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“God is not a magician, with a magic wand”: Pope Francis schools creationists (Salon)
Salon ^ | 10/28/14 | Sarah Gray

Posted on 10/28/2014 3:19:32 PM PDT by Faith Presses On

In an exciting declaration, Pope Francis I stated that God should not seen as a “magician with a magic wand,” while unveiling a statue of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Pope Francis also stated that evolution and the Big Bang theory are both true and not incompatible with the church’s views on the origins of the universe and life.

“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, according to the Independent. Francis continued by stating that God “created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment.”

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


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To: Faith Presses On

Not a magic wand, but a Sword:

“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Revelation 19:15


41 posted on 10/28/2014 4:04:00 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
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To: freedumb2003

I am not Catholic but I had no problems with what he said. The Big Bang can be compatible with creation.

The only thing I may disagree with is .......

“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,”


I believe God is able to do everything. He can walk on water. Heal the blind. He can raise the dead. And our Lord Jesus was resurrected after being dead for three days. Yes, God can do a lot of things that are beyond our comprehension. I believe that. I have faith in that. And that’s why I don’t stress in all the details of creation. Creation and science can be reconciled. I believe that is what the pope was trying to convey.

That said, I don’t find much disagreement with what he said. And he may have been taken out of context.


42 posted on 10/28/2014 4:04:58 PM PDT by boycott
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To: freedumb2003
“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...”

That's the money quote. The rest is an entirely different subject. The media doesn't care about free will, they care about convincing everyone that God is not and has never been required. Although I am not Catholic, I hope this is an out-of-context and/or bad translation situation.

43 posted on 10/28/2014 4:05:40 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: Ancesthntr
I don’t know, maybe I have low standards, but creating the entire known universe out of something smaller than a mustard seed (and creating the mustard seed, too) seems rather magical to me.

And speaking the stars into existence seems magical to me....but I'm not God. It's easy for Him; me, I can hardly comprehend it.

44 posted on 10/28/2014 4:07:02 PM PDT by bubbacluck (America 180)
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To: Faith Presses On

Pope Francis desperately needs to get saved.


45 posted on 10/28/2014 4:10:59 PM PDT by Yashcheritsiy (It's time to Repeal and Replace the Republican Party)
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To: Faith Presses On

Why is it only this Pope who seems to be ‘taken out of context’ all the time?


46 posted on 10/28/2014 4:11:57 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Psalm 14:1 ~ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”)
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To: Faith Presses On

He is such an embarrassment. When will someone in the heirarchy stand up and call a spade a spade.


47 posted on 10/28/2014 4:16:20 PM PDT by piusv
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To: Faith Presses On

This Bible-believing Christian says ... the Almighty can create the Universe in any way and manner he wants. I’ve never understood why some think it HAD to be a certain way. Whichever way it actually is doesn’t make him any less almighty.

And it isn’t the words that are secular, it’s what the secularists do with the words.


48 posted on 10/28/2014 4:18:07 PM PDT by RIghtwardHo
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To: babygene

You should first assume Salon is lying.


49 posted on 10/28/2014 4:19:21 PM PDT by G Larry (Amnesty imposes SLAVE WAGES on LEGAL immigrants & minorities)
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To: txrefugee

Never has.


50 posted on 10/28/2014 4:19:26 PM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: rwilson99

In every other instance in the Bible in which the word “yom” (day) was used with either a number, the word morning or the word evening it was an obviously literal 24 hour day. Did Joshua and the Israelites march around Jericho for 7 million years? Was Jonah in the belly of a fish for 3 million days? Obviously not.

The Genesis account uses all three (number, morning, and evening) every single time. It is as though God is hitting us over the head with the fact that it was a literal six day creation. The only reason to state that the word day means something else in these two chapters is to make it fit the atheistic theory of evolution over long periods of time.

God didn’t need a magic wand, He just had to speak and creation existed.


51 posted on 10/28/2014 4:20:42 PM PDT by NorthstarMom
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To: skeeter

“Calling a ‘miracle’ magic sounds almost like scoffing.”

It was not meant that way. Both bypass the laws of physics, which BTW, are God’s laws. I’m not talking about magic tricks.

Both evolution and the big bang have flaws. They should not be considered as facts. With evolution, there’s that entropy problem. With the big bang; if you started with nothing there would have been nothing to explode... It doesn’t explain creation.

Seems to me, as a scientist, that to get something from nothing it has to be created. The big bang doesn’t even try to get you there...

I think he went too far. And if he was quoted accurately it was stupid and harmful. When my colleges and I discuss the big bang, my responses are along the lines of “big deal, you can read all about it in Genius - that was the first day...”


52 posted on 10/28/2014 4:24:46 PM PDT by babygene
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To: babygene

I was referring to the Pope’s alleged use of the word. “Magic wand” sounds derisive, like “Star Wars” instead of SDI.


53 posted on 10/28/2014 4:28:43 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: Faith Presses On

The Holy Father is correct when he says God is not a magician with a magic wand. God doesn’t need a wand. He can create or destroy whatever he wants without need of any tools, magic or otherwise. (Whether or to what extent He may have used Big Bang or evolutionary processes I really don’t know. And with all due respect, I rather think the Pope doesn’t know, either.


54 posted on 10/28/2014 4:31:24 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ((Brilliant, Profound Tag Line Goes Here, just as soon as I can think of one..))
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To: NorthstarMom

” The only reason to state that the word day means something else in these two chapters is to make it fit the atheistic theory of evolution over long periods of time.”

I’m a Catholic but not a biblical scholar. But as I recall the bible breaks it down into “old” time and “new” time...


55 posted on 10/28/2014 4:33:53 PM PDT by babygene
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To: Faith Presses On

The roman pope is a nut and talks like a uninformed big mouth know nothing angry and ignorant and silly uninformed and unwise california valley college girl.


56 posted on 10/28/2014 4:34:57 PM PDT by kindred (Only God is good, Christ Jesus is Lord and Saviour and saves all who will come to Him.)
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To: sphinx
apparently thinking that all Christians are short earth creationists

When I tell atheists that I don't believe in evolution, they assume that I believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis. There are other logical options.

There is a medieval saying, "God wrote two books, Scripture and Creation." So the two must be reconciled. Given our limited understanding of both, the jury is still out.

57 posted on 10/28/2014 4:36:22 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: Faith Presses On

“And don’t call me Francis! If anybody calls me Francis, I’ll kill ya!”


58 posted on 10/28/2014 4:38:30 PM PDT by jimmyo57
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To: faithhopecharity

That isn’t the meaning of what he said, though.

What he is saying is that to believe in God being able to create just by His word, that’s like believing He’s a magician.

But by that logic, the same could be said of believing God can do miracles, or do anything supernatural. If you pray to God for something, do you call that expecting God to wave his magic wand? Well that’s what the Pope is arguing believing in the miraculous is like.


59 posted on 10/28/2014 4:39:11 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
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To: freedumb2003
It is obvious that you need to read the Scriptures and ignore the lies of a heretical church that worships at images of angels and Mary and knows less about the
word of God than any previous generation ever has. Many atheists who are christian influenced know more about the infallible word of God than any catholic of the roman church. Beginning with the creation work of God in Genesis;

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Genesis 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Genesis 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Genesis 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Genesis 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

Genesis 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Genesis 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Genesis 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Genesis 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Genesis 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. The pope is in disagreement with God and is lying about what God said and did.

60 posted on 10/28/2014 4:44:06 PM PDT by kindred (Only God is good, Christ Jesus is Lord and Saviour and saves all who will come to Him.)
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