One of the consequences of global warming is an increase in the number and severity of major storms such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards. Forgive me for indulging in a bit of rational thought, but since religious conservatives are among the most vocal deniers of climate change, wouldn’t it be nice if we could tax churches to raise funds for federal disaster relief to pay for repairs in the aftermath of such “acts of God”? Base the tax rate on the total damage done by storms, and grant an exemption to any church willing to sign a waiver stating that their god has no control over the weather and thus should not be held accountable for the resulting damages. If believers want lower taxes, they either get their god to do a better job managing the weather, or they sign the waiver.
Yeah, dumb idea. But still…
I’ve noticed that many believers praise their gods for being benevolent when something goes right but blame anyone else when something goes wrong. “God steered that hurricane away from us, hooray God!” vs “Katerina hit New Orleans because gays/atheists/liberals….”
NY Times has a discussion on this very topic today.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/18/natural-disasters-or-acts-of-god
I would not have guessed there is a person who is a “professor of religion and environmental studies”, but that’s one of their 6 voices on the topic.
The only thing ‘wrong’ with your idea is that churches should be taxed anyway—just like all other forms of entertainment,
I have an even better idea. Everybody knows that, over the next decade or so, the value and price of beachfront property is going to plummet. So the faithful who believe that global warming is a myth should be enthusiastic about swooping in on these fantastic deals on oceanview real estate — and the current owners should thus make an extra effort to sell to them. Once they’re safely settled on the coasts, we let human-altered nature take its course, and problem solved!
Nah, wouldn’t work. The sea-level rise is too slow and storm warnings give them lots of time to run away and become refugees.
Some of your ideas are way too good to be practical.