page 26: The political consequences of physical theology
Table of contents
25.1: War
25.2: Evolution
25.3: Providence
25.4: Mortality
25.5: My body myself
25.6: There is no original sin
25.7: Gravitation is the divine source of energy
25.8: The world is built with quantum mechanics
25.9: One species one genome
25.10: One theology one humanity
25.11: Peace is possible
25.1: War
On school I learnt that that the history of humanity is a history of wars. Later I learnt that the history of war is the history of theocracy. Theocrats still rule the world. The theocratic government of Israel is at this moment bombing the indigenous people of Palestine into oblivion based on a mythical promise by their imaginary god Yahweh of a homeland somewhere. The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, aided and abetted by the Christian Patriarch of Russia, is conducting a holy war against democratic Ukraine, terrified by the prospect that power comes from the people below, not from an imaginary God above.
Jesus founded Christianity with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We can read it in the Gospel according to Luke (10:25-37, KJV):
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
In Jesus’ time Judea was occupied by the Romans. The local priesthood (the theocrats) were upset by Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of their God. They convinced the occupying force that he was a trouble maker. Eventually the Romans agreed to make him a martyr and they tortured him to death by crucifixion. His followers claimed that he rose again on the third day. In the century after his death literary followers created the New Testament, a happy ending grafted onto the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) which depicted Jesus as the saviour of the world, a human sacrifice who reconciled humanity to the old God Yahweh, the Father, after the fiasco in the Garden of Eden. All the work, death and pain that we have suffered as punishment for the Original Sin would be erased in by an Apocalyptic reconstruction of the world, the good would enjoy an eternal vision of God in Heaven and those judged to be bad an eternity of excruciating pain in Hell.
In the next few hundred years the Gospel (Good News) about Jesus went viral until Christianity began to replace the traditional religions of Rome . Early in the fourth century the Roman emperor Constantine decided to make Christianity the official religion of his empire. He organized a powerful group Christian bishops to meet in Nicea and compose a simple summary of Christian belief which we now know as the Nicene Creed. Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, Keith Hopkins (2001): A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity,
Christianity outlived the Roman Empire and became a powerful political force in Europe. In the eleventh century it was wealthy and influential enough to start a long series of wars against the Muslims. Karen Armstrong describes the Crusades:
In 1095, with the tomb of Jesus still in the hands of infidels and the Byzantine empire overrun by Muslim Turks, Pope Urban II summoned Christian warriors to take up the cross and their swords against the Turks and then recover the holy city of Jerusalem from Islam. It was to be the first of the Crusades, a holy war that would focus the power of the European kingdoms against a common enemy. The Crusades became the stuff of romantic legend, but in reality were a series of rabidly savage battles carried out in the name of Christian piety to advance the power of the Western Church. Their legacy of religious violence is felt today as the age old conflict of Christians, Muslims and Jews persists. Karen Armstrong (2001): Holy War: The Crusades and their impact on today's world
Once started, military crusading became habitual, continuing until the early eighteenth century. Religious wars, based on conflicting theologies have been part of life at least since the Iliad. At least then all the stupidity was not our fault. The cruel and murderous gods were playing with us.
All this bloodshed, which has cost tens of millions of lives, is all based on ancient theologies and religions based on nothing but mythology. We cannot go on like this. My answer is very simple. The first step is realize that the Universe is real and plays all the roles of the traditional gods. It created us, it sustains us, it judges our actions.
The Universe is one consistent whole. The method of reality based science moves toward understanding this consistency. Since human biology is one, scientifically trained doctors can treat anyone anywhere in the world and know that they are following tested procedures. Since the divine world is one, scientifically trained theologians will all be telling the same story and able to give reality based spiritual guidance to anybody anywhere. Scientific theology will put religious extremists out of business in the same way that biology cuts down purveyors of snake oil and bogus cures for cancer.
Our knowledge of the Universe is based on physics. If the Universe is divine, it is clear that theology and physics are talking about the same reality so they must be mutually compatible. The purpose of this site is to explore this story in detail, following a trail blazed more than two thousand years ago by Aristotle. Aristotle worked his way from physics to the nearest thing he know to the Christian God, the unmoved mover. Unmoved mover - Wikipedia
One positive outcome of the Christian invasion of the Muslim world was the discovery of Aristotle, whose work had been preserved in Eastern Empire which then passed on to the Muslims. The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas incorporated Aristotle's work into Christian theology. This was the last contact between theology and science. Arab-Byzantine wars - Wikipedia
The theologians then retreated into the study of Biblical tests and commentaries by the Church Fathers. As recently as the second Vatican Council the Church was still repeating the same old stories:
Preface: 1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love. . . .
6. Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind.
As a sacred synod has affirmed, God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20); but teaches that it is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of error, even in this present state of the human race. Second Vatican Council (1965): Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation 'Dei Verbum'
I was a victim of the Catholic story. In order to save at least a little bit of the world it is the intention of the site to completely change our understanding of theology and physics by exploring the hypothesis that the Universe is the divine creator and has created itself. My starting point, within which it has come to be, is an omnipotent eternal initial singularity formally identical to the traditional Christian God described by the medieval theologican Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1275).
I believed Popes Pius XIII, John XXIII and Paul VI. After that I stopped listening.
In my experience, scientists tend to dismiss theology as meaningless mythology and theologians think they know things that are inaccessible to science. During the heady days of he Second Vatical Council I proposed to my religious superiors that it would help to make theology scientific by accepting that the Universe is divine. I was dismissed from the Order for my heretical view. Jeffrey Nicholls (1967): How universal is the universe?
In 1987 I made some radio programs about the same idea. Apart from the Berlin Wall coming down, there was no response. Jeffrey Nicholls (1987): A theory of peace
In 2018-2019 standing by in Adelaide while some of my family were dying, I tried to get some interest from the philosophy department of the University of Adelaide, but mot much happened and I learnt that there was no way to study non-denominational theology in the city of Adelaide (the city of Churches). So,on the principle that if you want to get something done, do it yourself, I have written this website. It is an amateur effort (I love my work), but it has thousands of links to connect it to the world. I am aware that a century is a short time in theology, so I do not expect the site to go viral in this century, but now I have a product to hawk and hope to boil it down into a small book. Jeffrey Nicholls (2019): A prolegomenon to scientific theology
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25.2: Evolution
The traditional creator was eternal, omnipotent and omniscient and created the world in six days according to a predetermined plan. As I explain on page 5: God's ideas, cybernetics and singularity this is impossible because God is traditionally absolutely simple and therefore has no way to represent information and cannot therefore be omniscient.
The only way such a god could create a Universe from a state of omnipotence and complete ignorance is by a process of evolution. This idea holds also for the bog bang theory, which also begins from a structureless initial singularity. Evolution enters the story on page 6: Evolution: genetic memory, variation and selection.
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25.3: Providence
The traditional God not only created the world in every detail, but controls it from moment to moment as well. This control requires both omniscience and omnipotence. While omnipotence, meaning the ability to do anything that does not cause a contradiction, is consistent with God, omniscience may inconsistent with evolution since evolution requires random mutation to be creative. Aquinas, Summa, I, 22, 3: Does God have immediate providence over everything?
On the whole we like to control things to prevent harm. Occupation health and safety requires control. Theologians in particular must employ prudence and providence to avoid war. We can allow providence to enable a few random situations, since these are essential to fun and games, but we are still obliged to prevent harm as an essential component of loving out neighbours.
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25.4: Mortality
The promises of reward and punishment which are essential to the marketing of Christianity require the propagation of the radical falsehood that we do not really die. There can be no doubt that the Christian claim that we have an immortal is the fundamental falsehood in the whole business and deprives it of any shred of credibility.
We are large a complex organisms with trillions of moving parts which are all subject to a certain level of error. As we age errors accumulate until at some moment our system is no longer able to sustain life.
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25.5: My body myself
The claim that we possess an immortal soul is the lie at the root of the Roman Catholic Church's marketing efforts. Implicit incthis idea is that the soukd can exist independently of the body. After I die, they say, my soul will be judged good or bad and go to heaven or hell accordingly. It will not be reunited to my body until the last day when the bodies of all the dead are predicted to arise and be rejoined to their souls. It is hard to tell at this time how many hudred billion people will then be living on Earth.
In the meantime, while I am alive, I am understood to be damaged goods because the original sin has broken the nexus between my soul and my body, as explained by Paul the apostle in his letter to the Romans. This story is as unbelievable as anything else the Catholic Church tries to tell us. Paul, Romans 7:14-25: The war between the flesh and the spirit
The relationship between spirit and matter is described on page 21: Matter and spirit.
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25.6: There is no original sin
Another blatant falsehood built into Catholic doctrine is idea that God created a paradise which they then destroyed to punish the whole human race because the first people ate the Forbidden Fruit. This doctrine tells us that God introduced work, pain, and death into the world as a consequence of this sin.
The world does not need redemption. It is good and divinely perfect from the very beginning, the initial singularity formally identical to the traditional Christian God.
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25.7: Gravitation is the divine source of energy
The Christian God of Thomas Aquinas, the initial singularity of the big bang theory, and the initial singularity imagined on this website all share the properties that they are completely structureless, eternal and omnipotent, having the power to create the Universe. They play the role of the traditional divinity.
Here we understand the initial singularity to be also a symmetry which is repeatedly broken to produce all the details of the Universe. In the beginning we imagine the divine naked gravitation. We cannot see it but we feel it holding us to the Earth and influencing every move we make. (See page 17: Gravitation and quantum theory—in the beginning §2 Dinosaurs, birds and Newton's General Scholium).
Our Universe begins with no energy, but in one of the first steps of creation naked gravitation breaks into potential and kinetic energy which together add up to zero. The kinetic energy becomes the physical particles of which we are made; the potential energy acts as the bank from which the kinetic energy is drawn.
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25.8: The world is built with quantum mechanics
Beneath the physical world which we can see and touch is a complex information processing system called quantum mechanics which makes the world act as it does. The existence of this layer was discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century and is the foundation of our modern understanding of the material world. It explains the intelligent and creative divine nature which has enabled the Universe to create itself from an omnipotent initial singularity guided only by the fact that it cannot create a contradiction. Our discussion of this structure begins on page 9: The active creation of Hilbert space and continues until the end of the site.
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25.9: One species, one genome
Biologically, we are all one species. Differences of gender, race, colour, language and culture are irrelevant to our unity, although there are insecure people who need to feel superior to others to maintain their self esteem. Where appropriate we can all fall in love with one another and have children. Although our genomes may differ in detail, we are all identically human, equal as individuals in every way. We share this specific unity as do all other living species.
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25.10: One theology, one humanity
Our biological unity is the foundation of our spiritual unity. As a species (Homo sapiens) we evolved in Africa and began to move into the rest of the world about 300 000 years go. Since that time populations living in different parts of the world have developed different physical characteristics related to their habitat and a large number different languages and cultures. Richard G Klein (2009): The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins (third edition), Recent African origin of modern humans - Wikipedia
One of our most important keys to survival is the ability to communicate and cooperate. Initially we may have lived in small indigenous communities but the rise of imperial powers like the Rome of Constantine described in §1 above forced disparate people together and used violence so force conformity so that a world of many thousands of languages cultures has been reduced to about about five major religious groups. These groups often exert pressure on their adherents to conform and create friction at the boundaries between ideologies. Many of these major religions have, like Christianity, developed ideologies which are far from reality. Bringing the spectrum of theologies and ideologies closer to reality may serve to reduce the friction which very often breaks out into violence and war. Major religious groups - Wikipedia
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25.11: Peace is possible
At the heart of the Catholic theology is the idea that we have immortal soul and will live forever after we die to be rewarded with an eternity of bliss in heaven with God or an eternity of excruciating pain in hell with Satan.
I cannot believe this. What is true, however, is that each of us is a community of trillions of cells all sharing the same genome and therefore able to work together as a harmonious whole. Like a diverse industrial economy, there are many different types of cell which perform different tasks from moving blood, oxygen and nutrient around the body to supply all the cells to detecting and removing pathogens and parasites which can cause damage.
The fact that this enormously complex system can last for many times the lifetime of individual cells provides us with a paradigm for the construction of a peaceful society. Whereas we all share the same genome, which enables us to reproduce together, we are all different. The idea here is that if we all share the same theology, that is the same theory of everything, we should all be broad minded and well educated enough to work together peacefully to produce a harmonious planet with a minimum of friction. The possibility of peace is exemplified by the durability of living bodies. Successful politics began with the origin of multicellular organisms billions of years before political theorists addressed the question.
This site is also a work of fiction, a hypothesis, based on the notion that theology and physics are talking about the same divine entity and can assist one other to arrive at an accurate picture of our human condition.
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Notes and references
Further readingBooks
Armstrong (2001), Karen, Holy War: The Crusades and their impact on today's world, Anchor Books (Random House) 2001 Jacket: 'In 1095, with the tomb of Jesus still in the hands of infidels and the Byzantine empire overrun by Muslim Turks, Pope Urban II summoned Christian warriors to take up the cross and their swords against the Turks and then recover the holy city of Jerusalem from Islam. It was to be the first of the Crusades, a holy war that would focus the power of the European kingdoms against a common enemy. The Crusades became the stuff of romantic legend, but in reality were a series of rabidly savage battles carried out in the name of Christian piety to advance the power of the Western Church. Their legacy of religious violence is felt today as the age old conflict of Christians, Muslims and Jews persists.'
Amazon
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Hopkins (2001), Keith, A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity, Penguin Random House 2001 ' In this provocative, irresistibly entertaining book, Keith Hopkins takes readers back in time to explore the roots of Christianity in ancient Rome. Combining exacting scholarship with dazzling invention, Hopkins challenges our perceptions about religion, the historical Jesus, and the way history is written. He puts us in touch with what he calls “empathetic wonder”—imagining what Romans, pagans, Jews, and Christians thought, felt, experienced, and believed-by employing a series of engaging literary devices. These include a TV drama about the Dead Sea Scrolls; the first-person testimony of a pair of time-travelers to Pompeii; a meditation on Jesus’ apocryphal twin brother; and an unusual letter on God, demons, and angels.'
Amazon
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Klein (2009), Richard G, The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, University of Chicago Press 2009 ' Since its publication in 1989, The Human Career has proved to be an indispensable tool in teaching human origins. This substantially revised third edition retains Richard G. Klein’s innovative approach while showing how cumulative discoveries and analyses over the past ten years have significantly refined our knowledge of human evolution. . . .
In addition to outlining the broad pattern of human evolution, The Human Career details the kinds of data that support it. For the third edition, Klein has added numerous tables and a fresh citation system designed to enhance readability, especially for students. He has also included more than fifty new illustrations to help lay readers grasp the fossils, artifacts, and other discoveries on which specialists rely. With abundant references and hundreds of images, charts, and diagrams, this new edition is unparalleled in its usefulness for teaching human evolution.'
Amazon
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Lonergan (1992), Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding'
Amazon
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Manning (1905), Henry Edward, The Vatican Council and its Definitions: A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy, Excelsior Catholic Publishing House 1905 Latin original of quoted passage: '... docemus et divinitus revelatum dogma esse definimus; Romanum Pontificem, cum ex Cathedra loquitur, id est, cum omnium Christianorum Pastoris et Doctoris munere fungens, pro suprema sua Apostolica auctoritate, doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab universa Ecclesia tenendam definit, per assistentiam divinam, ipsi in beato Petro promissam, ea infallibilitate pollere, qua divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam in definienda docrtina de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit; ideoque eiusmodi Romani Pontificis definitiones ex sese, non autum ex consensu Ecclesia irreformabiles esse.
Si quis autem huic Nostrae definitioni contradicere, quod Deus avertat, praesumpserit: anathema sit.' back |
Links
Ad Gentes (Vatican II), Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church, 'Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them "a universal sacrament of salvation," the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mark 16:16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men. The Apostles themselves, on whom the Church was founded, following in the footsteps of Christ, "preached the word of truth and begot churches." It is the duty of their successors to make this task endure "so that the word of God may run and be glorified (2 Thess. 3:1) and the kingdom of God be proclaimed and established throughout the world.' back |
Aquinas Summa: II, II, 4, 1, Is this a fitting definition of faith: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not?" (Hebrews 11:1), 'I answer that, Though some say that the above words of the Apostle are not a definition of faith, yet if we consider the matter aright, this definition overlooks none of the points in reference to which faith can be defined, albeit the words themselves are not arranged in the form of a definition, just as the philosophers touch on the principles of the syllogism, without employing the syllogistic form.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 14, 9, Does God know things that are not?, 'I answer that, God knows all things whatsoever that in any way are. Now it is possible that things that are not absolutely, should be in a certain sense. For things absolutely are which are actual; whereas things which are not actual, are in the power either of God Himself or of a creature, whether in active power, or passive; whether in power of thought or of imagination, or of any other manner of meaning whatsoever. Whatever therefore can be made, or thought, or said by the creature, as also whatever He Himself can do, all are known to God, although they are not actual. And in so far it can be said that He has knowledge even of things that are not.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, I, 22, 3, Does God have immediate providence over everything?, ' I answer that, Two things belong to providence—namely, the type of the order of things foreordained towards an end; and the execution of this order, which is called government. As regards the first of these, God has immediate providence over everything, because He has in His intellect the types of everything, even the smallest; and whatsoever causes He assigns to certain effects, He gives them the power to produce those effects. Whence it must be that He has beforehand the type of those effects in His mind. As to the second, there are certain intermediaries of God's providence; for He governs things inferior by superior, not on account of any defect in His power, but by reason of the abundance of His goodness; so that the dignity of causality is imparted even to creatures.' back |
Aquinas, Summa, II, I, 3, 8, Is human blessedness the vision of the essence of God?, ' I answer that, Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence. To make this clear, two points must be observed. First, that man is not perfectly happy, so long as something remains for him to desire and seek: secondly, that the perfection of any power is determined by the nature of its object. . . . Consequently, for perfect happiness the intellect needs to reach the very Essence of the First Cause. And thus it will have its perfection through union with God as with that object, in which alone man's happiness consists ' back |
Aquinas, Summa: I, 7, 1, Is God infinite?, ' I answer that, All the ancient philosophers attribute infinitude to the first principle, as is said (Phys. iii), and with reason; for they considered that things flow forth infinitely from the first principle. . . . .. Now being is the most formal of all things, as appears from what is shown above (I:4:1 Objection 3). Since therefore the divine being is not a being received in anything, but He is His own subsistent being as was shown above (I:3:4), it is clear that God Himself is infinite and perfect.' back |
Arab-Byzantine wars - Wikipedia, Arab-Byzantine wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 11th century. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century.' back |
Catechism of the Catholic Church p1, s2, c3, a9, p4, The Teaching Office, ' §890: The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals.' back |
Catechism of the Catholic Church: §§ 668 - 670, He will come again in Glory, ' §§668-670 "Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion", for the Father "has put all things under his feet." Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are "set forth" and transcendently fulfilled.' back |
Code of Canon Law 331-333, The Roman Pontiff, ' Can. 333 §1. By virtue of his office, the Roman Pontiff not only possesses power over the universal Church but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them. Moreover, this primacy strengthens and protects the proper, ordinary, and immediate power which bishops possess in the particular churches entrusted to their care.
§2. In fulfilling the office of supreme pastor of the Church, the Roman Pontiff is always joined in communion with the other bishops and with the universal Church. He nevertheless has the right, according to the needs of the Church, to determine the manner, whether personal or collegial, of exercising this office.
§3. No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.' back |
Concordat Watch, Concordat Watch, "A concordat is a pact between the Vatican and a nation-state whereby the Vatican gains certain political and financial benefits in return for support of a policy or arm of the national government. Such a concordat in a nation with numerous Catholics is also helpful in getting their allegiance or in curbing opposition to the government. "Prof. John M. Swomley, St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri. back |
Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Historians remain uncertain about Constantine's reasons for favoring Christianity, and theologians and historians have often argued about which form of early Christianity he subscribed to. . . . Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and raised the notions of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church of the Roman Empire declared by edict in 380. He is revered as a saint and is apostolos in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and various Eastern Catholic Churches for his example as a "Christian monarch”.' back |
Jeffrey Nicholls (1967), How universal is the universe?, ' 61 The future is beyond our comprehension, but we can get an idea of it and speed its coming by studying what we already have. Contemplating the size and wonder of the universe as it stands in the light of its openness to the future must surely be a powerful incentive to men to love God. We have come a long way since the little world of St Thomas. Ours is open to all things, even participating in god. This is what I mean by universal. ' back |
Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back |
Jeffrey Nicholls (2019), A prolegomenon to scientific theology, ' This thesis is an attempt to carry speculative theology beyond the apogee it reached in the medieval work of Thomas Aquinas into the world of empirical science. Since the time of Aquinas, our understanding of the Universe has increased enormously. The ancient theologians not only conceived a perfect
God, but they also saw the world as a very imperfect place. Their reaction was to place God outside the world.
