Katrina type storms more frequent but Christians don’t believe it

I harp on the Council of Nicaea quite a bit…generally not in a good way. But I see an opportunity for something similar here that might help reconcile some of the challenges between faith and science.

In 325 AD, in a brilliant master stroke, Roman Emperor Constantine assembled political and religious leaders of all stripes and hammered out a magnificent deal that consolidated all power in Rome. It’s also said that Constantine was old, frail and fearful of his fate after death, so he was hedging his bets on the then new, fragmented Christian faith. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

So, why can’t one or several world leaders convene a new “Ecumenical Council” to reconcile differences between politics, science and faith? This new “grand bargain” could serve as political cover for all council representatives and enable them to hammer out a deal that, for just one example, reinterprets the bible to accommodate the Jurassic period as a fact and not just a joke on humans by God. Similar negotiations might address fact deficits in man-on-the-street versions of Islam and so on.

This IS exactly what happened in 325 and subsequent Ecumenical Councils. Christianity was comprised of many factions and at war with itself and the rest of the world’s religions. Constantine managed to very artfully integrate pagan rituals and celebrations with Christian “holy-day” observances and create the likes of Christmas, Easter and so on…accommodating more or less all faiths of the time and bringing relative peace and harmony to the empire. Christianity became the official state religion, and thus “world” power (as it was at the time) was concentrated in Rome (yes, I know about all those other places in the world that were not under Roman rule, but Rome was still the world “super-power” of the time).

So, back to the hypothesis. If Constantine, who was by then a doddering old fart, could pull this off, why can’t we? Christianity has a long history of being dragged, kicking and screaming, into acknowledging the science of the day. At one time, they’d execute (e.g. murder) as heretics scientists who, for example, postulated a heliocentric universe. But sooner or later they get with the program and face reality. A new Ecumenical Council could achieve a rapid escalation in acceptance of current, undeniable reality by simply redefining facts and scripture to be in harmony. Dogma would change, and, therefore, the minds of the faithful would change.

We have the opportunity: Devil-incarnate, Barack Obama, and the new Pope, Francis, could pull this off as hosts and primary instigators. Other faith leaders and political leaders could be invited to the table along with about 1000 Jesuit scholars to pick apart the various iterations of the Bible — and another 1000 Islamic scholars (who have far greater faith in science to begin with) — and come up with a new faith-based description of reality that incorporates most of modern science. The end result would be a redefinition of reality that would be embraced by most mainstream faiths and further marginalize the most extreme “fundamentalists.”