The Pope is a Pragmatist? (post 31)

In October of 2014, Pope Francis declared that the theories of the big bang and evolution were consistent with the Catholic interpretation of God's creation of the world.

Today the Pope demanded that world leaders act swiftly to combat climate change.

In doing so I think he has come to a powerful conclusion: the only way to move forward, with a positive mindset, in this world full of pain, hatred, injustice and bitter disagreement, is to do so within a spirit of pragmatism.

Pragmatism says that it's OK to have disagreements - in fact, it's healthy.  However, when it becomes imperative that certain disagreements be resolved and unified action is required - then disputes should be settled in light of the best scientific data, theories and models we have available.

This is not to say science can't be wrong. Science can be wrong. And scientists can change their minds as new evidence comes to light or new theories make sense of old data.

There is overwhelming consensus among world scientists for accepting the big bang, evolution and climate change as realities we must accept if we want to understand where we come from and how to move forward.  These theories have proven their utility and predictive power time and time again. It is possible that new evidence could lead to a paradigm shift, but such a paradigm shift would have to preserve most of the mechanics and predictive power of the current theories - much as Relativity preserved most of the mechanics and predictive power of Newtonian Physics.