Advice For The Kids

Science

1. Caring for God’s Creation – while all things are possible through prayer and all environmental issues could be solved overnight (e.g. he could make all excess carbon emissions disappear), do you think that He would want to work with someone who cares absolutely nothing for His creation? For example a person who dumps their used motor oil in the sewer drain? There are 8 billion of us on the planet right now. Our collective actions compound at an enormous scale. Do a quick Google image search for “single use plastic problem” to see how individual misbehavior or ignorance adds up quickly. Again you don’t have to be an activist but some care would be good. The end goal is to move to being in partnership with God and a good steward of His planet. While you can’t do everything, the idea is to do what you can. You do your part and He will do the heavy lifting.
   • Here is a quick list of ways to help the environment. The > sign is used to represent the ‘next level’ of helping for a particular category.
     • Recycling
     • Planting trees (instead of cutting them down)
     • Residence: Modern Energy Efficiency Technology (e.g. Air Sealing, Insulation) > Smaller House (Consumes Less Energy)
     • Residential Power: Electric Appliances vs Gas Appliances > Residential Solar Panels > High Efficiency Appliances
     • Transportation: Smaller/Fuel Efficient Car > Hybrid > Fewer Cars Per Family > Electric > No Car (Walking and Transit)
     • Eco-Friendly: Reusable Water Bottle, HoldOn Trash Bags, BlueLand cleaning products, Reusable Grocery Bags
     • Diet: A lot of people eat meat and it is delicious. My favorite is smoked pork shoulder or Puerto Rican Perníl. Meat production has a high impact on the planet and many production techniques are unkind to animals. Again do what you can to help. The idea is reduction.
       • Red meat has the highest impact (see here).
       • Try a vegetarian or white meat/fish day once or twice a week (2/7 is a 30% reduction) > full white meat/fish > full vegetarian > full vegan
       • Most kids like chicken nuggets and fish sticks.
     • Voting: Voting for candidates that will pass climate friendly legistlation
     • Prayer: Praying for the planet
2. Humility & Respect – while we believe science, we also need to believe that some science is disrespectful to God and to people. For those who are interested in these fields it is important to always consider if you are crossing a line. For example the science performed on Henrietta Lacks was performed in an unethical manner. Another example would be gene editing, which is both incredibly dangerous as well as entering the territory of playing God. When in doubt on whether something is appropriate (e.g. cloning a sheep), one should defer to church leadership as to what they think on the topic (e.g. the Pope).

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