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“God is not a magician, with a magic wand”: Pope Francis schools creationists (Salon)
Salon ^ | 10/28/14 | Sarah Gray

Posted on 10/28/2014 3:19:32 PM PDT by Faith Presses On

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To: kindred

I would add John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God”. Nancy Pelosi favorite Word.. I wonder if she knows that verse means Jesus was there in the beginning when World was created.


101 posted on 10/28/2014 8:21:55 PM PDT by scbison
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To: kindred

I would add John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God”. Nancy Pelosi favorite Word.. I wonder if she knows that verse means Jesus was there in the beginning when World was created.


102 posted on 10/28/2014 8:21:56 PM PDT by scbison
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To: freedumb2003

i didn’t see you complaining about the pope’s lack of scientific references.


103 posted on 10/28/2014 8:23:08 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: terycarl

evolution involves death so if evolution was there when Adam and Eve came into being, then whole Genesis is a fraud because death was there before they sinned.


104 posted on 10/28/2014 8:25:01 PM PDT by scbison
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To: Faith Presses On

The Pope is an incredibly sloppy thinker and preacher. He creates controversies where there are none, and confusion where none is necessary.

His remarks are not a good starting point for a useful discussion.

Recently, he said that “Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. Jesus is consubstantial with Mary.” Totally misused the term “consubstantial.” Makes nonsense of the Nicene Creed.

NEWS FLASH: The Catholic Church teaches CREATION. The Catholic Church does not teach that the STORY of creation in Genesis is literally true in all its details. How could the TWO creation accounts both be true, since they contradict each other?

The Catholic Church teaches that God created all things ex nihilo; that God created the first man and woman; that all living humans are descended from one man and one woman.

The DETAILS of the creation story teach a number of philosophical and theological truths about God and man. It is a misunderstanding of Scripture to believe that Genesis was intended to teach geology, physics, etc.

As is typical of this Pope, he had to use provocative language that just insults a lot of people.


105 posted on 10/28/2014 9:17:52 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: freedumb2003; Salvation; GreyFriar
Thanks for the ping and post. Anti catholicism is de rigeur on FR. It's like a carnival, at times and we are the knockdown dolls.


106 posted on 10/28/2014 9:46:44 PM PDT by NYer ("You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears." James 4:14)
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To: scbison
I love what Nels Bohr said to Einstein after Albert claimed that "God does not play dice with the universe!" His reply..."Stop telling God what to do!" Humans do not limit God by description, ideas, understanding or... God is beyond rational, and that not subject to our limited whim. DK
107 posted on 10/28/2014 10:23:38 PM PDT by Dark Knight
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To: Arthur McGowan

ahhhh No. He says stuff (doesn’t matter what) then
claims “lost in translation”
Oh come on people this guy has never read a Biblical reference in his life.


108 posted on 10/28/2014 11:36:13 PM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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To: skeeter

Oh he will, just as he has done every other time


109 posted on 10/28/2014 11:38:25 PM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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To: Faith Presses On

Magicians do not perform miracles, therefore God is not a magician.


110 posted on 10/29/2014 1:37:08 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: babygene
Pope Francis, if God doesn’t do magic, then what is a miracle? Did Jesus not do magic either? Turning water into wine and making the blind see healing the sick and feeding thousands with a loaf of bread and a fish weren’t exactly done through the application of science.

A magician is a created being who uses powers he doesn't understand to do things he doesn't fully understand either. Of course God is not a magician and miracles are miracles, not magic.

111 posted on 10/29/2014 1:40:51 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: Faith Presses On
Pope Francis also stated that evolution and the Big Bang theory are both true

Where exactly did he say that?

112 posted on 10/29/2014 1:42:50 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: svcw

No need to exaggerate. Of course he’s familiar with Scripture. And he’s not the one who claims “bad translation.”

But he is careless with words, and he did try to push the Kasperite, heretical agenda through the Synod.


113 posted on 10/29/2014 5:51:50 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: NorthstarMom

The issue here is that the bible is really a library of different literary genres... Genesis is a narrative not literal history (impossible to document all of creation), it is vastly different in genre from Leviticus, Exodus, the Gospels, The Epistles etc.

