How Christians can use Climategate to witness

Climategate is the worst scandal of our generation. Rather than Science being a shining beacon pursuing truth amidst credible data, it reveals instead that a hopelessly compromised scientific establishment deluded the world. Scientists who are held in positions of trust to pursue truth, have instead misused their position to conceal truth, and at the expense of nations and their own consciences.

The issues of Climategate, of widespread manipulated information, hidden data, and corrupted peer-review process transcend individual personal ambition and show how deep the corruption can go when arrogant men collude for craven purposes. Climategate is emblematic of end time verses such as the one in 2 Timothy 3:1-4, or James 5:1-4 and thus, can be used by Christians as a marker of just where we are in the end of days. But how does this scandal affect the non-believer? How can we Christians use this information to point to God and reveal His works to a seeking heart?

God is wonderful and has initiated  many ways to penetrate the heart of His lost children. One way the LORD has also shown Himself in His world, is through science. Romans 1:20 says: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Any sensitive heart that has seen a delicate flower bloom, or wondered after the mystery of a colorful sunset, the everlasting sweep of tides, or a butterfly's wing, has pondered His invisible attributes.

Yet satan has done a good job of separating us from God's expression through science and has deluded many into thinking that science IS God. Salim Mansur phrased it well in his article "Worshipping at church of climate 'science'" saying, "Science without a healthy dose of skepticism and which isn't open to hard questioning becomes ideology. An ideology is a closed system that distorts or excludes empirical data to serve its dogma." Today, scientists have become the final word and their theories have become gospel. Yet, over and over we see that science can be wrong. Ida was hailed as the missing link in evolutionary theory, yet it's not even a close relative. Do we have ten planets in our solar system? Or only 8? Did we evolve from tree-dwelling apes? Or ground dwellers? What killed the dinosaurs?  Global warming! No, a comet!

Man's pursuit of the truth outside of the bible is bound to be flawed because man is flawed, having a sinful mind and a dark heart. In many instances, science has failed, but God has never failed. If there is good to come out of Climategate, it is that it is OK to question science, even essential. In this topsy-turvy world, we have seen people question God and accept science as gospel, when it really should be the other way around. "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20).

In 2005, President George Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Climate Protocols, the only one of 184 nations to refuse. Citing the expense, Bush also offered another reason why he refused to sign the protocol: he said he didn't trust the science behind it. As a result, the "U.S. is Hammered at Global-Warming Conference." President Bush was called a "flat-earther" and worse. At the time, there seemed to be almost unanimous, world-wide consent that man's impact on the world was causing temperatures to rise. Now, we find out the supposed consensus was fraudulent, and that global warming enthusiasts colluded to prevent clean data from emerging. Bush was right, the science was not to be trusted. His statement was a first for many to hear: question the science.

So thoroughly drenched in satan's bait-and-switch, many unbelievers simply do not think to question science. Climategate strengthens the notion that we can, and should, question man's conclusions, especially in the face of evidence in front of us. On the one hand, we see a "Global Warming Conference Postponed Due to Snow" yet the scientific community's response was  "Global Warming and Cold Weather Go Hand-In-Hand." Up is down and down is up.

Science can often be a tool for good. Penicillin, pasteurization, and cancer treatments come to mind. Science by itself is not bad. But when scientific men seek to remove God from the equation, then anything can happen, and anything did. Science failed us in Climategate, but God never does. Brethren, there is the witness.