I get the impression that when trying to explain how the world and the universe was created, that most people believe that anyone claiming to be religious is a creationist.  It's too easy to assume that if someone really does believe in God, then that person must also believe in the creation story from the book of Genesis.  It is also too easy to assume that it must be either the creationists or the evolutionists who are correct, and that each position has absolutely nothing in common with the other.  With all the clear evidence of evolution from fossil records and advancing science, does this mean that Catholics are out of their minds for denying evolution and accepting the fact that the world was made in seven days?

Let's set the record straight.  Creation theory is not a part of official Catholic teaching.  In fact, the Church doesn't even teach an official theory to its people on how the world was created.  However, the one thing that must be acknowledged, according to the Church, is that God is the ultimate cause of the creation of the world.  Furthermore, the way that the creation story is to be interpreted is not by a literal manner; such an interpretation is ignorant to the gift of science, which has revealed to us clear evidence of evolution.  The seven days of creation can be a reference to the grand epochs of time it took for the earth to develop its many wonders, such as the land, the sea, the animals, and so on.  Both creation and evolution are not at odds with each other; but rather, they compliment one another.

Here's a more elaborate explanation of the coles notes version I just made: http://www.catholic.com/library/Adam_Eve_and_Evolution.asp

Western culture, when contrasted against a more community-focused culture like Japan, is all about ME.  Me, me, me is what our individualistic society emphasizes.  Those who have studied sociology will easily recognize this fact.  We can see this phenomenon manifested in road rage, air rage, and perhaps even...  shopping cart rage?  While grocery shopping today during the post-workday rush, I observed a number of people being very careless with the way they handled their carts: ignoring another shopper approaching, blocking a main aisle, pushing other people's carts out of the way even with that cart user right there.  Perhaps this just happened to be one of those days when chance allowed for a greater number of disgruntled shoppers to be present at once.

Going to McDonald's in the Philippines perhaps illustrates this phenomenon well.  As soon as one enters the restaurant, one is immediately greeted with a "hello welcome to McDonald's!" and with a huge over-the-head wave and a big smile.  Those employees, who are all very neatly dressed, are happy to be there (and if they're faking that, at least it's hard to tell).  The service is excellent, and they never give you the attitude that you're unwelcome.

Now let's visit the McDonald's here in North America.  Are you greeted?  No.  Are you given a smile?  Rarely.  Do the employees appear neat and tidy?  Not as neat as they could be.  Most kids that work the McJob are simply there for the money and could care less about if you didn't request pickles in your burger.  (And really, unless you have a severe allergy to pickles, how hard is it to take them out yourself?)  The McDonald's workers in the Philippines are simply happy because they don't have to live in poverty like the majority of their fellow countrymen and women... or perhaps it's because the vast majority of them are Catholic?  I just had to throw that in there :)

This guy says he's the second coming of Christ?  And he's divorcing his wife too.  This guy is so pathetic that this doesn't even deserve more words here.  What a joke.

Forgive him Lord, for this guy really does not know what he does.

This morning at the senior's interim care facility, one resident there responded to my "good morning" with a "what's so good about it?"  It always fascinates me at how the attitudes of the residents there can vary so much.  On one hand, there are those who are still able to live each day with an upbeat attitude, willing to face the day with an optimistic approach, despite their immediate circumstances.  On the other hand, there are those who have given up entirely, who will always see the glass as half empty, and who are merely living each day as if the days were a burden to endure - unfortunately in some cases, the days truly can be a burden for them to endure.  When surrounded by the sick and the dying, by the depressed and the demented, can you really blame someone for having a negative attitude?

Each of the residents' room tells a different story, as each room has its own unique set of family photographs and other mementos.  Some rooms have no photos whatsoever.  Some residents have absolutely no surviving family or relatives left.  Some residents simply sit in their wheelchairs and stare out the window for the whole day, only moving from that spot for meals.  For those fortunate not to be in such dire circumstances, it is easy to take health for granted, which is why it always disgusts me when I see younger people destroying the life given to them through drugs, alcohol, and other such acts.

However, all is not lost, as there truly is a divine plan for what happens after one passes from the earthly life.

I'm only in chapter two of the pope's Jesus of Nazareth and already there's so much good theological food for thought that I couldn't help but post it here.

On temptation:

At the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives.  Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion - that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms. (p.28)

On trying to scientifically "prove" God's existence:

Israel rebels against Moses, and in so doing rebels against God.  God has to prove that he is God.  The Bible describes this rebellion against God as follows: "They put the Lord to the proof by saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?' " (Ex 17:7).  The issue, then, is the one we have already encountered: God has to submit to experiment.  He is "tested," just as products are tested.  He must submit to the conditions that we say are necessary if we are to reach certainty.  If he doesn't grant us now the protection he promises in Psalm 91, then he is simply not God.  He will have shown his own word, and himself too, to be false.

We are dealing here with the vast question as to how we can and cannot know God, how we are related to God and how we can lose him.  The arrogance that would make God an object and impose our laboratory conditions upon him is incapable of finding him.  For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him, by discarding the whole dimension of love, of interior listening; by no longer acknowledging as real anything but what we can experimentally test and grasp.  To think like that is to make oneself God.  And to do that is to abase not only God, but the world and oneself, too. [emphasis mine] (p.37)

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Psalm 91, just FYI, goes like this (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm91.htm):

Psalms
Chapter 91

1

You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

2

Say to the LORD, "My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust."

