Vatican Conference on Evolution

The Vatican is sponsoring a scientific conference on Evolution on March 3-7 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. The liberal Cardinal Paul Poupard and his former office, the Pontifical Council for Culture, as well as the University of Notre Dame and six pontifical universities are co-sponsors. I and others are not optimistic about this conference because organizers say intelligent design "represents poor theology and science."

The Church [needs] to look at Evolution again, "from a broader perspective", explained Professor Gennaro Auletta, the head of the Science and Philosophy faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the main conference organiser.

I found that Georges Chantraine will give one of the closing conference talks on the "Theological Vision of Evolution by Teilhard de Chardin.'" Chardin claimed to synthesize evolution with theology and imagined a dazzling array of creative projections of man's evolutionary ascendancy to 'supreme consciousness', a God-like state. I read two of Chardin's books with awe when I was young and impressionable (and stupid).

Then I read "The Trojan Horse in the City of God" by Dietrich von Hildebrand [called (informally) by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church."], who showed that Chardin was a dishonest paleontologist and rogue priest whose disbelief in original sin (and other Church doctrines) meant Christ's sacrifice on the cross had no salvation meaning.

"It was only after reading several of his works, however, that I fully realised the catastrophic implications of his philosophical ideas, and saw the absolute incompatibility of his theology fiction with Christian revelation and with the doctrine of the Church."

Others also believed Chardin's teachings were a perversion of the Christian faith, including Jacques Maritain and Étienne Gilson and many others. Here are some links that show why Teilhard de Chardin remains a dangerous enemy:

• Catholic church monitum (warning) in 1962, on the writings of Teilhard de Chardin
• Moral Philosophy and Current Events "Heretic Extraordinaire" by Dr. J.P. Hubert
• AD2000, Comments on Chardin and his views by other Catholic theologians
  
• Review of The Phenomenon of Man by biologist Peter Medawar, from Mind, N.S., 70 (1961):99-106.
• 1989 review of Wolfgang Smith's Teilhardism and the New Religion, an analysis and refutation of the teachings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• Teilhard, Darwin, and the Cosmic Christ –autumn 1999 newsletter, Southern Papist Perspective
• Sean Hyland, Teilhard de Chardin: Rogue Theologian (establishing that the condemnations still stand)

Professor Gennaro Auletta, who is head of the Science and Philosophy faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the main conference organiser told Edward Pentin of Newsweek (Newsweek Blog): “We hope this will really be an example of how to hold an open discussion without overtones. We simply wish to dialogue between people whose mission is to understand a little more.”

So will creationists ( aren't we supposed to believe God created us?) who believe in intelligent design be invited to the Vatican Conference? Here is what the UK Register says:

The Vatican gave the Creationist lobby a left right sign of the cross today, announcing it would stage a conference on Darwinism next month and declaring that it was one of the Fathers of the Church that thought up the idea in the first place.

At one point the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University wasn't going to give Creationism or Intelligent Design a hearing at all. But apparently the organisers have relented, and will consider Intelligent Design as a "cultural phenomenon" rather than as a valid scientific theory, giving US-based IDers the chance to be smirked at by a room full of Monseigneurs, Cardinals and Bishops.

Previewing the conference yesterday, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Church's Pontifical Council for Culture, conceded the Church had been hostile to Darwin on occasion. But, he said, the Church had never formally condemned Darwin, and he noted that in the last 50 years a number of Popes had accepted evolution as a valid scientific approach to human development.

In view of the Vatican 4-day presentation highlighting the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" (and lots more Darwinian publicity elsewhere), be sure and take a look at this video with three scientists who contend there are major problems with Darwin's theory.

Merrily We Gently Row....

"Row, row, row your boat..." was always a lot of fun to sing in grade school, and was the song used by the nuns to teach rounds. First one group would begin the first line, then a line later the second group would join in by singing the first line, and the third group would begin singing when the first group had reached "Merrily." [I like the word 'merrily' because it so akin to the lovely word 'gay' which has been ruined in these past thirty years.]

