Monday, March 31, 2014

Sodom and Gomorrah: Learning the Right Lesson


(Detail from John Martin's "The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.")

Thanks to movies like "Sodom and Gomorrah" (1962) and "Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days" (1975), most Americans might recognize events described in Genesis 18:20-19:30.

Not that accuracy has ever been a high priority for screenwriters, and that's another topic.

The last I heard, archeologists still aren't sure where the cities of the plain were: or if they existed. I'm not surprised, since the Bible isn't a "history text, a science book, or a political manifesto." (USCCB)

In any case, the post-strike assessment suggests that there isn't much left to find:
"Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence.

"7 As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace."
(Genesis 19:27-28)
The narrative in Genesis 19:13-30 has a curiously contemporary feel to it, at least for me. It's fast-paced action: Lot's visitors yank him inside and blind the mob with something reminiscent of a flashbang; give him an evacuation order; and Lot's wife doesn't make it to the designated safe area.

I could claim that the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah teaches us that God doesn't like cities, or hates people, or that space aliens helped Lot escape. I'm much more inclined to agree with Pope Francis, and see the account as a reminder that unethical behavior doesn't pay off in the long run.
" 'Lent is a time for us to draw closer to the Lord,' the Pope said. It is a time for 'conversion'. In the day's first Reading, he said, 'the Lord invites us to conversion; and interestingly he calls two cities harlots': Sodom and Gomorrah. And he issues them this invitation: 'Be converted, change your lives, draw near to the Lord'. This, he explained, 'is the Lenten invitation: they are 40 days to draw near to the Lord, to be closer to him. For we all need to change our lives'.

"The Pontiff noted how meaningless it is to excuse ourselves by saying: 'But Father, I am not such a great sinner....', for 'we all have something inside of us and if we look into our soul we will find something that is not good, all of us'. Lent therefore 'invites us to amend our lives, to put them in order', he said, adding that this is precisely what allows us to draw near to the Lord, who is always ready to forgive."
("Christians without masks," Pope Francis (March 18, 2014), via L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly edition in English, n. 12 (March 21, 2014))

Cities of the Plain: Innocent Victims, or Multiple Offenders

At the risk of offending just about everybody, the Bible has several explanations for Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction.

The Genesis account cites deviant sexual practices. Isaiah 1:9-17 and 16:46-51 says social injustice and disregard for the poor was the issue, and Jeremiah 23:14 gives a short list of sins, including "...siding with the wicked, so that no one turns from evil...."

I could decide that the multiple explanations imply Sodom and Gomorrah's complete innocence: or that folks in those cities hadn't specialized in a single breach of ethics. I'm inclined to pick the latter.

Sex and Sin: Not the Same Thing

I've run into folks who seem to see sin and sex as synonyms: and apparently feel that God made a horrible mistake by making us male and female. That's crazy, on several levels, and almost another topic.

It's possible to misuse human sexuality, or food, or books: but that doesn't make sex, eating, or reading sinful.

Having a physical body isn't our problem. We're designed to have a body and a soul. Angels are creatures of pure spirit, with no physical form: and Satan rejected God anyway. (Catechism, 328, 362-368, 391-395)

Sin is an offense against reason and truth, a "failure in genuine love for God and neighbor." It's also a very bad idea. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1849-1851)

Related posts:

New on the Blogroll: Harvesting The Fruits Of Contemplation

There's another entry on the blogroll: Michael Seagriff's style is pretty much the opposite of mine: instead of writing a few long posts each week, he does a short one nearly every day. Maybe there's a lesson to learn here.

Don't let the St. Catherine of Siena quote fool you, though: some of those posts are fun.

Vaguely-related posts:

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Called to Serve the Lord

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent 2014:

Fourth Sunday of Lent 2014

By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas
March 30, 2014

Many of us have experienced being left out because we are too small for the game, too young for something we want to do, to inexperienced for a job. I remember being told I was too old for the fire department, I think this was the first time I was told I was too old for something, I was maybe in my early 30s.

Sometimes, the best people for a task are those without a lot of letters behind their name. When Samuel comes to seek out the Lord's chosen one in order to anoint him as king, Jesse does not even include his youngest son, David, who was left out, for he was out in the fields tending the sheep. Nevertheless he is chosen by God, and anointed by Samuel, to be king of Israel.

Every disciple of Jesus has been given a place in the saving works of the Church. In every age of life, we are called to serve the Lord. The anointing of Baptism confirms the Grace of God in us, supporting us and our destiny as servants of the Gospel. Discipleship is expensive: we have to lay down our lives for Christ in order to bring life to others.

First, we need our eyes be opened. Christ, the Light of the world, opens the eyes of the man born blind, allowing him to experience life in a new and dramatic way with the restoration of his sight. There's another kind of blindness, blindness of the spiritual life, that plagues the Pharisees. Even those of us who think we are good Christians can be limited and our perception of God's presence.

