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Comment by roryisok | Hacker News Reader

> Even though as a Catholic (Laudato Si, Rerum Novarum) it kills me to waste all those materials every couple of years and be part of the environmental degradation of our planet

It's not your Catholicism that makes you feel bad for polluting, it's your humanity. If Pope Francis turned around and said there's no climate change and we should all have tyre bonfires for christmas, would you be on-board with that?

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Though you wouldn't know it from observing many Christians, environmental stewardship is a Biblical mandate. Of course, it is possible to have the same conclusion through non-faith means, but that doesn't preclude the ability of a person to derive their view—at least in part—from their religious faith.

Also, despite the Catholic church's hierarchical structure, a large portion of the church does not blindly follow the Pope's every decree. 86 percent of catholics find birth control to be "morally acceptable", according to one survey ( https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/opinion/sunday/frank-brun... ).

I was raised Catholic, in a Catholic country and I don't every recall being taught environment stewardship as being a biblical mandate. All that came from my parents, from common sense, from a love of nature and from 80s kids TV.

I don't want to get caught up in a religious argument, but I think its far more likely that people attribute a particular view to their religious beliefs as a way of validating them than they believe the environment is precious solely because the bible told them.

This. I'm not a Catholic (or follower of any religion) but I also try not to be wasteful with anything from food packaging to technology recycling.

Well Pope Francis is not a denier, and in some sense the Church scientists are the least biased in the world, since they are beholden to no one but God. They don't need to be published or get tenure. They can go with or against both academic and political orthodoxy as they choose.

So if Francis came out and said climate change is not a concern I would actually pay pretty serious attention to that. And I'm not even Catholic.

how weird is it that we came here to read about a new phone and ended up discussing climate change and religion.

> So if Francis came out and said climate change is not a concern I would actually pay pretty serious attention to that. And I'm not even Catholic.

Are you paying pretty serious attention when they claim that dinosaurs bones were sprinkled around the world by their god to test our faith?

Has the Catholic church actually said that, or are you perhaps confusing them with another group?

I grew up in a Catholic family, that's what they teach you in catechism. They also teach you that the universe was created in literally seven days. But if you keep your chain of asking "how?" long enough before they yell at you, they'll also tell you that such statement is not to take "literally".

YMMV - I was raised a Catholic and never got any literalist stuff about creation, or nonsense about dinosaur bones being planted to confuse us. Nor is it in the catechism as such - there is quite enough unbelievable stuff in there as it is...

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