http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/science-religion/ en-us Tue, 5 Jan 2010 19:43:12 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2421587/posts It’s been a number of years now since Pope John Paul II issued his important clarification regarding the so-called Persistent Vegetative State, to wit, that food and water are always to be cosidered Ordinary Means regardless of how they are administered, and may not be withheld from any patient, even if requested by the family or indicated in a “living will.” His statement, which was issued, in his words, “with the full weight of my authority” (the "full weight" of the Pope's authority being infallibility), didn’t make much news at the time, since the Terri Schiavo case had already passed... Priestly Pugilist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2421587/posts#comment Tue, 5 Jan 2010 19:43:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2420781/posts Awakened from a Saturday doze with a start, I ran to the kitchen to see whay my wife was so excited about. While checking her Facebook, she had clicked on a Google ad that said Jesus was born on June 17th. " I knew there was a reason we were married on that day!", she said. The link went on to explain the allignment of planets that could account for a bright star in the night sky...read more... Examiner.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2420781/posts#comment Mon, 4 Jan 2010 19:49:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2420606/posts On October 22, 1976, Clyde Kilby, who is now with Christ in Heaven, gave an unforgettable lecture. I went to hear him that night because I loved him. He had been one of my professors in English Literature at Wheaton College. He opened my eyes to more of life than I knew could be seen. O, what eyes he had! He was like his hero, C. S. Lewis, in this regard. When he spoke of the tree he saw on the way to class this morning, you wondered why you had been so blind all your life. Since those days... DesiringGod.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2420606/posts#comment Mon, 4 Jan 2010 16:14:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2419647/posts In the thread on General/Chat forum, Evolution caught in the act: Scientists measure how quickly genomes change, Restore discussed a interesting and recent scientific discovery, genome within certain plants are occurring more rapidly than expected, a lot faster.   As I was reading this thread, somebody asked how evolution explained how the moon got there.  Okay, evolution doesn't, as pointed out by several people on the thread, but geology has does a pretty good job of that explaination. This article got me to thinking about those who say the Bible states that God only took 6,000 years before the creation of Adam... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2419647/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:02:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2419198/posts Throughout history humans have worshiped nature in many forms. More recently they have become better known as environmentalists. We are grateful that their love for nature has overcome greedy humans exploiting the environment and has been able to persuade governments to set aside numerous national monuments for remembering natural wonders. However, environmentalists have been able to stop even sensible exploration and development for the good of humankind. In fact, environmentalism has become a predominant "religion” around the world today. Their purpose is no longer saving a natural wonder for posterity to enjoy. Their love for nature has grown into a... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2419198/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 22:44:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2417911/posts It is mind-boggling to think that our generation alone is uniquely standing on the precipice of time and where no generation has ever stood. We are living in the days spoken of by the ancient prophets. These prophets spoke of the Israelites being gathered back into their own land, in passages such as Ezekiel 37:21: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. This began in 1948. The “dry bones” of Ezekiel 37... CBN News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2417911/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:51:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2416438/posts For the sake of a discussion, let's assume that I am a brand new neighbor of yours. We have only met each other in passing. You play the part of the Christian and I will play the part of the agnostic. (BTW, none of the below is true about me. Upfront, I am Mormon, but I have tried to get into this discussion on this forum for some time, but haven't been able to do so.) (I also realize that there are some of you who are more than eager to post anti-Mormon material on this thread and I request... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2416438/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:26:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2413202/posts Every year at about this time, readers can count on a few Christmas-themed articles appearing in newspapers and magazines that question the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. It really is something to see the wide variety of people who get worked up over this ancient Christian belief. Scientific reductionists -- the Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins set -- will tell us that it's impossible. By definition, a virgin cannot be with child. Certain biblical scholars will be trotted out to poke holes in the dogma, by making points about the Bible passages in question that sound convincing to non-scholars. And moderate,... The American Spectator http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2413202/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:33:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2412570/posts AnalysisMany balk at this element of the Nativity story, but historical and astronomical evidence tends to corroborate it. By Michael J. MillerDuring a 2007 BBC radio interview, the archbishop of Canterbury deconstructed elements of the Nativity story. “Stars simply don’t behave like that,” Rowan Williams said. Asked about the existence of three wise men, he replied, “It works quite well as legend.”But years ago Father Walter Brandmüller, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, published an essay applying the historical-critical method to the question of the Nativity story. (The essay is reprinted without