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

I've canoed downstream on a number of Ozarks rivers, and family canoeing is excellent recreation. We've sung and enjoyed the song many times because it has a good tune and is easy to sin. It's definitely the song to sing while paddling down a beautiful stream in the Irish Wilderness of Missouri. This was where that Catholic priest, Father John Hogan of St Louis, dreamt would be the place where Irish immigrants could escape the oppression of urban life in St. Louis.

However, the song, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" into its current form teaches children the wrong thing because of the last nihilistic line, "LIFE is but a dream." Moreover, if you gently row downstream in your LIFE, the natural current will leads you to wherever it is going, rather than where you should be directed. The third line emphasizes that you will be quite "merry" at going the easy way. But it is the last line that clearly states that LIFE isn't reality, implying that it doesn't make any difference what you do in your life.

Here is my suggestion for a change to the last line. [There's also a funny multi-stanza version published on Wikipedia without the offending line.] No copyright is in force, because the song was published in The Franklin Square Song Collection in 1881.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

To wish is but a dream.

The original tune is credited to the Pennsylvania Masonic educator, Dr. Eliphalet Oram Lyte, who was lauded in his lifetime as:

...president of the Pennsylvania Teachers' Association. He is a life member of the National Educational Association, of which he has served as director for a number of years. He was president of the N. E. A. in 1899, and he has also been vice-president of the council of education of that body. He is likewise a member of the American Academy of Political Science. Fraternally Dr. Lyte is a thirty-third degree Mason, receiving his last degree in 1885....

Directions from Sister Saba

She was about 12 years old in the 'old country' when her father was drafted to fight in World War I. She and her mother never knew when or where his death occurred, or where his body lay, just that he was one of many who died anonymously in that terrible war. In her 70's when I began to know her, she looked confidently forward to meeting both her parents someday in heaven.

Her vocation to the religious life led her to a Franciscan convent first in the 'old country,' then to a new convent in the U.S. sometime in the 1920's. Her religious order was devoted to instructing young children in Catholic education.

This very small (petite) nun wore a long black habit, a headpiece that covered all her hair, and functional black leather shoes. Glasses framed her slender face that clearly was once beautiful. Always busy, but never too busy, she seemed to be totally directed to pleasing God.

My children and I remember Sr. Saba vividly and fondly as a teacher in the early 1970's. When she was told she was too old to teach, she begged to stay as the sacristan and as the librarian for the parish school. Thus, at the age of about 75 she took a class in library science at a secular college.

Sr. Saba studied very hard for a test, yet was told she had missed a key question--"What kind of books should you recommend to your students?" She was very distressed that her answer had been judged wrong and asked me whether I thought her answer was incorrect. The answer she had given was to recommend books that would teach Christian values and encourage moral actions. In contrast, the secular instructor judged the 'correct' answer to be those books that explored new ideas.

I laughed and told Sr. Saba that her answer was right. I think it might have been her first real experience with secular humanism in schools and its materialistic kinks and prejudices.

In the 1930's some of Sr. Saba's relatives had moved to St. Louis, MO from the 'old country' and had quit going to Mass. Sr. Saba said they did not resume the practice of their faith until after two Legion of Mary members knocked on their door. Sr. Saba was eternally grateful and so in her late 70's she also volunteered to be the spiritual director of the Legion of Mary.

The pastor was very comfortable with Sr. Saba's always humble, yet firm and insightful spiritual direction. Here's some of what I remember about and learned from Sr. Saba.

• When you pray the Hail Mary in the Rosary, don't you dare mumble the words, 'pray for us now and at the hour of our death.' Your earthly life may end sooner than you expect.
  

• 
• Braid and weave palms distributed at Palm Sunday Mass. Make crosses, grape bunches, cords, and other beautiful religious objects and give blessed handmade gifts to others. [See photo of Sr. Saba's handiwork from over 25 years ago.]

