Pope says God is not a magician who waves a wand

Pope says evolution, Big Bang are real

Josephine McKenna

Religion News Service

October 28, 2014

(Photo: Angelo Carconi, EPA)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has waded into the controversial debate over the origins of human life, saying the big bang theory did not contradict the role of a divine creator, but even required it.
The pope was addressing the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which gathered Monday at the Vatican to discuss "Evolving Concepts of Nature."

"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.

"He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment."

Francis said the beginning of the world was not "a work of chaos" but created from a principle of love. He said sometimes competing beliefs in creation and evolution could co-exist.

Pope Francis tells an audience that the Big Bang does not contradict the "creative intervention of God". He says, "on the contrary, it requires it". Rough Cut (no reporter narration). Newslook

"God is not a divine being or a magician, but the Creator who brought everything to life," the pope said. "Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve."
Unlike much of evangelical Protestantism in the U.S., Catholic teaching traditionally has not been at odds with evolution. In 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed there was no opposition between evolution and Catholic doctrine. In 1996, St. John Paul II endorsed Pius' statement.
Some wondered if Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wanted to change that when he and some acolytes seemed to endorse the theory of intelligent design, the idea that the world is too complex to have evolved according to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, a close associate of Benedict, penned a widely noticed 2005 op-ed in The New York Times that said "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense — an unguided, unplanned process … is not."
Giovanni Bignami, a professor and president of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics, welcomed Francis' comments, saying he had buried the "pseudo theories" of creationists.
"The pope's statement is significant," Bignami told Italian news agency Adnkronos. "We are the direct descendants from the Big Bang that created the universe. Evolution came from creation."
Giulio Giorello, professor of the philosophy of science at Milan's University degli Studi, said he believed Francis was "trying to reduce the emotion of dispute or presumed disputes" with science.

South Carolina Christian School Fourth Grade Science Quiz

South Carolina Christian School Fourth Grade Science Quiz
by gizmo59
Daily Kos
Apr 26, 2013
The source of this quiz is the father of the student who took it. He will not identify the school until June, after his daughter finishes the school year there, after which she will move to another school. Snopes rates this item as "probably true.

American schools have failed: 1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says

How do school officials expect students to understand science when they barely understand that the earth is not flat?

Is the average American teacher subpar? Yes.

Obviously, the concept of the earth orbiting the sun is one that SHOULD BE taught with a living, moving demonstration with objects such as a basketball for Jupiter, a marble for the earth, etc.. The sun would ideally be eight feet in diameter, but balls that size are hard to come by. I myself used something smaller for the three-dimensional demonstration, and then I put up a bulletin board with part of a yellow butcher paper sun (with butcher paper flames). Also, the rotation of the earth on its axis should be taught by letting kids see (or, better yet, carry!) a globe that is turned slowly as it moves around the "sun" (which should be the biggest, roundest, most orange object the teacher can come up with).

What excuse is there for the legions of teachers who don't bother to make sure that their students understand these concepts? I am frequently appalled by the mental laziness of teachers.

As a teacher I was amazed at the percentage of my fellow teachers who would stand up in front of the class and recite a fact, and then think that their job was done regarding that fact.

Parents: most of your kids are receiving inadequate instruction in basic concepts. I urge you to support Common Core, and to hold teachers accountable for learning how to teach it. DON'T FALL FOR ALL THE WHINING THAT TEACHERS ARE DOING. They are college graduates. They should be able to figure out how to teach basic concepts.

See all posts re Common Core.
See all posts re lazy teachers.

1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says
by Scott Neumann
NPR
February 14, 2014

A quarter of Americans surveyed could not correctly answer that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, according to a report out Friday from the National Science Foundation.

The survey of 2,200 people in the United States was conducted by the NSF in 2012 and released on Friday at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

To the question "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth," 26 percent of those surveyed answered incorrectly.

In the same survey, just 39 percent answered correctly (true) that "The universe began with a huge explosion" and only 48 percent said "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals."

Just over half understood that antibiotics are not effective against viruses.