cumbersome footnotes in Light and Shadows: Church... Catholic World Report http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2412570/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:31:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410707/posts Not only do the findings of science have moral implications, the actual work of scientific research presupposes that the researcher himself is a man of virtue. When scientific research is divorced from, or worse opposed to, the life of virtue it is not simply the research or the researcher that suffers but the whole human family. Take for example, the scandal surrounding the conduct of researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University in the UK. Whether or not the recently revealed emails and computer programs from undermine the theory of anthropological global warning (AGW), it is... Catholic Education Resource Center http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410707/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:54:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410698/posts If we wanted to add a twentieth-century name to the list of prophets, I would nominate Robert Nisbet (1914-1996), who would not be surprised by recent revelations that an elite group of global-warming experts have been reckless with their "science" and ruthless towards their scientific peers I refer to the scandal that broke at the disclosure of private e-mails among leading climatologists connected to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, one of the nerve centers for global warming studies. As former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson summarizes the preliminary evidence for the London Times: "(a)... Catholic Education Resource Center http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2410698/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:37:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2409440/posts Israel experts said on Wednesday that a burial shroud known as the Turin shroud, assumed to be the type used to wrap the body of Jesus, did not actually originate from Jesus-era Jerusalem. The conclusion was based on excavation discoveries of a first-century C.E. shrouded man found in a tomb on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem, which also revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy. Along with the DNA of the shrouded man, this was the first time that fragments of a burial shroud have been found from the time of Jesus in Jerusalem, which, unlike the... Haaretz .com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2409440/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:57:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2409092/posts Pope Benedict XVI, a man of immense learning in philosophy and theology, has just been quoted as saying that rich nations must assume environmental duties, should shed their "consumerism" and embrace more sober lifestyles: this datelined Vatican City by Reuters. Let's get this straight. We Catholics believe the Pope is infallible on matters of faith and morals but with this caveat: The doctrine of infallibility is a negative i.e. the Pope cannot err on faith and morals. Moreover infallibility does not mean impeccability. The Blessed Virgin, conceived without Original Sin, was and is impeccable but Popes are not. Peter, the... Chicago Daily Observer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2409092/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:50:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408138/posts "It is often assumed by the anti-God brigade, though unvoiced, that the designer created everything as we see it today. Within the biblical model, degeneration is expected because of the Fall. The Fall subjected the Creation to bondage to decay (Romans 8:18–25), of which mutational degeneration is one example." Vestigial arguments: remnants of evolution by Shaun Doyle The coccyx (tailbone) has long been wrongly thought to be vestigial by evolutionists ‘Vestigial’ organs have been used as an argument against a designer for many years, and have been used as a major ‘proof’ of evolution. The ‘vestigial organs’ argument is merely... Creation Ministries International http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408138/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:00:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408121/posts Problems with Evolutionary Theory Why is there a problem with evolution in the first place? Someone once asked you, "What should I believe?" Remember what you told them? Basically I said you should only believe what there is evidence for. After spending years studying evolution in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs, I can tell you that, first of all, there is evidence for small changes in organisms as they adapt to small environmental fluctuations. Second, there is evidence that new species do arise. We see new species of fruit flies, rodents, and even birds. But when the original species is... probe.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408121/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:35:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408060/posts "I've told environmentalists that if they think humanity is wrecking the planet, wait until they see what Jesus does to it. Peter says God is going to literally turn it in on itself in an atomic implosion so that the whole universe goes out of existence (2 Peter 3:7-13)." *** I do think we have a responsibility to care for the environment--we ought to care for every resource God has provided for us. That's illustrated in the Old Testament account where God put Israel in the Promised Land, a fertile land flowing with milk and honey. God provided them that... Grace to You http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408060/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:10:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2407914/posts Pope Benedict XVI says industrialised countries have a "historic responsibility" to solve environmental problems. "It is indeed important to recognise, among the causes of the current ecological crisis, the historic responsibility of the industrialised countries," the pope said on Tuesday. "Less developed countries, and especially emerging nations, are not however exonerated from their responsibility... because the duty of gradually adopting effective environmental measures and policies belongs to all," he added. The pope's appeal came as crucial UN climate talks in Copenhagen were bogged down by procedural wrangles and divisions between