If we need the Pope to teach us about science, then God help us all
What the head of an anti-science body like the Catholic Church says about climate change is about as relevant as Kim Kardashian on the eurozone
It’s a funny old world. Environmentalists are dancing with glee after Pope Francis issued a statement calling on every man, woman and child to .
The Pope, after all, is the highly influential leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics around the world and a man who can bend the ear of any president or prime minister he wants at any time.
Getting him on board the green bandwagon is an undoubted coup for the eco-lobby.
His statement came in the form of an encyclical, a papal letter to bishops usually aimed at ending debate on a theological issue, to be formally published today, and it represents the Pope’s views on the God-given responsibility of humans to act as custodians of the earth.
Not only does he warn of the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” but, in a less than subtle reference to so-called climate change deniers, the Pope argues that “the attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions.”
Which is weird, because belief and blind faith are precisely what the Pope usually demands of his many followers when it comes to deciding pretty much every area of their lives from the cradle to the grave.
Now, I’m sure Pope Francis is a perfectly decent and moral man who means well and wants nothing but the best for mankind and our planet. But – and it’s quite a bit “but” – I’m afraid the Catholic Church lost its right to hand out moral lectures to the rest of the world some time ago.
Whether you are a card-carrying eco-alarmist who worries daily about your carbon footprint or whether you are Jeremy Clarkson, what the Pope has to say about humans tackling climate change as a moral issue is about as relevant as Kim Kardashian’s views on the future of the eurozone.
First, like pretty much all political leaders who put their tuppence worth in on this issue, the Pope knows next to nothing about climate science, which makes his opinion worth as little as mine (which I’m regularly informed by the likes of eco-worriers like George Monbiot is absolutely zilch).
Secondly, popes don’t have a particularly strong track record when it comes to tackling matters of fact and science over the years.
It did, after all, take until 1992 for the for proving in the 17th century that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than the other way round.
And as recently as 2009, Pope Benedict XVI was busy telling Africans facing the would not protect them from HIV, despite all the clear medical evidence to the contrary.
But it’s not just matters of science on which Popes have time and again been wrong. It’s on matters of basic morality too.
When it comes to all of the great moral debates of our time, the Catholic Church has been on the wrong side on every one.
Social Media
