Monday, September 15, 2008

Who Are the British Creationists?

BBC: Widely believed in the United States, creationism - the belief that God created the earth and man in six days - is enjoying a resurgence of support in the UK, say its believers and its critics.

At first glance the Genesis Expo museum, in the naval town of Portsmouth, looks like any other repository of natural history exhibits: fossils of dinosaurs and unusual rock formations.

But focus on the narrative of the information panels alongside them, and you start to realise this is a museum with a difference - one dedicated to the theory of creationism.

The revelation that US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says creationism should be taught in schools, alongside that of evolutionary theory, has raised few eyebrows in the US. An estimated 47% of Americans reject outright Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, accepting instead the Bible's account of the creation of the universe - as laid out in the first chapter of Genesis.

But in Britain, where a portrait of Darwin appears on the back of the £10 note, his theory of life evolving from primitive to complex structures by means of natural selection appears to be unchallenged orthodoxy.

Not so, say those on both sides of the creationist divide - a point amply proved by the existence of the Genesis Expo museum, to date Britain's only creationist museum. The museum is the work of Britain's oldest creationist group, the Creation Science Movement, which has built Genesis Expo to visibly challenge the theory of evolution .

In its walk-through display, fossils in glass cases purport to show that ancient animals - including man - did not evolve from lower creatures but were instead divinely created "after their kind" (Genesis Chapter 1, verse 21).

A picture of a landslide-causing volcano is used to counter the scientific understanding that rock strata took millions of years to build up.

And throughout the display are scattered examples of "intelligent design" - complex creatures that "could not have evolved" as the result of natural selection. Who Are the British Creationists? >>> By Julian Joyce, BBC News | September 15, 2008

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Where Do You Think This Is? Saudi Arabia? Oman? Wrong! Boston, Massachusetts, USA!

Watch video: Islam in Boston >>>

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Mordechai Kedar*: The Myth of al-Aqsa

YNET NEWS: Holiness of Jerusalem to Islam has always been politically motivated

When the Prophet Mohammad established Islam, he introduced a minimum of innovations. He employed the hallowed personages, historic legends and sacred sites of Judaism and Christianity, and even paganism, by Islamizing them. Thus, according to Islam, Abraham was the first Muslim and Jesus and St. John (the sons of Miriam, sister of Moses and Aron) were prophets and guardians of the second heaven. Many Biblical legends ("asatir al-awwalin",) which were familiar to the pagan Arabs before the dawn of Islam, underwent an Islamic conversion, and the Koran as well as the Hadith (the Islamic oral tradition), are replete with them.

Islamization was practiced on places as well as persons: Mecca and the holy stone - al-Ka'bah - were holy sites of the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Great Mosque of Istanbul were erected on the sites of Christian-Byzantine churches - two of the better known examples of how Islam treats sanctuaries of other faiths.

Jerusalem, too, underwent the process of Islamization: at first Muhammad attempted to convince the Jews near Medina to join his young community, and, by way of persuasion, established the direction of prayer (kiblah) to be to the north, towards Jerusalem, in keeping with Jewish practice; but after he failed in this attempt he turned against the Jews, killed many of them, and directed the kiblah southward, towards Mecca.

Muhammad's abandonment of Jerusalem explains the fact that this city is not mentioned even once in the Koran. After Palestine was occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramlah, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant nothing to them. The Myth of al-Aqsa >>> By Mordechai Kedar* | September 15, 2008

* Dr. Mordechai Kedar is a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University’s [d]eptartment of Arabic

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American Raids inside Pakistan Could Provoke Terror Attacks in London, Says Top Official

THE TELEGRAPH: American missile attacks and unprecedented raids inside Pakistan could provoke terror attacks in London, Pakistan's high commissioner to the UK has warned.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan said the US bombings targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects, secretly ordered by President George Bush, were making the streets of Britain "less safe".

