By Bob Topper
Civilization’s progress since the Age of Reason, the mid-seventeenth century, has been astonishing. We can travel to the moon and back in less time than it took for the pilgrims to cross the Atlantic. And with the Webb Telescope, we can peer back in time to see the formation of the universe. Galileo could barely see the moons of Jupiter with his telescope. Yet Galileo’s observations changed the world. Think of what we can do.
The advance of civilization, however, produced two existential threats to our survival – global warming and nuclear war. Can they be eliminated? The accomplishments of the past 250 years show that we have the mental capacity. But more is required – wide acceptance that the threats are real, and a forum for finding and implementing solutions. To that end, Humanism and Democracy are essential.
Our progress was fostered by the Enlightenment: the realization that humankind’s reasoning ability provided a better understanding of the natural world than revelation or superstition. And the Enlightenment spawned Humanism, which asserted that nothing could be accepted as truth unless it was validated by factual evidence. From this simple idea, which seems so obvious, humankind advanced more than in all of the preceding 200,000 years of human existence.
The Enlightenment also spawned Liberalism, which, in the classic sense, is a philosophy which replaces hereditary privilege, state religion, and the divine right of kings with representative democracy. By removing the arbitrary constraints imposed by autocratic governance, liberal democracy enabled this revolution, for it gave the people freedom to develop and promote their ideas and resources.
Liberal democracy is the appropriate forum for addressing the threats of global warming and nuclear war, for it is the one system of government that is grounded in reason and dedicated to the common good. It is no coincidence that the surge in human accomplishment coincides with the establishment of democracy. But liberal democracies are an endangered species, and the magnitude of these threats is underappreciated.
Democracy
For 250 years, America had been the leading democracy, and an essential player in the modernization of our world. It should play a leading role in resolving these critical issues. But American democracy has been derailed by greed and religious fundamentalism.
Our nation’s founders, inspired by the Enlightenment, understood that the purpose of government is to serve the common good. So, the nation they created could not be a theocracy, for theocracies serve a god. Moreover, because theocracies are based on belief rather than fact, they are unstable. Like opinions, everyone has their own beliefs. Today there are more than 10,000 Christian sects, which shows why the separation of church and state is a necessity. Respecting that principle, religious belief had been treated as a private matter and not the business of the American government…until the 1970’s.
In that decade, Christian evangelists like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell became active in the Republican Party. They promoted the notion that our nations’ laws should conform to their Bible, and they railed against the idea that America’s freedoms should extend to pregnant women and the LGBTQ community. Gradually, the Republican Party became America’s first theocratic party, with 61 percent advocating the establishment of America as a Christian nation, even though that would violate or even void our Constitution.
To Christian fundamentalists, the Constitution and public welfare are secondary considerations. Moreover, their beliefs do not allow compromise. As pious Republicans gained power and influence, Congress was less able to reach compromise, which is essential in a democracy. Today it is incapable of governing.
Unlimited campaign contributions also impair our democracy. Dark money influences members of both Houses, our President, and justices of the Supreme Court. Spending on the 2024 election exceeded $15.9 billion, more than $50 million per candidate. Most politicians now work for special interests rather than the common good, as evidenced by their blocking legislation to regulate gun safety and lower the cost of drugs, both supported by an overwhelming majority of voters.
Our government is no longer dedicated to the common good. It has been sold to the highest bidder, and that set the stage for the rise of an authoritarian leader, Donald Trump. He and his party deny climate change and Trump pulled the US out of the most important nuclear weapons reduction treaties in his first term, radically increasing that mortal danger to life.
Fortunately, America is not the only liberal democracy. Another nation, perhaps England, France, or Germany will fill the vacancy left by America, and lead efforts to address global warming and nuclear war.
Awareness
People everywhere should be mindful of these existential threats, but they are not. Religious fundamentalism is, once again, an obstacle. The Christian Bible holds that the environment is self-correcting and designed so that humankind would flourish. There is not a shred of factual evidence to support this notion, yet it is fervently believed by fundamentalists. Their belief is exacerbated by dispensationalists, like speaker Mike Johnson, who imagines we are living in the end-times, and the world will end before the effects of global warming become serious.
Christians have a right to revere the stories in Revelation, but they are best viewed as allegories. For global warming it is better to apply the simple logic that underlies human progress, that is, to rely on what has been validated by factual evidence, what we know to be true.
The fossil fuel industries also deny global warming despite the fact it is well established. The processes by which carbon dioxide molecules absorb and radiate infrared heat back to the earth’s surface were well understood more than a century ago, and by the 1980’s, data showing the correlation between temperature rise and the increase in carbon dioxide, caused by burning fossil fuels, was conclusive. Global warming is a fact, and it endangers our planet.
Yet oil companies spent $3.6 billion to influence public opinion, casting doubt on the established science. That does not include dark money donated to congresspeople. The industry’s efforts, coupled with the Christian denialism has clouded Americans’ awareness. Only 29 percent of Americans say they are “very worried” about global warming. With the current administration there is little hope that the number will increase.
Unlike global warming, no one is in denial about the prospect of a nuclear war, and, aside from the dispensationalists who believe the end-times prediction of Armageddon, no one thinks a nuclear war is inevitable. Yet, like global warming, it is not prominent in our public dialogue. Perhaps the idea of nuclear war is so overwhelming we choose to ignore it. But after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, no one should doubt the terrifying reality.
The proliferation of nuclear weapons and the rise of religious fanaticism, along with threats from leaders like Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine, increase the likelihood of nuclear war. We cannot ignore it.
The responsibility to reduce global warming and eliminate the threat of nuclear war falls on us alone, for only humankind has the capacity. While prayer may offer comfort and hope, these issues necessitate rational thinking. For the good of the planet and every living creature, we are obligated to tackle these problems head-on, and we should be working on them now. For that we need strong democracies, international cooperation, and realistic, fact-based, solutions.
And America should be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Bob Topper, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a retired engineer.
