I’m still marveling at how Pope Francis really turned things upside down with his major encyclical on climate change. A Pope has NEVER been this connected to Nature; in one writing he has obliterated the whole notion of Manifest Destiny, that God created Earth solely for our needs, so we could rationalize how badly we’ve ended up plundering and polluting. This is what Pope Francis wrote:
“We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church.”
Here is a great article on how difficult it will now be to flaunt your religion (Judaeo-Christian, that is) and still be a climate change denialist:
(http://www.salon.com/2015/06/19/how_pope_francis_just_destroyed_the_gops_religious_con_artists/).
Several years ago I wrote in one of my books about my frustration with how fundamentally disconnected so many people are with Nature, particularly conservatives, who feel that their religion gives them ‘cover’ to deny science and the emerging threat of global warming ( http://jeffrusinow.com/btruth9 ).
They’ve had it wrong all along. Pope Francis just set them straight.