{"id":1690,"date":"2015-06-23T18:13:05","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T18:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2015-06-23T18:13:05","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T18:13:05","slug":"is-science-policy-a-theological-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2015\/06\/23\/is-science-policy-a-theological-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Science Policy a Theological Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pope\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Roger Pielke, Jr.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em><\/a>
\nJune 23, 2015<\/p>\n

With his latest statement on science, technology and the environment, Pope Francis has sought to change the debate on climate change. But his statement has broader significance for the way we think about the future<\/em><\/p>\n

The Encyclical Letter Laudato Si\u2019<\/a> released by Pope Francis last week has generated a wide range of reactions ranging from enthusiastic praise<\/a> to uneasy criticism<\/a>. For some, the Pope\u2019s key message was about climate change<\/a>, for others about the downsides of economic growth<\/a>, and some saw in it a reconciliation of science and religion<\/a>. But the Encyclical also lays bare a debate much larger than each of these perspectives, one that is fundamentally about what kind of world we want to inhabit. The Pope\u2019s message is just the latest intervention in a debate over technologies that has been going on for centuries.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis<\/a> writes of the \u201chuman roots of the ecological crisis\u201d defined in terms of deference to a \u201ctechnocratic paradigm\u201d which contains \u201cthe deepest roots of our present failures, which have to do with the direction, goals, meaning and social implications of technological and economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pope\u2019s choice of language is evocative of historian Lynn White, Jr.\u2019s classic essay, \u201cThe Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis<\/a>,\u201d written almost 50 years ago in Science<\/em>. White argued that technological innovation was a \u201crealization of the Christian dogma of man\u2019s transcendence of, and rightful mastery over, nature.\u201d A consequence of this mastery, White suggested, is to \u201cgive mankind powers which, to judge by many of the ecologic effects, are out of control. If so, Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

White\u2019s proposed alternative to the dominant Christian narrative anticipated the Pope\u2019s Encyclical: \u201cwe should ponder the greatest radical in Christian history since Christ: Saint Francis of Assisi\u201d (from whom the Pope took his name). White continued: \u201cthe present increasing disruption of the global environment is the product of a dynamic technology and science which were originating in the Western medieval world against which Saint Francis was rebelling in so original a way. Their growth cannot be understood historically apart from distinctive attitudes toward nature which are deeply grounded in Christian dogma.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Lynn White was pointing to in the 1960s and Pope Francis writes of today can be viewed as a struggle over the meaning of humanity on planet Earth. What is our role? Do we dominate nature? Or are we of nature, even subservient to it? What kind of world do we want? What should we together value? Read more …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Roger Pielke, Jr. The Guardian June 23, 2015 With his latest statement on science, technology and the environment, Pope Francis has sought to change the debate on climate change. But his statement has broader significance for the way we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-publications"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-13 13:43:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}