Cardinal George Pell has seemingly criticised Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical, arguing that the Church has “no particular expertise in science”. In an interview with the Financial Times, the cardinal appeared to distance himself from the science behind some of the statements in Laudato Si’. In the document, released last month, Francis called for global Read more
An interview with Fr.Robert Spitzer, SJ, president of the Magis Center, about faith, reason, atheism, and Stephen Hawking’s “hogwash”: Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, Ph.D., 62, is president of the Magis Center (www.magiscenter.com), headquartered in the new chancery office of the Diocese of Orange, California. The center’s goal is to demonstrate that faith and reason and Read more
Pope Francis has said that both the Big Bang theory, about the start of the universe, and the theory of evolution do not conflict with Catholic teaching. Speaking to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Monday, Pope Francis said scientific explanations for the world did not exclude the role of God in creation. “The beginning Read more
Ten United States seminaries across several denominations will receive a combined US$1.5 million in grants to include science in their studies. The grants were announced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Funding has come from the John Templeton Foundation, in an effort to bridge gaps between science and faith. Catholic institutions to Read more
Are science and religion fundamentally at odds? Many well-known astronomers and astrophysicists think so, including Stephen Hawking, who in a recent interview said, “Before we understood science, it was natural to believe that God created the universe, but now science offers a more convincing explanation… I’m an atheist.” Other astronomers see no fundamental incompatibility between Read more
Some say they were pursued by the Hound of Heaven, a Grace that would not take leave, not in the “nights”or “down the days,” the “arches of the years” or the “labyrinthine ways.” That poetry never much resonated with me. The first time I heard it I wondered, “At what rate did he travel, this hound?” Poetry is hard for literalists to Read more
It may not make his family wealthy, but Devran Mankar is still grateful for the pearl millet variety called Dhanshakti (meaning “prosperity and strength”) he has recently begun growing in his small field in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. “Since eating this pearl millet, the children are rarely ill,” raves Mankar, a slim man Read more
Doctors will try to save the lives of 10 patients with knife or gunshot wounds by placing them in suspended animation, buying time to fix their injuries Neither dead or alive, knife-wound or gunshot victims will be cooled down and placed in suspended animation later this month, as a groundbreaking emergency technique is tested out for Read more
3D-printed organs – quick explanation: this essentially entails filling an old inkjet printer with human tissue, which then gets ‘printed’, layer by layer, to form a 3D object. Last year, we implanted the first bioengineered blood vessel, and it won’t be long before we’ll be able to print a liver for anyone who needs one. Because Read more
Several years ago, an energetic young mother, Tia, was out and about with her infant Aimee when disaster struck: a group of men, accompanied by vicious dogs, surrounded the pair, snatched up Aimee, and brutalised Tia. They left her helpless and without her daughter. Aimee was eventually rescued. But Tia was too battered to look Read more