As alarming as some of those deficits in science knowledge might appear, Americans fared better on several of the questions than similar, but older surveys of their Chinese and European counterparts.

Only 66 percent of people in a 2005 European Union poll answered the basic astronomy answer correctly. However, both China and the EU fared significantly better (66 percent and 70 percent, respectively) on the question about human evolution.

In a survey compiled by the National Opinion Research Center from various sources, Americans seemed to generally support science research and expressed the greatest interest in new medical discoveries and local school issues related to science. They were least interested in space exploration, agricultural developments and international and foreign policy issues related to science

Science is prevailing in the latest battle over Texas schoolbooks

Texas Textbook Publishers Say No To Creationism: Watchdog Report
The Huffington Post
By Rebecca Klein
10/18/2013

It appears that science is prevailing in the latest battle over Texas schoolbooks.

Though earlier this year several of the state’s textbook reviewers called for biology textbooks to discuss creationism, publishers are not complying with those requests, according to the Texas Freedom Network. The nonpartisan watchdog examined material made public by the Texas Education Agency and found that publishers are sticking with teaching evolution.

Citizens who serve on the Texas review panels are charged with making suggestions about proposed classroom texts that are being considered for the state's list of “approved” schoolbooks. While most reviewers on this year’s biology panel made routine, noncontroversial suggestions, some took issue with the fact that the proposed books did not include information about creationism while focusing on evolution.

However, information that publishers submitted to the Texas Education Agency show they are not incorporating the suggestions about "creation science" and plan to print books free of references to the theory of intelligent design.

“This is a very welcome development for everyone who opposes teaching phony science about evolution in our kid’s public schools,” said Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller in a press release. “Texas parents can applaud these publishers for standing up to pressure from politicians and activists who want to put their personal beliefs ahead of giving Texas students a 21st-century science education.”

Josh Rosenau, the programs and policy director at the National Center for Science Education, also declared the publishers' response a victory for science.

“They didn’t put in anything creationist or dangerous, so I’m prepared to call this a victory for the publishers,” he told The Huffington Post. “They stood strong against the pressure of the reviewers.”

Sequester threatens American scientific research for a generation

Sequester threatens American scientific research for a generation
by Laura Clawson
Daily Kos
Aug 14, 2013

HIV research. Cardiovascular disease research. Diabetes research. Research that could improve our treatment of everything from the common cold to foot-and-mouth disease, from muscle injuries to muscular dystrophy.

Those are just a few of the projects now underway that are seriously endangered by the sequester's cuts to science funding, and the results could be catastrophic.

Under George W. Bush, funding for the National Institutes of Health rose to $30.8 billion, and under President Obama, the stimulus included $10.4 billion in additional funding. Now, with NIH funding falling to $29.1 billion, scientists interviewed by Huffington Post's Sam Stein spoke of having to cut salaries or cut lab staff altogether, of seeing scientists choose jobs in other countries or other fields rather than face the circumstances in research science in the U.S., and of having to consider euthanizing their lab mice.

These aren't just the threats of a brief period in time:

"Medical research is not like building widgets. We cannot turn it on and off," [the Medical College of Wisconsin's Dr. William Jackson] said noting that, among other things, his staff would move on and his project would be tarred as unsuccessful.

And if staff move on to other countries or out of science altogether, that could create a brain drain that will weaken scientific research in the U.S. for a generation or more. Like so many other austerity-driven policies, it's appallingly shortsighted. But "austerity-driven and appallingly shortsighted" is among the top contenders for the motto of today's Republican party, so much of this research is and is likely to remain endangered.

Did Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin get a bad science education? Why did Speaker John Boehner put Akin on the House Science Committee?

Speaker John Boehner should remove Rep. Todd Akin from the House Science and Technology Committee, and apologize for having made such a foolish decision in the first place. But maybe it wasn't foolish. Maybe it was calculated with the purpose of suppressing science.

Republican Congressman Todd Akin told a Missouri news station:

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare... If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Someone who believes nonsense like this has no part overseeing science policy.