• When you don't know which direction to take (and neither one seems preferable), toss a miraculous medal in the air and select the way to go based on which side lands up!

• Don't give up on anyone, especially people who are bitter at God and everyone else. Once a disabled young man was very nasty to her, yet she was unaffected by his bad remarks and remained only concerned about him.

Dear Sr. Saba, may God reward you with His choicest blessings in heaven. [The youthful Sr. Saba had celebrated only 20 birthdays when she died in 1985. Can you guess why?]

Uneasy Observation from Davos

The Financial Times sent a number of its editors and columnists to report on the pessimistic views of the 2,600 attendees at the 2009 World Economic Forum at Davos in the Swiss Alps. A special 16-page section of the newspaper reported on the Forum activities. Here's the item that made me the most uneasy.

Last year's nebulous topic of "the power of collaborative innovation" seemed a world away as a darker theme took hold. The concern about social unrest voiced by Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, was shared by several delegates.

"I think people are overly focused on the economic implications and not adequately focused on the social implications," warned Rich Gelfond, chief executive of the big screen cinema operator Imas. "People seem somewhat myopic. You wonder whether next year at Davos people are going to say, 'Why didn't we see the social unrest coming and the increase in global conflict?'"

Send the Pope a Sign of Your Support

European traditional Catholics have started a multi-language website to show support and daily prayers for Pope Benedict XVI because of his brave gesture to remove the excommunications from the SSPX. For this, the Pope has suffered many external and internal assaults for his decision to try to restore unity to the church.

Doesn't it seem to you that the devil does not want Christians unified against his wicked works? I've signed the Internet petition, as have many others that you know. Will you do the same? If so, go here.

Special Church Collections and Envelopes

It took Mother over 80 years to determine that she couldn't keep putting $1 (or more) bills in every solicitation letter she received from Catholic 0rganizations. She had contributed regularly to close to a dozen different organizations over many years. and as you might expect, her small but very consistent generosities were now recognized by many, many others.

Finally, she complained to me that she couldn't keep responding to two or three 'mooching' letters that arrived almost daily. I finally persuaded her to select those charities that she felt were the best and to give all her money (outside of what she gives to support her parish) to the selected few. Now she was able to throw the other envelopes in the trash without feeling like she was committing a sin.

The number of potential donation recipients in the Catholic church seems to have increased, even as the Catholic church attendance and practice has decreased. Diocesan collections (for Catholic Charities and other endeavors) in the Kansas City area include:

1. Archbishop's Call to Share (Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas)
2. Special Collection to Benefit Seminary (Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph)
3. Retired Religious Collection (Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph)

See the comprehensive list at St. Charles parish website for examples of special second collections at a local parish level.

In addition to necessary collections for selected good Catholic organizations, the parish, and the diocese, additional church collections mandated in 2009 by the USCCB include:

1. Church in Latin America
2. Church in Central and Eastern Europe
3. Black and Indian Missions
4. The Catholic Relief Services Collection
5. Holy Land
6. Catholic Home Missions Appeal
7. Catholic Communication Campaign
8. Peter’s Pence
9. Catholic University of America
10. World Mission Sunday
11. Catholic Campaign for Human Development
12. Retirement Fund for Religious

My fellow Kansas City Catholic blogger, Curmudgeon, has posted two articles on the almost two dozen 'special' envelopes that traditional Catholics receive each year requesting donations to the above list.

But here's a quandry. We really can't just not give anything outside our parish...ever. We do have an obligation to support the wider Church...not just our own community. Many of us do just that...by supporting faithful religious orders, for instance. But is that enough? Canon 1262 provides that "The faithful are to give support to the Church by responding to appeals and according to the norms issued by the conference of bishops."

Now let's acknowledge that checkbooks can be wielded as effective weapons. Wealthy leftist individuals and wealthy leftist foundations often use the checkbook as their weapon of choice. While we can't perhaps write such big checks and wield such big weapons as these guys (they've got .45s; we've got .22s), we can make ourselves heard using our checkbooks.

