The Pope claims that global warming "prophets of doom" are scare mongering.

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

This is one of the things about the issue of global warming that had me very confused at first.

Why were very religious Christians to against blaming humans for the obvious climate changes? I really could not figure it out at first.

It even showed up in the truly frightening documentary "Jesus Camp" in a scene where a mother is homeschooling her son about the subject.

But then after I thought about it a little longer it became obvious why many Christians were not exactly embracing the concept.

You see one of the main selling points for Christianity is that this planet was created for God's people. He made it so that it would meet all of humankind's needs. So the concept that the plan was flawed or that God was not prepared for our technological progress and how it would impact the planet, goes against a very fundamental pillar of the monotheistic belief.

I also came to realize that the more simple belief systems like spiritism, animism, Buddhism, or Taoism, which promote living in harmony with nature have had much less of a destructive impact on the planet as a whole. It really is the religions which preach that all natural resources have been placed here for our exploitation that have caused the greatest harm.

Just a little food for thought on this Thursday morning.