The Pope, the Atheists, the Rapture: Saving the Environment from Ourselves

“Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where is existence is denied?” -Pope Benedict XVI

According to Pope Benedict XVI, atheists are no longer responsible solely for undermining the moral fabric of society, but also for the destruction of the environment. In an August 26th speech, he argues that when “the human creatures relationship with the Creator weakens…the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.”

Though Pope Benedict’s attack on materialism seem rather the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black, given the Catholic Church’s enormous wealth (and the existence of the saying, “more money than the Pope”), his rhetoric puts him on common ground with environmentalists concerned by our unsustainable lifestyle and culture of excess consumption. The Pope even added “polluting the environment” to last year’s snazzy update of the original Seven Deadly Sins, deemed one of the Best Inventions of 2008 by TIME magazine, prioritizing it up there with birth control, creating poverty, and…ahem, excessive wealth.

Unfortunately, in targeting nonbelievers, His Holiness diverts attention from the real problem and alienates potential atheist and non-believing allies. Yes, I am suggesting that the head of the Catholic Church put aside petty differences like whether or not a supreme being exists for the sake of saving the world we all have to live in from imminent environmental catastrophe.

Despite the Pope’s rhetoric, religion has a mixed record on the environment. Around Earth Day, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life published statistics gathered in 2008 that reveal that  unaffiliated Americans are the most likely to believe in man-made global warming (58 percent), compared to 44 percent of white Catholics; white Evangelical Protestants do the worst at 34 percent believers. (I guess “nonbelievers” isn’t a particularly precise term to use to refer to those who don’t believe in the existence of God, since they do believe in environmentalism.) And in 2008, evangelical leaders launched the “We Get It!” campaign against “global warming alarmism,” at a time when virtually all respected scientist already recognized the dangers of climate change. Religious Right politicians constantly present obstacles to environmental protections, more concerned with Big Oil than Mother Nature.

Furthermore, a 2004 Pew survey reveals that those who are most observant or orthodox with the United States’ three largest religious groups (Evangelical Protestants, Mainline Protestants, and Roman Catholics) less likely to favor environmental protections than the moderate members of their respective faiths. Perhaps Roman Catholics are doing better on this count since the Pope ranked pollution with the major sins, but that doesn’t alter the fact that within the last five years it’s the most devout adherents of organized religion who have been setting back saving the environment.

Then there’s the rapture.

According to a 2004 Newsweek poll, over fifty percent of Americans believe in the rapture. Seventy-nine percent of Christians believe in the second coming of Christ, and 20 percent think he’ll be back before they die (Pew). These end-of-times beliefs pose serious problems when trying to convince people that we need to protect the environment for generations to come. Moreover, not only are fundamentalist Christians more likely to say “Who cares? The world is ending anyway,” many see environmental catastrophes as signs of the coming Christian apocalypse to be welcomed (and perhaps helped along).

RaptureReady.com racks up signs the rapture is coming in a handy “Rapture Index” that looks at environmental factors such as drought, wild weather, and climate. The also offer Rapture Ready News, a compilation of news stories on end of times related events–stories up now include the European Union’s push for a global climate change accord, the raging fires in California, and (on a non-environmental note) yesterday’s Gmail failure.

Pope Benedict says in his speech, “the natural environment is given by God to everyone, and its use entails a personal responsibility towards the whole of humanity, in particular, towards the poor and future generations.” As a secular humanist, a call for responsibility toward humanity resonates with me. Take out the “by God,” and you’re left with an excellent rationale for atheist support for environmental protection. Plus, as far as we’re concerned, there’s no supernatural being exists with the potential to work a miracle and save humanity from its own mess.

Pope Benedict is to be commended for prioritizing the environment as a moral concern for Catholics, but he misses an opportunity to send a strong message by spending much of his speech blaming those who don’t share his belief in God, letting the real culprits off scot-free. Religious persons and atheists alike have contributed to our current environmental state; anti-environmental actors from both sides are to be criticized for worsening the situation. If the Pope is truly concerned for the environment, and not simply looking for another way to demonize those who differ on the subject of religion, he should keep that in mind when addressing America’s over 60 million Roman Catholics.

For those of us in the United States, the Religious Right and many of those who believe in an imminent Rapture pose a major obstacle to environmental progress. Secular progressives can and should fight back against this–as allies of the Pope in this cause, if he’ll have us.

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