We continually need to be opened to see where God is present in our daily experiences, and how we can Love Him while serving the needs of others. We need God to open our understanding of morality where we sometimes want to rationalize our actions, or pretend that the teachings of Christ does not applied to modern humanity. This takes humility and openness to change with the movement of God's Grace. When the Light of Christ penetrates our stubbornness and selfishness, it illumines our minds and hearts to see clearly the way to our best selves: by following God in intimate communion.

Jesus delivered humanity from the clutches of darkness by his death and rising. Through the Sacraments, we experience the power of this great mystery at work in our lives. In the Lord, and through our baptism, we are in the Light. We are called, as Paul says, to abandon the works of darkness, exposing them for the lies that they are.

Fellow Christians, live in Light always, do not succumb to the dark forces that are beneath our Christian dignity!

Once we experienced the Light of Christ by humbling ourselves under the power of his Word, that Light makes us a beacon of hope for others. The Light of Christ shines in the words and actions-- even the prayerful thoughts-of his disciples. People can see that we live differently because we have hope in Christ' Light and saving Love. Others may even ask us why we are hopeful in sorrow, why we have certain moral standards, why are we kind in the face of insult. Then, we can be prepared to tell them: we have found Christ, we live in the Light!

Open the eyes of our hearts to see the Lord more clearly, perceiving His will for us. Allow, His Light to penetrate and transform any traces of darkness that remains in us. Be prepared for that Light, to change you into a beacon of Light that gives glory to the Lord!

So, you all be Good, be Holy, preached the Gospel always and if necessary use words.

Related posts:

Believing Impossible Things: Not Required

Faith is many things: a grace; a human act; and understanding. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 153-159)

Faith can be simple as 'love God, love your neighbor,' or complex as Benedict XVI's "Faith, Reason and the University:" but faith is not believing things that can't be true.

The White Queen's Advice

"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one CAN'T believe impossible things.'

" 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!' "
("Through the Looking-Glass," Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll, via Project Gutenberg)
I've run into a few folks who seem convinced that their faith depends on believing impossible things: and more who say religion relies on unreasoning belief. (December 18, 2011)

Hard, Yes; Impossible, No

I'll grant that my faith isn't limited to what I can understand: or do. Happily, what's impossible for me isn't impossible for God.
"17 Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

"Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.'

"18 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, 'Who then can be saved?'

"Jesus looked at them and said, 'For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.' "
(Matthew 19:23-26)
That doesn't mean that everyone who's wealthier than I am is damned to eternal torment. Wealth is an obstacle to entering God's kingdom, but "for God all things are possible."

Some Saints have been poor as the proverbial church mouse, some were anything but poor, and I've been over this before.
The impossibility of buying or working my way into Heaven doesn't bother me. Not when I know that there's hope.

When Jesus stopped being dead, the gate opened for all of us. It's not a 'get out of Hell free' card, though. There's still work to do, and that's another topic. (Genesis 3:15; John 6:40; Romans 2:5-8; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1681, 2785)

Nietzsche, Truth, and the Happy Times Gospel

I can't make Tobit's claim, that I "have walked all the days of my life on the paths of truth and righteousness." I think truth is important, though.


(From William Blake, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission)
(Job's Tormentors, illustration by William Blake.)

I see a serious disconnect between what Jesus said and how some Christians live: but recognized it as business as usual in a fallen world. Like it says in Job 5:6-7: where you've got people, you've got trouble. That's a paraphrase, obviously.

Maybe an overdose of platitudes and pietism encouraged Friedric Nietzsche to see faith as the opposite of truth:
"This is where the ways of human beings diverge: if what you want is happiness and peace of soul, then believe; if you want to be a disciple of truth, then search."
(Friedrich Nietzsche; in a letter to his sister, Elisabeth Nietzsche (June 11, 1865) (From p. 42, "The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche;" Ken Gemes, John Richardson; Oxford University Press, (2013) via Google Books)
We still have folks ringing the changes on a happy times gospel approach to faith. I think that makes about as much sense as the oh woe, all ye faithful dirge that equates gloominess with Godliness.

There's nothing wrong with emotions, by the way: they're part of being human. But we're supposed to control our emotions with reason, not the other way around. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1731, 1762-1770)

We're also expected to acknowledge the wisdom of God's truth: even if that means a spot of unpleasantness now and then. (John 14:6; Catechism, 149, 214-216, 2465-2503)

"Knowledge of the Truth"


(From James Tissot, via Brooklyn Museum/Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(James Tissot's "The Exhortation to the Apostles.")

My Lord said, about as bluntly as possible, 'I'm God.' Any lunatic or charlatan could do that, of course. What set Jesus of Nazareth apart happened after the Son of God was executed, and that's yet another topic. (March 11, 2012)

Getting back to why truth is important, particularly for folks who take Jesus seriously, here's a very short sampling from the New Testament:
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way and the truth 5 and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

"If you know me, then you will also know my Father. 6 From now on you do know him and have seen him.' "
(John 14:6-7)

"1 First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,

"for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.

