Posted on 11/21/2005 11:02:22 PM PST by Lorianne
AN event that occurred 250 years ago today stands as a singular reminder that the war between faith and science in America did not start in Dover, Pa., where several school board members who promoted the teaching of intelligent design were voted out of office last week, or even in that Tennessee courthouse in 1925 where John Scopes was tried for teaching evolution. It has been a recurring theme in our history since the very seedtime of the republic.
In the early hours of Nov. 18, 1755, the most destructive earthquake ever recorded in the eastern United States struck at Cape Ann, about 30 miles north of Boston. "It continued near four minutes," wrote John Adams, then a recent Harvard graduate staying at his family home in Braintree, Mass. "The house seemed to rock and reel and crack as if it would fall in ruins about us."
The shock was felt as far away as Montreal and Chesapeake Bay. Throughout the New England countryside familiar springs stopped flowing and new ones appeared; stone walls were thrown down and cracks opened in the earth. Two hundred miles out to sea one ship was knocked about so violently that its crew believed it had run aground. In Boston, 100 chimneys toppled into the streets and more than 1,000 houses were damaged. A distiller's new cistern collapsed with such force that it brought down the entire building...
For Bostonians, the experience was unlike anything they had been through and their reactions varied widely. On the one side were a few who absorbed the experience with keen interest; as a natural phenomenon with natural causes. In this group were people like Adams and his favorite Harvard professor, John Winthrop, who gave a lecture on the science of earthquakes the following week.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Please do so..
In a sense, I have no dog in this fight, so to speak, other than having read a lot lately on the Council of Nicea and the succeeding councils, and the history involving their various religious findings, it was noted that Origen and his teachings were considered "controversial" in some aspects right from the "beginning", and over the course of several hundred years, were eventually declaimed as false by the "church"..
So, in a general sense, I think you will find that Origen's teachings, or those of his followers, after his death, were denied, although specifically, Origen himself, and his original teachings may have held some validity within the church..
However, from what I've read, "Origenism" was eventually dead as (Roman) Catholic doctrine..
I have no agenda in this regard besides historical accuracy. There is no doubt that what came to be known as "Origenism" is excluded from Catholic doctrine, but it is important to recognize that what is referred to as "Origenism" are those interpretations of some peripheral topics he discussed that are contrary to orthodox doctrines. Much of Origen's teachings, as my excerpt above outlines, have become the very core doctrine of Catholicism (and Orthodoxy).
Yes, Origen flirted with certain 'errors' as they were later defined, and became a controversial figure (primarily due to the exploits of John Chrysostom), but his cardinal significance to the history of Christendom is undeniable. My edits on Wikipedia will be meant to be neutral, as opposed to what I think is the biased framing of the current version. And I'll surely ping you whenever I get to it!
That is the point. Go to the expert to learn or go directly to the source. So when the NY Times offers an opinion about God and where he belongs in public discourse I can safely ignore them and form my own opinion.
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