Are science and religion at odds with each other? A majority of the public says science and religion often conflict, with nearly six-in-ten adults (59%) expressing this view in newly released findings from a Pew Research Center survey. The share of the public saying science and religion are often in conflict is up modestly from 55% in 2009, when Pew Research conducted a similar survey on religion and science.
People’s sense that there generally is a conflict between religion and science seems to have less to do with their own religious beliefs than it does with their perceptions of other people’s beliefs. Less than one-third of Americans polled in the new survey (30%) say their personal religious beliefs conflict with science, while fully two-thirds (68%) say there is no conflict between their own beliefs and science.
Bill O’Reilly cries foul over calling Norwegian killer a Christian
Huffington Post:
Bill O’Reilly sternly criticized the media for describing Anders Behring-Breivik, the man who has admitted to committing the mass killings in Norway, as a Christian, saying that such a thing was “impossible.”
O’Reilly singled out the New York Times, which called Breivik a “Christian extremist” in an article. Breivik also referred to himself as a Christian, as did the Norwegian police, and his 1,500 page manifesto has been described as coming from a Christian perspective. In the manifesto, he writes that he does not have a “personal,” religious relationship with Christ, believes in Christianity “as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform,” which he says “makes [me] Christian.”
To O’Reilly, though, it was “impossible” that Breivik is a Christian.
“No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder,” he said. “The man might have called himself a Christian on the net, but he is certainly not of that faith…we can find no evidence, none, that this killer practiced Christianity in any way.”
I sure don’t recall O’Reilly howling over a man named Scott Roeder entering the church of Dr. George Tiller and gunning him down execution style. Dr. Tiller was an abortion provider.
Is it because O’Reilly had gone around for years before calling Dr. Tiller, “Tiller the Killer?” Was Scott Roeder a Christian? Is he not howling because Dr. Tiller is only one person?
Don’t people get to determine if they are Christian or not? Isn’t it up to that person and his or her God to determine that? I think we, as human beings, can certainly address ‘Christian behavior.” We all have a pretty good idea what constitutes good Christian behavior and I think we are entitled to give our opinion on such behaviors. However, I don’t think O’Reilly or any other human being gets to stand in judgement of whether someone else is a Christian or not. That is a self-identifying task that no one else can do for you.
Sarah Palin Doesn’t Just Hunt Moose
Sarah Palin also hunts American icons. Now Palin is after JFK. Why is she targetting all the American icons? Let’s see: Reagan, Daddy and Mrs. Bush, W. Bush, and now none other than JFK. What has he done?
Back in the summer we ran a post celebrating the 50th anniversary of JFK’s speech to the ministers of Houston on the importance of the wall of separation between church and state. That speech was considered to be one of Kennedy’s most important. To this day, he is the only Roman Catholic to be elected President of the United States.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has addressed Palin’s erroneous thinking in an opinion piece in the Washington Post Saturday:
In her new book, “America by Heart,” Palin objects to my uncle’s famous 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, in which he challenged the ministers – and the country – to judge him, a Catholic presidential candidate, by his views rather than his faith. “Contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for president,” Kennedy said. “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic.”