Ignorance of genre is ignorance of the nature of scripture.


114 posted on 10/29/2014 6:48:20 AM PDT by rwilson99 (Please tell me how the words "shall not perish and have everlasting life" would NOT apply to Mary.)
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To: rwilson99

I’ve also come to understand that not only does the style not translate to English from Hebrew very well,

but there is SO MUCH Jewish background/cultural knowledge that is assumed in the writing that just gets lost coming into a comparatively juvenile English language.


115 posted on 10/29/2014 6:51:25 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: scbison

The word ‘days’ in Genesis is a metaphor... And obviously so because the concept of ‘day’ in Genesis predates the existence of the Earth and the Sun which is how we mark ‘days’ on Earth.

From God’s perspective... Which is the perspective that we see the Genesis narrative... The concept of day is going to be different.

Just as the typical person can only establish relationship with about 150 people in real life... A God that has literally created billions of people and seeks relationship with all who are on earth might have an expansive view of time from his perspective.

Does that make sense?


116 posted on 10/29/2014 6:53:44 AM PDT by rwilson99 (Please tell me how the words "shall not perish and have everlasting life" would NOT apply to Mary.)
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To: NYer

It is FR anti-Catholicism that has pushed me, like a sign from above, to the Church. I’m in RCIA and will join the Church on Easter. I noticed the Catholic bashing and, as a Protestant, was appalled! There are many issues to be concerned about these days, yet they insist on aiming their hatred at Catholics. As a mom, I don’t know how they have the time for it. This started my journey, as I began researching the issues, and I realized that there is only one Church.


117 posted on 10/29/2014 7:24:25 AM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: scbison
What Pope Francis actually said:
When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining God as a magus, with a magic wand able to make everything. But it is not so. He created beings and allowed them to develop according to the internal laws that He gave to each one, so that they were able to develop and to arrive [at] their fullness of being. He gave autonomy to the beings of the Universe at the same time at which he assured them of his continuous presence, giving being to every reality. And so creation continued for centuries and centuries, millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely because God is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being to all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it. The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of Creation, as evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.

With regard to man, instead, there is a change and something new. When, on the sixth day of the account in Genesis, man is created, God gives the human being another autonomy, an autonomy that is different to that of nature, which is freedom. And he tells man to name everything and to go ahead through history. This makes him responsible for creation, so that he might dominate it in order to develop it until the end of time. Therefore the scientist, and above all the Christian scientist, must adopt the approach of posing questions regarding the future of humanity and of the earth, and, of being free and responsible, helping to prepare it and preserve it, to eliminate risks to the environment of both a natural and human nature. But, at the same time, the scientist must be motivated by the confidence that nature hides, in her evolutionary mechanisms, potentialities for intelligence and freedom to discover and realise, to achieve the development that is in the plan of the Creator. So, while limited, the action of humanity is part of God’s power and is able to build a world suited to his dual corporal and spiritual life; to build a human world for all human beings and not for a group or a class of privileged persons. This hope and trust in God, the Creator of nature, and in the capacity of the human spirit can offer the researcher a new energy and profound serenity. But it is also true that the action of humanity – when freedom becomes autonomy – which is not freedom, but autonomy – destroys creation and man takes the place of the Creator. And this is the grave sin against God the Creator.

Last Resistance


118 posted on 10/29/2014 7:48:26 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: jwalsh07

“Magicians are illusionists. God is a Creator. Ex nihlo type.”


Note that I said in my post that “so I look at God as being the ultimate magician (and everything else).”

Sometimes He fools us with what is, for him, just an illusion...and sometimes He creates out of nothing. He is the very definition of “multi-talented” - His knowledge and abilities are literally infinite and beyond our understanding, no matter what our level of technology.


119 posted on 10/29/2014 8:02:10 AM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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To: Secret Agent Man

>>i didn’t see you complaining about the pope’s lack of scientific references.<<

His statement is a faith-based statement. And it has what we in science call “heft.”


120 posted on 10/29/2014 8:02:51 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Zimmerman, Brown, Fast & Furious, IRS harassment, Philly ignorance: holdering in 1st degree)
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