Pope Francis recently released a message condemning “fake news” so prevalent in today’s world we all live in (Jan 24th, 2018). He said the first “fake news” dates back to the “crafty serpent” who lied to Eve in the garden of Eden, according to the Book of Genesis.
How can I let this gem go by without some pontification of my own? 😊
So, here it is:
Pope Francis is one of the nicest man on earth. He is loving, compassionate and humble. Genuinely cares about the poor, the disenfranchised and the discriminated, very admirable attributes consistent with the spirit of being a true Christian, as I understand it.
He has been sincerely trying to form bridges with other Religions, nurturing interfaith-dialogues everywhere.
He is more modern and forward-thinking than the previous Popes on the issues of women, gays and the Catholic Church. He is right on target about climate change, especially the undeniable reality of global warming and its dangers to the planet.
Unfortunately, he has so far been negligent about the pedophile priests in the Catholic Church and their heinous crimes against children. The severity of these crimes are very relevant and important for the goals of “The Traffick’, the dramatic WebSeries I write, direct, produce and post on these Facebook Pages. More on that crucial issue later.
Pope Francis seems highly intelligent and quite knowledgeable in many worldly matters, too. “Revealed Knowledge” is his area of expertise, of course. Wish he knew more about the Scientific Knowledge, even if he did not accept its supremacy over any other kind of “knowledge”. Well, if he did, I guess he wouldn’t be the Pope, would he? May be the Pope’s scientific-advisor at the Vatican, but not the Pope himself, for sure (and, I don’t even know whether such a position as the Pope’s “scientific-advisor” actually exists 😊
Therefore, it comes as no great surprise that when the good Pope comments on worldly matter such as “fake news”, his judgement is completely guided by the “Revealed Knowledge” (from several thousand years back) and not a bit by the Scientific Knowledge (current and continuously growing).
So, he calls the “crafty serpent” in the garden of Eden the originator of the first “fake news”, while ignoring the fact that pretty much every story in the Bible ( and, in other Holly-Books that were inspired by the Bible ) are a big collection of “fake news”, after all. For example: Adam and Eve of the Genesis; Noah of the Flood; Moses of the Exodus, and on and on….
He fails to see that these are just myths, not actual historical facts, passed on from generation to generation over millennia, and mostly by oral tradition before anyone put them down on paper.
Pope’s mind is conditioned by and therefore highly focused on “Revealed Knowledge”, so he fails to see what would have been obvious to someone of his intelligence but with a better understanding of what scientific knowledge is and how scientific method works.
In this day and age, we all need to accept the fact that the only news that have a chance to be true rather than false and “fake” are those told by Science. To reiterate, Scientific Method, not the “Revealed Knowledge” championed by various Religions happens to be the only reliable way to getting at the truth about how the Universe really works.
This is not to deny the useful contributions of Religion to morality, ethics and to human comfort and peace of mind, in general. Yet, it is to deny Religion’s false and fake claims as to how the Universe really works.
In Conclusion: In Pope Francis’ recent message, the underlying problem is not so much that the “crafty serpent” was the perpetuator of some “fake news” but the whole story of Adam and Eve in the Biblical-Genesis itself, in its entirety, is nothing but “fake news”, to begin with.
Thank you for patiently reading my pontification on the subject. Much appreciated, even if you might not agreed with what I said. 🙏
May peace be upon us all.
Celik Kayalar, PhD.
Writer, Director & Producer of “The Traffick”
Former faculty at UC Berkeley and UCLA
in chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology.
PHOTOS (left to right)
o Pope Francis
o Adam & Eve and the crafty serpent in the garden of Eden (Fresco at Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo)
o Mr. Fake-News, himself: Saint Paul the Apostle convincing the gullible folk that he encountered Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus, years after the presumed death of Jesus on the cross (Painting by John H.Mortimer)
Celik Kayalar 