Thursday, September 2, 2010

Galileo – “Faith can never conflict with reason” – Pope John Paul II – November 4, 1992

Excerpt:

The 'Galileo case' teaches us that different branches of knowledge call for different methods, each of which brings out various aspects of reality.

11. From the Galileo affair we can learn a lesson which remains valid in relation to similar situations which occur today and which may occur in the future.

In Galileo's time, to depict the world as lacking an absolute physical reference point was, so to speak, inconceivable. And since the cosmos, as it was then known, was contained within the solar system alone, this reference point could only be situated in the earth or in the sun. Today, after Einstein and within the perspective of contemporary cosmology neither of these two reference points has the importance they once had. This observation, it goes without saying, is not directed against the validity of Galileo's position in the debate; it is only meant to show that often, beyond two partial and contrasting perceptions, there exists a wider perception which includes them and goes beyond both of them.

12. Another lesson which we can draw is that the different branches of knowledge call for different methods. Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. Let us recall the celebrated saying attributed to Baronius "Spiritui Sancto mentem fuisse nos docere quomodo ad coelum eatur, non quomodo coelum gradiatur". In fact, the Bible does not concern itself with the details of the physical world, the understanding of which is the competence of human experience and reasoning. There exist two realms of knowledge, one which has its source in Revelation and one which reason can discover by its own power. To the latter belong especially the experimental sciences and philosophy. The distinction between the two realms of knowledge ought not to be understood as opposition. The two realms are not altogether foreign to each other, they have points of contact. The methodologies proper to each make it possible to bring out different aspects of reality.
Read more:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/sci-cp/sci-9211.html
California Institute of Technology – Newman Center
http://www.caltech.edu/

Science and faith in the search for truth
Pope John Paul II
November 15, 1980

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November 1, 1992 – The New York Times

Galileo Condemned As A Heretic - Misinterpretations Of The Bible
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Benedict XVI?
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

Faith can never conflict with reason
- Pope John Paul II -
"The 'Galileo case' teaches us that different branches of knowledge call for different methods, each of which brings out various aspects of reality"

Pope John Paul II -- No Irreconcilable Differences between
Science and Religion

Reconciling Old Lovers:
John Paul on Science and Faith
By Michael Sherwin, O.P.

Einstein, Galileo.
Commemoration of Albert Einstein, 1979, pp. 84

Pontifical Academy of Sciences

California - Prop 8 judgment, August 4, 2010
Gay marriage
“Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.”
Judge Vaughn Walker

On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid
By Lisa Bloom
CNN.com
and related links:

"No sensible person can imagine that the
sexes differ
in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing.
The intelligent lover of beauty will be attracted to beauty in whichever gender he finds it."
Plutarch

The Quality Of Lasting Homosexual Relationships
Deserve Respect
Roman Catholic -->Cardinal Christoph Schönborn,
Vienna

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by David Taffet – Dallas Voice

SEXUAL CONVERSION THERAPIES
Jack Drescher, M.D.

“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
Erik Erikson

…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6

Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.
Kids Are Being Hurt !!!

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