Curmudgeon identifies a good procedure and alternate donation scenarios that respond to USCCB-mandated Church collections where your money may not be directed to the best places and activities. For more information, see Curmudgeon's two posts, here and here. Highly recommended!

Darwin Celebration -- NOT YET!

In view of the 2-hr PBS presentation highlighting the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" (and lots more Darwinian publicity elsewhere), be sure and take a look at this video with three scientists who contend there are major problems with Darwin's theory.

Entanglement with Christ through Transubstantiation

Persons who receive the Eucharist consecrated by a Catholic priest eat and drink the substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross of 2000 years ago. John Young in The Wanderer newspaper (Feb 12, 2009) observes that this mystery and defined Catholic doctrine is being referred to as "only a theological opinion" in a "widespread reluctance to accept the clear teaching of the Church on the nature of the Real Presence."

Young continues, "Transubstantiation has become an embarrassment" to certain philosophers who "can't logically admit substance because they restrict knowledge to the observable, and substances are not observable." He argues "the substance is the underlying reality beneath the appearances we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell....the substance is the essence, the basic nature, of the thing."

Some years ago, the wife of a friend expressed doubts about the transubstantiation of bread and wine into Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist. She seemed not to understand the accidents of bread and wine continue to exist after the priest's consecration, but that the underlying substance has been changed. Her doubts about transubstantiation seem unreasonable because of what we know about the nature of matter from the study of quantum physics. Homiletic and Pastoral Review (oldest magazine for priests in the U.S.) published an article several years ago on why knowledge of quantum mechanics, including quarks, made transubstantiation easier for the mind to grasp. [I think the author was Abraham Vorghese.]

When you interact with Jesus during Holy Communion, quantum physics teaches an 'entanglement' occurs, while theology teaches that you share in the life of God. The introduction to Louisa Gilder's new book, The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn, gives an unusual insight into what happens when two entities interact. Apply this next scientific paragraph written by Gilder to Holy Communion when we interact with God, the Son, made man.

ANY TIME TWO ENTITIES INTERACT, they entangle. It doesn't matter if they are photons (bits of light), atoms (bits of matter), or bigger things made of atoms like dust motels, microscopes, cats, or people [my emphasis]. The entanglement persists no matter how far these entities separate, as long as they don't subsequently interact with anything else--an almost impossible tall order for a cat or a person, which is why we don't notice the effect.

But the motions of subatomic particles are dominated by entanglement. It starts when they interact; in doing so, they lose their separate existence. No matter how far they move apart, if one is tweaked, measured, observed, the other seems to instantly respond, even if the whole world lies between them. And no one knows how.

Louisa Gilder describes entanglement as "the seemingly telepathic communication between separated particles--one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics. Einstein in 1935 [in "the most cited [paper] of all Einstein's roster of glittering, earthshaking work"] called entanglement "spooky action at a distance."

Quantum physics and entanglement seem much better than Newtonian physics at understanding substances, even transubstantiation and reception of Holy Communion (though more insightful physics can never describe elements such as the love exchanged between the two parties in this God-man relationship). Yet from quantum mechanics, we now know that appearances observed in our everyday life are simply shadows of the hidden realities of substances. We also know from Schrödinger, that an entangled state can be used to steer a distant particle into one of a set of states. [That makes me think of God's spiritual direction of souls to a state of sanctity--"Be ye perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."]

Entanglement with God (who self-limits himself to time and space and who pours out his life to communicants) seems to relate to mutual envelopment that has always been taught to occur during reception of the Eucharist. I see a correspondence between "communication between separated particles" and my own experience at Mass. Union with Christ during Holy Communion persists until broken (only partially?) by succeeding interactions with the world.

