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Ed Mazza writes that Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum says he loves Pope Francis, but he wants the pontiff to stop talking about climate change and "leave science to the scientists." Santorum's comments come as the Pope, who holds a degree as a chemical technician and worked as a chemist before turning to the priesthood, has become increasingly vocal about climate change. "The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists," says Santorum, "and focusing on what we're really good at, which is theology and morality, When we get involved with political and controversial scientific theories, I think the church is not as forceful and credible."
But Santorum's not a scientist either so using Santorum's own logic why is Santorum more qualified than the Pope to discuss climate change? "I guess the question would be, if he shouldn't talk about it, should you?" asked Chris Wallace of Fox News. "Politicians, whether we like it or not, people in government have to make decision with regard to public policy that affect American workers," answered Santorum, adding that while "the pope can talk about whatever he wants to talk about," he questions the Pope's use of his moral authority to combat the issue of climate change.. Santorum — a devout Catholic — disagrees with the Pope's stance that climate change is man-made and has often called climate science "political science," arguing that a scientific consensus on climate change underscores this point. "All of this certainty, which is what bothers me about the debate, the idea that science is settled," says Santorum. "Any time you hear a scientist say science is settled, that's political science, not real science."
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday June 09 2015, @07:43PM
Even to say they revolve around each other is to assume a definiteness that is not strictly warranted. It's quite possible to have an accurate theory in which the universe is centered around a particular pingpong ball. It would make doing the math a LOT more difficult, but it can be done. And it is KNOWN (for commonly accepted values of known) that the heliocentric model is wrong. The sun is moving around the galaxy, the galaxy is moving within the local group, the local group is moving towards "The Great Attractor" (which we can't see because there's too much stuff in the way...but it's in the direction of Virgo), etc. But do note the "commonly accepted values". These are normally accepted because they make the math easier, not because they are the only possible way of figuring things. And the "theories" are translations of the math into "English" (or French, Russian, Chinese, Basque, etc.) They didn't start out that way, but it's the math that can be tested against experiment, so it's the math that's the basis of the theory.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2015, @08:56PM
Many good points.