Under God

Religion Pays! Finally!

For most (ethical) people, the religious life is not usually a financially rewarding one.
So it's pretty sweet that a Roman Catholic priest, cosmologist, philosopher and all-around cool guy Michael Heller won the $1.6 million Templeton Prize on Wednesday. It is the largest monetary award made to individuals by a philanthropic organization and they gave it to Heller, 72, because he has spent his days "asking, and perhaps more impressively answering, questions like 'Does the universe need to have a cause?'”

Doesn't this make you so happy?

I'm guessing it does since the story sneaked itself on to the New York Times most emailed stories list yesterday, jarringly wholesome amidst all of the prurient Spitzer scandal stories.

Why do we like this cosmologist priest? Because he is exactly the kind of person of faith who we all wish there were more of in the headlines--unorthodox, diligent, earnest, inspiring and a bit mystical.

According to Heller's biography on the Templeton site, he hails from Poland where he is a professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow. He earned a theology degree in 1959 and was ordained a priest that year, serving in a small rural parish. The following year he returned to the Catholic University, earned a master of philosophy in 1965 with a thesis on the philosophical aspects of relativity theory, and a Ph.D. in philosophy with a thesis in relativistic cosmology in 1966. Three years later Heller received a docent degree – a degree above a doctorate – with his thesis on Mach's Principle in relativistic cosmology. He worked under Soviet restrictions of academic research in Poland but during his career managed to write 30 books and 400 academic papers. He seems to have worked everywhere and even met with fellow Pole and Pope-to-be Karol Wojtyla, who invited Heller and other scientists and philosophers to come talk to him about their pursuits in the 1960s.

Heller described his position on his pursuit of ultimate meaning in a statement for Wednesday's new conference:

Various processes in the universe can be displayed as a succession of states in such a way that the preceding state is a cause of the succeeding one… (and) there is always a dynamical law prescribing how one state should generate another state. But dynamical laws are expressed in the form of mathematical equations, and if we ask about the cause of the universe we should ask about a cause of mathematical laws. By doing so we are back in the Great Blueprint of God's thinking the universe, the question on ultimate causality…: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" When asking this question, we are not asking about a cause like all other causes. We are asking about the root of all possible causes."

Indeed. "The Great Blueprint of God's thinking the universe"? If this gentleman were a televangelist the world would be a better place. Unfortunately, he's not using his money to build a flashy cable empire but instead founding the Copernicus Center, to further research of science and theology in academics. Oh well.

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WAPO, YE SiNNED A GREAT SiN! You will be taught a Great lesson, This is the only Recourse!

March 19, 2008 8:08 AM

Thomas Baum:

TO ANGELA:

You wrote, " First, we were created in God's image until Adam sinned now we are all in the image of Adam", first off man in, "Let Us make man in Our Image and Likeness" does not refer to Adam, it refers to mankind, as in, "God created man, male and female, He created them".

I have met God, Who is a Trinity.

Have you ever experienced hell or spiritual death, I have, and I do not mean a near-death experience.

Remember when Jesus said, "Simon, thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build My Church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it".

Well, it is Jesus's Church and we are all called to be a rock, or living stone you could say, in Jesus's Church.

And "the gates of the netherworld" are the gates to hell and spiritual death which Jesus won by His Life and Death and will use in due time, God's Time.

God has a Plan, it isn't your plan or my plan or anyone else's plan but it is God's Plan and it will come to Fruition and it is unfolding before our very eyes.

By the way hell is real but there is not a hell, everyone that goes to hell will find out that they built it themselves and they will have no one else to blame for it, not God, not satan, only themself.

Jesus took upon Himself all of the sins of mankind, or all of the wrongdoing, the judgmentalism, the unforgiveness, whatever anyone wishes to call it.

Remember Jesus offered the invitation, "Come follow Me", Jesus woed people but He condemned no one.

Some people seem to look at the crucifixion of Jesus and only see the physical things that He went thru and not realize that He went thru much more than that.

Jesus also said, "Many are called, but few are chosen", well, I have been chosen and I have said YES.

I stake not only my eternal destiny but also my everlasting destiny on the fact that God wins, satan loses and that a tie is utterly unacceptable.

The whole bible is true and to sum up the Old Testament: God chose and formed a people, the chosen people, the Jews and by the obedience of a few, God was able to become a human being and live long enough to do what He came to Live and Die for.

The True, Living, Triune, Triumphant God is a searcher of hearts and minds, not of religious affiliations or lack thereof, there is more to being a "christian" than claiming Jesus as your 'personal' saviour, actually, doesn't that sound kind of two-year oldish.

If Jesus isn't the saviour of ALL OF HUMANITY then I suppose when Jesus said on the cross, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do" that Dad didn't honor His request, well I for one do not believe that at all.

God is Love, Pure Love, and I do not believe that God asked us to be more forgiving than God Himself, do you?

