Progress
It is refreshing that the legalism Christ decried in synagogue officials that seemed to have reappeared in the church hierarchy and almost made the pope a captive of the Curia may be lifted due to the efforts of Pope Francis. His call for fresh input from clergy and laity for consideration in an upcoming Synod of Bishops will no doubt be answered with abundant contributions representing many viewpoints. I appreciate his willingness to consider topics with wide input beyond the tunnel vision of others such as the view of Cardinal Schonborn noted in the post at http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2014/10/god-evolution-and-pope.html .
The problem of whether or not to ordain women was dealt with in the post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2014/11/god-women-priests.html - , but the implementation of bringing women in to the priesthood might be easier if the church was not so world encompassing, not only geographically, but culturally.
The environment
A post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2015/06/pope-francis-and-global-warming.html - dealt with climatic aspects of his recent encyclical..
In remarks related to environmentalism, and our role as caretakers of our world, he made a comment involving reproduction and rabbits that was not too well received. But it is refreshing that he does not look at human reproduction as demanding large families. The command in Genesis to "increase and multiply and fill the earth" has already been fulfilled. In fact it is more than filled if a sustainable world is desired. When the coffee cup is full, you don't need to keep pouring and overflow it.
In spite of such considerations, families should be the ones that determine their own family sizes. Realistic knowledge of appropriate numbers could go a long way toward providing societal norms as a guide. We don't need to have starvation, disease, and war as implements of population control.
Marriage and family
A post [ http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2014/04/evolution-and-marriage.html ] included comments suggesting the rights of those with alternative life-styles could be better served with legislation and/or judicial decisions providing contractual rights without calling it marriage and impinging on religious freedom. In Matthew 10, Jesus talks about marriage and notes some are born, others develop, into states presumably incompatible with participating in a traditional marriage of bisexuals.
Christ made clear statements forbidding divorce. But he also was generous in forgiving those failing in doing what was the ideal way. It seems a reasonable approach would be to recognize that and extend forgiveness if a wrong has been done. Blame would not have to be established. Let all parties move on and act according to their consciences.
Birth control normally involves two people. When they have conflicting view of what is acceptable, it would seem that a loving relationship could lead to compromise in some instances. I don't see how abortion could be an acceptable compromise, although forgiveness is up to God. But other forms may be of different degrees of errors in moral behavior.
A spectrum of behavior from virtual to sinful, or vice versa
The degrees of good or bad are not easily defined by clergy accustomed to thinking in terms of theological truth. The previous pope railed against relativism. But the circumstances may be part of the definition of an act. Yes, there is an objective ideal that could be determined for an act involving morality. But it would be much worse if it was done with relish, whereas there might be no moral fault if it was done to accommodate their families need in some way. To sever your relationship with God, you need to know that what you are doing is a serious violation of God's law, and it must be done with full consent of the will. It seems like that would take a very evil person to do such a thing.
A positive view of God
If you have a hard time realizing God made us and loves us, I encourage you to read a brief post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/06/god-and-people.html - and especially concentrate on the last two paragraphs. It is worth reading even if you don't know the implications of John 3:16. If you have an interest in how to find God, you might get an idea of how simple it is from reading the post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2014/05/finding-god.html
I don't expect Pope Francis will read this post. If you get any inspiration from it and want to tell the pope, please pass it on.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan September 15, 2015
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Thursday, June 25, 2015
POPE FRANCIS AND GLOBAL WARMING
Laudato Si'
Laudato Si' is the title of a letter to the faithful that Pope Francis had been preparing for the past year and finally released in the past week or so. Popular press accounts indicate he comes out firmly on the side of those indicating human activities are major contributors to global warming, a view shared by most informed scientists.
Human activity is more than just "the straw that broke the camel's back", even though non-human factors are the major determinants of climate. We are currently contributing to a rise in temperatures above the temperatures variations produced by natural cycling due largely to solar output and lesser factors such as volcanic activity. Does it make a difference whether we are adding one or more shovels full of straw to break the camels back? While we argue about it the damage is being done.
Our plundering of resources is somewhat difficult to see as degrading the environment until the damage is severe. Pollute the air or rivers and others downwind or downstream will pay the cost in lung disease or polluted water. Wealth often comes to the ones polluting; meanwhile the poor lack the resources to purify their water and/or their air. Pope Francis is apparently adding his voice to those recognizing the problem.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
Near the middle of the past century Garret Hardin wrote an essay entitled The Tragedy of the Commons. He used the example of earlier times in England when townspeople could pasture their cows on a central green area free to all. As some found they could sell more milk by having more than one cow they added to their herd. As others did the same the greens became overcrowded and cows gave less milk so one cow was no longer enough to feed your family.
Common resources include natural areas, our waters and our air, our view of the sun and the stars, and perhaps also our mineral resources. It is difficult to manage many natural resources that are international in nature.
We still have a lot to learn. I thought I had considered the important facts when I proposed the sperm whales had a significant role recycling nitrogen in the ocean food chain as illustrated many years ago by the following figure.
Then, after reading a 2010 book by Claire Parkinson discussed in the post,
http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/11/science-whales-and-climate-change.html , I realized I had not considered its role in the oceanic carbon dioxide sink and climate change as noted in the post. The post of May 17, this year [ http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2015/05/abyssal-ocean-environment-and-extreme.html ] has some concept of how global warming may have a role in hurricane intensity patterns.
"VIRTUE IN MODERATION"
The phrase in Latin was the motto of my undergraduate college. I have found that, especially in biology, the sciences benefit from realizing things are seldom only black or white, but most often some intermediate shade of gray. We are seldom extreme introverts or extreme extroverts, most are somewhere else along the spectrum between. When studying the environment there are multiple causes functioning in most things under observation; so simple answers are not easily given. Such a fact should not be an excuse for doing nothing to improve our environment.