"This is good and pleasing to God our savior,

"who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth."
(1 Timothy 2:1-4)
This interest in truth didn't start with the New testament, of course. Depending on which list you're reading from, one of the Ten Commandments is "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," or "you shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor. " (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20)

The Catechism's Part Three, Section Two, Chapter Two, discusses how living in truth ties in with loving our neighbor. (Catechism, 2464-2499)

My neighbors aren't just the folks living next to me, and that's yet again another topic. Topics. (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-27; 1 John 4:20-21; Catechism, 1807, 1825, 1878-1889, 1928-1942, for starters)

Related posts:
More:

Friday, March 28, 2014

A Giant Turtle, the "Chicken from Hell," and a Cretaceous Stick Insect

We've learned a bit more about Earth's past: from fossils found in New Jersey, the Dakotas, and Inner Mongolia.
  1. Together Again: A Serious Tale of the Humerus Halves
  2. Looks Like a — Chicken? Cassowary? Ostrich With Hands??
  3. 'Nobody Here But Us Sticks'
I still run into folks who say evolution is the "religion of the antichrist," so maybe an explanation is in order. Then again, maybe not —

Turtles, Snakes, and a Cosmic Coffee Cup



Folks in ancient Mesopotamia imagined that the world we live on is a sort of plate sitting on enormous pillars, under a really big inverted bowl. Plato, Aristotle, and others thought the cosmos was a series of nested spheres, with us in the middle.

Mythic turtles, snakes, and elephants appear in other accounts of how the universe works. Many of these cosmologies have more to do with allegory and myth than the natural philosophy that became science.

We've learned that the "Biblical" Mesopotamian cosmos is about as accurate as imagining that we live on a doughnut suspended over a cosmic cup of coffee. That doesn't bother me, partly because I don't insist that poetry must be literally true.

Thinking: Not a Sin

I believe that God created, and is creating, the universe. (Genesis 1:1-2:7; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 279-308, 268-269)

But I'm not required to think that Genesis is a science textbook.

We're made in the image of God, able to use our brains: which is just as well, since we're expected to manage this world. (Catechism, 36, 286, 355-373, 2293, 2402)

Thinking isn't a sin, by the way. Not for Catholics.

Faith and reason get along just fine: but we're responsible for our actions, and that's another topic. (Catechism, 159, 1730-1738)

God could have designed a cosy little world-on-a-plate, or made my doughnut-and-coffee cosmos work. The Almighty is — all-mighty. What God says, goes. Psalms 115:3 and all that.

But it's long since become obvious that God's creation is vast and ancient: on a scale that's — well, cosmic. I'm okay with that.

I'm fascinated by our growing knowledge of this creation's 13,700,000,000-year-old story. My faith doesn't require that knowledge: but it's not threatened by facts.

1. Together Again: A Serious Tale of the Humerus Halves


(From Drexel University, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
"The two halves were discovered at least 163 years apart"
"Monster turtle fossils re-united"
Jonathan Amos, BBC News (March 24, 2014)

"Two halves of a fossil bone found more 160 years apart have finally allowed scientists to scale one of the biggest sea turtles that ever lived.

"Atlantochelys mortoni was originally described from a broken arm bone, or humerus, found in the 1840s in the US state of New Jersey.

"Remarkably, the missing portion has also now been unearthed.

"The fossil fragments are a perfect match, and indicate A. mortoni must have been 3m from tip to tail.

" 'When we put the two halves together, we were flabbergasted,' recalls Dr Ted Daeschler, from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia.

" 'We said, "no - that can't be!" We even turned them around trying to show they didn't match, but they're obviously supposed to be together,' he told BBC News.

"The re-united fossils will be described anew in a forthcoming issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia...."
It's been a while since my high school days, so I looked up Bones: Arm in Wikipedia. The humerus is the bone between our shoulder and elbow: the long tan or brown ones in this drawing.


(From Волков Владислав Петрович, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Arm/front leg/wing/flipper of a human, dog, bird, and whale: with bones color-coded.)

The pale yellow and red ones are the ulna and radius, each of the wrist bones has a name, and that's yet another topic.

I'd have called the forelimb of a sea turtle a flipper, but it's a 'tomayto, tomahto' situation. The forelimbs of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals have pretty much the same bones: with very different shapes and sizes.

That's understandable, since all tetrapods share the basic design of the prototype: lobe-finned fish in the Devonian. By now, about 395,000,000 years later, we've got more than 30,000 species of frogs, bats, birds, and other variations on the basic model.

I figure that God is smart and patient enough to run a changing universe. But ever since upper-crust British assumptions and effluvia from the Enlightenment percolated through On the Origin of Species, we've had an odd situation.

Science and Silliness

Scientists decided that critters are similar because life has changed in a measurable, observable, and orderly way. I don't have a problem with that. I've been around long enough to know that change happens.