Resentment was mounting, he warned, among the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis in Britain, with community leaders calling for that anger to be "organised".

His remarks followed outrage in Pakistan over five attacks in the past 10 days, including a ground assault in the village of Angoor Adda in which 20 people were killed. US officials said they were all supporters of terrorism but Pakistan insists they were civilians, including women and children.

Mr Hasan said: "This will infuriate Muslims in this country and make the streets of London less safe. There are one million Pakistanis in the diaspora here and resentment is mounting. I'm being flooded by text messages from community leaders saying we must organise our anger.

"The Americans' trigger-happy actions will radicalise young Muslims. They're playing into the hands of the very militants we're supposed to be fighting." American Raids inside Pakistan Could Provoke Terror Attacks in London, Says Top Official >>> By Richard Edwards | September 14, 2008

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Christopher Howse: Criminal Sharia Judgements

THE TELEGRAPH: CHRISTOPHER HOWSE BLOG: We knew that sharia courts were operating in Britain even before Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave the lecture in February which caused such a stir.



It was said that these courts arbitrated on marriages, as Jewish courts or Catholic marriage tribunals do. Everything was to be done with the consent of both parties.



Now we learn that sharia judges have awarded inheritance to male heirs in a proportion double to that of female heirs.



More surprisingly, it seems that sharia courts are giving judgment in criminal cases. In six cases of domestic violence, according to Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.



Can you imagine what kind of consent wives involved in such cases have given to the sharia court's jurisdiction?



Often, Muslim women marry in an Islamic ceremony without the ratification of a marriage in English law. This gives them no rights under the law of the land in the case of divorce. Nor would they have any claim to inherit under English law.



So we see the growth of sharia as a parallel jurisdiction to the law of the land, imposed on a sector of society that cannot resist it. Comment here >>> | September 14, 2008

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Tehran – A Tale of Two Cities?

BBC: The political mood in the bustling bazaars of the Iranian capital may be changing.

Iran's conservative non-reformist President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces re-election next year - and many of the country's senior figures are despairing of his record in power and looking for other potential candidates.

For Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent, Hugh Sykes went to Tehran to gauge the feeling on the streets.

In the city's crowded bread shops and vegetable markets, he found many people wanting change: Watch BBC video >>>

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The Milky Bar Kid Speaks…

Watch BBC video: David Miliband insists he does not want a leadership challenge >>>

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Mohammed Teddy Row Sparked Islam Murder Plot

DAILY RECORD: TERROR suspects tried to kill a British diplomat in revenge for a teacher letting kids name a teddy Mohammed, it was revealed yesterday.

The unnamed diplomat escaped unhurt when he disappeared into a crowd on the day the five men were to execute their plot in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Mohammed Teddy Row Sparked Islam Murder Plot >>> | September 13, 2008

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Marriage Officials to Be Punished if Bride Consent Not Sought

ARAB NEWS: RIYADH: Saudi society has been recently exposed to a number of marriages that involve elderly men as old as 60 marrying young girls as young as eight. The marriages shocked many people who objected to such marriages, saying that there is no equality in this type of marriage and that there should be a strong law against such marriages. The question that was raised was how have marriage officials approved such marriages in the first place.

Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Belaihi, a member of the faculty at Imam Saud University, has described the practice of marrying young girls to elderly men "a crime against young girls."

A Saudi girl, 16, was admitted to the hospital after trying to end her life when she was forced by her father to marry a 75-year-old man. The girl was a part of an exchange deal between two fathers involving their two daughters. The girl had appealed to officials to block the marriage and bring to an end her father's attempts to marry her off without her consent.

