Khazen

At least 7 dead in Navy Yard shooting

At least seven people are dead after as many as three shooters dressed in military style uniforms opened fire in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, police said, spreading fear and chaos across the region as authorities tried to contain the incident. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said in a mid-day news […]

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Rahi Inaugurates 1st Maronite Church in Eastern Europe

Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi inaugurated on Sunday the first Maronite church in eastern Europe, calling for an end to the confessional conflict in Lebanon and rejecting the political hegemony of one sect on the others. During his sermon at Saint Charbel church in the Romanian capital, al-Rahi said: “We ask for an end to the current […]

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Marine veteran plans 273-mile walk to remember victims of Beirut bombings

It’s not a monument or an elaborate fundraiser, just a personal journey of remembrance. As the 30th anniversary of the deadly Oct. 23, 1983, bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, draws close, former Marine sergeant Paul “Doc” Doolittle is preparing to embark on a 273-mile walk in honor of the peacekeeping Americans killed in the attack. In […]

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Original Sin and Human evolution

 

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5

Many people today deny the reality of original sin. Modern thinkers claim that evolution disproves it. Some object to the idea of inheriting sin from our parents, while others simply deny sin itself. Some Christians claim that the Bible never teaches it and so on. However G.K. Chesterton while still an Anglican wrote in his book, Othrodoxy, that original sin is the most obvious of all Christian doctrines.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the doctrine of original sin is in some sense the reverse side of the doctrine of Redemption (CCC 389). In Genesis 2-3, God created man in His Image and established our first parents – Adam and Eve – in His friendship. This friendship included Sanctifying grace – the gift of holiness and eternal life. Adam, however, freely chose to live apart from God by trusting instead in the knowledge of good and evil – wanting to be like gods. Adam rejected God through disobedience and lost this friendship for himself and us. This loss is original sin (Gen 3:22ff; CCC 396-399).

The concept of original sin is not exclusively Catholic. Even though some Evangelical Protestants may shutter at the term, they readily acknowledge the fall of mankind and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Now without original sin, there would be no need for a Savior. The story of Adam and Eve found in the Book of Genesis is inherited from our Hebrew heritage (Gen. 3). Even the ancient Greek pagans had an inkling idea of original sin and imperfectly expressed it in the tale of "Pandora’s Box."

 

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If God, Why Evil?

 

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!  Job 1:21

Perhaps the most popular argument against the existence of God is based on the timeless question: "If there is truly a good God, then why is there evil in the world?" Typically the argument runs as: "Since our world is full of evil and a good, all-powerful God would never allow for evil, God therefore cannot exist." This argument involves more emotion (usually anger) than reason, but the question is important to consider. It can be phrased many ways and a few will be considered here.

First we must consider the meaning of evil. There are two kinds of evil: moral and physical. Moral evil is willful sin, while physical evil is natural harm. Examples of moral evil are murder, adultery, fornication, theft, sorcery, abortion…(Didache 2:2). Examples of physical evil are famine, illness, natural disasters and death. Now evil is not something in itself, but a lack of something that should be present, e.g. a lie lacks in truth. God does not create evil since it is not a thing to be created. Evil is an imperfection, lack or void in God’s creation.

Focusing first on moral evil, the question could be phrased as: "If there is a good God, then why did He create morally evil people?" In considering this question, we must realize that God does not create evil people (Gen. 1:26-31). Being all-knowing, God does knowingly create people who will be sinners, but knowledge and control are different. God created us with the gift of free will – the ability to willfully choose Him or reject Him. We choose to sin – to reject God – through willful disobedience. This rejection is a void in God’s plan for us.

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Letter from Beirut: democracy’s cross-border hope

Perhaps the only bright democratic light in this dark crisis surrounding Syria is the unexpected growth of a cross-border, large-scale and ultimately global denunciation of the follies and horror of war, writes John Keane. Does democracy have anything to do with the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Syria? In recent days, in editorials and columns around […]

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Obama soft on Syria, strengthening Iran

The Obama administration has maintained that its response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons also reflects on the US posture toward Iran. In an address at the New America Foundation on Monday, National Security Advisor Susan Rice made the case, perhaps more emphatically than anyone else in the administration, linking a possible US […]

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Presidency: Baabda Declaration Does not Deal with Resistance Arms

An agreement reached among the country’s rival leaders last year to steer Lebanon clear of the region’s crises did not deal with the resistance’s arms but should have paved way for the discussion of the national defense strategy, said a Baabda Palace statement on Thursday. The rival leaders from the March 8 and March 14 […]

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Cities to pitch in on Lebanon’s security

In a move being cheered by decentralization advocates, Lebanon’s municipalities may soon play a larger role in policing the country. While the idea of local governments sharing the burden of security with the army and the national police force is not new, circumstances on the ground prompted caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel last week to […]

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Coptic Christians in Egyptian Village Forced to Pay Jizya Tax

  LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The Muslim Brotherhood, the discredited political party of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, along with its supporters have begun forcing the roughly 15,000 Christian Copts in Dalga to pay the jizya tax. As referenced in the Koran 9:29, Jizya is the money, or tribute, that conquered non-Muslims historically […]

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