Pope Francis’ local weather campaign or the erosion of religion in God, a story of two encyclicals – Watts Up With That?
Press release from the Clinton Foundation
By uncritically embracing climate catastrophism, Pope Francis is rejecting – perhaps unwittingly and certainly unwillingly – the God he obviously tries to serve wholeheartedly. This is the main conclusion of the essay Pope Francis' Climate Crusade or the Erosion of Faith in God, a tale of two encyclicals written by Jaap C. Hanekamp and William M. Briggs and published by Clinton.
Pope Francis has outlined his views on climate change in two encyclicals: Laudato Si' (2015) and Laudate Deum (2023). In short, the Pope fears that the world we live in is collapsing and may be on the verge of collapse due to climate change. In fact, in his encyclicals, the Pope proclaimed that there is a “global climate crisis.”
In the essay Pope Francis' Climate Crusade, or the Erosion of Faith in God, chemist and theologian Jaap C. Hanekamp and statistician and meteorologist William M. Briggs reflect on both encyclicals, but do not evaluate the scientific information on climate change per se. Instead, they examine the pope's use and understanding of models and delve deeper into the overarching philosophy underlying both encyclicals. They conclude that, in their view, the pope carelessly embraces scientism rather than science, inadvertently weakening his position and those who follow his scientific precepts.
Scientism is the ideology that only science is capable of explaining and solving all genuine human problems, and that all human affairs can be reduced to science. Accordingly, scientism is the attempt to extend science to all other areas of human affairs, even theology, and to usurp it in a reductionist manner.
Hanekamp and Briggs conclude that the climate scientistism propagated by Pope Francis is diametrically opposed to the Christian worldview. “Scientism of any kind is incompatible not only with the Christian faith, but also with science.”
About the authors
Jaap C. Hanekamp is a chemist by profession and received his first doctorate in 1992. In 2015 he defended his second dissertation: Utopia and Gospel: Unearthing the Good News in Precautionary Culture. He blogs at https://jaaphanekamp.com/. William M. Briggs holds a PhD in mathematics and a master's in atmospheric physics and has served in a variety of capacities including professor, consultant, and statistician. He blogs at https://www.wmbriggs.com/.
The essay can be downloaded here.
ABOUT CLINTEL
The Climate Intelligence Foundation (Clintel) was founded in 2019 by emeritus geophysicist Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok. Clintel's main goal is to create knowledge and understanding of the causes and effects of climate change and the impact of climate policy. Clintel published the World Climate Declaration, which has now been signed by more than 1900 scientists and experts. Its central message is: “There is no climate emergency.” In 2023, Clintel published the book The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC, in which it documented serious errors and distortions in the latest IPCC report.
Like this:
Load…
Comments are closed.