Not from my perspective. Obviously, climate change and abortion can be quite heated issues but it's possible to have a reasonably calm debate. I'd imagine, though, that this would be much harder in the US.
That's what intrigues me about the Zika virus issue as it could well open up both issues. For now, the Republican candidates can get away with sucking up to the right wing extremists while they are battling away in the primaries and appearing before right-wing debate moderators. What happens when the successful Republican candidate is forced to debate issues such as reproductive rights, gun control and climate change?
As the fundamentalist Christians and Evangilists are an important part of the right-wing base, it's interesting to note that they have a strange basis for climate denial. Genesis 1:26–28 tells us:
This "dominion mandate" tells Biblical literalists that climate change scientists are doing the work of Satan. If God gave man dominion over all of the earth, then surely he didn't seed it with materials which could bring the existence of man into question. Extracting the oil and coal from the earth is therefore part of God's plan. Climate science is an affront to God. The Pope's declaration that mankind had an obligation to address climate change must have annoyed them intensely.
Wacky as this might seem, it isn't the wackiest thing these guys believe. Young Earth Creationists believe that the earth is only 6,000 or so years old. They dismiss fossils and other features which are scientifically proven to date from well before that period. They say they are either frauds perpetrated by Satan or tests of faith created by God. Hell, at the recent WA by-election, the Liberals under Abbott put up a Young Earth Creationist and he's now in our Parliament.
And let's not even mention evolution or gay marriage ...
That's what intrigues me about the Zika virus issue as it could well open up both issues. For now, the Republican candidates can get away with sucking up to the right wing extremists while they are battling away in the primaries and appearing before right-wing debate moderators. What happens when the successful Republican candidate is forced to debate issues such as reproductive rights, gun control and climate change?
As the fundamentalist Christians and Evangilists are an important part of the right-wing base, it's interesting to note that they have a strange basis for climate denial. Genesis 1:26–28 tells us:
Quote:Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This "dominion mandate" tells Biblical literalists that climate change scientists are doing the work of Satan. If God gave man dominion over all of the earth, then surely he didn't seed it with materials which could bring the existence of man into question. Extracting the oil and coal from the earth is therefore part of God's plan. Climate science is an affront to God. The Pope's declaration that mankind had an obligation to address climate change must have annoyed them intensely.
Wacky as this might seem, it isn't the wackiest thing these guys believe. Young Earth Creationists believe that the earth is only 6,000 or so years old. They dismiss fossils and other features which are scientifically proven to date from well before that period. They say they are either frauds perpetrated by Satan or tests of faith created by God. Hell, at the recent WA by-election, the Liberals under Abbott put up a Young Earth Creationist and he's now in our Parliament.
And let's not even mention evolution or gay marriage ...