"God Exists" on London Buses

If you remember, I recently wrote a post on London buses with signs saying God doesn't exist. Fortunately, the bus company has been taking lots of orders for counter-ads . The Times Religion Correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, comments on her blog:

Who apart from Transport for London is benefiting from this influx of cash into advertising for or against the existence of God? The churches might not be able to compete individually with Richard Dawkins' £150,00 atheist bus campaign running across several cities in the UK but between them they are putting up a pretty good show. I wouldn't cite any of it as proof or otherwise for the existence of God, even given the laws of probability. But if there is a God, He or She must be having quite a laugh.

The latest to hit the streets with pro-God buses are The Christian Party, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church. The Christian Party is paying for buses to carry the slogan: 'There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.' The Trinitarian Bible Society has chosen a line from Psalm 53: 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.'

Pro-life Red Letter: Feb 28--Mar 1

Get a red envelope. You can buy them at an office supply store. Better yet, order 500 red envelopes from a paper supply company such as XPedX.com and distribute them to your family and friends, and at your church. [XPedX in Kansas City charges only $36.79 for 500 red envelopes.] If you have a white envelope, color the front with a red crayon, and leave only the address area as white!

On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington , D.C.

On the back, write the following message.

"This red envelope represents the blood of one child who died in abortion.
It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world.
No to FOCA!"

Put it in the mail, and send it. Try to mail the empty red envelopes on the weekend of Feb 28-March 1st. Of course, you can send a red envelope anytime you want, but for the White House to get millions at once would be a powerful message against FOCA. Fifty million red envelopes would represent the over 50 million children who have died from abortion in the U.S. since 1973.

This good idea was received in my email box today. For more information see SendARedEnvelope.org.

The Devil Plays his Cards Well

Perhaps this has happened to other Catholic bloggers. You get these great, imaginative, and wonderful ideas for future blog posts during Mass. For some time, I've mistakenly thought they were inspirations from God. Now I am convinced they come from the devil. Here's why.

The devil is aware that distractions during Mass will be rejected and converted into discussions with Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. So the devil makes a trade-off. he wickedly provides really good ideas for posts, even spiritually valuable ones, to trade for your time with Christ. Guess who gets the better deal?

The devil knows quite well that most of his good ideas for posts will never be implemented because of my forgetfulness and lack of time. But he wins because I am distracted from what I should be doing--adoring God and communicating with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil plays his cards well. Just got to remember the purpose of his game.

Three Epic Milestones....

I'm stealing these comments on Church events in January 2009, as posted by Fidei Defensor at American Catholic.

After the election of the most pro-choice pres. in US history things seemed dark. Then in January, the month he is sworn in and the month of the 50th aniv. of the Vatican Council three things happen (always in threes)…

1-Potential for total healing between the Vatican and SSPX

2-Potential for a personal prelature for Anglicans is in the works (this could be huge even beyond the 400,000 in the TAC, indeed I think this could catch on like wild-fire perhaps even in Africa.)

3-New Russian Orthodox Patriarch is the most favorable to Catholics possible in the present Russian context and is in the mold of the Patriarch of Constantinople in terms of viewing the Church East and West as “two-lungs,” and I think it is at last a possibility that the Pope can visit Russia.

....if I [Fidei Defensor] was still a blogger I’d post on this, these three things, taken by themselves are meaningless footnotes to the msm but I think in the context Church history these are all epic milestones.

God bless and protect his Holiness. The Pope who so many liberals said would be so divisive is turning out to be the great unifier and the unity has come not due to pandering and pleasantries but rather a robust embrace of Truth.

New March for Life Movie

Jack Cashill announces on his website that he is making a new movie!

Today, in Washington D.C., on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Liberty University law professor Phill Kline will be joining scores of thousands of other protestors in the annual March For Life.

I am here as well. We are shooting the first ever high-end documentary of the march. Called “Thine Eyes,” it will be narrated by the ever-lovely actress Jennifer O’Neill, who is also here. (Please see ThineEyes.org for details).

Few people in Washington, however, will have paid the price Kline did to get here. Just two weeks ago, Kline was the District Attorney of Kansas City’s most affluent suburban county.

