The Pope's Encyclical

[basilio]

On Thursday Pope Francis will be officially releasing his Encyclical on Climate Change the environment and world poverty. In fact it has already been leaked by insiders who are trying to damage the launch.

There are some quick interesting comments already on the encyclical. George Monbiot has started as a strong supporter.

I think the Pope has created an excellent pitch pulling together climate change, the environment as a whole and the need to address world poverty as a unity package. It is not an either/or option.

Thoughts ?

The Pope can see what many atheist greens will not
George Monbiot
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Pope Francis reminds us that our relationship to the natural world is about love, not just goods and services

@GeorgeMonbiot

Wednesday 17 June 2015 04.39 AEST


Who wants to see the living world destroyed? Who wants an end to birdsong, bees and coral reefs, the falcon’s stoop, the salmon’s leap? Who wants to see the soil stripped from the land, the sea rimed with rubbish?

No one. And yet it happens. Seven billion of us allow fossil fuel companies to push shut the narrow atmospheric door through which humanity stepped. We permit industrial farming to tear away the soil, banish trees from the hills, engineer another silent spring. We let the owners of grouse moors, 1% of the 1%, shoot and poison hen harriers, peregrines and eagles. We watch mutely as a small fleet of monster fishing ships trashes the oceans.

Why are the defenders of the living world so ineffective? It is partly, of course, that everyone is complicit; we have all been swept off our feet by the tide of hyperconsumption, our natural greed excited, corporate propaganda chiming with a will to believe that there is no cost. But perhaps environmentalism is also afflicted by a deeper failure: arising possibly from embarrassment or fear, a failure of emotional honesty.

‘We have all been swept off our feet by the tide of hyperconsumption, our natural greed excited, corporate propaganda chiming with a will to believe that there is no cost’.

I have asked meetings of green-minded people to raise their hands if they became defenders of nature because they were worried about the state of their bank accounts. Never has one hand appeared. Yet I see the same people base their appeal to others on the argument that they will lose money if we don’t protect the natural world.

Such claims are factual, but they are also dishonest: we pretend that this is what animates us, when in most cases it does not. The reality is that we care because we love. Nature appealed to our hearts, when we were children, long before it appealed to our heads, let alone our pockets. Yet we seem to believe we can persuade people to change their lives through the cold, mechanical power of reason, supported by statistics.

I see the encyclical by Pope Francis, which will be published on Thursday, as a potential turning point. He will argue that not only the physical survival of the poor, but also our spiritual welfare depends on the protection of the natural world; and in both respects he is right.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/16/pope-encyclical-value-of-living-world

 

[trainspotter]

So the Pope has gone green?

Land rights for catholic gay whales NOW !

 

[pixel]

So the Pope has gone green?

Land rights for catholic gay whales NOW !

Maybe there's hope that Tony Abbott listens to his Spiritual Leader.
After all, Jesuits are Catholics and therefore bound to follow the Pope's infallible utterings - right?

 

[basilio]

Maybe there's hope that Tony Abbott listens to his Spiritual Leader.
After all, Jesuits are Catholics and therefore bound to follow the Pope's infallible utterings - right?

Probably more likely to pal up with Cardinal "Smoking Gun" Pell and see that Pope Francis sleeps with the fishes...

 

[trainspotter]

Maybe there's hope that Tony Abbott listens to his Spiritual Leader.
After all, Jesuits are Catholics and therefore bound to follow the Pope's infallible utterings - right?

We can but hope that Minister Abbott bends his knee to the man of the cloth

 

[bellenuit]

Maybe there's hope that Tony Abbott listens to his Spiritual Leader.
After all, Jesuits are Catholics and therefore bound to follow the Pope's infallible utterings - right?

The "so called" infallibility of the Pope is not universally applicable to everything he says. It would certainly not apply in this case. Just Google "papal infallibility".

 

[Knobby22]

The PM was once highly religious but I think he is an atheist these days.
His actions do not seem at all priestly.

Pope Francis is talking sense. I think he befits the role of Pope. No offense to the previous Pope but he is twice the man though that says a lot for the previous Pope who recognised that the cross was too great for him to carry.

 

[basilio]

I reckon this'll be bigger than Ben Hur..

Check out the promotion clip for The Encyclical

 

[luutzu]

Maybe there's hope that Tony Abbott listens to his Spiritual Leader.
After all, Jesuits are Catholics and therefore bound to follow the Pope's infallible utterings - right?

If asked, he'll say something like "I admire the His Holiness the Pope but when it comes to national security and the future of our children, I will have to put my faith aside and put the Australian coal industry, I mean the Australian people, ahead".

So maybe God changed his mind about promising to Noah not to flood the Earth again.

 

[Value Collector]

So the pope asks.

Who wants to see the living world destroyed? Who wants an end to birdsong, bees and coral reefs, the falcon’s stoop, the salmon’s leap? Who wants to see the soil stripped from the land, the sea rimed with rubbish?

I would suggest the vast majority of atheists don't want that, we believe this life is the only one we get.

However, A lot of religious people can't wait for the end times, the rapture, read the book of revelations in the bible and it tells a dark story about the world ending, A lot of fundamental Christians get excited about the thought of the end of the world and the rapture.

preachers such as these guys are excited to see terrible things happening.