Al-Belaihi agrees totally with the Ministry of Justice's new regulations, which include imposing disciplinary punishment against marriage officials who marry girls without their consent. Al-Belaihi believes that there should a legal liability on the wali - the legal guardian. Marriage Officials to Be Punished if Bride Consent Not Sought >>> By Walaa Hawari | September 13, 2008

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Orthodox Christianity under Threat

Photobucket
It was on the island of Halki that the Halki seminary was established on October 1, 1844. It was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church's Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; but it was closed by the Turkish authorities in 1971. Photo courtesy of HalkiVisitor.com

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Islamic-rooted party came under fierce fire this summer from secularists, who came close to persuading the country's supreme court to bar both from politics, he called the campaign an attack against religious freedom and a threat to Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.

Yet in nearly six years in power, Erdogan has shown no inclination to extend even a modicum of religious freedom to the most revered Christian institution in Turkey - the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual center of 300 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world. As a result, Turkey's persecution of the Patriarchate looms as a major obstacle to its European aspirations, and rightly so.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate, which was established in the fourth century and once possessed holdings as vast as those of the Vatican, has been reduced to a small, besieged enclave in a decaying corner of Istanbul called the Phanar, or Lighthouse. Almost all of its property has been seized by successive Turkish governments, its schools have been closed and its prelates are taunted by extremists who demonstrate almost daily outside the Patriarchate, calling for its ouster from Turkey.

The ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew I, is often jeered and threatened when he ventures outside his walled enclave. He is periodically burned in effigy by Turkish chauvinists and Muslim fanatics. Government bureaucrats take pleasure in harassing him, summoning him to their offices to question and berate him about irrelevant issues, blocking his efforts to make repairs in the few buildings still under his control, and issuing veiled threats about what he says and does when he travels abroad.

Successive Turkish governments have followed policies that deliberately belittle the patriarch, refusing to recognize his ecumenical status as the spiritual leader of a major religious faith but viewing him only as the head of the small Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul. Orthodox Christianity under Threat >>> By Nicholas Gage | September 8, 2008

The Holy Theological School of Halki >>>

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali Emerges to Accept Award

ASSOCIATED PRESS: CLEVELAND — Best-selling author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a prominent critic of Islam, said it's difficult living in isolation because of death threats from Muslims offended by her work.

The Somali-born Hirsi Ali made a surprise appearance at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony Thursday to accept an award for her book "Infidel: My Life."

Security was tight, and she left with armed guards.

Hirsi Ali, a 38-year-old former Dutch lawmaker, lives under protection in Washington.

"Yes, it is a lonely journey," she said later in an interview with The Plain Dealer. "But you overcome it. If you get to the plateau where you no longer have to survive and can start living again — meet people, exchange stories — a bit of that loneliness is relieved. And you appreciate life even more." Writer Hirsi Ali Emerges to Accept Award >>> | September 12, 2008

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Paul McCartney: Islamic Terror Target

SUNDAY EXPRESS: SIR Paul McCartney has been threatened that he will be the target of suicide bombers unless he abandons plans to play his first concert in Israel.

Self-styled preacher of hate Omar Bakri claimed the former Beatle’s decision to take part in the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary celebrations had made him an enemy of all Muslims.



Sources said Sir Paul was shocked but refused to be intimidated.

In an interview with Israeli media yesterday he said: “I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think and I have many friends who support Israel.” Sir Paul: Terror Target >>> By Dennis Rice | September 14, 2008

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Pope Celebrates Huge Paris Mass

Watch BBC video: Thousands gather to hear the Pope's Paris mass >>>

BBC: Around 250,000 worshippers have turned out to hear Pope Benedict XVI celebrate an open-air mass in Paris.

Many people spent the night at the Invalides complex, south of the river Seine in the French capital, waiting to hear him speak.

It is the pontiff's first visit to France since his election in 2005.

Later, the Pope will fly to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes, where the faithful believe the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl 150 years ago.

France is a Roman Catholic country, but Sunday Mass attendance is now below 10% and strict laws separate church and state.

'Pagan' idols

The Pope told the crowds he was delighted to be in their country, before going on to condemn what he described as a modern-day plague in the passion for power, possessions and money.