Some folks decided that evidence of orderly change is proof that an orderly God doesn't exist. That's a bit of an oversimplification, of course.

Others insisted that the evidence can't be true, because it's not in the Bible. Some of this lot makes the "change happens, therefore God doesn't exist" crowd seem almost sensible by comparison.

We got some moderately amusing cartoons out of the mess, so it wasn't a complete waste of time and effort.

Me? I take the Bible very seriously, but I don't use it when I need help sorting out tangled software. (January 14, 2011)

Understanding the Monmouth Turtle


(From Jesse Pruitt/Idaho Museum of Natural History; Drexel University, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
"A 3D scan of the broken turtle limb: There is evidence of shark damage"
"...Both parts come from Cretaceous sediments, 70-75 million years old, in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

"Very little is known about the discovery of the distal end - the end nearest to the elbow.

"It received its first description from the famed naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1846. For years, it was assumed the bone was picked up in Burlington County.

"But then amateur fossil palaeontologist Gregory Harpel picked up the proximal end - the end nearest the shoulder - from a brook in the neighbouring Monmouth district.

" 'I picked it up and thought it was a rock at first - it was heavy,' Mr Harpel said.

"Rocks tend not to have markings from shark bites, and so he quickly realised the find was something far more significant.

"Together, the bone fragments give a much clearer view of A. mortoni, a species that would have looked very similar to the modern loggerhead - apart from its size...."
(Jonathan Amos, BBC News)
Louis Agassiz described half of the turtle's humerus in 1849. He might have found it, too: but the Drexel University news release didn't say.

In my part of the world, Louis Agassiz's chief claim to fame is his proposal that Earth had endured an ice age. He knew how to do field research, unlike some fossil-hunters.

Sloppy documentation, and the occasional outright frauds like the Piltdown Man, didn't help make evolutionary science seem plausible. (March 7, 2014)

Then there was the embarrassing case of the misplaced iguanadon thumb. The Crystal Palace dinosaurs didn't include details we've learned since 1854, but at the time they were reasonable reconstructions.

Getting back to this big turtle bone, putting the two pieces together is a big step forward in understanding the critter. For starters, scientists now know which rock formation the bone came from: which lets them narrow down its age. It's even possible that we'll find more turtle parts there.

More:

2. Looks Like a — Chicken? Cassowary? Ostrich With Hands??


(From Carnegie Museum of Natural History, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"A mounted replica skeleton of the new oviraptorosaurian dinosaur species Anzu wyliei on display in the Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in this handout image courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History."
"Weird 'chicken from hell' dinosaur lived alongside T. rex"
Will Dunham, Reuters (March 19, 2014)

"If you're a dinosaur with a nickname as funky as 'the chicken from hell,' you had better be able to back it up.

"A dinosaur called Anzu wyliei that scientists identified on Wednesday from fossils found in North Dakota and South Dakota does just that. It had a head shaped like a bird's, a toothless beak, an odd crest on its cranium, hands with big sharp claws, long legs for fast running and was probably covered in feathers.

"It is the largest North American example of a type of bird-like dinosaur well known from Asia. Its extensive remains offer a detailed picture of the North American branch of these dinosaurs that had remained mysterious since their first bones were found about a century ago, the scientists said.

"What would someone think if they encountered this creature that lived 66 million years ago? 'I don't know whether they would scream and run away, or laugh, because it is just an absurd-looking monster chicken,' said University of Utah paleontologist Emma Schachner, one of the researchers.

"Anzu wyliei measured about 11 feet long, 5 feet tall at the hip and weighed about 440 to 660 pounds (200 to 300 kg), the researchers said...."
Five feet tall at the hip? That's a really big chicken. Actually, it looks more like a cassowary, but "cassowary from hell" doesn't have quite the same appeal.

I"m guessing that the "type of bird-like dinosaur" mentioned in the second paragraph is ornithischia, or bird-hipped dinosaurs.

More about this critter:
Getting back to it's nickname and what Anzu wyliei looked like, it's a little like an oversize ostrich: with arms and hands instead of wings. My guess is that many folks would think it looks funny, if they saw it in a zoo.

Hurrying home after dark, turning a corner, and looking one of these critters straight in the neck? "Scream and run away" seems more likely.

Anzu Wyliei: "What a weird looking bird"


(From Scott Hartman, skeletaldrawing.com/Mark Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"The new oviraptorosaurian dinosaur species Anzu wyliei is shown in this illustration...."
"...'It has the nickname "the chicken from hell." And that's a pretty good description,' said paleontologist Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, who led the research published in the journal PLOS ONE.

" 'If you could get in a time machine and go back to Western North America at the end of the age of dinosaurs and see this thing, I would say your first reaction might be, "What a weird looking bird," ' Lamanna added. 'It would not look like most people's conception of a dinosaur.'

