Author: Vic

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Increased Cancer Rate in US Linked to Bad Environment

Health and Medicine

Date: May 13, 2017

Source: New Scientist

A study by Jyotsna Jagai and her colleagues at the University of Illinois compared data from the Environmental Quality Index from 2000 to 2005 with the incidence of cancer from 2006 to 2010.

Their findings reveal a correlation between increase in cancer incidence with the decrease in environmental quality, particularly in the case of prostate and breast cancer.

Source: New Scientist, May 13-19, 2017; https://www.newscientist.com/article/2130086-increased-cancer-rate-in-us-linked-to-bad-environment/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cncr.30709

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Why are Animals Altruistic?

Biology

Date: March, 2006

Source: Science Daily

Researchers at the Laboratoire d’Écologie at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (Ecole Normale Supérieure/CNRS) and the Royal Holloway College (London, United Kingdom) have just explained the evolution of altruistic behavior in animals.

In nature animals have been observed cooperating, and the detection of a genetic predisposition to this type of behavior contradicts Darwin’s theory of evolution which predicts a better survival rate for the most selfish animals. The use of mathematic modeling has provided a new explanation for the surprising persistence of this type of behavior which appears, at first sight, to be detrimental to the animal adopting it.

This work is published in Nature on 30 March 2006.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060404201741.htm

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Pope Says Even Atheists Can Go to Heaven

Religion

Date: May 29, 2013

Source: National Public Radio (NPR); New York Daily News

Pope Francis stated that even atheists can go to Heaven so long as they are good people. The Pope stated this in a letter to La Reppublica as well as in a homily through Radio Vatican.

“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! . . .  And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. . . . We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: We will meet one another there.”

These statements have serious implications on whether people need to be converted to Catholicism before they are saved. The view of the Catholic Church for centuries was that “outside the Church there is no salvation.”

In a letter to La Reppublica, the Pope wrote: “God’s mercy has no limits, if you go to him with a sincere and repentant heart, the issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.”

Sources: National Public Radio (NPR); https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/05/29/187009384/Pope-Francis-Even-Atheists-Can-Be-Redeemed

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-francis-atheists-heaven-article-1.1354151

https://religionnews.com/2013/09/11/pope-francis-tells-atheists-to-obey-their-conscience/

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Pope Reported to Have Said that There is No Hell

Religion

Date: March 30 2018

Source: The Guardian; New York Times

The founder of Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, 93, wrote in an article that the Pope said during their conversation that hell does not exist. Unrepentant souls just disappear. The Vatican quickly clarified that the article was “the fruit of his reconstruction” and not “a faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words”.

In the article, Scalfari wrote asked the Pope where “bad souls” go. The Pope, he said, replied: “They are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. A hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”

Such a view contradicts the standard doctrine of the Catholic Church that hell exists.

Sources: The Guardian, March 30, 2018; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/30/vatican-scrambles-to-clarify-popes-denial-that-hell-exists

New York Times, March 30, 2018; https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/world/europe/pope-francis-hell-scalfari.html