I am a messenger and the message is that the Kingdom [the new heavens and the new earth] will arrive in due time, God's Time at the dawning of the seventh day but the night of the sixth day is coming first, just as Jesus told us.

Take care, be ready, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.


Angela:

To Thomas Baum:

You always distort God's truth: First, we were created in God's image until Adam sinned now we are all in the image of Adam; not God. Also, the gospel is good news that we don't have to stay separate from God but through hearing the whole gospel and in faith and repentence. Also, didn't Jesus say in John 8:44-46 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.". Also didn't Jesus say: 1 John 3-1: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Also, didn't Jesus say that only a few will be saved. Stop soft peddling the gospel.

kelargo:

Spiderman2 said:

Q : "Yet unable to speak due to their oppressive environment? "

A : That's correct. They'd go straight to penal labor camps and would remain there until they "reform".

So, according to the logic of Siderman2, a person in this oppressive government, attempting to speak some words of Grace, will most likely be thrown into a prison, built by man, until they "reform" ? And if they die in this prison, they will still suffer the fate of this entire country because, irregardless of their individual convictions, they have lived in this assumed atheistic country?

Interesting.

Thomas Baum:

TO SPIDERMAN2:

You wrote, " Faith comes from hearing the gospel", do you have any idea what the word 'gospel' means?

In case you don't, it means "Good News" and as the angels said at the announcement of Jesus's birth, "This is "Good News" for all people", they did not say that this is good news for some.

Jesus said a lot of things and one of the things that He said, is His command to, "Love one another as I have Loved you", He did not say to Love some as I have Loved you, He did not say Love those that acknowledge Me, as I have Loved you, He said, "Love one another as I have Loved you" and that means ALL OF HUMANITY, also He extended an invitation to, "Come follow Me".

God has a Plan and His Plan is for ALL OF HUMANITY to be with Him in His Kingdom [the new heavens and the new earth] and He has had His Plan since before creation and God's Plan is unfolding before our very eyes.

Page one, "Let Us make man in Our Image and Likeness and God created man, male and female He created them", God has not torn out page one and I find it rather sad that some that call themselves 'christian' have taken it upon themselves to tear it out.

Take care, be ready, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom, [the new heavens and the new earth] the seventh day will dawn in due time, God's Time but night is coming.

The True, Living, Triune, Triumphant God is a searcher of hearts and minds, not of religious affiliations or lack thereof.

We are all God's children and also God's brothers and sisters since God became One of us when the Second Person of the Trinity became Jesus of Nazareth, when Mary said, "YES".

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

spiderman2:

Q : "So the populace in North Korea all got together and voted to become a Totalitarian Regime? "

A : They were taught that communism is the best way. They bite the bait and it was too late to backpedal. But there are still those who believe theirs is the best coz they are under delusion. People in delusion could think that prison is the best place to live in.

Q : "And how do you know individuals in this Totalitarian Regime are not saved by grace?"

A : Faith comes from hearing the gospel but they are deprived from hearing it. They are taught in school that there is no God.

Q : "Yet unable to speak due to their oppressive environment? "

A : That's correct. They'd go straight to penal labor camps and would remain there until they "reform".

Q : "You personally have spoken to every individual there and arrived at that conclusion?"

A : Don't you read defectors' accounts or communism's doctrines?

Kelargo:

Spiderman2:

So the populace in North Korea all got together and voted to become a Totalitarian Regime?

And how do you know individuals in this Totalitarian Regime are not saved by grace?

Yet unable to speak due to their oppressive environment?

You personally have spoken to every individual there and arrived at that conclusion?

Anonymous:

Shame on Claire, a halfman, not a Hoffman!

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spiderman2:

Kelargo,

That's not possible. You cannot set free the people who are deluded. You have to put them behind bars otherwise they would cause chaos. Doomsday will happen because a lot of deluded people are set free.

Freedom is for the wise and bondage is for the deluded. That is a fact of life. It's normal that if you gather atheist people together, they would create a communist state and imprison themselves.

To propagate freedom, teach them a religion which teaches freedom of conscience and salvation by grace. If you want Iraq and Afghanistan to serve as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, teach them those principles.

Europe is not a model of freedom. It's a deluded continent so see how my "theory" works on them. And so are some parts of America. Just wait a few years and see what's cooking with these folks.

kelargo:

Spiderman2 said:
"Look how North Korean people behave. They call their head of state as "the Great Leader". They are all prisoners in their own country and they call their warden as great."

You would not think, by any chance, the First Amendment of the US Constitution or lack there of equivalent statement, in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea's Constitution would have any bearing on the populace describing Kim Jong-il as their Great Leader?

Just a simple question to ponder...

spiderman2:

Atheism and delusions are twin sisters. Look how North Korean people behave. They call their head of state as "the Great Leader". They are all prisoners in their own country and they call their warden as great.

Atheists everywhere, whether in North Korea, Europe or the U.S. are in delusion. They all think that the soil thru time produced creatures including themselves.

