so saith the Archbishop of Canterbury:
A stark warning that human greed is threatening to destroy the environment was issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Christmas message, while the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales appealed to people to be more welcoming to immigrants.
Dr Rowan Williams appealed to Christians to do more to safeguard the planet, saying it should not be used “as a warehouse of resources to serve humanity’s selfishness”.He told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday that people should treat other people and nature with reverence. “More and more [is] clearly required of us as we grow in awareness of how fragile is the balance of species and environments in the world and just how our greed distorts it,” he said.
The leader of the Anglican Church added: “When we threaten the balance of things, we don’t just put our material survival at risk, more profoundly we put our spiritual sensitivity at risk – the possibility of being opened up to endless wonder by the world around us.”An environmental message was also given by the Rev John Owen, the leader of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, who said everyone should remember their “duty to the planet”. He urged people to recycle leftover food and give unwanted presents to charity shops.He said the international agreement on climate change reached in Bali this month did not mean that people should rely on governments to save the world. “Rather, we should redouble our efforts to take action and campaign against climate change,” he said.
But it’s good to see that the C of E maintains its independence from the Bishop of Rome through such doctrinal novelties:
Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.
The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.
The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.
One of these is an intellectual, and the other, unfortunately, passes for one.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this schoolboy political ideology cum avarice masquerading as a “church,” who were kind enough to link to Karl earlier. I perhaps shouldn’t give the site any publicity, but it’s so exquisitely crapulous that I couldn’t resist. Mea culpa.
I’m thinking cage match.
Do you find this particular statement by Williams to be radical? John Paul II expressed similar concerns about materialistic greed and the fragility of the environment, albeit more artfully.
If your leading off with Juan Cole, you might as well shut it down. Anyway, I continue to hear the ice melted at one of the poles faster, and in greater mass than anytime in history, but I never hear about it refreezing at the same rate and mass, also faster than anytime in history. Why is that?
Actually I think Benedict’s elegant bifurcation of science and environmentalist dogma is extraordinarily dangerous to media orthodoxy because it describes something we’ve been told simply can’t exist.
I certainly have nothing against being good stewards of the planet, Hubris. Nor do I think it’s bad to consider our greed. But then to let us know that the basis of this concern is at root an aesthetic matter, or that aesthetics has somehow become inseparable from the cure of the human soul, is spiritual small beer.
So, fuck that shit.
I don’t see the quote in in question as citing aesthetics as the solitary concern, but rather reflecting the belief in intertwined spirituality and aesthetics (the face of God in nature, art, etc.). Isn’t the accusation of an over-emphasis on aesthetics usually a criticism levied by non-Catholics against Catholicism? I’m not Catholic so I’ll leave it at that.
He sounds like a combination of Yoda and Cornelius Fudge, Hubris, but one who eats daffodils and farts rainbow butterflies.
Somebody needs to eat more green, leafy vegetables.
Williams was indirectly and perhaps even accidentally right about one thing: that people should not rely on governments to save the world, but should take action on an individual level. I guess that proves the Broken Clock theory.
Hmmmm, “our spiritual sensitivity” or my child starving to death.
Let me think about this……..
“Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.”
The earth is warming because it spins around the sun.
How many divisions does he have?
[…] Pope gets it. The Archbishop of Canterbury? Well, there’s a reason Catholicism is growing in the […]
How many divisions does he have?
If you’ve been following the tavails of The Episcopal Church and what it’s done to the Anglican Communion, you’d know ++Rowan has scores of them.
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Comment by andy on 12/28 @ 8:56 am #
“Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.â€Â
The earth is warming because it spins around the sun.
Give it up kid. You’re way out of your league. The suns output is variable. The eliptical orbit of the earth around the sun doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s the angle of the earth in it’s yearly relationship to the sun that causes the seasons. The warming and cooling of different parts of the planet.
andy –
“Give it up kid. You’re way out of your league. The suns output is variable. The eliptical orbit of the earth around the sun doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s the angle of the earth in it’s yearly relationship to the sun that causes the seasons. The warming and cooling of different parts of the planet.”
No shit? Your point being..?
Thanks again for another amusing zephyr of hot air.
I think maybe YOU are contributing to global warming. It could be all that steam that leaks out of your ears.
Just guessing, though..
“I continue to hear the ice melted at one of the poles faster, and in greater mass than anytime in history” That would be the north pole. And at the same time the ice down south is growing larger than at any time in history.
http://www.iceagenow.com/Growing_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet.htm
Gaia dislikes humans, period. I spend a considerable amount of my income paying for my defenses against her power. Even that wasn’t enough to keep me from slipping on the ice this morning.
But I’m still here. Ha! KEEP TRYING, BITCH!
Since the Antarctic ice sheet is (mostly) not floating, we should see sea levels going down instead of up.
Cubans will be able to walk to Florida.
But Ken. Where is Santa gonna live?
It’s good to see that the leader of the Roman Catholic church is warning against making decisions based on dubious ideology. Because THAT’S not juggling stones in a glass house. I’ll be sure to take his admonitions seriously next time someone mentions the moral pitfalls of prophylactic usage.
“Cubans will be able to walk to Florida.”
They’ll just drive their ’57 Chevys and won’t have to adapt them for seaworthiness.
