CACOR Live | Geoff Strong | Science in Scripture and Today’s Climate Crisis

Summary:

This talk (and the book) examines scientific statements embedded in biblical text, which could help us improve contemporary thinking on environmental processes and the mitigation of the climate crisis. We analyze ancient narratives through a modern scientific lens, identifying parallels between scriptural accounts and current science. This includes the creation story as told in Genesis, evolution, including how the Earth evolved, the Noah flood story, and various short scientific statements in the Bible, including continental drift and the hydrometeorological cycle, among others, even bordering on Einstein’s work on the conservation of mass and energy.

In short, the Bible is not simply a mix of mythology and religious psychology. It actually contains significant scientific facts, albeit without any proof. The unanswered question here is: What was the source of their statements, for they had virtually no understanding of or access to mathematics, science, or history? I also bring indigenous understanding and wisdom into this story.

Besides science, we need to understand history in order to appreciate what’s happening today, and how to avoid repeating past mistakes, especially with current and past wars from which nobody ever gains, and the climate crisis. It’s helpful to realize that we have very few records of books on history or science before the invention of the printing press in 1440 CE. The venerable old Bible is arguably the oldest book in existence for studying science and history of those periods. You may not be convinced of all my deductions, but I don’t believe you will be disappointed.

Biography:

Geoff has been involved in weather and environmental issues for over 60 years. He is an atmospheric/climate scientist by profession, earning his PhD (1985) with a thesis on multiscale thunderstorm dynamics at the University of Alberta (UofA). He is a 50-year member of the Canadian Meteorological & Oceanographic Society (CMOS), a Fellow of and former national President of CMOS (2006-07), and has received several awards from that society. His professional career included weather forecasting with Environment Canada (1966-76), extensive severe storm field studies with ARC Edmonton (1976-88), and research scientist with EC, Saskatoon (1988-98) where he officially retired. He sits on the administrative boards of CACOR, and of Prevent Cancer Now (PCN).

In retirement, Geoff instructed weather and climate courses at UofA and Kings University in Edmonton, and VIU in Nanaimo. He continued field research studies on thunderstorms, evaporation and drought, and supervised several graduate students at UofA, 1998-2005. In 2001, he turned his attention to the threats of climate warming impacts, primarily to offset disinformation and to provide accurate information on climate threats, giving invited talks, writing media articles and several ‘novels’ on climate change, and advocating three levels of government on climate mitigation and adaptation. He even developed a bible study on ‘science in scripture’, having just published a book on this, while writing his third novel on climate change.

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