"Has not our modern world created its own idols?" he said in his address.

"Has it not imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity, by diverting man from his true end, from the joy of living eternally with God," he asked.

He then added: "Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even for knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?" Pope Celebrates Huge Paris Mass >>> | September 13, 2008

BBC:
Pope Benedict XVI has celebrated an open-air mass in the French town of Lourdes, one of the most revered Roman Catholic shrines >>> | September 14, 2008

BBC:
Pope Benedict XVI has begun his first tour of France since taking office >>> | September 13, 2008

GALA.fr:
Le Pape s’habille en Prada. Sa Sainteté serait même une véritable icône… de mode!
La rumeur s'enrichit de détails. Non content d’avoir remercié l'habilleur de Jean-Paul II -bien trop sobre- et nommé un nouveau créateur -porté sur les bordures, les pompons et les chaussures rouges-, le Souverain Pontife aurait été aperçu portant des lunettes de soleil Gucci. Pour couronner le tout, Benoît XVI ne quitterait pas son iPod d’Apple gravé à son nom, et écouterait en boucle la programmation de Radio-Vatican et les cantates sacrées de Jean-Sébastien Bach…Amen? Les secrets de la garde-robe du Pape >>>

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

Muslims Don’t Want to Integrate with Us. But Who Would Want to Integrate with Them?

It has been reported that the most senior judge in the ‘holy land’ of Saudi Arabia has called for the killing of owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes. This is savagery at its most brutal. It is merciless. It is without any semblance of compassion.

Our political leaders, especially the hapless George W Bush, have for years, since the heinous crime of 9/11, called Islam a ‘religion of peace’. It is to be hoped that you, dear reader, have already come to the opposite conclusion! Namely, that Islam is anything but a ‘religion of peace’,

Let’s make no mistake about this. The man who has said it is perfectly okay to kill these ownners of satellite TV is the most senior judge in Saudi Arabia. The most senior judge, no less!

Why are we in the West putting up with this nonsense?

Where are our highly-paid politicians that are there to protect us all from the menace of barbarism? For this is what this is: Barbarism, savagery, uncivilized behaviour.

We have allowed Muslims to immigrate into our once civilized countries en masse. We, the people, have not given you, the politicians, the right to allow this. After all, we haven’t been asked for our opinion. You feckless people have just taken it upon yourselves to allow this to happen. In so doing, you have ignored the first law of democracy: To consult the people!

Now we are confronted with the mass immigration of a people who are unwilling to integrate with us, and a people with whom most civilized people would not want to integrate with anyway! So where do you think this is all going to lead? I can see but one outcome: Civil war.

Islam is a pernicious ideology. It is not a religion as we in the West would normally categorize a religion. Islam recognizes no separation of religion and politics. It is one integrated whole. We, by contrast, have a democratic system which not only recognizes a separation of religion and politics, but that separation is the sine qua non of its existence.

Muslims of all hues, fundamentalist or so-called moderate (whatever that incarnation is), recognize no such separation. Our leaders have repeatedly refused to recognize this FACT, So what are we, the people, left with? A situation which is totally and utterly untenable! We are left with a people which does not wish to integrate with us and whose values we will not accept, whose values we consider backward, uncivilized, merciless, uncompassionate. What a dilemma!

This is all leading to no good place. On the contrary, it is leading to hell on earth!

Our politicians have been seen to be weak and ineffectual, lacking in courage for many a year; indeed, since 9/11. If the people continue to perceive this lack of courage, I predict that one of these fine days, they will take matters into their own hands. Civil war will ensue.

We the people do not want all these alien people here in our countries. Allowing people of different creeds, of differnet skin colours, of different culture into our countires is one thing; but allowing Muslims in with their inability to integrate and their unwillingness to do so, and their wanton desire to destroy our way of life, destroy our freedom of speech, destroy our freedom of thought, destroy our freedom of religion is something quite different. They are uncilivilized!

