WUWT attacks the Catholic Church

Not satisfied with attacking scientists and science, now WUWT has set its sights on the Catholic Church. According to Tim Ball (archived here), the Pontiff doesn't realise that mitigating climate change means "reducing and controlling population" and "contradicts Catholic doctrine". Tim says that Pope Francis is a socialist who is "easily persuaded". Oh, and according to Tim, one shouldn't approach scientists if one wants to learn about science.

It's odd for WUWT to come out with a full bore attack on the Catholic Church because Anthony Watts recently declared himself as Catholic. Most Catholics are very loyal to their Church though many would recognise its faults and past transgressions. So if Anthony Watts had posted an article praising cigarette smoking, given his history, this would be the equivalent. Remember, Anthony favours the Heartland Institute, which waged a pro-smoking campaign for years, so he is not being inconsistent in his inconsistency.

What all this goes to show is that Anthony Watts has one goal which is way more important to him than his religion and his anti-smoking stance. His goal is to prevent anyone doing anything to mitigate global warming. He'll drop all his principles (did he ever have any?) and grab hold of anything, even Tim Ball, to achieve that end. His underlying motivation like that of many at WUWT, is mundane - it's money.


I won't dwell on Tim's article. It's the usual mishmash of disinformation, conspiracy theorising, anti-semitism and nuttery. I'll just let you know how some WUWT readers regard the Catholic Church and Tim's fantasies.

From the WUWT comments

I'm not surprised to see so many anti-Catholic comments in one place. Many people fear the Catholic Church, others despise it and some atheists are adamantly opposed to religion of any kind. What is a bit of a surprise is that Anthony Watts, being a Catholic, encouraged the attack. Religion gets tossed out the window when it conflicts with a higher faith, money.


General P. Malaise equates socialism, communism and progressive thinking as one and the same evil, with the Pope as its personification:

February 1, 2015 at 8:56 am
the Pope wants redistribution of wealth. which is very much against catholic doctrine since redistribution of wealth is socialist/progressive/communist speak for theft.

Golden takes a potshot at all the engineers at WUWT:

February 1, 2015 at 7:59 am
Rome had no science. Rome was an engineering society. They made absolutely no progress on the science of the ancient Greeks – who were they schoolmasters – and their slaves.

hunter doesn't entertain the thought that this time the Pope could be correct in agreeing with science.

February 1, 2015 at 7:31 am
This is not the first time that the Church has fallen into the trap of compromising with the world.It is disappointing to see a Jesuit, who are reputed to be well educated and discerning, fall for something as obvious as the climate obsession.

Patrick reckons the Catholic Church is part of the fantastical global conspiracy.

February 1, 2015 at 7:35 am
It shouldn’t surprise you, Dr. Ball, that the Pope is supportive of the UN. The Pope is a Jesuit. The Jesuits have been intertwined with the Communists and globalists for years especially in Central and South America. The Jesuits have always been behind Fidel Castro as well. There is no shortage of literature on the subject. In fact, Google is your friend.

MCourtney looks to evidence, but then shifts the goalposts:

February 1, 2015 at 8:24 am
There is evidence for evolution – it is observed.
There is evidence for DNA – it is observed.
There is evidence for Plate Tectonics – it is observed.

I know you're waiting for MCourtney to say "there is evidence of global warming - it is observed":

You'll be disappointed. Being a denier MCourtney suddenly shifts tack and opts for denier memes:

But newsworthy AGW- we haven’t seen the tropical hotspot, the acceleration of warming post-1950 or climate models with predictive power. We haven’t go the evidence.

If you let AGW in to the science fold, just because it is studied without finding any evidence, then you really need to let Astrology, Ufology and cryptobiology in too.
But for me, not yeti.

Bob Weber doesn't try to hide his political leanings and paranoid conspiracy ideation, and uses them as an excuse to reject science:

February 1, 2015 at 7:49 am
If the shoe was on the other foot, the typical lefty Marxist warmist would howl and piss and moan if a conservative religious icon stood up and told the world what it had to do, whatever it was, and they would shout that person down. Hypocrites.

The FALSE PROPHET here is a scientifically clueless foolish tool. The scary part is he is working with the most anti-Christian rabblerouser this country has ever had as an occupant of the oval office.

The grand pooba ought to think really carefully here: as temperatures drop off from low solar activity during the next few years, he will clearly be seen as either stupid, or a liar, or both, and his personal credibility and that of his church will drop off precipitiously with the temperatures.

Does the leader of one of the world’s largest religions really think God intended for humanity to be led down the destructive Agenda 21 road based on a pack of lies?

General P. Malaise wrote a lot of comments like this and worse (anti-muslim etc), and wasn't chastised by anyone that I could see.

February 1, 2015 at 8:48 am
this Pope is a communist. a one world proponent and a redistribution advocate. and yes he is actively contradicting Catholic doctrine. 

In fact there were a few comments expanding on Tim Ball's coded anti-muslim sentiments, which I won't repeat here.


Read this comment from Dawtgtomis and ask yourself, how can anyone claim that WUWT doesn't attract/encourage wacky conspiracy theorists? (Not that you need more proof. Publishing any of Tim Ball's articles is sufficient evidence that Anthony Watts deliberately sets out to attract the nut jobs.)

February 1, 2015 at 8:48 am
Hidden agendas and mass deception have become the preferred method of governance in the “brave new world”. As religion is among the oldest forms of governance, these tactics have been employed successfully for centuries to control the commoners. The first thing we teach our children is respect of authority and adherence to it, without dissent. Those of authority therefore determine through consensus what is truth in the collective mind of the populace and disseminate it through the media they control. Education becomes mere programming, with the bourgeois discouraged from pursuing higher thought and punished for skepticism of established dogma.
IMHO, it is this which presently threatens the future of Humanity more than anything else

The mods at WUWT, to their credit, allowed a few normal people to comment. icouldnthelpit wrote:

February 1, 2015 at 9:19 am
Tim Ball gets more and more bonkers.

And you know why the mods let that comment through. It was to give the conspiracy theorists some target practice. It didn't take all that long for r murphy to show up supporting Tim Ball and his paranoid fantasies:

February 1, 2015 at 9:50 am
The fact that Dr. Ball has the courage to speak out about the behind the scenes machinations of the elites does not indicate a weakness of mind but rather incredible courage to speak truth to power, Elites collude, always have, always will, to believe otherwise is incredibly naive.

Oh, it gets even better. icouldnthelpit referred to the Lewandowsky paper:

February 1, 2015 at 10:07 am
I suppose if they can fake the moon landings they can do anything.

Sure enough, a conspiracy theorist took the bait. BFL saying "who really knows for sure...":

February 1, 2015 at 10:41 am
It’s not that the moon landings were actually faked, but that the government would have been fully and immorally capable of doing it if they had decided too. That knowledge makes it all too easy to believe many of the “supposedly” loony conspiracy theories because who really knows for sure…….

The discussion devolves from here on in, if you can try to imagine that. I didn't get to the very end, but I read far enough. You can read more here if you are so inclined.