“The analysis proposes a research agenda, including what they call the “four horsemen” of the climate endgame: famine, extreme weather, war and disease.”
The analysis is published in the journal
https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2108146119
I have been curious about Revelations recently and researching the topic. Not in a religious way, being an athiest, but as a possible story. Religious people are probably horrified.
This quote has put them in the wrong order and ‘extreme weather’ comes from the bowls, not a rider. The white horse is missing from this list.
The thing about the horses is that they are forces that are riden. Today a horse, is a horse, is a horse, but in biblical times they were tanks, steamrollers. And in Revelations, a rider directs each of the horses; the force of each horse is being controlled.
When the first seal is broken, a white horse appears. The rider is given a crown and a bow. The biblical verses are very short but somehow this rider is connected as being a conqueror and conquering, the crown I suppose. Obviously there has been much interpretation by biblical scholars, which I am not. But the ‘meaning’ of white in the bible was apparently not soley in connection with purity. One reference mentioned it as (paraphrasing) describing ‘land stripped bare’, perhaps something like bones stripped bare of flesh. The bow indicating rapid and far reaching. The conclusion the text proposed was this verse indicated false religious teaching; it was mostly concerned with false Christian teaching. I looked up the commandments. In all the different versions, the first one is consistent and broadly, ‘Don’t worship any other God or graven images’ so seems pretty likely that as long as you have your socks on, it won’t be too big a deal which order you put them on. Incidentally, that first commandment makes implicit that there are other gods, in case anyone wondered.
That kinda opens the way to considering what false religion might this first seal be alluding to. I read a most interesting article recently that proposed economics, capitalist obviously, has become a religion https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/jul/11/how-economics-became-a-religion which points very definitely to Mammon as a likely candidate. Whether or not the name is worshipped, the cult, with graven images is certainly prospering, globally. Even amongst the communist countries, everything is economic growth and GDP.
After this white horse, follows the red; everyone seems to agree this is war. Followed by the black, again consensus that famine follows war. The final horse commonly called pale, is described in the greek as green, the colour of putrescence and indicating fatal disease. The final rider is the only one named; he is death.
This is not the end of Revelations. There are three more seals to open. The horsemen are forces, drivers, that are the consequences that arise from following the white horse.
If the white horse is economics, capitalism or money then how are we to proceed when the vast majority of the world population have to earn an income to support themselves? Revelations only provides a fearful warning of the consequences.
I suppose religious scholars would propose we should live according to the teachings but that hasn’t worked out too well so far either. And it would bring us back to which sock to put on first again.
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