From soil to bacteria, from bacteria to "higher" form of creature and so forth. Ask them the science or the chemistry supporting it. Lo and behold, always this phrase pop out -- natural selection.

Please explain thru natural selction how bacteria emerged from soil. Focus an electron-microscope for 1 million years thru a sanitized soil and see if that soil would produce a bacteria.

Delusion BIG TIME.

PK, take your meds coz hallucinating again.

kelargo:

Why does a truthful statement need to have meaning?

Poor Monks?:

The Dali Lama & his MONK-ARMY have Blood On their hands! this now in Tibet & recently in Mayamar/Burma!!!!!????

Forsake BUDDHISTism!

PK:

If Heller could use some of those funds for an institute to treat the smugness and ignorance from which people like Spiderman2 so clearly suffer, perhaps "intelligent" design wouldn't seem so crackpotted.

spiderman2:

To the self described "rational" people (atheists),

How can a speck of DNA which is just a series of nucleotides provide consciousness? What is in that series that makes you alive? What is in that series that it is able to create vision, a sense of hearing, a capability to smell and taste, to create music, to create wonders? What is the logic behind that series. They are just a repetition of two base pairs (AT and GC) which can be equated as 0 and 1 respectivley -- a whole lots of zeroes and ones. Are you like computer programs which are just a series of zeroes and ones or a series of AT and GC nucleotides? How did you become a very complex system or creature from just a plain and simple series of two repeating "tiny dots" ? How? Can life exist if one of those base pair (an AT or a GC) was put in a wrong position despite the fact that they are all AT and GC in that 3 billion series? Do these series of dots produce intelligence or is it intelligence producing them?

If natural selection is the process, how can innanimate beings like a series of dots "selected" themselves. No life, no selection. (On the assumption that it is true for argument's sake)

IDIOTS EVERYWHERE. The prophecy makes no sense if there are no idiots (or fools as the bible said) to destroy. Because of you guys, you make the Bible true. Thanks Guys.

I don't believe Heller deserves the award but he seem to be much more sane than those atheists who post here.

Ash:

As other posters have stated, this does not make me happy. The Templeton prize is an absolute joke. That the NYT no longer seems capable of distinguishing between science and yet another mendacious attempt by the religious to SOUND scientific actually makes me very, very sad.

AtheistArchon:

"Doesn't this make you so happy?"

What... that an institute dedicated to discovering "spiritual realities" gave a prize to a religious guy doing, purportedly, what cosmologists of the scientific stripe do every day in universities across the world? Except of course they aren't dedicated to finding a specific outcome to the question, like Heller is?

Nope, not happy. Heller is doing the reverse of science: looking for explanations that fit his desired answer (god did it with god-magic).

Very Sad:

"Doesn't this make you so happy?"

Actually, it makes me sad for several reasons: (1) That a pseudo-scientific organization like the Templeton Foundation exists and continues to promote Jewish Mythology, (2) that intelligent people trade their reputations for the prize money, and (3) that intelligent people within society actually think this is award is cool.

Why doesn’t the Templeton Foundation use its vast resources to find ways to end poverty or find useful forms of alternative energy? But instead they continue to promote pseudo-science that the gullible public gladly says, “hey isn’t this great!”. They might as well use their money to solve other nonsensical questions like: (1) how many Fairies can dance on the head of a pen, (2) what is the color of the tooth fairy’s wings, (3) what is the average wing span of a fairy?, etc.

No, it makes me very sad to see such intelligence wasted on useless endeavors.

PK:

If every process is caused by a preceding one, then God's "thinking" the mathematical equations and dynamical laws that lead to the existence of the universe needs a preceding process as well, and so we head on down the same rabbit hole of infinitely regressive causes the good father Heller is trying to avoid by claiming that it all ends (or begins) in a causeless God, a logical contradiction to the claim that started Heller's ruminations in the first place.

In addition, the word "root" is just a synonym for "cause," and so the phrase "the root of all possible causes" is meaningless because it just chases itself around in a circle.

Mr Mark:

"Doesn't this make you so happy?" ask the author.

And again we are subjected to Ms Hoffman's ignorance of the world.

Am I out of line in imagining that Ms Hoffman should provide a bit of background on who exactly the Templeton Foundation is, what their mission statement says and WHAT kind of "scientists" they deign to choose as prize winners? From her column, we know Ms Hoffman visited their site. Perhaps she could have looked up Templeton's mission statement which reads, in part:

"..the Templeton Prize honors and encourages the many entrepreneurs trying various ways for discoveries and breakthroughs to expand human perceptions of divinity and to help in the acceleration of divine creativity."

Loosely translated - "our prize supports NOT SCIENCE, but scientists willing to go to bat for the discredited and laughable pseudo-science known as Intelligent Design/Creationism, "scientists" who take as a given that god exists."

I'd like an answer from Ms Hoffman on her ommission of these facts, and whether or not it was intentional or not.

And how about a few words from Jon and Sally on the lack of credibility Ms Hoffman exhibits in this post? Should I hold my breath?

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