PETITION: REMOVE TODD AKIN FROM THE SCIENCE COMMITTEE

North Carolina outlaws science: coastal buyers beware as sea levels rise!

New Law in North Carolina Bans Latest Scientific Predictions of Sea-Level Rise
By ALON HARISH
BC News
Aug 2, 2012

A new law in North Carolina will ban the state from basing coastal policies on the latest scientific predictions of how much the sea level will rise, prompting environmentalists to accuse the state of disrespecting climate science.

The law has put the state in the spotlight for what critics have called nearsightedness and climate change denial, but its proponents said the state needed to put a moratorium on predictions of sea level rise until scientific techniques improve.

The law was drafted in response to an estimate by the state's Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) that the sea level will rise by 39 inches in the next century, prompting fears of costlier home insurance and accusations of anti-development alarmism among residents and developers in the state's coastal Outer Banks region.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue had until Thursday to act on the bill known as House Bill 819, but she decided to let it become law by doing nothing.

The bill's passage in June triggered nationwide scorn by those who argued that the state was deliberately blinding itself to the effects of climate change. In a segment on the "Colbert Report," comedian Stephen Colbert mocked North Carolina lawmakers' efforts as an attempt to outlaw science.

"If your science gives you a result you don't like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved," he joked.

The law, which began as a routine regulation on development permits but quickly grew controversial after the sea-level provision was added, restricts all sea-level predictions used to guide state policies for the next four years to those based on "historical data."

Tom Thompson, president of NC-20, a coastal development group and a key supporter of the law, said the science used to make the 39-inch prediction was flawed, and added that the resources commission failed to consider the economic consequences of preparing the coast for a one-meter rise in sea level, under which up to 2,000 square miles would be threatened.

A projection map showing land along the coast underwater would place the permits of many planned development projects in jeopardy...

Does our society want science education? Or do we think knowledge is elitist--or worse?

Microsoft, Pfizer and Comcast are funding the people who made this:

Heartland equates climate change with terrorism
Sum of Us
May 11, 2012

Are you part of the “radical fringe”? According to an ad campaign by the Heartland Institute, if you believe in climate change, you’re a radical on par with the likes of Osama bin Laden, the Unabomber, and notorious mass-murderer Charles Manson.

An ad campaign planned by the corporate front-group the Heartland Institute — which is funded in part by Microsoft and Pfizer – features the faces of these notorious killers alongside the phrase “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?” Tell Microsoft, Pfizer, and Heartland’s other funders to stop funding Heartland and its dirty climate change denier smears.

Even as people are literally dying from increased flooding, drought, freak storms, and other climate impacts around the world, the fossil fuel industry continues to deny that climate change even exists. Their strategy has been incredibly effective — they’ve stopped the US from taking any serious action to end its addiction to oil and coal, which in turn has made it impossible for the world to reach a global climate treaty. And Heartland, a key climate change denier, also depends on Microsoft, Pfizer, and other corporations who claim they believe in climate change out of one side of their mouth — while simultaneously funding an organization that runs despicable ads like these out of the other side. That’s why we’re joining up with our friends at Forcast the Facts to call for corporations to stop funding Heartland.

The Heartland Institute has a long history of playing dirty. Last year, Heartland was caught trying to sneak industry-written pro-coal propaganda into elementary schools, and previously they have acted as hired guns for the cigarette industry, distributing a paper titled “Joe Camel is Innocent!”.

Corporations have begun fleeing from Heartland. In March, General Motors announced it would no longer fund Heartland. Just yesterday, Diageo — the company behind Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnny Walker, and other brands — also announced they were pulling funding. Now is the time to give Microsoft, Pfizer, and Heartland’s other funders — many of whom have explicitly stated they care about fighting climate change — a push to follow GM and Diageo’s lead.

Supressing Science

U.S. Agency May Reverse 8 Decisions on Wildlife

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: July 21, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Interior Department said Friday that it would review and probably overturn eight decisions on wildlife and land-use issues made by a senior political appointee who has been found to have improperly favored industry and landowners over agency scientists.

