The Denier
(And the windmill – is this the new symbol of Catholic faith?)
I read today the headline: “Pope Francis says climate change is mostly man-made.” In other words, he is denying what is technically called “natural variability”, but in a previous more religious age was called “acts of god”.
And to make it all the worse in “Canute”** style he intends to issue a papal bull denying the power of god over the climate and decreeing the omnipotence of academics who have as yet proven incapable of predicting the climate.
So, if there is a god – how will (s)he react to this slight against his (her) power and authority?
**Unlike this pope, Canute was a wise king who was fed up with his advisers who tried to tell him he was all powerful. So, to show them how idiotic the idea was of a mere human having control over nature, he had himself sat down before the natural variation we call a rising tide and commanded it to cease.
In one simple action he showed his own humility, his wisdom and the stupidity of his advisers – a lesson this pope needs to learn.
The Pope also said that if anyone insulted his mother he’d punch them, the voicing of which at the moment is not the best evidence of intelligence or Christian spirit. AGW dogma is well within the Catholic view that we are all greedy sinners but punching people is more Old Testament than New. In many ways I’m surprised the churches didn’t jump on the AGW bandwagon sooner.
I note he said nothing about his father.
The threat to use violence against someone who insults his mother is surely the antithesis of Christianity. His comments on the climate seem to suggest a God less powerful than his followers might previously have believed to be the case. Can a not quite all powerful God still claim to be a God? Perhaps the pope is as out of his depth on theological matters as he clearly is on climate matters.
In the same way I was genuinely surprised that the socialist parties in the UK were the most enthusiastic in these “reverse Robin-hood taxes”, I am genuinely surprised that a religious leader would go out of their way to assert that Mankind controls nature and that there is virtually nothing left for “god” to do.