rich and developing nations. World leaders were converging on the... 9news http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2407914/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:02:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2404691/posts The Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Vatican Observatory recently brought together a group of scholars who study astrobiology, that is, the possibility of some kind of life existing elsewhere in the universe.The media immediately seized on the convocation as a sign that the Pope was affirming the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials. This notion was given an unfortunate nudge forward by statements from Jesuit Father Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer who now directs the Vatican Observatory. “How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Father Funes has said before, in an interview in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore... NCR http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2404691/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:47:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2403112/posts By Genevieve Pollock NEW YORK, DEC. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Today in New York City, a Catholic health center for women officially opened with a waiting list of patients eager for its particular approach to reproductive care and family planning. Doctor Anne Mielnik, the director of "Gianna -- The Catholic Health Care Center for Women," explained to ZENIT that her clinic is only one piece of the last pro-life bastion in the city. The center is owned by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, the last of its kind in a city that once numbered 15 Catholic hospitals. Mielnik stated that the Sisters... Zenit http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2403112/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 20:17:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2400991/posts "Rich-ieee!" the gleaming Caribbean ex-addict sings my name as the worship music soars and pounds to start the service. We embrace and I can feel the crazy coming off of him. We stand back and I look wildly into his wild-eyed grin, yelping, "Yeah! God likes the crazy people!" And he yelps back, "Rich-ieee! Because we'll get crazy for him!"And I let out a cackling bipolar howl as the music blares. This man knows something about "crazy." He decided to get clean only after a drug deal got him thrown into the trunk of a car; driven into a field... EzineArticles http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2400991/posts#comment Sat, 5 Dec 2009 16:06:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2399753/posts   Cryonics. Neural implants. Designer babies. Welcome to the future of transhumanism. This energetic movement, comprising thousands of adherents, actively promotes the enhancement of humans via cybernetics, genetics, medicine, surgery, nanotechnology, and a full panoply of other scientific advancements. This enhancement would, according to Nick Bostrom's "Transhumanist Declaration," seek to advocate "the moral right for those who wish to do so to extend their mental and physical (including reproductive) capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. [They] seek personal growth beyond [their] current biological limitations" (see www.transhumanism.org).   This may sound like science fiction, but the... Inside Catholic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2399753/posts#comment Thu, 3 Dec 2009 23:47:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2398624/posts It was truly a black Friday in Calgary, as Bishop Frederick Bernard Henry suspended the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in at least two of the locations staffed by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP). The Bishop, as published on the diocesan website, made drastic and forceful measures in the face of the Swine Flu outbreak. Mandatory as of November 9th, the bishop suspended communion on the tongue and from the chalice, stopped shaking hands at the sign of peace, removed the holy water from the fonts, as well as some minor non liturgical changes. When FSSP told the... Examiner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2398624/posts#comment Wed, 2 Dec 2009 18:37:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2398149/posts  The Smallest Martyrs In the time of the Magi, the mothers mourned for their children who were murdered; today children mourn for their mothers who have become the murderers. The Colosseum of pagan Rome had nothing on the blood sport made popular today: Human sacrifice in the womb! "Yes, once again crowds of hatred gather for sport to see innocent blood spilt. Once again pathetic authority hides behind popular slogans or distorted claims to justify and consider the validity of atrocity. Once again, we are told that overall, ultimate good may be derived from inherent, naked evil. Once again those... DailyCatholic.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2398149/posts#comment Wed, 2 Dec 2009 03:18:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2396305/posts William Dembski, who was recently elected as the new Vice President of the EPS, released his latest book earlier this month from Broadman & Holman Academic, titled, The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World (2009). We interviewed Dembski about his book and its implications for Christian work on the "problem of evil." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What’s the main point that you are trying to communicate in this book? What is the “end of Christianity” that you speak of in your title? My book attempts to resolve how the Fall of Adam could be responsible for all evil... Evangelical Philosophical Society http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2396305/posts#comment Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:22:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2395430/posts The “Nothing Butters” are rampant in the world of atheism. Philosopher Daniel Dennett presupposes that “the mind is somehow nothing but a physical phenomenon.” Dawkins assures us that the universe is “nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” Crick tops it off with we’re “nothing but a pack of neurons.” If we are all “nothing butters,” why is it wrong for white “nothing butters” to own and sell black "nothing butters"? American Vision http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2395430/posts#comment Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:47:23 GMT