Two years ago, Kline was Attorney General of the state of Kansas. Four years before that, when he was elected AG, the then 42 year-old Kline showed real promise of becoming a national political leader....

Read the rest of Cashill's column here. Phill Kline is a true 'dry' martyr for the pro-life cause. I hope he is generously featured in Cashill's new movie.

Daughter and Father--The Gilders

I've been trying to learn more about quantum physics and have found a number of sites with lectures and articles. By far the most interesting video is an hour-long presentation by a beautiful young woman, Louisa Gilder. She is the author of the new book, "The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn."

A brilliantly original and richly illuminating exploration of entanglement, the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles—one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics.

In 1935, in what would become the most cited of all of his papers, Albert Einstein showed that quantum mechanics predicted such a correlation, which he dubbed “spooky action at a distance.” In that same year, Erwin Schrödinger christened this spooky correlation “entanglement.” Yet its existence wasn’t firmly established until 1964, in a groundbreaking paper by the Irish physicist John Bell. What happened during those years and what has happened since to refine the understanding of this phenomenon is the fascinating story told here....

Drawing on the papers, letters, and memoirs of the twentieth century’s greatest physicists, Louisa Gilder both humanizes and dramatizes the story by employing their own words in imagined face-to-face dialogues. Here are Bohr and Einstein clashing, and Heisenberg and Pauli deciding which mysteries to pursue. We see Schrödinger and Louis de Broglie pave the way for Bell, whose work is here given a long-overdue revisiting. And with his characteristic matter-of-fact eloquence, Richard Feynman challenges his contemporaries to make something of this entanglement....

The book was published November 2008 and is receiving very good comments from well-known reviewers, as shown at the Amazon website. Quantum entanglement of particles and the history of science are of great interest to me and I am looking forward to reading Louisa Gilder's new book.

Louisa Gilder is the daughter of George Gilder, the founder of the Discovery Institute and author of many conservative books. Among many other things, he is the author of Sexual Suicide (1973, revised and reissued as Men and Marriage in 1986), upon which Time chose Gilder as the "Male Chauvinist Pig of the Year."

Here's an example of Discovery Institute work on bioethics:

Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith is Discovery's most active contributor to bioethics. Mr. Smith, a prolific author, activist, and former Ralph Nader co-author, has become one of the nation's leading advocates for the value and sanctity of human life. His most recent book, Consumer's Guide to the Brave New World presents a clear-eyed vision of two potential futures: In the first, biotechnology will be a powerful tool to treat disease and improve the quality of our lives. But in another, darker scenario, we will be steered onto the path that Aldous Huxley and other prophetic writers first warned against fifty year ago, before science fiction became science fact. Two of his other books, Forced Exit and Culture of Death, examined assisted suicide and the biomedical industry respectively. Mr. Smith is currently working on a book critiquing the radical animal rights movement.

The goals of the Discovery Institute have been attacked because they would "reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions."

If you don't recognize the organization, Discovery Institute, see it in action in Ben Stein's movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed that I've praised in at least three previous posts.

Catholic Priest Gives Prayer in Kansas Legislature

A friend who lives in Lawrence, Kansas told me the good news that Fr. Brian Schieber used the opportunity to give the January 22, 2009 invocation to the Kansas legislature to decry abortion. The story is reported in the Lawrence Journal World.

A guest chaplain upset some Kansas House members Thursday with a prayer remembering millions of children that he said were "legally exterminated" by abortion and decrying a national "culture of death."

The Rev. Brian Schieber, pastor at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church, gave his prayer on the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion across the nation.

"We remember the over 53 million beautiful, innocent unborn children who have been legally exterminated in our land," he said in his prayer. "By Your grace, guide us to transform this culture of death into a culture of life and a civilization of love."

Back in the late 60's I attended a Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation conference in St. Louis and met the sister-in-law of Eleanor Schlafly, the executive director of the Foundation (now celebrating its 50th year).

Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum was running for a national office within the Republican Party and some of her friends, including my spiritual Godmother Lucy, met to work on her nomination and I got to tag along. Rather ignorant of how the world works, I asked Phyllis why it was so important to get elected to this position.

Phyllis' answer was preceded (rightfully!) by a look of almost complete disbelief that someone could ask such a dumb question, but I'll always remember her very informative answer. "An elected office usually has little real power to do things, but it is an excellent platform from which to speak to others and convince them of your viewpoints."

Way to go, Fr. Brian!

US, We Have A Problem....

"This ominous statement from the new White House website [now promoting abortion 'rights' and homosexuality] left me with a sinking feeling that our discussions about our Christian faith in a "pluralistic" society - and in the public square - may also be at risk." (Thanks to Carolee Adams and the Brown Pelican Society for this important news)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/additional/
Faith

Senator Obama also laid down principles for how to discuss faith in a pluralistic society, including the need for religious people to translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values during public debate.

Winter Robins

I've never seen so many robins in the wintertime. Several hundred were in my back yard at one time in late December. The last few mornings have brought five to ten robins to eat snow and seeds next to the sheltered black raspberry bushes where a small amount of snow remains. This morning the robins were joined by a sizable flock of blackbirds and a few redbirds.

Our place is blessed with many songbirds. Once we had a guest from western Kansas visit us in late May. The early morning weather was warm and her bedroom windows were open. My friend came out to breakfast saying that it was a pure delight to hear the vibrant songs of so many birds! She said that never happened where she lived.

Two bad memories of birds distress me in my old age. The highly talented mocking birds frequently sang their melodious songs from a nearby electric pole when our children were babies. During one naptime, one sang so long and loudly that I was afraid he would wake the baby, so I chased him away. I have been very sad that no other mocking bird has returned in the past 30+ years.

The second bad memory is of the birds who plagued our cherry tree. We had lots of robins, bluejays, sparrows, blackbirds, etc. who ate the ripe red cherries and that I used to chase away. But that day one rare Baltimore Oriole was with the other common birds--and I didn't see him. I ran with a BB gun into the back yard--running, shouting loudly, and firing at the same time. Unfortunately, the beautiful yellow and black Oriole was the only bird that was hit, and fell out of the cherry tree to the ground before I reached it. I have been sick about my error ever since.

Serve More, Sin Less

A very good motto....

Gaddafi, Islam, and Christianity

The long-time President of Libya (since 1969), Muammar al-Gaddafi, is a bellwether on the Islamic-Christian wars of the 21st Century because he has immense influence over Muslims living in the rest of the world. A dangerous and fervent Muslim who was trained by the British, he is extremely serious about extending the rule of Muhammed over the entire world. Just as it was important to read Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in the 1930's to see where this German dictator was going, it is critical to hear Gaddafi when he speaks of international Islam's attempts to conquer lands where Christianity survives.

Over 25 years ago The Wanderer newspaper reported an invitation from al-Gaddafi to Pope Paul VI to debate the rightness of the Catholic religion. From the time and the manner in which the invitation was issued, I thought it might have come from a young leader who seriously wanted to examine which faith was true (or alternatively seize an opportunity to try to demonstrate the superiority of Islam).

Msgr. Michael L. Fitzgerald describes the public meeting in Libya from the viewpoint of a liberal priest:

...a Christian-Muslim seminar was held in Tripoli, Libya. This took place in February, 1976. Though it came about by agreement between the Secretariat for Non Christians and the Arab Socialist Union of Libya, the initiative really came from the Muslim side. Since the Libyans were the hosts, the main burden of organization fell to them. This in fact led to some surprises. Through the generosity of the Libyan leader, Colonel Mu’ammar Gaddafi, about 500 people, Christians and Muslims, from all over the world, were invited to Tripoli for the occasion. So what had been intended as a private meeting between theologians turned into a public manifestation, held in the main theatre of Tripoli, with the participation one evening of Colonel Gaddafi himself. It must be said, these conditions made the dialogue difficult. There is a great difference between exchanges in a closed circle and papers read to the public.

