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Morality is not a Biological Issue

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Bear-600x375Modern biology makes us believe that we descended from the animal world and that we are nothing more than glorified animals. However, even if we did descend from the animal world, that doesn’t mean all our characteristics were transferred to us through genes and umbilical cords. For example, our anatomy and physiology did come from there, but what about our rationality and morality? In this article, I will focus on morality alone and argue that what sets us apart from the animal world is exactly the fact that we are rational and moral beings who can make rational and moral decisions. Take rationality or morality away from us, and we are indistinguishable from animals.

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Can Darwinism Survive without Teleology?

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Origin_of_SpeciesEver since Darwin, the concept of teleology has been suspect among biologists. What is so controversial about teleology? Most likely, its history! From the earliest Greek philosophers on, it was widely believed that the world must have a purpose because, as Aristotle would put it, “nature does nothing in vain,” and neither does God, as a Jew or Christian would say. In this often misunderstood view, any change in this world is due to final causes that move things to an ultimate goal, a predetermined end. All things would achieve certain ends or goals because they were designed that way by nature or by God; that’s how hormones, for instance, are supposed to reach their target cells.

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The Enigma of the Human Mind

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Because the mind is more than the brain, the brain of neuroscience and neurosurgery is a mindless brain that works like a radio or TV broadcasts news. It requires a mind to study and understand the brain.

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The Pill, The Environment

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C.S. Lewis & Intelligent Design

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CSLewisThis month marks the 50th anniversary of the death of beloved writer C.S. Lewis. “C.S. Lewis and Intelligent Design” is the third of three short documentaries inspired by the book The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society. Lewis is best known for his magical stories about Narnia, but a new documentary explores his life-long struggle to find intelligent design in a world filled with pain. Eventually, he is a strong defender of ‘intelligent design’ in nature.

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Is There Intelligent Design in Nature?

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bacterial-flagellumGerard M. Verschuuren, scientist, writer, speaker, and consultant, working at the interface of science, philosophy, and religion, explains the difference between intelligent design as a metaphysical concept and ‘ID’ as a scientific theory. He endorses the first, calling is ‘cosmic design’ and attributing it to God, the author of natural laws and creator of the world that is being investigated by natural sciences. He refutes ‘ID’ as a scientific theory which would lead to a ‘god of the gaps’. Nature, biological evolution includes, does not need the supernatural interventions to bring about complex structures. The metaphysical designer and his laws of nature, including natural selection, suffice.

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Thomas Aquinas versus Intelligent Design: a Catholic Answer

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thomasaquinas-670Michael W. Tkacz, associate professor of philosophy at Gonzaga University, recounts that one day, he received a phone call from a professor of philosophy at a nearby private, religiously affiliated college who had just returned from an international conference devoted to challenges to evolutionary biology from intelligent design (ID) theory. He had something of a complaint to make about the absence of ‘Thomists’ and ‘Catholics’ in the ID movement and its challenge to Darwinism. Since the time of Charles Darwin there has been vigorous debate between Christian creationists and Darwinian evolutionists. Neither side has been especially interested in what Catholic Thomism might contribute to the discussion. Secular Darwinians often view Thomists as just another species of literalists attempting to substitute the Book of Genesis for good biology. On the other hand, Protestant creationists often have viewed Thomists as already halfway to secularism and naturalism, depending too little on a literal reading of Scripture and too much on philosophical reasoning.

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Answering Atheism

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answeringnewatheismAre we able to answer the arguments of an atheist? In this interview, Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker discuss why and how they dismantle the underpinnings of Richard Dawkins’ atheistic agenda in Emmaus Road Publishing’s 2008 release, Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God. (Three video’s)

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Science and religion versus scientism

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Science and religion versus scientismAn acclaimed author, speaker and theologian, Robert Barron is a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire. He is the creator and host of the 10-part TV series Catholicism, and serves as the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein. He the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Lecture on ‘Evangelizing the Culture’ at Elmhurst College (Chicago – Illinois, USA), Wednesday, February 8. In this 12 minutes excerpt, Fr. Barron debunks the myth that Religion and Science are mortal enemies. Scientism, the belief that one can explain everything by means of the scientific method, appears to be itself logical incoherent. How would you scientifically test that presumption? Click on ‘more’ to watch this video (12 minutes)

 


For full talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlps1S…,

 


God’s Biologist: A Life of Alister Hardy

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A book that might almost have been entitled, ‘From Plankton to Prayer’. Bizarre, to be sure; but one does not often come across someone who is an expert in the biology of oceans and the relationship between plankton and the movements of fish, and who also has a deep interest in the relationship between the theory of evolution and research into religious experience. Such a man was Alister Hardy. He did oceanographical research on board little fishing boats from Hull, as well as on the Royal Research Ship,Discovery deep in the Antarctic. He held professorships in Biology in Hull, Aberdeen and Oxford. Yet the more complex depths of his character came from an important experience he had as a schoolboy at Oundle…

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