Laudato Si.

I started reading Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si which is ostensibly about climate change.  

I found the introduction and the first chapter quite informative about the state of the environment.

But I'm afraid when I came to Chapter 2 The Gospel of Creation I began to profoundly disagree.

Pope Francis uses the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, even the story of Noah and the Flood, in a way which is far too literal for me.

I cannot agree that there is some kind of curse on us all because of the sins of these mythological figures.

And he even contradicts himself by saying that Noah and Saint Francis somehow returned to the original state of innocence.

I do not believe that we are cursed because of Original Sin.

There are other explanations for the problems of our world.

For example I believe that hatred, violence, and abuse are caused by fear.

What is jealousy but fear.

And what causes war but fear.

Prejudice, oppression, and persecution are caused by fear.

We are born into a world that is full of fear.

But I do not believe that this fear has a metaphysical basis.

It is merely part of our individuality, our isolation, our ego.

 

Once we begin to see the interconnectedness of life in our world, and its relationship to God, our fears begin to abate and we return to the innocence we experienced as a child.

Jesus said that to enter the Kingdom of God we must become again like a little child. (Mark 10:15)

And so we are not dealing with a metaphysical state but with an immature state of development.

There is no evidence that nature or the universe changed in some way 5000 years ago.

There is no state of original innocence, some golden age, in our past.

The universe develops in time and gave birth to life on this planet.

And human beings evolved from this life.

But there was no created man and woman, no Adam and Eve.

These are mythological figures invented to explain why we suffer.

But it is not true! 

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