We Interupt this Blogcast....

...to say Louie Giglio has a powerful message. We played this video during a recent RCIA session for the Catechumens. If you havent seen it, IMO you would benefit surely to do so.



Watch Part 2 on "laminin" as well for the complete message.

Richard Dawkins supports Religion

Its true. Just click on the title and see that Dawkins' recent talk @ TED, a CNN.com OP-Ed, marking the 150th anniversary of Darwins "Origin..." - spawns more published and credible counter points via believers, than atheists. Even Dr. Scott Hahn has a Dawkins counterpoint book published. Dawkins articulates "the elegance of atheism" as corroding religion as well as calmly stating that militant atheism should keep rocking the boat of religion.

The interesting observation of his efforts is...where are the Dawkins Enthusiasts? I can't hear them and none of their writings are linked or displayed whenever Dawkins comes out with another crafted performance. (Thats a compliment...he really performs well publically) It becomes even more interesting when out of convenience, one reads a linked counterpoint by a Creationist or Intelligent Design proponent and the sad state of Dawkins framework is amplified.

How I feel empathy for Dawkins while reading or listening to him, that his entirety of life satisfaction comes from what he "intellectually understands". He talks directly about feeling that he lived "triumphal by having understood why he was here in the first place."

Thats it. Mere understanding.

What about Dawkins heart, spirit and will...you know...what the Bible describes as our "Soul". Where is Dawkins on a scale of spirit and soul? Sadly those aspects are veiled well out of our (and apparently his) view. When the whole of your life is valued at a measurement of intellectual comprehension, and not much more, it is then that a heart needs touching.

Fr. Fride Interview a must

I caught the first half of an interview with Father Ed Fride on Al Kresta's show yesterday. Fr. Fride's journey from Congregational to Nuclear Physics to Catholicism to Priesthood is stunning, hilarious and profound. Click on the link in the title here and go to 4/28 3rd hour on the left sidebar for his audio/podcast. It will make your commute feel like melted butter.

We Interupt this Blogcast #5..

...to say Big Bangist George Smoot would be far more credible as a Papist...then again, notice how many times he uses the word "Creation":

Science validating Creation

Teaching RCIA recently, I had the opportunity to present a "God the Father" session. Copied below is one of my tools for addressing belief in God and the Science position:

"Fathers of Science

By Matthew E. Bunson

On March 12, 2008, the John Templeton Foundation made the announcement of the winner of its annual Templeton Prize, which honors achievements engaging the great questions of life and the universe. The $1.6 million prize for 2008 went to Michal Heller, a Polish cosmologist and professor in the faculty of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow, Poland. What makes Heller additionally remarkable is that he is a Catholic priest.

The 72-year-old plans to spend the prize money to establish a research institute-named in honor of Nicholas Copernicus-that will seek to reconcile science and theology. Fr. Heller said:

If we ask about the cause of the universe we should ask about the cause of mathematical laws. By doing so we are back in the great blueprint of God's thinking about the universe; the question on ultimate causality: Why is there something rather than nothing? When asking this question, we are not asking about a cause like all other causes. We are asking about the root of all possible causes. Science is but a collective effort of the human mind to read the mind of God from question marks out of which we and the world around us seem to be made.

As a priest-scientist, Fr. Heller is not unique. Rather, he stands in a long and great tradition of learned priests who were both scientists and men of faith. Some are well-known to history, such as Roger Bacon, the 13th-century Franciscan who stressed the concept of "laws of nature" and contributed to the development of mechanics, geography, and especially optics. Others are obscure. All, however, left a lasting legacy on their eras in learning, science, mathematics, and practical progress.

Above all, the priest-scientists offer a powerful lesson to Catholic apologists: There is no reason to stand mute when the name Galileo is wielded like a cudgel and the Church is savaged as an enemy of human progress. Apologists and well-read Catholics can point to these priest-scientists and declare forcefully what Fr. Georges Lemaître-discoverer of the "Big Bang"-robustly proclaimed in 1933: "There is no conflict between religion and science." What follows is a survey of a few of the many priests and scientists who have bettered our world over the centuries. The list does not pretend to be exhaustive, and the deeper issues that underlie the long-perceived conflict between science and religion, evolution, and cosmology-so much in the modern cultural dispute-will be examined in future articles in This Rock."
(This Rock Vol 19, No.7)