3

God will rescue you from the fowler's snare, from the destroying plague,

4

Will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge; God's faithfulness is a protecting shield.

5

You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day,

6

Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness, nor the plague that ravages at noon.

7

Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, near you it shall not come.

8

You need simply watch; the punishment of the wicked you will see.

9

You have the LORD for your refuge; you have made the Most High your stronghold.

10

No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent.

11

For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways.

12

With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

13

You shall tread upon the asp and the viper, trample the lion and the dragon.

14

Whoever clings to me I will deliver; whoever knows my name I will set on high.

15

All who call upon me I will answer; I will be with them in distress; I will deliver them and give them honor.

16

With length of days I will satisfy them and show them my saving power.

One of the churches in my city offers confession on Saturday evenings.  Usually only a small handful show up, sometimes nobody at all shows up, but today, it was refreshing to see half a dozen men show up for confession.  Most of these guys seemed to be late 20s or 30s.  We need more good men like these, with a greater sense of humility.  Too often, people will assume that they don't need God in their lives.  Usually it seems to take a traumatic event to help someone to discover God, like what happened to Paris Hilton.  Well, if that be the case, then so be it, after all, if everything's going well, then why would someone turn to God for assistance?  That's where humility comes in.

The virtue of humility may be defined: "A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a lowly opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake."  (newadvent.org)

How appropriate for this to have just happened to me after my post about the existence of evil.  Tonight while out on my run, a car neglected to stop before the sidewalk, coming out of a backlane to turn onto a main thoroughfare, and ended up ramming into me.  I had to jump and push my hand into the car so that my jump absorbed most of the impact, and I ended up being pushed into the air about four feet sideways.  The driver gave me this dumbfound wave as if to apologize.  So yes, crap happens to all of us, but I shrugged it off, and continued on my run.  Excessive and unnecessary dwelling on misfortune is what separates the pessimists from the optimists.  Keep smilin'!

I encountered an older fellow today who looked me dead in the eyes and said with the utmost sincerity that my IQ is over 300.  Of course, he said that his own IQ was about 450, so I don't know how relevant his statement was.  Every so often, we encounter people we would deem as of questionable character, perhaps even crazy.  Deeming what is normal in society will always be up for discussion, as the norms of society keep changing year after year.  We have an increase in secularism, a loss of the importance of the Church in everyday life, we also have young girls barely in their teens dressing as if they were going out to the bar, and we have young hoodlums stealing cars and running over innocent cyclists, as happened recently in my hometown.

Why the craziness?  Some athiests may use the existence of evil as an argument against the existence of God.  Well, we all have a choice, whether or not to accept the love given to us by God, or to reject it.  Those who reject it are free to do as they please, as God does not force his will onto anyone, we are all free to do as we please.  Hence, there is hell, since it is basically getting what one essentially asked for: to live in the absence of God.  If God is all good, and if hell is the absence of God, then there can be no good in hell.  What kind of place does that make hell then?

It kind of struck me today that the older one gets, the more there is to learn about, and hence, the further away one gets from getting to know "everything" about the world.  Just today I picked up from the library Pope Benedict XVI's recent book Jesus of Nazareth.  Already well into the book, I've come to realize that one can never truly run out of literature to read, especially in matters of theology.  With all the yoga I've done recently, one document I'd particularly want to read is the Vatican's reflection on the "new age" movement, which you can find here: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html

It seems nowadays, people are trying to reconnect with their spiritual sides in some manner.  I generally adhere to the "whatever way works for you" way of thinking, provided that that "way" is of sound merit.

Defining what deserves such merit now can be a problem.

It appears that one of the Korean hostages held captive in Afghanistan has been killed recently, as news has just broke today that the body of one of the hostages was found riddled with something like 10 bullet holes, many in the head.

This is why it always makes me wonder why some people who live here in Canada complain so much about their lives, or don't appreciate just how lucky they are to be here.  I've seen people bitch and moan about: the hot weather here; or whine about not being able to redeem a free T-shirt through a cereal promo, a t-shirt they did NOT pay for (beggars can't be choosers); or whine about being cut off by someone in traffic...  hey at least you're not being held hostage threatened by death!!!  The worst was when this lazy-ass on a bus stop bench couldn't even stand up to throw away her stupid donut wrapper when the garbage was only THREE FEET AWAY!!!  GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT!!!  I mean, what the heck!?!  She throws her garbage away on the ground when the garbage bin was RIGHT THERE!!!

Christ told us to love our enemies, but when your enemies do really stupid things, we still have to love them, even though the human instinct may be to tell them off.  Everyone has human inclinations, and the Catholic Church acknowledges this, which is why we have what are called sacramentals, which are candles, incense, bells, statues - all things that appeal to the human mind.  We use these things to help us connect to God.  Human inclination may also cause us to do sinful things, which is also why we have the sacrament of confession to find absolution.

Now some of you may want to believe that since all catholics are pervs, they have confession to make abuse an okay thing, and that they can just go to confession after abusing to make everything alright.  If you really really think that Christ instituted confession to allow for abuse, then seriously, think it over again.