I argue (on classical scientific grounds) that we live in a Universe which approaches infinity in size and complexity, is as perfect as can be, and fulfils all the roles traditionally attributed to God, creator, lawmaker and judge.' back |
John Paul II (22 May 1994), Ordinatio Sacerdotalis: On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone, '4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.'
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Lateran Treaty - Wikipedia, Lateran Treaty - Wikipedia, the free enecyclopedia, ' The Lateran Treaty was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman Question. The treaty and associated pacts were named after the Lateran Palace where they were signed on 11 February 1929, and the Italian parliament ratified them on 7 June 1929. The treaty recognized Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See.' back |
Lumen Gentium (Vatican II), Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 'THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH 1. Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church. Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission.' back |
Major religious groups - Wikipedia, Major religious groups - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, although this is by no means a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative levels of civility in societies. Size of major religious groups, 2012:
Religion Percent
Christianity 31.5%
Islam 23.2%
Unaffiliated 16.3%
Hinduism 15.0%
Buddhism 7.1%
Folk religions 5.9%
Other 0.8%
Pew Research Center, 2012' back |
Nina Byers (1998), E. Noether's Discovery of the Deep Connection Between Symmetries and Conservation Laws, Abstract: 'Emmy Noether proved two deep theorems, and their converses, on the connection between symmetries and conservation laws. Because these theorems are not in the mainstream of her scholarly work, which was the development of modern abstract algebra, it is of some historical interest to examine how she came to make these discoveries. The present paper is an historical account of the circumstances in which she discovered and proved these theorems which physicists refer to collectively as Noether's Theorem. The work was done soon after Hilbert's discovery of the variational principle which gives the field equations of general relativity. The failure of local energy conservation in the general theory was a problem that concerned people at that time, among them David Hilbert, Felix Klein, and Albert Einstein. Noether's theorems solved this problem. With her characteristically deep insight and thorough analysis, in solving that problem she discovered very general theorems that have profoundly influenced modern physics.' back |
Paul, Romans 7:14-25, The war between the flesh and the spirit, ' We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. . . . For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,
but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.' back |
Recent African origin of modern humans - Wikipedia, Recent African origin of modern humans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans or the "Out of Africa" theory (OOA)[a] is the most widely accepted model of the geographic origin and early migration of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens). It follows the early expansions of hominins out of Africa, accomplished by Homo erectus and then Homo neanderthalensis.
The model proposes a "single origin" of Homo sapiens in the taxonomic sense, precluding parallel evolution in other regions of traits considered anatomically modern, but not precluding multiple admixture between H. sapiens and archaic humans in Europe and Asia.' back |
Russel Shorto, The Irish Affliction, 'Of the various crises the Catholic Church is facing around the world, the central one — wave after wave of accounts of systemic sexual abuse of children by priests and other church figures — has affected Ireland more strikingly than anywhere else. And no place has reacted so aggressively. The Irish responded to the publication in 2009 of two lengthy, damning reports — detailing thousands of cases of rape, sexual molestation and lurid beatings, spanning Ireland’s entire history as an independent country, and the efforts of church officials to protect the abusers rather than the victims — with anger, disgust, vocal assaults on priests in public and demands that the government and society disentangle themselves from the church.' back |
Second Vatican Council (1965), Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation 'Dei Verbum', Solemnly promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965.
' Preface:
1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love.' back |
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, Ratification of Human Rights Treaties - Holy See, 'University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library houses one of the largest collections of more than sixty thousand core human rights documents, including several hundred human rights treaties and other primary international human rights instruments. The site also provides access to more than four thousands links and a unique search device for multiple human rights sites. This comprehensive research tool is accessed by more than a 250,000 students, scholars, educators, and human rights advocates monthly from over 150 countries around the world. Documents are available in nine languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.' back |
Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The unmoved mover (Ancient Greek: ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ, lit. 'that which moves without being moved' or prime mover (Latin: primum movens) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause) or "mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 (Greek: Λ) of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: self-contemplation. He equates this concept also with the active intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae. ' back |
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