Monthly Archives: October 2014

Big Bang Theories Are Not Inconsistent with the Biblical Creation Story

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via Media Distort Catholic View on Evolution

“After Pope Francis referenced the Big Bang and biological evolution this past Monday, a flurry of media reports appeared, contrasting Francis’ views with those of his predecessors and the Catholic tradition.

Pope Francis made a significant rhetorical break with Catholic tradition Monday by declaring that the theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real,” gushed MSNBC. And elsewhere, MSNBC reported that “conservatives in the United States” who have been unhappy with Pope Francis “today have one more reason to be upset.”

Yet the real story here is that Francis was just reiterating the Catholic understanding of evolution first articulated by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

Had the journalists dug a little deeper, they would have discovered that the “father of the Big Bang theory,” Georges Lemaître, was a Belgian cosmologist and a Catholic priest. He was also a former president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the very group Francis was addressing Monday.

The Catholic Catechism itself states that the “question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man.” It also notes that these discoveries “invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers.”

But it seems that these journalists really just wanted to drive a wedge between Francis and his immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, holding the former up as a free-wheeling liberal and tarring the second as a stodgy conservative.

The Independent newspaper in Ireland wrote that Francis’ comments put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

Elsewhere, NBC News reported that Francis’ remarks on Monday “appeared to be a theological break from his predecessor Benedict XVI, a strong exponent of creationism.”

Yet anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Benedict’s views on evolution would understand this claim to be patently false. As a cardinal, Ratzinger had studied theories of evolution for years, and had developed his own nuanced understanding of Darwinian evolution, on which he commented in several of his books.

Moreover, in 2006, Benedict said that it is “absurd” to suppose that evolution and creation are mutually exclusive, citing the “many scientific proofs in favor of evolution,” which “enriches our knowledge of life and being as such.” Benedict did hold, however, that “evolution does not answer every query, especially the great philosophical question: where does everything come from?” This was exactly the point Francis was making on Monday.

This leaves us with the puzzle of how so many semi-skilled journalists get these fundamental questions wrong. Are they willfully malicious or simply incompetent?

Either way, would such ineptitude be tolerated if they were writing about anything other than the Catholic Church?

via Media Distort Catholic View on Evolution,

 

via Independent.co.uk

The theories of evolution and the big bang are not inconsistent with the biblical creation story, according to the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

God is not “a magician with a magic wand” says Pope Francis while speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Tuesday.

“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said. “He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment.

The Pontiff continued:

“The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.  Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.” continued here

Top Jewish leader calls on Obama to ‘name, apologize for and repudiate’ official who mocked Netanyahu | Fox News

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Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has called on President Obama to “name, apologize for, and repudiate” the anonymous official quoted in an Atlantic Magazine article describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “chickenshit,” The Algemeiner reports.

In a telephone call with The Algemeiner from his Los Angeles office, an incensed Rabbi Hier declared: “It is rather ironic that a senior American official is prepared to curse his friends, yet when it comes to the mortal enemies of the United States — as the Iranians discovered during the recent nuclear negotiation — praise is heaped on them.”

Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece in The Atlantic extensively quoted an anonymous “senior Obama administration official” who showered Netanyahu with invective, saying, “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit.”

Goldberg then observed: “Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and ‘Aspergery.’ (These are verbatim descriptions; I keep a running list.)”

via Top Jewish leader calls on Obama to ‘name, apologize for and repudiate’ official who mocked Netanyahu | Fox News.

via Top Jewish leader calls on Obama to ‘name, apologize for and repudiate’ official who mocked Netanyahu | Fox News.

Ben Shapiro: The Myth or The True Story of Michael Brown, Gentle Giant

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Palestinians: Stop the Children’s Intifada!

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Nearly half of the Palestinians arrested by Jerusalem Police over the past few months are minors. Some of them are as young as nine.

These children are being sent to throw stones and firebombs, and launch fireworks at policemen and IDF soldiers, as well as at Israeli civilians and vehicles, including buses and the light rail in Jerusalem.

The exploitation of children in the fight against Israel has attracted little attention from the international community and media. Human rights groups and United Nations institutions have chosen to turn a blind eye to these human rights abuses.

Instead of condemning those who exploit the children and dispatch them to confront policemen and soldiers, these groups and institutions are busy denouncing Israel for targeting minors.

Continue Reading Article

via Palestinians: Stop the Children's Intifada! –.

Refuge of Sinners

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Refuge of Sinners

I sit in the sunshine of Your New Day.
Forgiveness has washed over me.
At Your Word,
Mercy has rained upon Your Beloved.

Hear now, You say to me:
You are safe, My little one.
You have chosen to hide yourself
In the Wound of My Sacred Heart.

The world about is cold and unholy,
Yet you are surrounded by angels of Light.
Warm and welcoming is the Living Flesh
That is your constant refuge.

I enfold you,
As you have  made My Body,
Your Food, your Heart,
Your own.

Copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Your Saints in Glory

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At the moment
You lift Your saintly friends
From the Earth,
And plant them
In the Heaven of Your Being,
At that precious moment,
And by that fateful act,
You endow
The sons and daughters
Of Your Covenant,
Remaining in this world,
With more,
Not less.

When Your friends
Journey forth,
All the Earth
Is, henceforth, blessed,
And not, otherwise,
Disposed or deprived.

As Your Servants,
Enter Your Realms of Light,
Their charisms become infinite,
In their capacity to bless.

When the smallest of the small
Cries out,
In the name of Your forever Friends,
These other Christs
Answer with Your power to succor.

In the Now of Your Essence,
They share Your Glory.
In Heaven,
There is only one glory,
Which cannot increase.
United to You,
Who, are unchanging,
This new rain falls to
the Earth,
And it’s consenting
creatures, here,
Can and do change,
In the shower
Of Your abundant dew fall.

We are, henceforth,
The beneficiaries of new riches,
Streaming from Your Side,
The Door, by which Your saints
Entered Eternity.

Glory upon glory falls,
As golden droplets,
Upon the land
Of sunrise and sunset.

Your gifts do not cease
With the death
Of those who are Yours.
Heaven is united to earth,
And in the celebration
Of their new birth,
Rejoices.

©2012 Joann Nelander