Homo Deus: a brief History of Tomorrow

Ethical judgement
Factual statement
Practical guideline
People ought to respect ancient imperial
decrees  more  than  present-day  popular
On
30
March
315,
Emperor
Constantine  granted  the  popes
Europeans  in  1315  ought
to
obey
the
Pope’s

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opinions.
dominion over Europe.
commands.
The  ethical  authority  of  ancient  imperial  decrees  is  far  from  self-evident.  Most
twenty-first-century  Europeans  think  that  the  wishes  of  present-day  citizens
trump the diktats of long-dead kings. However, science cannot join this ethical
debate, because no experiment or equation can decide the matter. If a modern-
day  scientist  time-travelled  to  medieval  Europe,  she  couldn’t  prove  to  our
ancestors  that  the  decrees  of  ancient  emperors  are  irrelevant  to  contemporary
political disputes.
Yet  the  story  of  Constantine’s  Donation  was  based  not  just  on  ethical
judgements.  It  also  involved  some  very  concrete  factual  statements,  which
science  is  highly  qualified  to  either  verify  or  falsify.  In  1441  Lorenzo  Valla  –  a
Catholic priest and a pioneer linguist – published a scientific study proving that
Constantine’s Donation was forged. Valla analysed the style and grammar of the
document,  and  the  various  words  and  terms  it  contained.  He  showed  that  the
document included words which were unknown in fourth-century Latin, and that
it  was  most  probably  forged  about  400  years  after  Constantine’s  death.
Moreover,  the  date  appearing  on  the  document  is  ‘30  March,  in  the  year
Constantine  was  consul  for  the  fourth  time,  and  Gallicanus  was  consul  for  the
first time’. In the Roman Empire, two consuls were elected each year, and it was
customary  to  date  documents  by  their  consulate  years.  Unfortunately,
Constantine’s  fourth  consulate  was  in  315,  whereas  Gallicanus  was  elected
consul  for  the  first  time  only  in  317.  If  this  all-important  document  was  indeed
composed in Constantine’s days, it would never have contained such a blatant
mistake. It is as if Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues had dated the American
Declaration of Independence 34 July 1776.
Today all historians agree that the Donation of Constantine was forged in the
papal  court  sometime  in  the  eighth  century.  Even  though  Valla  never  disputed
the  moral  authority  of  ancient  imperial  decrees,  his  scientific  study  did
undermine the practical guideline that Europeans must obey the Pope.
3
On 20 December 2013 the Ugandan parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality
Act, which criminalised homosexual activities, penalising some activities by life
imprisonment.  It  was  inspired  and  supported  by  evangelical  Christian  groups,
which maintain that God prohibits homosexuality. As proof, they quote Leviticus
18:22 (‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that
is detestable’) and Leviticus 20:13 (‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as
one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to

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be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads’). In previous centuries,
the  same  religious  story  was  responsible  for  tormenting  millions  of  people  all
over the world. This story can be briefly summarised as follows: