The entire text of Pope Benedict's recent speech that so infuriated Muslims around the world is given below. I think that you will find it an interesting read if you have ever considered the question of faith and reason. Can you know the nature of things by reason and scientific method or must you approach them only through the authoritarian structures of religion?
Not surprisingly Pope Benedict hedges his bets in the speech below. He seems comfortable throwing stones at a world religion which eschews all reason in deference to the revealed word, but he remains unwilling to put to much trust in the system of science he credits for the improved lot of mankind.
If you read the text carefully, I think you will find a scholarly mind at work, but you may also note the absence of the compassion informed by grace present in so many of his predecessors comments.
Someone asked me the other night why the world seemed to be teetering on the brink of crisis. I said that I think the world is always poised thus and that what we are witnessing is not particularly difficult times but an unusual confluence of incompetence in world leadership. These men with their strong convictions and unyielding egos are dangerous both by way of their positions and their closed minds.
As we go forward our nation must renew itself by demanding greater competence from our leaders. Whether it is greater stewardship of the church or a deeper commitment to democratic principles from our leaders of state, we must expect and demand more.
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We believe what we see. We see through filters - lenses. Nothing much has changed, except how we see things. How we perceive our lives. It seems that now we rely more on one lens (the media) than any other lens (religion, family, etc.) I was told another President of The United States, FDR, said,” The only thing to fear is fearing itself." Now people are fighting a war on "terror" by torturing and killing people. I've been told people have always been fighting, torturing, and killing. Reason can make a good lens. Faith can make a good lens. One is nearsighted, one is farsighted. I don't know which is which. Fear is a bad lens.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The average American home now has more television sets than people.
That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.
Weird. Wild. Wacky. Stuff.
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