"Scientists think birds arose much earlier from small feathered dinosaurs. The earliest known bird is 150 million years old. This dinosaur's bird-like traits included a beak, hollow leg bones and air spaces in its backbone, paleontologist said Hans-Dieter Sues of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History...."
(Will Dunham, Reuters)
We don't know that Anzu wyliei had feathers, but some fossilized Asian oviraptors did, so their North American cousins probably did, too.

About screaming and running: that might not be a good idea.

Oviraptors almost certainly ate eggs. We're not eggs: but some of today's egg-eaters, like foxes, also eat meat.

So we could be looking at the bones something equivalent to an 11-foot-long two-legged fox: with a beak, feathers, and hands. Pleasant dreams.

3. 'Nobody Here But Us Sticks'


(From O. Béthoux, F. Jacques/National Museum of Natural History in Paris, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"A fossil stick insect referred to as Cretophasmomima melanogramma, in Inner Mongolia at the Jehol locality, a site from the Cretaceous period (L), and a plant fossil, Membranifolia admirabilis (R)...."
"Leaf me alone: ancient insect blended in with foliage"
Will Dunham, Reuters (March 19, 2014)

"Sometimes it is better not to be noticed.

"A number of insect species look so much like sticks or leaves that they simply blend in with the foliage, providing camouflage that helps keep them out of the beaks of hungry birds hankering for a big bite of bug.

"But this is no recent adaptation. An international team of scientists said on Wednesday they have discovered the fossil of an insect in China that lived about 126 million years ago whose appearance mimicked that of a nearby plant. It is the oldest-known stick or leaf insect that used such natural trickery, they said.

"The insect, named Cretophasmomima melanogramma, was found in Liaoning province in northeastern China, part of the Jehol rock formation that has yielded many stunningly detailed fossils of creatures like early birds and feathered dinosaurs...."
Cretophasmomima melanogramma doesn't look much like the plants, now that both are dead and fossilized. The wings and legs probably weren't quite so blatantly obvious while it was alive, though. They'd most likely be swung around to line up with surrounding leaves and sticks.

We've got quite a variety of walking sticks and walking leaves today. They generally act like sticks and leaves, as well as looking the part. Not that they decide "I'm going to act like a stick," any more than ancestors of bombardier beetles decided that they'd develop steam cannons. (January 31, 2014)

Sticks that Walk, Fish that Glide: Earth's Story Continues


(From Alan Gilchrist, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
A prickly stick insect in Fairfield, Otago, New Zealand. Photo by Alan Gilchrist. (2012)
"...The researchers realized the insect looked remarkably like the leaf of a plant that grew in the same place at the time that was a relative of the Ginkgo tree.

"The fossil showed wings with parallel dark lines that, when the bug was in the resting position, seemed to produce a tongue-like shape that could hide its abdomen, they said. The plant had similar tongue-shaped leaves marked with multiple lines.

"The researchers think the insect evolved to look like these leaves - even their green color - and concealed itself from predators by mingling with the foliage. Females of this insect were estimated at about 2.2 inches (55 mm) long and the males a bit smaller...."
(Will Dunham, Reuters)
Alan Gilchrist's photo of a prickley stick insect shows how they pose to blend in. Some insects like that have wings: but my guess is that they either look like sticks or have their wings deployed.

I suppose there isn't much point in making 'flight mode' look like a stick. We don't have flying sticks. Gliding snakes and fish, yes. Quite a bit has happened in the 2,000,000,000 or so years since oxygen from cyanobacteria caused a chemical catastrophe. (August 30, 2013)

Camouflaged insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals weren't entirely successful in avoiding predators: which is just as well for us, and that's yet again another topic. Topics.

Related posts

Monday, March 24, 2014

Science and Religion (Truth Cannot Contradict Truth)

I live in a world of beauty and wonder. I take my faith seriously: and see no problem with worshiping God and thinking about this astounding universe.


Brian Gill, YouTube (March 24, 2014)
(5:13)

Related posts:

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Prayer, Love, and Fred Phelps

Fred Phelps died Wednesday, March 19, 2014, of natural causes. He was 84. He was the "God Hates Fags/God Hates You" pastor.

According to a CNN article, quite a few folks called him 'the most hated man in America.'1

I do not agree with Mr. Phelps' beliefs, and think his followers' habit of disrupting funerals was wrong. But I do not hate Fred Phelps. I'll explain why in a bit.


(ABC News, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)


(Reuters photo, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

Mr. Phelps' regrettable slogans gained national attention, thanks in part to the untiring efforts of his disciples and the signs they carried. I think Mr. Phelps legacy will endure, at least for a short while.

Prayer Couldn't Hurt


(From Thomas Cole, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)

I have prayed that Mr. Phelps will rest in eternal light, and find in death the peace which seems to have eluded him in life.

No pressure, but if praying for him seems like a good idea, you might find these words suitable: or not.
Eternal rest, grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.
That's an English translation of an old prayer for the dead. When said for more than one person, it goes like this, if memory serves:
Requiem Aeternam dona eis, Domine Requiem, et lux perpetua luceat eis: Requiescant in pace. Requiem. Amen.
We use the English version of that prayer in the parish church down the street, by the way.