It is time that the people of the West stood up to resist this dilution of their culture; for surely, one day they will wake up and find that their culture and values will be no more, especially if things continue as they have been allowed to continue so long. Big business has needs, that is for sure. It needs cheap labour; but the people have needs to, and their grandchildren more especially; they need a future. They need a future that is free. They will not wish to be shackled by the strictures of Islam, a seventh century set of values, shackled to the thinking of a people wedded to the dark ages.

Gordon Brown is corpulent of physique and flabby of thought. George W Bush, who will soon no longer be president of the United States of America, is lightwieght of both physique and thought. Obama is also lightweight. As is David Cameron. Sarah Palin, Sarah Barracuda, or the ‘pitbull with lipstick’, is an unknown (though she shows some promise). There are few politicians in whom we can trust. What we need is courageous, strong, and determined politicians. Determined to ensure that our freedoms will not only be respected, but also be enshrined in our constitutions, before Islam takes them all away.

Let’s make no mistake about this: Islam is a force for evil, it is a force for no good. It respects no personal liberty; it respects no choice. It is the antithesis of everything we Westerners stand for. One thing is for sure: It doesn’t belong here in the West.

Muslims do not wish to integrate with us. It was clearly stated by Prophet Muhammad that they should not do so. But ask yourself this question: If the top judge of Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam, says it is okay to kill the owners of satellite TV stations who broadcast 'immoral programmes’, do we really want to integrate with them, do we really want to integrate with such barbarians?

©Mark Alexander

All Rights reserved

Our Friends, the Adherents of the ‘Religion of Peace’, Show Us Just How ‘Peaceful,’ Compassionate, and Merciful They Are!

BBC: The most senior judge in Saudi Arabia has said it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes.

Sheikh Salih Ibn al-Luhaydan said some "evil" entertainment programmes aired by the channels promoted debauchery.

Dozens of satellite television channels broadcast across the Middle East, where they are watched by millions of Arabs every day.

The judge made the comments on a state radio programme.
He was speaking in response to a listener who asked his opinion on the airing of programmes featuring scantily-dressed women during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them," said the sheikh.

"It is legitimate to kill those who call for corruption if their evil can not be stopped by other penalties." Saudi Judge Condemns 'Immoral TV' >>> | September 12, 2008

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Friday, September 12, 2008

Sarkozy ruft zum Dialog mit Religionen auf

«Wir stellen niemanden vor die anderen, aber wir stehen zu unseren christlichen Wurzeln» - Nicolas Sarkozy

NZZ Online: Der französische Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy hat zum Dialog des Staats mit den Religionen aufgerufen. Sich der Religion zu berauben, sei «eine Tollheit», sagte Sarkozy nach einem Treffen mit Papst Benedikt XVI. zum Auftakt seines viertägigen Frankreichbesuchs.

sda/dpa/afp) Zum Auftakt des viertägigen Papstbesuch in Frankreich hat Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy zum Dialog des Staats mit den Religionen aufgerufen. Benedikt XVI. wiederum warb dafür, das Verhältnis zwischen Kirche und Staat neu zu bewerten.

Er sei überzeugt, dass in einer Zeit, «in der die Kulturen sich immer mehr verflechten», über Sinn und Bedeutung der Trennung von Kirche und Staat neu nachgedacht werden müsse, sagte der Papst im Elysée-Palast in Paris. Einerseits sei es nötig, zwischen Politik und Religion zu unterscheiden; andererseits sei die Religion «unersetzlich» für die Gewissensbildung» und den «ehtischen Grundkonsenses innerhalb der Gesellschaft». Sarkozy ruft zum Dialog mit Religionen auf: Empfang von Papst Benedikt XVI. im Élysée >>> | 12. September 2008

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Father Zakaria Boutros: Jesus Christ Is God – Part 1


Part 2

Part 3

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Poutine : «Sarkozy joue
un grand rôle pour la paix»

LE FIGARO: Dans un entretien exclusif au Figaro à paraître samedi, le premier ministre russe estime notamment qu'après la crise géorgienne, «l'Ossétie du sud et l'Abkhazie sont maintenant des états souverains».

