Hey Mr. Wilson: Your tribal theory of religion is a lot of bunk!

The Cardinal Newman Society Blog is reporting that:

"DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in America, has invited one of the foremost population control advocates who once called Christianity “the most dangerous of devotions” to speak at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and College of Science and Health commencement ceremony.


E.O. Wilson, a Harvard professor and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize who once called humans “an environmental abnormality,” is scheduled to speak at DePaul University’s commencement on June 10th.

He is one of a number of prominent people who will be speaking on campus that day. This is yet another scandalous invitation from a Catholic institution. Wilson once cited as one of the “reasons for optimism” for environmentalists was that “despite entrenched traditions and religious beliefs, the desire to use contraceptives in family planning is spreading.”

In his book The Diversity of Life, Wilson wrote:

'The time has come to speak more openly of a population policy…By this I mean not just capping the growth when the population hits the wall, as in India and China, but a policy based on a rational solution of this problem.'

Wilson has said many times that he doesn’t believe in God but insists he’s not an atheist. He did, however, argue in the online Salon Magazine that “religious belief itself is an adaptation” of evolution. And on top of that, Wilson singles out Christianity as “the most dangerous of devotions.”

He wrote in his book Consilience, The Unity of Knowledge:

'The most dangerous of devotions, in my opinion, is the one endemic to Christianity: I was not born to be of this world. With a second life waiting, suffering can be endured — especially in other people. The natural environment can be used up. Enemies of the faith can be savaged and suicidal martyrdom praised.'

Why a Catholic institution would give a platform to a population control advocate who blasts Christianity as “dangerous” is unfathomable." (See full post here).

Edward Wilson, who is connected with the Earth Charter [see my previous posts on this demonic iniative], subscribes to the Social Theory to explain the origin of religion.  He has been quoted as having said that, 'Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.  Religion is intensely tribalistic.  A devout Christian or Muslim doesn't say that one religion is as good as another.  It gives them faith in the particular group to which they belong and that set of beliefs and moral views." (See here).

But how could a devout Christian say that one religion is as good as another?  That would be the same as saying, "I think error and truth are equally good."  Why in heaven's name would anyone profess a religion that they were not absolutely sure was the true religion?  Would such a profession of faith be honest?  Of course not.  Thus, Mr. Wilson's objection is idiotic.  As is his explanation for the origin of religion.  Responding to the Tribalistic or Social Theory of the origin of religion, Mgsr. Paul J. Glenn, Ph.D., S.T.D., explains that according to this theory, "Primitive men, living in groups, came under the dominance of group-conscience.  They developed a sense of unity in their group or tribe that made them 'herd animals,' and they grew more and more slow to venture upon any procedure not sanctioned by the group.  To such men group-existence was a thing different from, and superior to, individual existence.  It was but natural that they should 'project' their group-unity or group-spirit and view it mentally as a kind of high power.  From this it was only a step to the deification of group-unity, group-spirit, group-power.  As society developed, however, the strong sense of group-unity slackened; men emerged into a clearer consciousness and appreciation of their individuality.  Still, the old idea of a superior power, a god or gods, endured.  The scope of this religious notion was much narrowed and adapted to man's new consciousness of his individual self, and there arose the concept of individual gods.  Among primitives there were many outstanding men, leaders, distinctly individual.  Our own American Indians give us a type of primitive civilization, and their brief recorded history is full of the names of great chiefs who were not only warriors, but orators, counsellors of ripe wisdom, some of them inventors of forms of writing for their tribal dialects.  The social theory [which Edward Wilson promotes] contradicts historical fact, richly increased in our own times by ethnological research, which gives us clear evidence that primitive peoples were not dull masses of witless herd animals.  The basic fallacy of this theory is that it makes the individual man among primitives a nonentity, a unit that counts for nothing.  There is no shadow of evidence for the assertion of this fallacious notion; its reason for existence lies in the fact that it suits the theory!" (Apologetics: A Philosophic Defense and Explanation of the Catholic Religion, pp. 127-128, Tan Books and Publishers).

Edward Wilson is a Darwinist, a materialist.  But as Dr. Peter Kreeft has said, "...if materialism is true, if the soul is only the brain, if there is no spirit, no human soul and no God, then the brain has been programmed by mere chance.  All the programming our brains have received, through heredity (genetics) and environment (society), is ultimately only unintelligent, undesigned, random chance, brute facts, physical causes, not logical reasons.  Therefore materialism cannot be true.  It refutes itself.  It destroys its own credentials.  If the brain is nothing but blind atoms, we have no reason to trust it when it tells us about anything, including itself and atoms."

Edward Wilson is a mental midget with regard to philosophical matters.  I'm sure he'll fit right in at DePaul University.  The school largely abandoned serious thought a long time ago.

Stephen Hawking: The Prince of Fairy Tales

British scientist Stephen Hawking is at it again.  In an interview with The Guardian, Hawking said, "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail.  There is no heaven for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."  See here.

Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College, refutes this argument nicely explaining that, "A computer is not reliable if it has been programmed by chance rather than by rational design (e.g., by hailstones falling at random on its keyboard).  The human brain and nervous system are a computer.  They may be much more, but they are not less than a computer.  So the human brain is not reliable if it has been programmed by mere chance..if materialism is true, if the soul is only the brain, if there is no spirit, no human soul and no God, then the brain has been programmed by mere chance.  All the programming our brains have received, through heredity (genetics) and environment (society), is ultimately only unintelligent, undesigned, random chance, brute facts, physical causes, not logical reasons.  Therefore materialism cannot be true.  It refutes itself.  It destroys its own credentials.  If the brain is nothing but blind atoms, we have no reason to trust it when it tells us about anything, including itself and atoms...If materialism is not true, this means there is immaterial reality too.  And that immaterial reality - usually called spirit, or soul - need not be subject to the laws of material reality, including the law of mortality."

