Religious leaders should play a frontline role in mobilising people to take action against global warming, according to a leading scientist.
Lord May, a former chief scientist to the [British] government, said religious groups could use their influence to motivate believers into reducing the environmental impact of their lives.
The international reach of faith-based organisations and their authoritarian structures give religious groups an almost unrivalled ability to encourage a large proportion of the world’s population to go green, he said.
Lord May highlighted the value of religion in uniting communities to tackle environmental challenges ahead of his presidential address to the British Science Association festival at the University of Surrey in Guildford today…
Speaking before the address, May said religion had historically played a major role in policing social behaviour through the notion of a supernatural “enforcer”, a system that could help unify communities to tackle environmental challenges. “How better it is if the punisher is an all-powerful, all-seeing deity,” he said.
Well, I’ll give the guy a prize for (a sort-of) honesty.