Love, Reason, and Being Catholic

I do not hate Fred Phelps, or his followers. My beliefs won't allow that.

For Catholics, there are two basic rules:
We're also told that we can make reasoned decisions: and should act as if our love matters. (Catechism, 1731-1767)

Feeling all warm and fuzzy about my neighbor is okay, but it's not required. I've written about emotions, reason, and getting a grip a few times, including:
What the Catholic Church says about folks who are homosexual is not what Fred Phelps preached. For starters, we're not allowed to hate anybody.

We believe what Jesus said:
"For God so loved the world that he gave 7 his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn 8 the world, but that the world might be saved through him. "
(John 3:16-17)

Driving Drunk, Getting a Grip

I haven't seen one of those "friends don't let friends drive drunk" public service announcements for years. The phrase has become a cliche, but the idea is still valid.

Sometimes being a friend means not letting your friend do something stupid, and potentially destructive: even if the friend really wants to drive.

Now, about human beings, sex, and getting a grip — We come in two basic models: male and female. Human sexuality is basically good. How we use our sexuality can be good, or not. (Genesis 1:27-31; Catechism, 2331-2391)

Some acts are wrong, no matter what. For example, deliberately killing an innocent person is always wrong: no matter how angry I might be. Legitimate self-defense is okay, and that's another topic. (Catechism, 2261, 2263-2269)

Homosexual acts are wrong, but experiencing a disordered desire is not. (Catechism, 2357-2359)

As a Catholic, I must love my neighbor: no exceptions.

Unjust discrimination is not "love:"
"The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition."
(Catechism, 2357)

Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church — Familiar Beliefs

News media coverage of the Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church often focused on their "God hates fags" belief. There's more to their gospel of hate, though.

When I visited their website a few years back, I found an all-too-familiar attitude toward Catholicism:
"...We will say every time we come to a catholic church (aka whore house) we will remind you that Priests Rape Children...."
("Westboro Baptist Church Picket Schedule," godhatesfags.com, (from Google cache November 8, 2010))
Some of my take on the "pedophile priest" story and America's cultural baggage:

(From Thomas Nast, via Wikimedia Commons, used without permission.)

"Bad Seed?"

My native culture encourages the belief that "bad seed" exist: people who are born evil. There's a (very) little truth to it.

We live with the consequences of our first parents' disobedience, and have "an inclination toward evil and death."

That's why we baptize infants, and celebrate Easter. We live in a fallen world, there is hope, and that's yet another topic. Topics. (Catechism, 402-412, 638-655)

Sin is very real. Its roots are beyond this world, we are all affected. But each of us is created "in the image of God," a good creature who is free to reason: and choose good or evil. (Catechism, 355-368, 385, 387, 391-395, 1730-1738)

Some of us make appallingly bad choices: but although I may identify what a person does as a "grave offense," I must leave judgment of the person who commits the act to God. (Catechism, 1861)

Presenting Christianity as a seething cauldron of hatred is far from a good deed.

However, I am not going to pronounce judgment on Fred Phelps, or those who follow him. I've got enough on my spiritual rap sheet already, without adding violations of Matthew 7:1.

Besides, there's Luke 18:10-14. The man who "prayed to himself" isn't a good role model.

Now that I'm in the last half of my life, the endgame is more obviously important. My intent and goal is to die "... in God's grace and friendship ... perfectly purified...." (Matthew 7:5, Romans 2:1-11, Hebrews 9:27, Catechism, 1021-1022, 1023, 1749-1756, 1777-1782, 18612283)

With my backlog of shortcomings, that goal seems optimistic, at best.

I will be pleasantly surprised — and astonished — if I don't do time in Purgatory.

And that's yet again another topic. (Catechism, 1030-1032)

Related posts:

1 Excerpt from the news:
"Westboro church founder Fred Phelps dies" Daniel Burke, CNN (March 21, 2014)

"Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church known for its virulently anti-gay protests at public events, including military funerals -- has died, the church said Thursday.

"The 84-year-old died of natural causes at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to church spokesman Steve Drain.

"Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, in 1955 and molded it in his fire-and-brimstone image. Many members of the small congregation are related to Phelps through blood or marriage....

"...According to Westboro, the church has picketed more than 53,000 events, ranging from Lady Gaga concerts to funerals for slain U.S. soldiers. Typically, a dozen or so church members -- including small children -- will brandish signs that say 'God Hates Fags' and 'Thank God for Dead Soldiers.'

"Phelps was often called 'the most hated man in America,' a label he seemed to relish...."

Friday, March 21, 2014

Gravity Waves: Finding Ripples From the Big Bang

If a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics team of scientists is right, we've finally found gravity waves. This is one of the missing pieces of evidence supporting Einstein's theories and the more recent inflation model for the first few ticks of our time.
  1. Uncertainty and a Multiverse
  2. Ripples in the Fabric of Space-Time
A tip of the hat to New Advent, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this news.

