Living in Mogadishu

Reports like this remind one of the deep drama of history: that the human impulse for good is powerless in front of the violence of sin unless Christ is recognized. It is a problem of education.

Cardinal Schoenborn and Darwin

"I see no problem combining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, under one condition -- that the limits of a scientific theory are respected," said Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn in a conference in Paris.
Read more on Reuters.

Intelligent design

For interesting commentary on the "intelligent design" controversy, read this Salon interview with Michael Ruse, this op-ed by Kenneth Woodward in the NYTimes and above all the piece by Msgr. Albacete here below.

TEMPI Column

by Lorenzo Albacete

Many have asked me to comment on the debate concerning the ability of science to detect an "intelligent design" in its study of nature, particularly the evolution of the species culminating in man. Religious conservatives (mostly Protestant Evangelicals and some Catholics) are insisting that the "scientific" view of "intelligent design" be taught to students in the public school. This is of course being resisted by those who see it as an intrusion of religion in the public school curriculum, as well as those who appeal to science to justify a cultural agenda hostile to faith.
The debate on intelligent design in the United States is thus more a political struggle than a scientific or religious debate. It originates in the efforts of Protestant Christian believers to resist the political power of the radical secularists who appeal to neo-Darwinism to justify their political policies. It would seem that, at least theoretically, Protestant fideism would not care what science holds or does not hold, since for fideists faith and reason are split. But what to do when an anti-faith ideology with a cultural agenda gains political power and appeals to science to support its view of what it means to be human? "Intelligent Design" is an attempt to respond to this cultural challenge. It represents an attempt to reconcile science with the Protestant view of faith and in some way escape from the limitations of fideism. Ironically, this response surrenders too much to science by letting science be the norm of what is ultimately affirmed as the ultimate, defining truth about man's origin and destiny.
The Catholic approach to this issue starts from a completely different point. Catholics insist that there is no opposition between properly understood views of faith and reason. Reason does not clash with faith, provided we do not equate reason to the method of scientific inquiry. The scientific method is a particular application of reason that seeks to understand the relations of causality between events that are purely material and measurable. The spiritual or non-material dimension is excluded from this method from the very beginning of the inquiry. Reason, whose power lies in its openness to the totality of all the factors that constitute reality, is thus restricted in its scope. An event or a series of events examined from this limited perspective will show no evidence of intelligent design, since intelligent design betokens freedom and purpose. The Catholic affirmation of the ability of reason to grasp an intelligent design behind reality does not depend on the results of such a scientific method. We do not require that science understood this way show evidence of intelligent design in order to affirm that a reasonable gaze at reality points to design or purpose and providence. The current debate is framed within a view of reason that is not our view.
Reason can grasp intelligence behind reality, but our Catholic faith grasps Love as the ultimate ground of all that exists and man as the creature created to freely respond to that creative Love as the "self-consciousness of the universe," so to speak. However, it is not to science that we appeal to make this affirmation, but to reason enlightened by faith.

Why Crossroads

Crossroads New York Cultural Center is a meeting place for people who share a passion for knowing.
This passion is aroused by wonder and attraction because "out there" things are, because life is given, always as a new and unexpected event that nourishes our experience.
This focus on reality as event (and not on ideas) determines the "style" of our cultural work:
We prize encountering people, because every human being is an irreducible novelty.
We want to meet them at the "crossroads" of life, regardless of any cultural, religious or social boundary.
We value beauty, because it sparks the wonder and attraction at the origin of human experience.
We are interested in the events that shape our world, because what happens always contains a suggestion, a hint that affects and may change our lives.
We cherish appreciating and testing our heritage, because the fabric of our life is woven from all the events that happened before us.
Thus, Crossroads aims to be, above all, a place where education takes place, that is, where we may learn to look with openness, curiosity and critical judgment at every aspect of reality.