Creationism vs Evolution?

     Greetings and salutations!!  May the love of our Lord Jesus be with you.  I am writing this post in one of the most exciting places here in Georgia.  I am in the north Georgia Mountains hanging out with some of the most amazing people I have recently meet.  I am on a retreat with my current parishes core team retreat.  I am surrounded by nature, and I am soaking all of this in, and began to wonder how this all came to be, and it hit me what I would like to talk about, and that is creationism vs evolution, and if we accept the theory are we still able to be called Christians?

     This was something that I struggled with as a teenager and a young adult.  Through out middle school, high school and some college years we are always taught the theory of the Big Bang and the theory of Evolution.  The theory of evolution states that there is a change in the heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations.  That the process of evolution will give rise to the diversity of the species at every level of the species, including individual organisms, and molecules.  This is what I was taught all through out my formative years.  As students we sometimes accept these theory as truth, and never question the teacher teaching these theories.  This one I struggled with for a long time.  I saw all the scientific proof of this theory at work at the time it was "Lucy" who we thought to be the oldest human ancestor, and how we evolved from that.  So, when creationism came up on night in a youth group meeting at my church I scoffed at it.  Saying show me the proof that God just magically made things appear out of thin air.  As I got older my view began to change, to the point where I was thinking that yeah this could happen.  Even older still I graduated college with a degree in theological studies, and have found that we can still accept the theory of evolution and still believe in our Creator.

     The Youcat answers this question, and the answer is Yes.  We can accept this theory and still believe in a creator.  We can accept this theory because it is a different kind of knowledge, our faith is open to the findings and hypotheses of this theory and all the sciences.  Theology has no scientific competence, and the sciences have no theological competence.  The study of natural science cannot in the view of being a Catholic Christian rule out that there is a purposeful processes in the creation of the world, and all of its inhabitants.  Thus our faith is unable to define just how this process take place in the development of nature.  As a Christian we are only able to accept this theory as a help explanatory model, so long as we avoid the pitfalls of evolutionism, which says we (meaning man) are not a random product of the biological process.  The theory of evolution implies that the existence of something that can develop.  What this never states is where that "something" has come from.  Even further in this is the question about essence, dignity, mission or meaning of this world is unable to be answered by this theory.  The theory of evolution can and does overstep into theological realm, strict creationism can over step their bounds in the scientific realm.  Creationist often times blindly take the biblical information that is given to be literal [Youcat 42].

So, can there be a health balance to this.  I believe that there can be a balance.  As someone who loves science and having things logically put to me.  I believe that science can only take us so far in understanding, and our faith to acknowledge that our God was the one that created all that we are able to share in on this earth.

The Crucifix and why it is important

     Greetings welcome to my new page.  For those who used to see my other blog post, I apologize that it has been so long.  I have lost interest, and even the user id and password, so I have started a new blog site.  For those who are new welcome.  A little background history about me.  I am a "cradle catholic", and recently graduated with a degree in Catholic Theological Studies from St Joseph's College of Maine.  This year I will have been married for sixteen years to an amazing wife, and have two outstanding kids.  I also now volunteer in my local parish in the Lifeteen program.  But I digress, let's get to the heart of the matter.  Why do we have a crucifix and not a plain cross?

     The Catholic church, as well as, many other denominations that celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  During Easter Sunday I saw many post on Facebook wishing people happy Easter and rejoice in our risen Lord.  A couple of post noted that the cross was empty and that Jesus has risen.  The Catholic Church has the corpus on the cross. While many of our brothers/sisters in Christ have just a cross.  The crucifix in the Catholic Church is placed in a position of honor, and that is usually over the altar, or the tabernacle.  So why as Catholics do we have the corpus on the cross?

     The Catholic church requires us to have the crucifix visible during the celebration of Mass.  This is to remind us that of the suffering that our Lord Jesus gave for us, which is made present to us every time that we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.  Many of our non-catholics brothers/sisters say that we do not believe in the risen Christ.  To those I say that this is false.  As a Catholic we need to be reminded of what our Lord had to go through before He rose from the grave.  This image helps us understand the theology of redemption.  

     I know that for me when I am going through some suffering for instance, back pain, financial struggles, or just the stress in life.  I can go to mass on Sunday see the cross and understand that the suffering that I am going through is nothing compared that our Lord suffered for me over two thousand years ago.  That is a comforting image for me to see that God loves us so much that he was willing to put His own son to death.  This image that so any question gives us a visual reminder that Christ is the victor over sin.

     When I look at the cross I try to think about the cross and what it means to me.  It means that no matter what I may go through, I know that my Lord endured so much more for me.  I look upon the cross with wonder and awe.  During the celebration of the Eucharist I look at the cross, and thank God for what he did and gave up for me.  What do you think about when you look at the crucifix?  I understand what Christ was thinking about when he was crucified, he was think about me.