 

[SirRumpole]

So the pope asks.



I would suggest the vast majority of atheists don't want that, we believe this life is the only one we get.

However, A lot of religious people can't wait for the end times, the rapture, read the book of revelations in the bible and it tells a dark story about the world ending, A lot of fundamental Christians get excited about the thought of the end of the world and the rapture.

preachers such as these guys are excited to see terrible things happening.

I'm not a Catholic, nor do I particularly like the Catholic church, but it's a pity you can't give some credit to the Pope for what he said about climate change (and the influence this will have on his followers) instead of just bagging some bizarre religious sects that have little to do with the Pope.

 

[Value Collector]

but it's a pity you can't give some credit to the Pope for what he said about climate change (and the influence this will have on his followers) instead of just bagging some bizarre religious sects that have little to do with the Pope.

I am not about to give credit to one of the worlds biggest charlitans for anything, he shouldn't have followers, a climate change speech isn't going to undo the damage that his policies cause.

It's not a bizarre religious sect that wants the world to end, it's the bible, the very book the pope holds dear, and claims is the word of God, it predicts the world with be destroyed, and claims it's a good thing to look forward to.

 

[SirRumpole]

It's not a bizarre religious sect that wants the world to end, it's the bible, the very book the pope holds dear, and claims is the word of God, it predicts the world with be destroyed, and claims it's a good thing to look forward to.

That may be your interpretation, but if the Pope wanted the world to end he wouldn't be bothering about climate change.

 

[Tink]

The Pope has never put a gun at your head, unlike Kim Jong-un -- your idol.

Governments impose a lot more on us than he does.

You can listen to him or not.

 

[Knobby22]

Value collector, below is a picture from one of my 14 year old daughter heroes. She has it in her room.

 

[Tisme]

That may be your interpretation, but if the Pope wanted the world to end he wouldn't be bothering about climate change.

There is no interpretation required. That particular piece was written by some fella named John interred on the island of Patmos circa AD100 by the romans for worshipping Christ. He had one of those nights where he had too many magic mushrooms, liquid amber, ice, whatever and dreamed about seven shiny lamps, a bloke lit up like a xmas tree, a sword, etc. The lamps are symbols for the seven Asia Minor Christian church groups, the neon bloke is Jesus, the sword coming out of Jesus' mouth is the word of God, etc

The script is a codec to communicate with the various seven churches back on the mainland in modern day Turkey. Just like Nostradamus had to use verse, John used this piece to consolidate and spread the old testament teachings which are by and large the musings of the mind of God; it was a way of getting the word out under the noses of the Romans who were considered the bad guys under the leadership of a persecuting, unprincipled Flavian Emperor Domitian.

The whole thing about apocalyptic writing in the Bible is to disclose knowledge as it's Greek derived name infers, to reveal the knowledge of God. Prophecy means what it's Greek roots mean, speaking the mind of God. Neither of those two words have anything in themselves to convey spooky stuff (unless you are religiophobic).

The whole lock stock and verse is meant for the first gen Christians to give them hope that God would destroy the Roman Empire persecution in their time. The predicted timelines are written in there. But it's still a good lesson piece on the doomed to repeat habits of mankind, just like the stuff in the old testament.

Someone in the past has a lot to answer for spreading the Hollywood whole world bifurcated into the good against evil routine...... probably some fire and brimstone Mick preacher from Ireland back in the day.

 

[Value Collector]

The Pope has never put a gun at your head, unlike Kim Jong-un -- your idol.

.

Not recently, these days I guess they rely on threats of hell etc. But the catholic church has certainly executed thousands of people in the past.

You can listen to him or not

I can choose to ignore him, unfortunately a lot of the masses that do listen to him is because they have been lied to from a young age, raised to fear hell and taught that this con man is more than what he really is.

 

[Value Collector]

There is no interpretation required. That particular piece was written by some fella named John interred on the island of Patmos circa AD100 by the romans for worshipping Christ. He had one of those nights where he had too many magic mushrooms, liquid amber, ice, whatever and dreamed about seven shiny lamps, a bloke lit up like a xmas tree, a sword, etc. The lamps are symbols for the seven Asia Minor Christian church groups, the neon bloke is Jesus, the sword coming out of Jesus' mouth is the word of God, etc

No doubt most of the Bibles authors were on something, It's funny how when a guy from the bronze age smoked or ate something and then wrote a story about how he was a god or he spoke to a god, people think he must have been right. But these days when a neighbourhood kid takes ICE and thinks he is god, no one believes him.

 

[Value Collector]

, but if the Pope wanted the world to end he wouldn't be bothering about climate change.

Makes me think he knows his book is phony, Because if you truly believed in the bible story, you would be welcoming it.

I would respect the pope more if he can clean, just came out and said "hey, this is all nonsense, I can't really talk to god, most likely there is no after life, we are all just people, we only have one life, lets look after the earth, look after each other and lets stop all this religious nonsense"

But he won't do that, because he is a con man enjoying his ride or he is actually mentally ill and believes he can talk to god.

And a lot of Christians do believe it, and don't care about climate change.

 

[Tink]

And atheists have killed a lot more, VC.

So is the science a CON, or is Climate Change real, in your view?

Since you put science on a pedestal, you would be behind this, yes?