The recent Papal encyclical on global warming is more
alarming than most people realize. Not because of any- alleged- warming of the
Earth, but because of what it exhibits about the rapidly changing religious
climate. Most forms of Christianity are rapidly becoming more secular and
liberal, in many cases dramatically so. This is occurring for several reasons.
The church wants to appear “modern” and “reasonable”, tolerant and “relevant”
to young people. They need to keep their current congregations and attract new
attendees to build their flocks, if possible. And fill their coffers.
The
prevailing belief today seems to be that younger folks in specific and the
modern, educated society in general, simply aren’t going to comply with any
outmoded, more strident church doctrine if it in any way limits their behavior
or makes any person or act seem less worthy than any other. Fewer and fewer
people are attending church in recent years, and polls strongly indicate that,
overall, people in Western societies are becoming less and less religious and
are especially skeptical of big, organized religion.
In a
nutshell, in an attempt to stop people from losing their religion, the
Christian church itself is becoming less and less religious. There may be a
link here somewhere. The chicken or the egg?
I do
believe that people have become less attuned to religion over the years, as the
culture has changed and 60’s radicals have taken over nearly all major societal
institutions. But, the church may be hastening the exodus of its congregants by
not standing up for its own beliefs. After all, either there are some absolute
truths or there aren’t. If there aren’t, we are screwed anyway, but if there
are…and the church itself refuses to stand up for them, then it loses any moral
high ground it had with its erstwhile followers, rendering itself moot.
Back to
the Papal encyclical. It turns out that the Pope’s primary science advisor,
Hans Schellnhuber, is a self-professed atheist
and believes in the Gaia Principle and a “geophysiological” approach to “Earth-system analysis.”
Schellnhuber
co-authored a paper published in the Journal Nature in 2004, “Climbing the
co-evolution ladder,” essentially suggesting that mankind is an infection and stating that mankind,
“perturbs…the global ‘metabolism’” of the planet. How was this infection imposed upon our innocent
planet (Gaia, our Mother Earth)? Evolution or divine will, Hans?
In one
noted interview, Schellnhuber is quoted as saying, “If you want to reduce human population,
there are wonderful means: improve the education of girls and young women.” Not
exactly “go forth and multiply.”
In a
paper he co-authored (with Maria Martin) for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
in 2014, Schellnhuber utilizes a “scientific” graph that shows Michelangelo’s (Sistine
Chapel) Adam “flicking” planet Earth over a “methane tipping point,” into a
fiery pit labeled the “Warming Abyss.” Hell on Earth.
So, to
Schellnhuber, Adam, representing all humans by extension, and put here by God, is condemning the Earth
to Hell. Wow. So either God erred, or the liberal’s beloved evolution/Mother
Earth did, in creating mankind?
It is
not a good sign when we, who were created in the image of God, decide we are
not worthy of our existence.
It is
an even worse one when those who claim to be God’s messengers decide the same
thing.
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