Magic Statistics

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna was recently interviewed about his views on evolution and creation. He has been accused of trying to move the Roman Catholic Church away from a positive view of evolution and toward intelligent design. Cardinal Schönborn sees that as a false dichotomy.

People have tried to box me into a corner by setting up an either-or proposition–it's either evolution or intelligent design–that I don't accept. Evolution, intelligent design, and Christian teaching on creation are not all on the same level. For me, the whole question of intelligent design is primarily a question of reason. The argument that the whole complexity of life can be explained as mere random process is unreasonable in my opinion. No person who experiences such complexity would say that it created itself. That's the point. The second step is to ask–OK, which intelligence [created this]? As a believer, I naturally think it is the intelligence of the Creator. And 90 percent of humanity thinks that too.

Why do you say this is a question of reason and not of belief?

For 30 years, I've heard from the pope, from Professor [Joseph] Ratzinger [Benedict's name before he assumed the papacy] that the church has the task in these times of defending reason. It must defend reason against a reductionism that in the end, ideologically speaking, is a kind of materialism.

For the Cardinal, the key issue in the evolution debate is materialism–the belief that matter is all that exists. That is a question for philosophy, not science.

A closer look at Cardinal Schönborn's views is posted here. The English text of his third catechetical lecture on Creation and Evolution is posted here. Check out the Schönborn Sightings blog.

via Ignatius Insight Scoop.

Evangelical theologian John Piper ponders Muslim reaction to the Mohammed cartoons and Christian reaction to mockery of Christ.

The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery.

If Christ had not been insulted, there would be no salvation. This was his saving work: to be insulted and die to rescue sinners from the wrath of God.
. . .
This was not true of Muhammad. And Muslims do not believe it is true of Jesus. Most Muslims have been taught that Jesus was not crucified. One Sunni Muslim writes, "Muslims believe that Allah saved the Messiah from the ignominy of crucifixion." Another adds, "We honor [Jesus] more than you [Christians] do. . . . We refuse to believe that God would permit him to suffer death on the cross." An essential Muslim impulse is to avoid the "ignominy" of the cross.

How should Christians react when our Lord and Saviour is mocked?

On the one hand, we are grieved and angered. On the other hand, we identify with Christ, and embrace his suffering, and rejoice in our afflictions, and say with the apostle Paul that vengeance belongs to the Lord, let us love our enemies and win them with the gospel. If Christ did his work by being insulted, we must do ours likewise.

via Mere Comments.

Fallout from Europe's other clash of civilisations could generate an exodus of doctors from new European Union member states Poland, Slovakia, and the Baltic States to North America. Last December an EU advisory committee of legal experts issued a report (pdf) saying that medical professionals are not permitted to refuse to participate in abortions because the right to abort a child supersedes freedom of conscience. The report was prompted by a proposed treaty between Slovakia and the Vatican stipulating that Catholic hospitals in Slovakia would not be legally compelled to perform abortions, euthanasia, or other medical procedures that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching.

The controversy over the EU report precipitated the fall of the Slovak government earlier this week.

The statement of the EU legal experts was written in such forcible terms that it embarassed Slovak politicians, eager to be taken seriously by their EU partners after several previous snubs. Earlier the Slovak government had angered the EU by refusing to introduce so-called "positive discrimination legislation", while it was also the only government in Europe to speak out in defence of a Swedish pastor who had been taken to court on charges of "homophobia".

The criticism of the EU experts killed off the draft treaty with the Vatican.

Many doctors and nurses in the heavily Catholic countries of Eastern Europe may leave medical practice rather than be forced to abort unborn children. Others may apply for entry to countries that will not require them to violate their consciences. So, Europe’s loss could be our gain.

Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal says this is another battle in Europe’s two ongoing clashes of civilisations.

Two clashes of civilization are currently taking place in Europe. Freedom-loving people having to fight on two fronts. One involves the radical segment of the immigrant Muslim population that opposes basic Western values such as freedom of speech and that is intent on imposing Islamic taboos (such as the mere fact of depicting their prophet Muhammad) on the non-Islamic population. The other involves radical secularists that want to eradicate all remnants of traditional Christian culture from post-Christian Europe by restricting the right to conscientious objection on the part of religious people.

A subsequent Brussels Journal post elaborates on the "twin threats" to Europe’s culture and liberties: Europeanism and Jihadism.