The appointee, Julie A. MacDonald, resigned on May 1 as a deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, after an internal review found that she had violated federal rules by giving government documents to lobbyists for industry. The agency’s inspector general also found several instances in which Ms. MacDonald browbeat department biologists and habitat specialists and overruled their recommendations to protect a variety of rare and threatened species.

H. Dale Hall, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said he had asked the agency’s regional managers to submit for review cases in which Ms. MacDonald might have inappropriately bent the process to fit her political agenda. Mr. Hall winnowed the list to eight instances in which he said he expected that her actions would be reversed...

This is also what happens when the truth stops mattering

Ex-surgeon general faults White House
Richard Carmona says the administration 'simply buried' his scientific data
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 11, 2007


WASHINGTON — President Bush's first surgeon general testified Tuesday that his speeches were censored to match administration political positions and that he was prevented from giving the public accurate scientific information on issues such as stem cell research and teen pregnancy prevention.

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard H. Carmona, who was surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, told a congressional committee. "The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation — not the doctor of a political party."

Early in the administration, when the issue of federal funding for stem cell research arose, Carmona said, he felt he could play an educational role by discussing the latest scientific research. Instead, he said, he was told to "stand down" because the White House already had made a decision to limit stem cell studies. He said administration appointees who reviewed his speech texts deleted references to stem cells.

Carmona's remarks were the latest in a series of complaints from government scientists about what they say are administration efforts to control — and sometimes distort — scientific evidence in order to support policy decisions.

NASA scientists have complained, for example, of political pressure to tone down warnings about global warming. Environmental Protection Agency officials have complained that technical information on such subjects as power plant emissions and oil drilling have been ignored.

Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, recently dissented from the administration's position by saying its restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research were holding back progress and should be lifted.

Scientists outside the government also have complained about what some call the administration's "war on science."

In the case of the surgeon general, Carmona told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, "the reality is that the nation's doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas."

This is what happens when the truth stops mattering

Libya's Supreme Court upholds death penalty against medics

Daily Star (Lebanon)
Thursday, July 12, 2007

Libya's Supreme Court upheld Wednesday the death penalty against six foreign medics convicted of infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus, but a reprieve may still be possible in the case that has dragged on for eight years. Foreign Minister Mohammad Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said the government-controlled High Judicial Council, which has the power to commute the sentence or even pardon the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor, will consider the case on Monday.

EU and Bulgarian leaders expressed regret at the court's ruling, the latest twist in a highly politicized trial, but said they remained confident. There have been lengthy efforts to secure a deal with the children's families.

"In the name of the people, the court has decided not to accept the defendants' appeal and confirms the death penalty against them," chief judge Fathi Dahan said.

Nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva and Palestinian doctor Ashraf Juma Hajuj - who now has Bulgarian nationality - have been behind bars since February 1999 but have always protested their innocence. The six were not in court for Wednesday's verdict.

They were convicted of infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi and sentenced to death in May 2004. Fifty-six of the children have since died.

But foreign health experts have cited poor hygiene as the probable cause of the epidemic in Benghazi, Libya's second city.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the medics should be "returned immediately," but noted that Wednesday's court ruling was not the last word in the process.

Portuguese Premier Jose Socrates, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, expressed sorrow over the verdict and appealed for clemency.

"We will continue our efforts together with our European and other international partners toward reaching a final agreement and for a decision of the Supreme Judicial Council which will be positive for our medical workers," Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb


Hopes were raised for a deal to win their release on Tuesday evening when Libya's Gadhafi Foundation charity said it had reached an accord with the children's families that "puts an end to the crisis."

A representative of the victims' families had said the compromise deal would also see the death penalty commuted to jail terms, which could be served in the medics' country of origin, as Libya and Bulgaria have an extradition treaty.

Libyan officials say the High Judicial Council would only agree to the release of the nurses if a settlement were reached in private talks between the families and the EU on funding for the children's medical care.

Update: Good news! See July 17, 2007 post (above) for story of commutation of death sentences.