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the Roman Catholic Church, and the Jeffersonian model of democracy, in which free discourse flourishes, and individuals freely choose both their beliefs and their behavior, based on free access to information, in a culture of tolerance, equality and human and civil rights.
The platform from which this or any Pope speaks is illegitimate. For one thing, it excludes half the human race from any position of power or influence, and it is fundamentally patriarchal and fascist right on down to the parish level. Further, if you examine this Church's so-called lineage back to "Saint Peter," you find that it has no legitimacy even in Christian historical terms. Has there ever been a more un-Christian organization than the perpetrators of the Inquisition, the bloody Crusades, massive witch-burnings and book-burnings, and, if you track it back to the 5th Century AD (when the fascists solidified their power), the perps of the destruction of the Alexandria Library, the end of Ptolemaic tolerance of all religions and the beginning of pogroms against Jews, Pagans, and "heretics" (often the real Christians, the true followers of Jesus), and the murderers of the famous neo-platonic philosopher Hypatia, by skinning her alive?
Something went very wrong, indeed, with the Christian religion, between the 1st and 5th centuries AD--which did not begin to be corrected until the Protestant revolution and beginning of the Age of the Enlightenment, a thousand years later. The tie to the first Christians--the egalitarian Gnostics, who were inspired by what Jesus really taught ("love thine enemy") and how he really lived (communally, in chosen poverty)--was broken in the 5th century, when powermongering, empire-building men took over the Christian religion, began enforcing Christian baptism with the sword, concocted a monolithic set of "doctrines" and heavily edited "gospels" to be imposed from the top, and allied the church with the power of the state.
It is THIS heritage, THIS history, THIS broken faith, upon which the Pope claims his right to speak for God--a disreputable heritage, a history of oppression and bloodshed, and a completely sullied and co-opted "faith."
That being said, the problem with this current "debate"--whether it is framed as "evolution" vs. "intelligent design," or "science" vs. "religion"--is that, a) science has, indeed, become a "religion" of sorts, and has been co-opted by global corporate predators in much the same way that Christianity was co-opted by the powermongers of the 5th century; and b) the stupid political debates fostered by the rightwing minority, most particularly in the U.S. under the Bush Junta, are PREVENTING a criticism of science that is badly needed and long overdue, having to do with the LACK OF ETHICS in the uses to which scientific research, discoveries and inventions are being put--to name a few: nuclear bombs and other weaponry, dangerous nuclear energy, genetically modified organisms, patenting DNA and seeds, harmful pharmaceuticals and other profit-polluted medicine, industrial pollution, the torture of animals in various ways, computer programs designed for widespread spying on innocent individuals, and "bought and paid for" scientific reports that serve corporate PR purposes.
Science is little more than an adjunct of the Corporate Rulers these days. You might say that few of the discoveries that make modern life possible were ill intended, and I think that's probably true. Some are the results of pure research, which were then USED by non-scientists in ways that many scientists might object to (or have objected to). However, these days, in the U.S. in particular, the essential "checks and balances" on the misuse of scientific discoveries have been removed. Federal testing of pharmaceuticals and other potentially harmful substances is a Bushite disaster--comparable to their destruction of FEMA. We have NO protection from, and NO "check and balance" on, corporate science. They are greatly endangering our food supply, as we speak, with GMO crops, pesticides and other products, and are furthermore using their unchecked power to force these items on populations that don't trust them and don't want them.
While the corporate news monopolies foster this faux debate on "evolution"--and the Pope, concerned about the fertility of his "flock" and future donors, adds his illegitimate two cents about God vs. Science--the corporate rulers are raping and KILLING the earth, with highly "scientific" methods of deforestation, crop manipulation, pollution, oil wars and items like depleted uranium bombs.
The earliest scientists considered science to be a sacred endeavor. The Pythagoreans, for instance, believed that certain scientific secrets, in the wrong hands, would be disastrous. Astrology was the mother of astronomy, and its purpose was to connect the web of life from the distant stars down to the level of human affairs. We may laugh at some astrological beliefs today--especially its silly corporatization in the newspapers--but it was a complete philosophy at one time, which GAVE BIRTH to modern astronomy, and inspired the keeping astronomical records and the tracking of astronomical bodies. And the same is true of medicine--derived from herbal medicine, a sacred undertaking--and of virtually every scientific endeavor, from mathematics to chemistry to engineering. Mathematics at one time was considered the highest SPIRITUAL practice. And those who believed this were not crackpots--they were the INVENTORS of mathematics and the most original thinkers of their time. How appalled they would be to find that THEIR concept of God--as the highest, most perfect UNITY of all creation--had been co-opted by the three modern religions--Christianity, Judaism and Islam--that are now being used as the excuse for corporate oil wars that threaten all life on earth with nuclear holocaust.
These ancient scientists have something to teach us--and we must not let the rightwing/corporate bullshit distract us from the REAL discussion that needs to take place: what the hell good is human civilization, if we let these global corporate predators pollute the world to death, or nuke it to death? What good is a God who would egg us on to do this? What good are our religions if they cannot stop this? And what good has all the scientific discovery of the modern age been t us, if it lead us here--to the annihilation of life?
I think religious fundamentalism--in so far as it has any significant currency at all (and we can't be sure, given the Corporate Rulers use of it, and propagation of its views)--comes from a very fearful place inside the human heart, and this fear has been displaced onto "science" (and in particular onto "evolution," as a symbol of "science"), but has much more to do with the ravages of Corporate Rule, of which misuse of "science" is only one part. Think about Corporate farms driving family farms out of business. Think of Corporate "malls" replacing town squares. Think of Corporate TV replacing conversation and other creative human activities. Think of Corporate-mandated freeways, instead of byways. Think of Corporate commercials and billboards co-opting our love of children and each other, to sell products. Think of the delusion of BushWorld, vs. real democracy.
The religious fundamentalists, as presented by BushWorld, are very mixed up people. They can't see the False God who rules over them--the Global Corporate Predators who detest and are avidly destroying everything they hold dear: community, family, loyalty, traditional values such as truthfulness and hard work. And they've fallen prey to a faux president who spouts these values, and does exactly the opposite. They've been sold cheap ideas--like the demonization of gay marriage--in place of the real thing: real conservatism. Conservatism that CONSERVES--our environment, our resources, our children's safety and health, our money, our Constitution and our democratic traditions.
But perhaps they can teach us something, in roundabout way--that "faith" in science is as wrong-headed as "faith" in our Corporate Rulers, or any rulers. "Science" has become an establishment, like any other. Like the Catholic Church. Like the corrupt liars in our political parties. It is NOT above criticism, and NEEDS thorough-going criticism, ESPECIALLY from an ethical and moral and humanitarian--and perhaps even a religious, or spiritual--perspective.
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