Jens Hansen on the Church and the Climate Summit

Danish professor of philosophy Jens Morten Hansen criticises in the daily Jyllands-Posten the plans of Danish churches to ring their bells in celebration of the World Climate Summit that takes place in December in Copenhagen: "I'm all in favour of a climate agreement but I detest the idea that there is an infallible stance here. In particular ringing the bells for the climate is a dreadful way to embrace the sciences that discovered the climate changes, researched them and described them. … To sanctify the prevailing opinion among climate experts with a Catholic rite represents not only a break with a valuable tradition, but also repudiates conflicting opinions. This is a step in the direction of opinion terrorism and brings back the banned Inquisition which saw [Giordano] Bruno burn at the stake and [Galileo] Galilei sent to prison. Are we now to voluntarily jump into this quagmire on the other side of the narrow path of virtue and sanctify one particular scientific view? No, this way of creating heroes is wrong and undermines the independence of science, just as the proscriptions of the Middle Ages did."

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