The meeting was made-to-order for conversion to Christianity, but the great opportunity to show real belief in the Divinity of Jesus Christ was lost. Gaddafi then claimed it was clear that Islam had easily won the debate. I've thought for a long time that if truly saintly and firmly believing priests had demonstrated authentic Christianity, the world might be different today. Instead, the meeting illustrated the liberal and unorthodox charade of a 'doubting and 'searching' church it had become in the post-Vatican II days of the 1970's.

The result of this failure to impress Gaddafi with authentic Christianity is seen on a number of Gaddafi videos posted to YouTube. Gaddafi speaking in Timbuktu claims "Muhammed is the prophet of all people. He superceded all previous religions...All people must be Muslims....Muhammed is the prophet of the people in Scandanavia, in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa....[America] should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims." Gaddafi then boasted that Islamic immigration and births in European countries mean that within a few decades "Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe without swords, without guns, without military conquests."

Gaddafi also claims that Obama's Islamic heritage and training will mean better times for Arabs in the Middle East. Gaddafi then states that "The thing we fear most is that the black man suffers an inferiority complex. This is dangerous. If our brother Obama feels that because he is black he doesn't have the right to rule America, this would be a disaster, because such a feeling would make him behave whiter than white..."

London Bus: "Probably No God"

The sides of London buses currently have this sign, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The distinguished religious affairs commentator Clifford Longley has argued to the UK Advertising Standards Authority that the sign is deceitful based on evidence from physics that there very probably is a God.

Until late last spring, I had never heard of the Anthropic Principle and the Cosmological argument for God. The Anthropic Principle relates to intelligent design and contends that the universe was brought into existence intentionally for the sake of producing intelligent observers.

Physicist Carl Frederick’s article, “The Challenge of the Anthropic Universe,” has a good summary to explain how improbable the existence of our universe is, causing scientists to entertain thoughts of an Intelligent Designer. Here's the opening paragraph of Frederick's Science Fact article in the July/August 2008 double issue of Analog SF and Fact:

In the early 1990s, a creeping realization swept through the theoretical physics community that the probability for the universe to even exist was vanishingly small. Indeed, the only "theory" around that seemed able to explain the universe's existence was Intelligent Design. This was not something physicists and cosmologists liked to talk about.

Our exceptionally rare "fine-tuned universe" is uniquely designed to support the existence of intelligent observers. The approximately 20 fundamental constants of physics and chemistry are exactly what are absolutely required to allow our universe and intelligent life to exist. Examples include the gravitational constant; the masses of the proton, neutron, and electron; the charge on the electron; and the strong nuclear force.

Frederick also notes that theoretical physicist, John Wheeler (who coined the term "black hole"), claimed that modern quantum theory implies that the strong anthropic universe seems designed for intelligent observers within it. Wheeler maintained that observations by beings living billions of years after the Big Bang actually caused the Big Bang. [I am reminded that the Catholic Church once claimed that God created mankind on earth as the center of the universe.]

Frederick is a well-established theoretical physicist and science-fiction author who jokes about his (non-)religion: "Physics is not so much a field of employ as a way of life and perhaps even a religion. As for religion itself however, I am an observant but non-proselytizing vegetarian."

Frederick discusses the most tightly tuned Cosmological Constant, "a small pure number... a provider of a cosmic scale universal repulsion (or attraction)....the manifestation of the universe's zero-point energy." Frederick points out the measured values of the Cosmological Constant and other physical constants means that the probability of our universe to exist is less than 1 chance in 10^229 (as estimated by well-known physicist Lee Smolin).

Even though Frederick's article searches for and finds "possible solutions" to the "problem" of Intelligent Design, he seems not to be happy with any of them and ends his article with a quote from Einstein, "'Subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not.'....I wonder."