NASA, etc. aren’t credible.

Second, sea ice is at the same level it was 30 years ago (remember 1975 new Ice Age) according to NASA and NSIDC. While it is true Arctic sea ice volumes have been overall less today than the average of the last 30 years, the ice there has been growing the past several years and, as of mid September 2009, there was 24 percent more ice than just two years earlier, which is over 1 million square kilometers of new ice in just two years.

This year, however, the summer melts have been above average and Arctic sea ice has been in a downward trend.

At the other end of the world, 2010 Antarctic ice extent was the third largest ever recorded. Average snowfall in Antarctica was the most ever recorded.

It needs to be noted that warming trends of this type have happened several times in the past, long before man arrived on the scene. It’s called climate change and has been ongoing for millions of years. And, let’s hope, for millions more.

Third, the trend for violent tornadoes is in decline. Hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. are less numerous and powerful than decades ago. Global hurricane, typhoon, and cyclone activity are nearing 50 year lows according to Florida State University. Deaths from severe weather events are in decline.

Perhaps you remember when all credible climatologists/global warming advocates told us Katrina was just the beginning of the monster storms that were our future. We have had no such event since. How can that be? Got it – FSU, etc. isn’t credible.

Fourth, after a tourist took a great photo of a bear riding a bit of ice, all we have heard from our tree hugging friends is polar bears are dying out because – global warming, of course.

However, there are more polar bears today than ever recorded, an increase of 300 percent.  I’m sure the guy counting the bears isn’t credible.

Now I could go on and on, but the point is there is no discussion where faith is concerned. That is, after all, a matter of personal conviction.

But it is a mistake to take debatable issues off the table because we have already made up our minds and don’t wish to be confused with the facts.

A closed mind is the first sign of the most debilitating disease known to man –  ignorance.
I’d like to thank Paul Kornberger (Letters to the Editor, West Newsmagazine, Sept. 5) for inspiring me to sit down and write this. He alone has proven that with eloquence and threats of disaster we need no facts, only flowery rhetoric spoken from on high to those of us who are too uninformed or stupid to question “The consensus of opinion of credible climate scientists.” By the way, who appointed them credible anyway?

Rick and Ann Standal

Ballwin