I admire Pope Francis. I think he has done more for the world and the Catholic Religion than any of the other Popes in my lifetime. His latest encyclical on global warming is a major step towards helping everyone in the world.and protecting the future of the world from disaster. His subtle comment on accepting gays, and that Catholics don't need to "breed like rabbits" are amazing changes for the Church
Pope Francis blames 'human selfishness' for global warming - BBC News
The Pope is correct in blaming "human selfishness" for global warming. The natural competition among humans, and human governments drives all of us to be as "productive" as possible. Productivity means that we can produce more and work less -- that means we would use technology to allow us to do more. If we had not used that technology over the past century, we would not now be able to feed, clothe and house the existing population population of the world--only a much fewer, wealthier group would have survived.
The Pope has pointed his finger of blame. But as my boss told me once, when you point that finger forward, three fingers are pointing back at you. The Pope and the Roman Catholic Church needs to accept the majority of the blame for global warming. And, the Pope is in a position to rectify that problem!
It is obvious that the growth of the human population is what is the main driver behind global warming. The more people there are, the more food, water, resources and energy we need. Yes, the resources may not be distributed evenly. However when everyone is competing for scarce resources, it creates stress on the environment and contributes to war. Central and South America would have been a very wealthy region with stable governments and solid economies, if it weren't for the extremely rapid population growth over the past 50 years. Instead, the region has struggled and this latest Encyclical has created even more confusion. See this link I attribute these problems directly to the Catholic Church's rules on birth control and abortion.
The Catholic Church's position on birth control and abortion has been a huge contributor towards the overpopulation of the world. Because the Catholics profess anti birth control and abortion theology, other churches and religions have adopted the same theology. It is clear that the evolution of the birth control and abortion theology was heavily influenced by the desire of the Pope at the time to expand the catholic religion and Christianity by increasing the population of "soldiers of Christ" to help create wealth for the church and to proselytize the non-believers. In a sense, the theology was developed as a way to justify the Church's desire to expand and spread. In a similar way Thomas Aquinas produced a theology that justified war, and turned Christianity from a "pacifist" religion to a fighting religion complete with soldiers, torture and killing of infidels. The theology for birth control was established before the basic biological functions of birth were understood. Children represented wealth. The more children you had the better your farms could be tended, and the better you could be cared for in old age. Natural disasters, plagues, wars and death during childbirth kept the population under control even with the rules against "wasting seed" (sperm) birth control existed. Times have changed!
Other religions such as Islam and the Protestant sects adopted the same philosophy in order to "defend" against the expanding population of Catholics. So now, in addition to the Catholics, the Muslims, Hassidic Jews, Baptists, and, of course, the Mormons are all trying to have as many children as possible to help spread their religion faster than the other competing religions.
China has shown the world that it is possible for a country to get its population under control. Yes, it did use relatively harsh techniques. However with inspired leadership, rules, laws, guidelines and incentives, I believe the rest of the world could also sharply cut the population growth rate.
If the Pope would reverse the current stand, he could call on leaders of all of the other religions to do the same. Think of it as declaring a "truce" in the war of religions. Maybe some, or hopefully most will also participate.
The right-wingers in the US Government including the Republicans in Congress and our Republican presidents have done everything they can to stop efforts at population control within the US and have virtually stopped all foreign aid efforts to assist other countries in slowing the growth of their populations. The right-wingers cite "religious" or what they call "moral" reasons for preventing birth control or abortions. The basis, or foundation of all of their arguments is the distorted theology created by monks in the Catholic Church during the 10th through 14th Century. Those theologies were contrived by the monks in response to the various Pope's desires to expand the Roman Catholic Empire, expand the wealth, power and "majesty" of the church. Looking back at history, anyone, including the Pope, can see that those motivations were bogus. They didn't follow the teachings of Christ. If the Pope could hit the "RESET" button on the Christian religion and go back to the basics of Christ's teachings, I believe a reversal of the Church's policy on birth control would rejuvenate the Christian religion, and save the world.
Pope Francis blames 'human selfishness' for global warming - BBC News
The Pope is correct in blaming "human selfishness" for global warming. The natural competition among humans, and human governments drives all of us to be as "productive" as possible. Productivity means that we can produce more and work less -- that means we would use technology to allow us to do more. If we had not used that technology over the past century, we would not now be able to feed, clothe and house the existing population population of the world--only a much fewer, wealthier group would have survived.
The Pope has pointed his finger of blame. But as my boss told me once, when you point that finger forward, three fingers are pointing back at you. The Pope and the Roman Catholic Church needs to accept the majority of the blame for global warming. And, the Pope is in a position to rectify that problem!
It is obvious that the growth of the human population is what is the main driver behind global warming. The more people there are, the more food, water, resources and energy we need. Yes, the resources may not be distributed evenly. However when everyone is competing for scarce resources, it creates stress on the environment and contributes to war. Central and South America would have been a very wealthy region with stable governments and solid economies, if it weren't for the extremely rapid population growth over the past 50 years. Instead, the region has struggled and this latest Encyclical has created even more confusion. See this link I attribute these problems directly to the Catholic Church's rules on birth control and abortion.
The Catholic Church's position on birth control and abortion has been a huge contributor towards the overpopulation of the world. Because the Catholics profess anti birth control and abortion theology, other churches and religions have adopted the same theology. It is clear that the evolution of the birth control and abortion theology was heavily influenced by the desire of the Pope at the time to expand the catholic religion and Christianity by increasing the population of "soldiers of Christ" to help create wealth for the church and to proselytize the non-believers. In a sense, the theology was developed as a way to justify the Church's desire to expand and spread. In a similar way Thomas Aquinas produced a theology that justified war, and turned Christianity from a "pacifist" religion to a fighting religion complete with soldiers, torture and killing of infidels. The theology for birth control was established before the basic biological functions of birth were understood. Children represented wealth. The more children you had the better your farms could be tended, and the better you could be cared for in old age. Natural disasters, plagues, wars and death during childbirth kept the population under control even with the rules against "wasting seed" (sperm) birth control existed. Times have changed!
Other religions such as Islam and the Protestant sects adopted the same philosophy in order to "defend" against the expanding population of Catholics. So now, in addition to the Catholics, the Muslims, Hassidic Jews, Baptists, and, of course, the Mormons are all trying to have as many children as possible to help spread their religion faster than the other competing religions.
China has shown the world that it is possible for a country to get its population under control. Yes, it did use relatively harsh techniques. However with inspired leadership, rules, laws, guidelines and incentives, I believe the rest of the world could also sharply cut the population growth rate.
If the Pope would reverse the current stand, he could call on leaders of all of the other religions to do the same. Think of it as declaring a "truce" in the war of religions. Maybe some, or hopefully most will also participate.
The right-wingers in the US Government including the Republicans in Congress and our Republican presidents have done everything they can to stop efforts at population control within the US and have virtually stopped all foreign aid efforts to assist other countries in slowing the growth of their populations. The right-wingers cite "religious" or what they call "moral" reasons for preventing birth control or abortions. The basis, or foundation of all of their arguments is the distorted theology created by monks in the Catholic Church during the 10th through 14th Century. Those theologies were contrived by the monks in response to the various Pope's desires to expand the Roman Catholic Empire, expand the wealth, power and "majesty" of the church. Looking back at history, anyone, including the Pope, can see that those motivations were bogus. They didn't follow the teachings of Christ. If the Pope could hit the "RESET" button on the Christian religion and go back to the basics of Christ's teachings, I believe a reversal of the Church's policy on birth control would rejuvenate the Christian religion, and save the world.
