A New Way to Talk about Science

Up until last week, I never thought I would be reading an encyclical letter, but last week, a friend shared some passages from Laudato si’ On Care for Our Common Home, and today I bought it in book form. Here is the passage that made me want to read what Pope Francis has to say:

Following a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities, some sectors of society are now adopting a more critical approach. We see increasing sensitivity to the environment and the need to protect nature, along with a growing concern, both genuine and distressing, for what is happening to our planet. Let us review, however cursorily, those questions which are troubling us today and which we can no longer sweep under the carpet. Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it.

My initial sense is that this pope has an interesting and effective way of writing that might be able to bring science and religion together.  I hope so.

This letter is also availableonline.