Joseph G. Engemann June 25, 2015
Laudato Si' is the title of a letter to the faithful that Pope Francis had been preparing for the past year and finally released in the past week or so. Popular press accounts indicate he comes out firmly on the side of those indicating human activities are major contributors to global warming, a view shared by most informed scientists.
Human activity is more than just "the straw that broke the camel's back", even though non-human factors are the major determinants of climate. We are currently contributing to a rise in temperatures above the temperatures variations produced by natural cycling due largely to solar output and lesser factors such as volcanic activity. Does it make a difference whether we are adding one or more shovels full of straw to break the camels back? While we argue about it the damage is being done.
Our plundering of resources is somewhat difficult to see as degrading the environment until the damage is severe. Pollute the air or rivers and others downwind or downstream will pay the cost in lung disease or polluted water. Wealth often comes to the ones polluting; meanwhile the poor lack the resources to purify their water and/or their air. Pope Francis is apparently adding his voice to those recognizing the problem.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
Near the middle of the past century Garret Hardin wrote an essay entitled The Tragedy of the Commons. He used the example of earlier times in England when townspeople could pasture their cows on a central green area free to all. As some found they could sell more milk by having more than one cow they added to their herd. As others did the same the greens became overcrowded and cows gave less milk so one cow was no longer enough to feed your family.
Common resources include natural areas, our waters and our air, our view of the sun and the stars, and perhaps also our mineral resources. It is difficult to manage many natural resources that are international in nature.
We still have a lot to learn. I thought I had considered the important facts when I proposed the sperm whales had a significant role recycling nitrogen in the ocean food chain as illustrated many years ago by the following figure.
Then, after reading a 2010 book by Claire Parkinson discussed in the post,
http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/11/science-whales-and-climate-change.html , I realized I had not considered its role in the oceanic carbon dioxide sink and climate change as noted in the post. The post of May 17, this year [ http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2015/05/abyssal-ocean-environment-and-extreme.html ] has some concept of how global warming may have a role in hurricane intensity patterns.
"VIRTUE IN MODERATION"
The phrase in Latin was the motto of my undergraduate college. I have found that, especially in biology, the sciences benefit from realizing things are seldom only black or white, but most often some intermediate shade of gray. We are seldom extreme introverts or extreme extroverts, most are somewhere else along the spectrum between. When studying the environment there are multiple causes functioning in most things under observation; so simple answers are not easily given. Such a fact should not be an excuse for doing nothing to improve our environment.
Joseph G. Engemann June 25, 2015
Thursday, October 23, 2014
WMU MAGAZINE BEE ARTICLE
BEES AND ECOLOGY
The Fall 2014 issue of the Western Michigan University Magazine is available online if you log in to wmich.edu/magazine or click the following - Western Michigan University Magazine and click on the issue. If you use the Google Chrome browser you can easily scroll through to a few pages detailing the work of a group of WMU student's efforts at bee-keeping.
The article tells of the importance of bees in pollinating many of our food crops, and some other things of interest. There are many things of interest about bees that I could add but they are mostly familiar to those with a biology background. Communication among bees, colony structure and individual roles, foraging behavior, anatomical specializations can be found in many biology texts.
The issue has several other articles of general interest, especially one about one of the lost boys of Africa, and one about story-telling in Africa. Of current interest, an interview with a WMU virologist, about the reason North America is not likely to have an Ebola epidemic similar to the one in parts of Africa, coincided with today's news reports of those dealing with recent cases here.
ENVIRONMENT
American Earth, Environmental Writing Since Thoreau is a 2008 anthology edited by Bill McKibben.
The 1048 pages are copyright by Literary Classics of the United States, New York, NY and distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc. A daughter gave it to me yesterday and it has a lot I hope to read and some selections from books I have read such as two landmark books, Silent Spring, by Rachael Carson, and the earlier book by Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac.
My interest has probably been more in the environmental area than the evolution area. My posts have emphasized evolution because there is more clarification needed there. The environmentalists are mostly on the right track so I don't feel an obligation to write about it as much.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan October 23, 2014
The Fall 2014 issue of the Western Michigan University Magazine is available online if you log in to wmich.edu/magazine or click the following - Western Michigan University Magazine and click on the issue. If you use the Google Chrome browser you can easily scroll through to a few pages detailing the work of a group of WMU student's efforts at bee-keeping.
The article tells of the importance of bees in pollinating many of our food crops, and some other things of interest. There are many things of interest about bees that I could add but they are mostly familiar to those with a biology background. Communication among bees, colony structure and individual roles, foraging behavior, anatomical specializations can be found in many biology texts.
The issue has several other articles of general interest, especially one about one of the lost boys of Africa, and one about story-telling in Africa. Of current interest, an interview with a WMU virologist, about the reason North America is not likely to have an Ebola epidemic similar to the one in parts of Africa, coincided with today's news reports of those dealing with recent cases here.
ENVIRONMENT
American Earth, Environmental Writing Since Thoreau is a 2008 anthology edited by Bill McKibben.
The 1048 pages are copyright by Literary Classics of the United States, New York, NY and distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc. A daughter gave it to me yesterday and it has a lot I hope to read and some selections from books I have read such as two landmark books, Silent Spring, by Rachael Carson, and the earlier book by Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac.
My interest has probably been more in the environmental area than the evolution area. My posts have emphasized evolution because there is more clarification needed there. The environmentalists are mostly on the right track so I don't feel an obligation to write about it as much.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan October 23, 2014
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