Aw, Gabriel, don’t be such a sobersides. I was trying to manufacture some argument on a slow night.
Gabby,
Wrong argument. The Pope doesn’t say not to use birthcontrol because it’s not scientifically proven to be effective. Quite the opposite actually.
While the Catholic church is historically guilty of being anti-scientific principles in the past there are also instances of great support for science in the Catholic community, Pope Benedicts injunction to start paying attention to science instead of screamers being the latest example. For others I’d point you at just about any Jesuit, to start.
I said the moral pitfalls, not the practical pitfalls. I know which argument I’m talking about. The serious decision in question was “to wear or not to wear” and the dubious ideology was “if a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate.” But it could just as easily be “to be or not to be (wicked gay y’all)” and “for lo, the sodomites shall be cast down into the Pit, for ever and ever” respectively, or “to covet or not to covet the bejesus out of Mrs. Jones” and “regarding the coveting of wives, neighbor’s or otherwise, see paragraph eight, subsection three, etc etc” respectively. Regardless of the church’s remarkably progressive views on the heresy of Galileo Galilei, the Pope’s statement stands as perhaps the paradigmatic example of painfully self-unaware public proclamations.
I am, however, open to the possibility that something was lost in the translation.
GF: the dubious ideology was “if a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate.†But it could just as easily be “to be or not to be (wicked gay y’all)†and “for lo, the sodomites shall be cast down into the Pit, for ever and ever†respectively, or “to covet or not to covet the bejesus out of Mrs. Jones†and “regarding the coveting of wives, neighbor’s or otherwise, see paragraph eight, subsection three, etc etc†respectively. Regardless of the church’s remarkably progressive views on the heresy of Galileo Galilei, the Pope’s statement stands as perhaps the paradigmatic example of painfully self-unaware public proclamations.
Putting aside the snark, I’ll try to answer your assertions here. The Church’s position on birth control are consistent with her position on abortion: i.e. that even the ingredients (if you will) of life are important. Also, saying that God will get irate if a sperm is wasted unnecessarily belittles the sanctity with which the Church holds sex. In short, the act of sex, by being limited to a married man and woman, is–or should be–a manifestation of that love within which God holds mankind.
Furthermore, it has NEVER been the Pope’s job to be “self-aware”–whatever the hell that means. The Pope’s job is to proclaim and to teach. He is to be Christ’s representative on earth, to interpret the Gospels as they apply to an ever-changing world.
PR is not a required skill for the position.
“Also, saying that God will get irate if a sperm is wasted unnecessarily belittles the sanctity with which the Church holds sex”
As well as the sanctity with which the church holds the fact that the sun spins around the earth. thus keeping it cool.
Ya know, Gabe, as much as I like Monty Python, they’re not my choice of source for information on theology.
And, andy, the Roman Catholic church has not argued for the earth-centric model in centuries. In fact, the Church’s official position for longer than my life has been to support scientific research, as an application of God-given reason to understand the works of creation. For Roman Catholics (excepting some splinter sects and the poorly educated, of course), evolution by natural selection is the mechanism of creation.
But, hey, I know you’re not the type to let the facts get in the way of your bigotry, andy.
“And, andy, the Roman Catholic church has not argued for the earth-centric model in centuries.”
I know. It just kind of makes uncomfortable the idea that they got eternal, divine inspiration when they gotta change their minds.
“For Roman Catholics (excepting some splinter sects and the poorly educated, of course), evolution by natural selection is the mechanism of creation.”
I knew that. I also had realized, independently, that this is a convenient way for people to keep believing their myths while also facing up to the facts. Its just that it makes it a bit hard to start claiming eternal, heavenly authority when you gotta keep refining it for facts.
So, its good that the church evolves along to match the facts that don’t fit its myths. Lets get on it with other parts of their thinking too!
Those whackos talking of an ice age beginning again need to study their geology. We never left it, according to the scientists, and if it’s getting stronger again, so much the better. Now, I won’t just be *called* a Neanderthal, I’ll actually *look* like one.
Geologically speaking, an ice age is when the Arctic and Antarctic are surrounded in ice. So long as one or the other remains, then the ice age continues. Global warming….would simply mean it finally ends.
Not to mention that the vast majority of climate *scientists* agree on the basic premise that Earth is getting warmer, and man is causing it. Al Gore-style sensationalism has always been harmful bullshit, and always will *remain* so. DAT scenarios are in the realm of science fiction.
Sorry guys, I mistook the diminutive “Gabby” as an open invitation to take my good friend RC less than seriously, maybe quote a little Graham Chapman et al. I’m not anti-Catholic, but I think it would take a lot of faith to blind anyone to the boldly ridiculous nature of the Pope’s pronouncement. Leader of institution based on superstition + condemnation of superstition = silliness. QED. And the fact that the Church’s position on birth control is consistent with its other positions is not exactly a revelation (ha!) since the whole thing is circular logic, it’s cut from whole cloth. The fundamental motivation is the existence of God, which is, to bring us back to the genesis (haha!) of the funny here, a dubious ideology. More dubious even, some might contend, than anthropogenic climate change. Which puts the Pope on shaky ground, a further irony which I’m sure is not lost on the many redoubtable theologians here at P-dub.