Abortion
“Trapped” in a Pro-Abortion Bubble by Brent Bozell
Adoption
Fewer adoptive parents (and you have a homework assignment in this blog) by Douglas Riggle
Bioethics
First US womb transplant fails by Xavier Symons
Creation
Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen? by Avery Foley
Family Living
Amid Zika Scare, Jaxon Strong’s Dad Says His Son’s Condition Is a Blessing by Brie Schwartz – “Just because his life might be short, his purpose is amazing. He’s touched more lives than I ever will.”
5 Things Every Daughter Needs from Her Father by Mitchell S. Owens
Fetal Development
12 amazing facts that prove the preborn’s humanity in the first trimester by Kristi Burton Brown
Political
The Presidential Candidates on Planned Parenthood
Sexual Purity
Audio: The Secret Lives of Teenagers, and Hook-up Culture
Worldview and Culture
Blessed are the Persecuted by Troy Krause – “’Persecution of the Christian church is the premier human rights story of our age,’ said John L. Allen, Jr., a Boston Globe reporter and CNN Vatican analyst”
Vison-Focused Council and Congregational Meetings by Karl Galik
Extraordinary Earth – There May Be No Place Like Home by John Stonestreet – “Astronomers have long searched the sky for evidence that we’re not alone. But new research is suggesting we may be one of a kind.”
Is the Date of Easter of Pagan Origin? by Roger Patterson – “Misconception: The church borrowed the date of Easter from pagan celebrations, so Christians should not celebrate this holiday.”
Adele Brings 12-Year-Old Fan With Autism on Stage to Sing a Duet by Sam Escobar – “Prepare to cry.”
How a Simple Family Heirloom Unlocked a Dark Family Secret by Erris Langer Klapp – “Who knew something so small could have witnessed so much tragedy?”
The Great Conservative Hypocrisy by Dr. Joel McDurmon
Poetry & Biology
by James M. Kushiner, executive director of The Fellowship of St. James
(Source: Email – “Fins, Feathers, Feet & Faith” – 3/11/16)
Michael Denton’s Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis, gives a number of examples of biological features of various “types” of animals–fins, feathers, feet–which are difficult if not impossible
to reverse-engineer along a pathway that could be described in any way as “Darwinian”–that is, incremental changes (by chance mutations) that would be favored by natural selection. Species of animals and plants are evidenced in the fossil record fully articulated as stable species. Some end up going extinct. But nowhere to be found is a record or pattern of the many transitional “forms” that Darwin expected to be there if his explanation were correct. (Another feature Denton deals with is language. I am looking forward to reading that.)
Denton does not talk about an Intelligent Designer. He speculates that there is something in the natural order itself, put there at the very beginning. How this works has not been discovered but it lies in the natural order; because the cosmos itself is so fine-tuned in order to host life, it would make sense that the “instructions” for the life it was designed to host were there at the beginning as well. We are in the territory of metaphysics if not mystery here, for knowledge of how God makes anything at all is not given to us. How does he interact with matter? Quite directly. What else would you call the Incarnation other than a direct engagement with matter? God took on human flesh and human nature. He is hardly removed from biological life.
To speculate how life made those quantum leaps from cell to fin to feather to foot to philology seems to me pointless if you haven’t acquired the most important perspective already given to us in Scripture. From the divine perspective, as best we can understand it, each form of life was intended and thus came to be. There is no distance between the intent and the reality. If, as many have held, that God intended the Incarnation from the very beginning, perhaps that is a clue that He permeates all things from eternity to eternity and the child who knows God made the fish and pheasant and the fox knows more truth than the atheist zoologist who sees only time and chance acting on matter. God is ποιητὴν—poietev—maker [poet] of heaven and earth. Poetry has more power to tell the truth about these things.
Which is a richer way to understand how a baby comes into existence? A full-blown scientific description of the gametes, the DNA, the steps involved in each cell division, the formation of various tissue cells, organs, and so on? Or a wedding for a specific man and woman, a blessing for children, a pregnancy, and a birth? This photo says more than the biology. A child who grows up knowing that a man and woman must come together as bride and groom to form one-flesh need not know much more than that to create a family. If he tries to map out the full biological development of a baby, he may never get around to having one. Who knows more about babies? This scientist or the person who has borne and raised a child?
To tell your child the story of his life, would you bring out the biology and sex ed charts? Or would you show him a photo album of mom and dad at their senior prom, at their wedding, on their honeymoon, heavy with child, and cradling their “little bundle of joy”? Here is a brief impressionistic “narrative” of the birth of a baby in the film Tree of Life. The music is from Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances. Indeed, this is an ancient dance.
The story of the Incarnation of God in St. Matthew begins, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph….she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.” The Birth of Christ is a fulfillment of divine intent and desire, His communion with mankind, whereas any human life, under the rubrics of a Darwinian narrative is just a transitional form that appears and disappears. The divine poetics of life must be embraced and meditated upon to gain the true picture. Scientific details are mere scaffolding, the dust from which man is made. Sure, there are details you can learn about dust, but if you don’t know what the Man—Adam—is, the dust only gets in your eyes.