BING CROSBY EARS IN CROATIA
VIRGIN BIRTH OR EVOLUTION?
ONLINE CATECHISM CLASS FOR ADULTS
UPDATE ON OUR FORUMS
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Today I drive up to LAX to retrieve my wife. She spent the last month in Japan visiting friends and relatives. Our German shorthaired pointer has had to rely on me for entertainment, so I know he will be overjoyed at her return.
His name is Pochi, which in Japanese is the generic dog name, the equivalent of Bowser. When we tell Japanese friends his name, they always laugh. In Japan no one names his dog Pochi, just as here no one names his dog Bowser. How declasse!
WHERE THERE'S HOPE THERE'S CROSBY
Speaking of family matters, part of my heritage is Croatian, so I paid attention when E-Letter subscriber Don Wolf of Kansas City told me about St. Theresa's Orphanage, which is located in Zagreb. The orphanage is run by Carmelite sisters and houses 35 children. An affiliated orphanage, St. Joseph's, has another 30 children.
Don has raised enough funds to give the orphanage a new roof and repaired walls, doors, and plumbing. The next project is an elevator. The children are housed on the third and fourth floors of the orphanage, and the sisters have to haul everything up from the first floor. This is awkward, tiring, and sometimes even dangerous, as when babies and their carriages are carried up and down.
Most of the $50,000 needed for the elevator has been raised, but St. Theresa's is still short $7,200. If you might be in a position to help, you can learn more about the orphanage and about how to make a tax-deductible donation at:
http://www.sttheresasorphanage.com
Don is a professional photographer. His photos of the children may be found at the web site. I especially liked the one of the boy with the Bing Crosby ears.
WHOM DO YOU TRUST?
In a post-election column, an unhappy writer complained about religious folks who have more certainty in the Virgin Birth than in evolution. I laughed when I read that. Of course I have more certainty in the Virgin Birth than in evolution--or in any other scientific theory.
Scientific theories are modified over the years. Some are displaced by quite contrary theories. I cannot think of a scientific theory that has not seen some alteration since its promulgation.
When I was in college I was among the earliest students to be taught about plate tectonics. This was in classes I took at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Plate tectonics is the study of how continental masses move across the surface of the earth.
South America and Africa are shaped complementarily; their coastlines imply that they once were joined together. If they moved apart, with the Atlantic Ocean forming in between, how did that movement occur? That is what plate tectonics seeks to answer.
In the last third of a century plate tectonics has become an accepted theory among geophysicists, geologists, and other scientists, but the theory has undergone substantial modification since I first learned about it. Do I believe the theory to be accurate, to be "true"? On the whole, yes, but I do not have absolute certainty in it. I expect the theory to undergo further modification as scientists collect more data.
I have no reservation whatsoever about the truth of the Virgin Birth. The source for that teaching is not the same as the source for the teaching about plate tectonics, of course. The Virgin Birth is taught to us by a Church set up by God himself, and that gives the Church the highest level of authority and reliability conceivable.
As John Henry Newman demonstrated in his "Grammar of Assent," we come to certitude in different ways. We rely on different authorities for different truths. Nowadays (and in Newman's day), some people said only science can teach certitudes. Every other authority teaches only opinions. Not so.
Science can teach us truth, but only about certain things. It is restricted to the natural world. It cannot teach us anything about the supernatural world and very little about how the supernatural world intersects with the natural world, as in the Virgin Birth.
I have much confidence in the truth of the theory of plate tectonics, but I would undergo no trauma if a future theory displaced it. I have absolute confidence in the teaching on the Virgin Birth, and I know that this teaching never will be discarded as untrue.
So I guess that columnist was right. Some people do have more confidence in the Virgin Birth than in any particular scientific theory. It makes sense to me.
LEARN THE FAITH ONLINE
This E-Letter has been partly instruction in the faith and partly an outlet for my opinions on miscellaneous topics. If you are not finding here as much doctrinal teaching as you would like, consider the new adult education program available through:
http://www.catechismclass.com
This online program caters to adults who want flexible schedules and who want to learn about the faith at their own pace. It can be used in conjunction with a parish RCIA program by those planning to enter the Church, and it can be used by long-time Catholics who just want to understand their faith better. The program is built around the lectionary and the "Catechism of the Catholic Church."
If your formal instruction in Catholicism ended in high school or even before, this very inexpensive program may be just what you need.
FORUMS NOTE
We now have more than 14,000 registered members at our discussion forums. Last month 1,624 people joined and added 55,459 new messages to the forums. In October we had as many as 338 people online simultaneously.
If you have not yet visited our forums, see them now at:
http://forums.catholic.com
If you are a registered member but have not visited for a while, I hope you will return and participate in the discussions.
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' new discussion forums at:
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
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