Vladimir Poutine accorde sa première grande interview à un média français depuis la fin de la crise géorgienne. Dans cet entretien exclusif au Figaro à paraître samedi, il revient notamment sur les accords conclus lundi à Moscou entre la Russie et l'Union européenne. «Nous considérons ces accords comme très importants. J'apprécie le grand rôle de pacification joué par Nicolas Sarkozy en tant que président de l'Union européenne. Nous respectons ces accords, mais il faut que nos partenaires européens les respectent de leur côté», prévient Vladimir Poutine. Poutine : «Sarkozy joue
un grand rôle pour la paix» >>> | 12.09.2008

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Turkey Walks a Tightrope Between Russia and the West

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Turkey was traditionally adept at maintaining good relations with both Russia and the West -- until the Georgian crisis came along. Now both sides are making demands on Turkey. Has the time come for Ankara to choose sides?

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 62, is Russia's most flamboyant far-right politician and professes to be big friend of Turkey. "No one loves you the way I love you," the thick-set populist who speaks fluent Turkish, recently sang before a Turkish audience in Istanbul.

Zhirinovsky, a graduate of Oriental studies, visited Turkey for the first time in 1962 as a translator for the Soviet Union's State Committee for Exports. During his visit he was arrested for spreading "communist propaganda" and spent 17 days in jail. Later he wrote a pamphlet about his experiences and recommended that his country annex all Turkic countries because the Russian soldier "must clean his boots in the Indian Ocean."

Now Zhirinovsky's passion for the southern neighbor has been reignited once more. "Learn Russian, don't look to the West, look north," the troublemaker preaches during his regular visits to Turkey. "The EU doesn't want you, but we want you. We'll give you gas, you give us nuts!"

Russia is Turkey's Biggest Trading Partner

It's true that Turkey and Russia have moved closer to each other recently, and not just because of energy resources. Russia is the NATO member country's biggest trading partner. Turkey imports almost 70 percent of its gas requirements and 50 percent of its coal from Russia. On Turkey's riviera, in Antalya and Side, Russian tourists now outnumber Germans.

And whenever the Europeans criticize his government, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan grumbles that Turkey has an alternative and could align itself with another country. There's little doubt he's referring to Russia. Turkey Walks a Tightrope Between Russia and the West >>> By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul | September 12, 2008

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Papst: "Für viele ist Gott der große Unbekannte geworden"

DIE PRESSE: Papst Benedikt XVI. beklagt bei seinem Frankreich-Besuch die Gottlosigkeit in der modernen Welt. Kritiker warnen: "Der Laizismus in Frankreich ist in Gefahr".

Papst Benedikt XVI. hat die Gottlosigkeit in der modernen Welt beklagt. "Für viele ist Gott der große Unbekannte geworden", sagte der katholische Kirchenführer am Freitagabend vor etwa 700 Kulturschaffenden und Intellektuellen im Collège des Bernardins in Paris. 



"Eine rein positivistische Kultur, die die Frage nach Gott nur im persönlichen Bereich zulässt, wäre eine Kapitulation der Vernunft", erläuterte Benedikt. Die Suche nach Gott und die Bereitschaft, ihn zu hören, bleibe die Grundlage jeder wahren Kultur.

Es wäre fatal und würde unweigerlich den Fanatismus und die Willkür fördern, sollte die europäische Kultur heutzutage unter Freiheit das völlige Fehlen von Bindungen verstehen, warnte er zum Auftakt seines viertägigen Besuchs in Frankreich. Papst: "Für viele ist Gott der große Unbekannte geworden" >>> 12. September 2008

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