Gravity Waves: Finally Found?


(From Gnixon, Papa November, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Illustration of an expanding universe.)

Astronomers using a telescope at the South Pole detected gravity waves. At least, that's what they figure they've detected in the Cosmic Microwave Background: CMB for short.

This particular telescope is called BICEP2, for Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization. Who says scientists lack a sense of humor? — and that's another topic.

If scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics are right, this is a very big deal. Gravity waves were predicted several decades back.

If anyone could confirm that they don't exist, cosmologists would have to rethink well-established theories, but until now gravity waves hadn't been observed. They haven't been observed, actually: not directly. What scientists found in the BICEP2 data were effects of gravity waves, and I'm getting ahead of myself.

For folks trying to understand how this universe works, and how it's grown, confirming that gravity waves exist is a very big deal.

More Than You Want to Know About the BICEP and Keck Array


(From Ketiltrout, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
"The BICEP2 telescope (right) next to the larger South Pole Telescope in the Dark Sector Laboratory."
(Wikipedia)

BICEP2 was part of the BICEP and Keck Array.

BICEP1 ran from January 2006 to the end of 2008, BICEP2 was a 2nd-generation instrument that ran from 2010 to 2012. BICEP3 hasn't been set up yet. It's due for deployment during the 2014-2015 Antarctic summer.

The Keck Array started observations in the Antarctic summer of 2010-11. It's been modified since then.

More:

The Big Bang, Science, and Faith

"Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.

"God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness."
(Genesis 1:3-4)
The Big Bang theory for how this universe started has been around for several decades, and is still a pretty good model for its early development.

I also like it, since the moment when a point of infinite temperature and density exploded is a pretty good match for what my mind's eye sees when reading "let there be LIGHT."

However, my faith won't be shaken if scientists develop a better model than the Big Bang. In a way, I'd be disappointed if we had all the answers today. Watching scientists unravel the workings of this universe may be almost as much fun as doing the research.

Individual scientists are prone to arrogance and other human failings: but I think most realize that as we learn more, existing theories may no longer work.

Phlogiston, for example, was a pretty good explanation for how fire works: from 1667 to 1753. Interestingly, Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen: but supported the phlogiston theory.

The Bible and Truth: Catholic Style

I take the Bible, Sacred Scripture, very seriously. As a Catholic, that's not an option, it's a requirement:
"The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.112"
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 133)
As an American, I'm aware of my native culture's attitudes towards the Bible. Some folks apparently still believe that every word is literally true: from the viewpoint of a contemporary American.

I don't consult the Bible when my computer misbehaves, or when I want to know the atomic number of magnesium: it's 12, by the way. Here's why:
"...Know what the Bible is – and what it isn't. The Bible is the story of God's relationship with the people he has called to himself. It is not intended to be read as history text, a science book, or a political manifesto. In the Bible, God teaches us the truths that we need for the sake of our salvation...."
("Understanding the Bible")
More:

Large and In Charge

"Our God is in heaven; whatever God wills is done."
(Psalms 115:3)

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the decision of the LORD that endures."
(Proverbs 19:21)

"...The holy one, the true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one shall close, who closes and no one shall open, says this:"
(Revelation 3:7)

Revelation 2:7 starts with "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia...," so I could start worrying about which church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania should get a message: but that would be silly.

The "Biblical" Philadelphia was near Sardis, capital city of Lydia, a kingdom that hasn't been there for about six centuries now. These days, folks are calling Φιλαδέλφεια Alaşehir, and that's another topic.

As I've said before, I don't have a problem with the idea that God is large and in charge. What's a bit scarier is knowing that the Almighty put us in charge of this immense and ancient creation. The good news is that we've been given brains and time to learn how to use them. (March 17, 2013)

Finally, if there's a theological implication in this week's science news: it's that God thinks big.

1. Uncertainty and a Multiverse


(From BICEP2 Collaboration, via LiveScience.com, used w/o permission.)
Diagram showing the size of our universe versus time. Before neutral hydrogen formed, 380,000 years after the big bang, the universe was opaque. The CMB, Cosmic Microwave Background, comes from photons streaming in from that first transparency.
"Our Universe May Exist in a Multiverse, Cosmic Inflation Discovery Suggests"
Miriam Kramer, LiveScience.com (March 18, 2014)

"The first direct evidence of cosmic inflation — a period of rapid expansion that occurred a fraction of a second after the Big Bang — also supports the idea that our universe is just one of many out there, some researchers say.

"On Monday (March 17), scientists announced new findings that mark the first-ever direct evidence of primordial gravitational waves — ripples in space-time created just after the universe began. If the results are confirmed, they would provide smoking-gun evidence that space-time expanded at many times the speed of light just after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago....

