CATHOLIC SATIRE: Is the Catholic Church Really a ‘Lighthouse’?

There is in every village a torch – the teacher; and an extinguisher – the clergyman.
~ Victor Hugo

h/t: Planet Atheism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: Spencer Tracy: “Inherit The Wind Spencer”

Scopes Monkey Trial, Part 1

Scopes Monkey Trial, Part 2

SCIENCE: “Higgs Boson: ‘God Particle’ Discovery Ignites Debate Over Science And Religion”

[…]

The Higgs boson explains why particles have mass — and in turn why we exist. Without the boson, the universe would have no physical matter, only energy.

The cosmological implications are hotly debated. Can God fit in a scientific story of creation?

The answer is “no” for Lawrence M. Krauss, an Arizona State University theoretical physicist. He argued in Newsweek that the Higgs boson discovery “posits a new story of our creation” independent of religious belief.

“Humans, with their remarkable tools and their remarkable brains, may have just taken a giant step toward replacing metaphysical speculation with empirically verifiable knowledge,” he wrote.

With enough data, physics would make God obsolete, he said. “If we can describe the laws of nature back to the beginning of time without any supernatural shenanigans, it becomes clear that you don’t need God.”

Religious believers see things differently.

[…]

This much is true: Higgs bosons — which permeate the universe — help us understand how something comes from nothing.

Read more . . .

Related articles

Poem: William Wordsworth / “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” a.k.a. “Daffodils” / 1804

DAFFODILS
1804

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.Reference: Poetry Foundation

POETRY: William Wordsworth / “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” a.k.a. “Daffodils” / 1804

DAFFODILS
1804

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Reference: Poetry Foundation