Who would have known that fossil fuels are a special gift to humanity from the Divine?
Fred Palmer, that’s who. The Heartland Institute’s holy warrior senior fellow has revealed his elegant chain of reasoning: “Because it’s easy to get to, it’s here and more people live better and longer for it,” therefore “fossil fuels [are] part of a divine plan.”.
This is a guy who says that global warming science is “sophistry. It’s an agenda driven by lawyers who make their own facts. . . . ”
I ought to note here that if you are a Deist—which is the most minimal religious belief this side of atheism—of course all Creation is divine by definition. No argument here. But that’s not the sense in which Palmer makes claims about fossil fuels. He means to elevate fossil fuels above other objects of Creation, special gifts to humankind. Which seems to me a bit dismissive of stuff like oxygen (without which, incidentally, coal, oil, and gas would not burn; oh, but oxygen is used by other animals, so it’s not so special).
I imagine it won’t surprise you too much to know that Palmer has spent more than 30 years shilling for the coal industry. At present he is justifying taking secret industry money to fund climate change denial done by the Heartland Insitute. People who object to secret funding “don’t understand advocacy.” It’s probably the same kind of people who object to Donald Trump not releasing his tax returns. (They don’t understand corruption.) Palmer also says “God Bless Trump.”
https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/01/climate-science-denial-group-heartland-institute-fossil-fuel-industry-funding-fred-palmer
Both links above are to “desmogblog” which I encourage you to subscribe to (free) if you want to keep track of global warming misinformation efforts. Such as tricky Congressional tactics: Leaked Methane Enablement
The greatest practice of sophistry lies with guys like Palmer and others who want the rest of us to believe their arguments and answers are God-inspired. They go to the Bible when they can. So, then, I like to ask them to inform me of some ruminations from the Bible that relate to my own ruminations: e.g., how are Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons accounted for in the Bible? And, why were we created to eat, drink, and finally crap—why that kind of being? These questions may sound ridiculous to many, but they’re no more silly than what you get from the bloviating believers.