"...'In most of the models of inflation, if inflation is there, then the multiverse is there,' Stanford University theoretical physicist Andrei Linde, who wasn't involved in the new study, said at the same news conference. 'It's possible to invent models of inflation that do not allow [a] multiverse, but it's difficult. Every experiment that brings better credence to inflationary theory brings us much closer to hints that the multiverse is real.'..."
Depending on your reading and television viewing habits, "multiverse" might remind you of Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich and Alan Guth, or Star Trek and Sailor Moon. (April 2, 2013)

The sort of multiverse discussed in Miriam Kramer's LiveScience article is the variety described in Max Tegmark and Brian Greene's lists.

If they exist, these other universes may not be observable: not by anyone in this space-time continuum, anyway. On the other hand, maybe we'll eventually have enough data to make educated guesses about what they're like: again, assuming that they exist.

The last I heard, physicists still don't know how Occam's razor slices the odds that we live in a multiverse. Not for sure, anyway.

2. Ripples in the Fabric of Space-Time


(From Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation/Handout, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"The 10-meter South Pole Telescope and the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) Telescope at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is seen against the night sky with the Milky Way in this National Science Foundation picture taken in August, 2008."
"Astronomers discover echoes from expansion after Big Bang"
Irene Klotz, Sharon Begley, Reuters (March 17, 2014)

"Astronomers announced on Monday that they had discovered what many consider the holy grail of their field: ripples in the fabric of space-time that are echoes of the massive expansion of the universe that took place just after the Big Bang.

"Predicted by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago, the discovery of gravitational waves would be the final piece in one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect: an understanding of how the universe began and evolved into the cornucopia of galaxies and stars, nebulae and vast stretches of nearly empty space that constitute the known universe.

" 'Detecting this signal is one of the most important goals in cosmology today,' John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the research, said in a statement...."
We've known that gravity waves might exist since Einstein published his general theory of relativity, back in 1915. The theory explains gravity as dents in space caused by massive objects.

Maybe if everything stayed still, we wouldn't have gravity waves. Since atoms, dust grains, asteroids, planets, stars, star clusters, galaxies, and everything else in this universe is moving: space is probably permeated by gravity waves.

We don't notice gravity waves, because they have almost no effect on the stuff we're made of. This makes them hard to detect: although I suspect that astronomers didn't realize how elusive they'd be.

Einstein, Inflation, and More Evidence

Another theory that says gravity waves should exist is the Inflation model: which has roots in Einstein's work, but didn't take off until the 1980s.

Like Einstein's theories, there's considerable evidence that the inflation model is accurate. But also like support for relativity, gravity waves weren't part of that evidence: until last Monday.

Seeking a TOE

Besides adding more evidence that supports two major explanations about how physical reality works, confirmation of gravity waves may help scientists develop a TOE, or Theory of Everything. Everything in this case being the four basic forces of nature, which we're pretty sure aren't earth, wind, fire, and water.

Einstein and others gave us math that ties electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force. As far as we can tell, those three are facets of the same basic force. Gravity, on the other hand, seemed to be a property of space: not something that's an effect of subatomic/quantum particles.

Eventually, we may learn that all of the above are like phlogiston: a pretty good way to describe observed phenomena, but not an accurate description of physical reality.

I don't think so, though. Unlike phlogiston, as we've learned more about the universe, relativity and inflation have been tweaked: but are still pretty good models for describing facets of our universe.

Much More to Learn


(From Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
"Tiny temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (shown as color) trace primordial density fluctuations in the early universe."
"...The gravitational waves were detected by a radio telescope called BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization). The instrument, which scans the sky from the South Pole, examines what is called the cosmic microwave background, the extremely weak radiation that pervades the universe. Its discovery in 1964 by astronomers at Bell Labs in New Jersey was hailed as the best evidence to date that the universe began in an immensely hot explosion.

"The microwave background radiation, which has been bathing the universe since 380,000 years after the Big Bang, is a mere 3 degrees above absolute zero, having cooled to near non-existence from the immeasurably hot plasma that was the universe in the first fractions of a second of its existence.

"The background radiation is not precisely uniform. And like light, the relic radiation is polarized as the result of interacting with electrons and atoms in space.

"Computer models predicted a particular curl pattern in the background radiation that would match what would be expected with the universe's inflation after the Big Bang...."
(Irene Klotz, Sharon Begley, Reuters)
The Reuters article says one of the next steps in studying this "curl pattern" will involve telescopes lifted by balloon above much of Earth's atmosphere.

As Irene Koltz and Sharon Begley put it, "the background radiation is not precisely uniform." When they made a high-resolution map of the CMB, they expected irregularities: the sort of 'snow' we used to see on analog television sets when there wasn't a broadcast signal.

What they didn't expect were large irregularities: including a 'cold spot' that might be where/when our space-time continuum collided with another. (March 22, 2013)


(from ESA and the Planck Collaboration, via Space.com, used w/o permission.)

My guess is that we have a great deal more to learn about our universe: and maybe others.

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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

Background:Posts in this blog: In the news:

What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.