Mr. Hawking has made bizarre claims in the past.  He has advanced abiogenesis in a desperate attempt to uphold failed evolutionary theories while warning anyone who will listen that humanity faces a potential threat on its horizon from "aliens" from outer space.

It would appear that Stephen Hawking is eminently qualified to speak on fairy stories.  For he is the Prince of Fairy Tales.

The New Paganism

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the world's love of power, possessions and money to a plague, to a modern-day form of idolatry.  And what honest person could argue with such an assessment?  The Holy Father has asked, "Has not our modern world created its own idols?  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?  This is a question that all people, if they are honest with themselves, cannot help but ask."

While crowds of shoppers are able to get so excited over material things that they often stampede into stores injuring and, at times, even killing others, the same people seldom find the time to frequent the sacraments.  Where is the excitement over Holy Mass?  Where are the stampedes to the confessional?  Just recently, shoppers had to be maced by police over a sneaker sale. 

The world has once again become pagan.  The things of the flesh have become more important than the things of the Spirit for most people today.  What to eat, what to drink, what to buy and what to sell.  And we are beginning to reap the fruit of this new paganism.

"...the world will be completely covered in the darkness of the denial of God.."

So few have time for God in our sin-sick, materialistic society.  While stores, restaurants and sports stadiums are filled to capacity, our churches are emptying and only a handful spend time in Eucharistic Adoration.  Our Lady told Father Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests, "...His Second Coming, beloved children, will be like the first.  As was His birth on this night, so also will be the return of Jesus in glory, before His final coming for the last judgment, the hour of which, however, is still hidden in the secrets of the Father.  The world will be completely covered in the darkness of the denial of God, of its obstinate rejection of Him and of rebellion against His law of love.  The coldness of hatred will still cause the roadways of this world to be deserted.  Almost no one will be ready to receive Him...

The great ones will not even remember Him, the rich will close their doors on Him, while His own will be too busy with seeking and affirming themselves.  'When the Son of Man comes, will He still find faith on the earth?'  He will come suddenly and the world will not be ready for His coming.  He will come for a judgment for which man will find himself unprepared.  He will come to establish His kingdom in the world, after having defeated and annihilated His enemies."

Are we ready to receive the Lord Jesus?  Are we prepared for what is coming?  It was St. Louis de Montfort who said, "The reign of the Father's Mission was complete with the deluge of the flood; the reign of the Son's Mission was complete with the deluge of Blood on the Cross; the reign of the Holy Spirit's Mission will be complete with the deluge of 'Fire and Love and Justice' in the latter days."

Remember the warning of Akita?

"So shall Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and shall be found no more.."

"After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth became illumined by his splendor. He cried out in a mighty voice: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a haunt for demons. She is a cage for every unclean spirit, a cage for every unclean bird, (a cage for every unclean) and disgusting (beast). For all the nations have drunk the wine of her licentious passion. The kings of the earth had intercourse with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her drive for luxury." Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Depart from her, my people, so as not to take part in her sins and receive a share in her plagues, for her sins are piled up to the sky, and God remembers her crimes. Pay her back as she has paid others. Pay her back double for her deeds. Into her cup pour double what she poured. To the measure of her boasting and wantonness repay her in torment and grief; for she said to herself, 'I sit enthroned as queen; I am no widow, and I will never know grief.' Therefore, her plagues will come in one day, pestilence, grief, and famine; she will be consumed by fire. For mighty is the Lord God who judges her." The kings of the earth who had intercourse with her in their wantonness will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her pyre. They will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her, and they will say: "Alas, alas, great city, Babylon, mighty city. In one hour your judgment has come."
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn for her, because there will be no more markets for their cargo: their cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; fine linen, purple silk, and scarlet cloth; fragrant wood of every kind, all articles of ivory and all articles of the most expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble; cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human beings. "The fruit you craved has left you. All your luxury and splendor are gone, never again will one find them." The merchants who deal in these goods, who grew rich from her, will keep their distance for fear of the torment inflicted on her. Weeping and mourning, they cry out: "Alas, alas, great city, wearing fine linen, purple and scarlet, adorned (in) gold, precious stones, and pearls. In one hour this great wealth has been ruined." Every captain of a ship, every traveler at sea, sailors, and seafaring merchants stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her pyre, "What city could compare with the great city?" They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning: "Alas, alas, great city, in which all who had ships at sea grew rich from her wealth. In one hour she has been ruined. Rejoice over her, heaven, you holy ones, apostles, and prophets. For God has judged your case against her." A mighty angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone and threw it into the sea and said: "With such force will Babylon the great city be thrown down, and will never be found again. No melodies of harpists and musicians, flutists and trumpeters, will ever be heard in you again. No craftsmen in any trade will ever be found in you again. No sound of the millstone will ever be heard in you again. No light from a lamp will ever be seen in you again. No voices of bride and groom will ever be heard in you again. Because your merchants were the great ones of the world, all nations were led astray by your magic potion. In her was found the blood of prophets and holy ones and all who have been slain on the earth." (Revelation 18: 1-24).