Pope Benedict XVI has made his first comments on evolution, saying God alone cannot provide an explanation for the variety of life on Earth. "I would not depend on faith alone to explain the whole picture," the Pope said, according to a new book, Creation and Evolution, published in Germany.
Pope Benedict XVI has stepped into the debate over Darwinism with remarks that will be seen as an endorsement of "intelligent design". The Pope did not explicitly back intelligent design or creationism. He praised scientific progress but said that the Darwinian theory of evolution was "not finally provable" because: "We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory."
Pope Benedict XVI turns 80 April 16, just three days before he completes the second year of his pontificate. Having become pope at such a mature age, some believed he would accomplish little and would be merely a "caretaker pope." But that's not how this pontificate is turning out.
Participants at the international congress "Values and Perspectives for the Europe of Tomorrow," organized by the Commission of Bishops' Conferences of the European Community on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, called on European political leaders to remain committed to peace and to the Christian roots of the region.
The Vatican's representative in Israeli is threatening to boycott a Holocaust commemoration ceremony because of a public attack on Pope Pius XII.
(Literally, "fear of the number 666") Is the fear that originates in the Biblical verse Revelation 13:18 which indicates that the number 666 is the Number of the Beast, linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ. However, this was originally written as 616 [b16?!], but was changed.
Extreme-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen stepped up his criticism of the EU and its symbols, calling the euro "the currency of occupation" in France. The 78-year-old firebrand, campaigning in his 5th and likely last presidential election, complained that France "no longer is sovereign over our borders, no longer sovereign over our currency."
The Serbian government said it would protest to Berlin over a call by the German ambassador in Belgrade for independence for the disputed Kosovo province.
German Defense Minister has said that Europe and Washington should work to ease Moscow's concerns over US plans for a missile defence system.
Turkey's army chief said Thursday the military had launched several "large scale" offensives against rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, and he asked the government for approval to launch an incursion into neighboring northern Iraq.
The head of Turkey's military stated publicly in the sharpest language to date that he was ready to conduct military operations in northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there. A Turkish invasion of Iraq would be a nightmare for the US, which is struggling to keep the war in Iraq from spreading outside that country's borders.
The bombings in Baghdad - both on Parliament and the bridge - carry huge symbolic significance. The incident also showed that the bombers can get straight into the heart of what was meant to be the most protected place in Baghdad. Therefore, in effect, it serves to send out the message that nobody is safe and that the insurgents can get suicide bombers in anywhere.
The Green Zone is a forbidden city, a concrete fortress in the heart of Baghdad housing the Iraqi government, the US embassy, the British embassy and the Iraqi parliament. It is defended by concrete blast walls and well-fortified checkpoints.
Premier Paranoid Protestant Preaching Prophecy Poop...
As I have written many times before, today's Middle East events are fitting exactly into Ezekiel's predictions recorded in chapters 36-39.
We are being led towards perhaps the most serious crisis in modern history as the Bush-Cheney-Blair "long war" edges closer to Iran.
Analysis of the current state of the conflict with Iran shows that the world faces the possibility of a new war by General Ivashov.
Heavy crop losses have been reported throughout the Southeast after last weekend's frigid temperatures, and farmers are bracing for another expected cold snap next week. In South Carolina, at least 90% of the peach crop was destroyed. In Georgia, the weekend freeze may have wiped out more than 50% of the state's peach crop. The freeze also killed off a large portion of Georgia's $60 million-a-year blueberry crop. Alabama and Kentucky were still estimating losses, but there were reports of heavy damage to fruit crops across the northern half of the state. In Kentucky, apples and peaches there were "completely devastated." Kentucky officials said as much as 90% of the state's peach and apple crops may have been destroyed.
Are we really a better country because, after he was publicly whipped for 10 days as the worst kind of racist, with whom no decent person could associate, he was thrown off the air? What was the term the I-Man used? It was "ho's," slang for whores, a term employed ad infinitum et ad nauseam by rap and hip-hop "artists." It is a term out of the African-American community. Yet, if any of a hundred rap singers has lost his contract or been driven from the airwaves for using it, maybe someone can tell me about it. Why are there no boycotts of the advertisers of the radio stations that play their degrading music?
With Europe sanguine about the recent rise in the euro, the European Central Bank on Thursday fed widespread expectations that it would raise interest rates in June.
Oil was up as a bout of refinery problems hit the US ahead of an expected surge in demand for gasoline which is needed to fuel the country's driving season.
Today is the 8th Friday 13th of the 3rd millennium AD. Paraskevidekatriaphobes, or friggatriskaid-ekaphobes, as some of them prefer to be known, are likely to be driving more erratically than usual, lurching between extreme caution at the thought of the vengeance of the occult and spasmodic indignation at the realisation that no protective tier of government has yet recognised their acute psychic malady as grounds to stay away from work.
Paranoid Protestant on to something...
If you've ever felt lonely and unimportant in church, there's a good reason: You are alone and unimportant. From 11 to 12 Sunday, you're just another pretty face in the crowd. Though surrounded by others, you're cut off. Custom walls you off in your own space and silences your voice – except for song or responsive reading. The service would be exactly the same without you. You know that. Your impact on it is like an extra gallon of water going over Niagara Falls.
Emperor Constantine had issued the Edict of Milan in 313, allowing Christians to do their thing without being eaten by lions. Trouble was, he soon outlawed house churches, which were the heart of the close, family-type relationships of believers. Throughout Christendom, he professionalized the church and turned over the gatherings to the pros (who were often government officials or pagan priests just the week before), leaving them to do almost everything ... while we sat and watched.
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