Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy passed away last night. Howard Friedman at the Religion Clause blog posted this beautiful speech from Senator Kennedy. It's too bad I gained respect for Mr. Kennedy after he passed. Enjoy.

I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it? There are those who do, and their own words testify to their intolerance....

But in saying that, we cannot and should not turn aside from a deeper and more pressing question -- which is whether and how religion should influence government.... The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk. Those who favor censorship should recall that one of the first books ever burned was the first English translation of the Bible.....

The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives.... But there are other questions which are inherently public in nature, which we must decide together as a nation, and where religion and religious values can and should speak to our common conscience..... There must be standards for the exercise of such leadership, so that the obligations of belief will not be debased into an opportunity for mere political advantage. But to take a stand at all when a question is both properly public and truly moral is to stand in a long and honored tradition.....

First, we must respect the integrity of religion itself. People of conscience should be careful how they deal in the word of their Lord. In our own history, religion has been falsely invoked to sanction prejudice -- even slavery -- to condemn labor unions and public spending for the poor.....

Religious values cannot be excluded from every public issue; but not every public issue involves religious values.... Second, we must respect the independent judgments of conscience. Those who proclaim moral and religious values can offer counsel, but they should not casually treat a position on a public issue as a test of fealty to faith.... Third, in applying religious values, we must respect the integrity of public debate. In that debate, faith is no substitute for facts..... Fourth, and finally, we must respect the motives of those who exercise their right to disagree.....

In short, I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of goodwill look at life and into their own souls.

The human body

“Often, if you come across something in the body that seems like a big deal, you think, ‘Why didn’t anybody check this before?’ But the more you learn, the more you realize that we’re just scratching on the surface of life. We don’t know the whole story about anything.” - Dr. Matthias Nahrendorf, Harvard Medical School.
I can't comprehend the human body as an accident of nature or a freakish event that blossomed from some primordial soup. The body is much too complex. We think we know so much about the body but we don't even know what the spleen is for. Even professors at Harvard don't know about the spleen. How can such a complex system that we know so little about be created by accident?
If we don't know what the spleen is for or how it works, what about the brain?
Just look at your thumb. Move it, wiggle it. It's amazing. How did that come about. Through an accident? I doubt it? It's much too organized and complex.
It's too far fetched for me to believe in accidental human creation. It would take more faith for me to believe in pure human evolution (i.e., that man evolved from an accidental collision of proteins in a soup over billions of years) than it does for me to believe in divine creation.
There is a place for evolution, but when it's taken too far I can't believe in it.