Religion - a respectful discussion, for those interested

How Did Plants Develop Photosynthesis?
For a large chunk of the Earth’s existence, flora have used the Sun’s light to turn the planet green
image: http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/March-Phenomenon-Light-631.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg


(Mark Zibert / Vaughan Hannigan)
By Henry Fountain
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | SUBSCRIBE MARCH 2013
INFOGRAPHIC: Light By the Numbers
But Earth is hardly unique in having water. It is everywhere in the universe; even that dusty neighbor Mars, it is now apparent, was once awash.

What sets Earth apart isn’t colored blue but green, a green that is best appreciated not from space, but up close—in a fresh-cut suburban lawn, in lily pads on a frog pond, in a stand of firs on a mountainside. It’s the green of chlorophyll, and of photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is nature’s take on solar power, its way of making use of all that light energy that comes from the Sun. Modern solar cells do this with semiconductors, and the harvest consists of electrons, which flow after they are excited by photons of light. In nature the electrons are excited in the pigment chlorophyll, but that’s only a first step. The energy is ultimately stored in the chemical bonds of the sugars that, along with oxygen, are the products of photosynthesis.


Those products transformed Earth, the oxygen sweetening the atmosphere and the sugars providing food. Together, they allowed for a long and slow blooming of life that eventually included many organisms—humans among them—that cannot photosynthesize.

Plants have been using light in this primal way for a large chunk of Earth’s existence. But just how did they gain the ability to photosynthesize?

The short answer is they stole it, about a billion and a half years ago, when single-celled organisms called protists engulfed photosynthesizing bacteria. Over time, through the transfer of genes aided by a parasite, the absorbed bacteria became a functional part of the protist, enabling it to transform sunlight into nourishment. “The three of them made it happen,” says Rutgers University evolutionary biologist Debashish Bhattacharya. “The tree of life involves a lot of invention and stealing.” A version of this sunlight-driven, chlorophyll-containing little machine exists to this day in plant cells. It is called a chloroplast.

Scientists are still learning about the complex process, called endosymbiosis, by which a cell, like a protist, for some reason absorbs other living things to create something quite new in biology.

Genetic analyses of algae conducted by Bhattacharya suggest that the pivotal endosymbiotic event that endowed plants with the engine of photosynthesis happened just once in our planet’s early history, in a common ancestor—a single microscopic protist that made green the most important color on Earth.

This latest finding satisfies a basic principle of science: The simplest explanation is usually the best one. The idea that endosymbiosis would have occurred once—before the protists diverged and evolved into different species— is far more sensible than the alternative: that endosymbiosis reoccurred with each new emerging species.

Acquiring the machinery of photosynthesis gave those early organisms a huge evolutionary advantage, one they readily exploited. Over the millions of years that followed, this ability to make use of the Sun’s energy helped give rise to the great diversity of living things on the planet. Then, as now, light equaled life


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...-photosynthesis-21138044/#kRCJjbgGm3ahAb9G.99
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Actually written by John Barlow but it was approved by Adams and ratified by the Senate.
The full paragraph reads, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”. It is part of Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli.
Just wanted to have that squared away before Creeping Jesus makes his way back in here and tries to make a big deal out of a misquote.

 

Catholic New York? those New Yorkers aren't real catholics. Come on.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-mallory/movie-reviewspotlighta-se_b_8534366.html

Movie Review: 'Spotlight' -- A Seamless Must See

Brilliant acting, pacing, script and economy make the true story Spotlight a well deserving whisper candidate for an Oscar. Spotlight is about the decades of sex crimes within the Catholic Church that were uncovered by the Boston Globe in 2002. It proves why the Globe won the Pulitzer Prize. Spotlight snores then trots to a gallop as it builds like stellar investigative reporting into an emotional pressure cooker of a finale. It is revealed that after a decades long cover up, one of the Cardinals who had been a chief molester of children in Boston had been elevated by the Catholic Church to a position of unscathed glorification in Rome. This fact horrified the screening audience as it applauded closing credits.

The cast of Spotlight is a tribute to fine ensemble acting. Michael Keaton (Birdman) plays Walter 'Robby' Robinson who heads the team of four reporters assigned to what is perceived initially by this team as a dull story. Keaton's acting is raw, genuine without mugging and an exercise in minimum use of energy to portray power of thought. The Boston Globe's Jewish editor, Marty Baron, is portrayed by Liev Schreiver (Ray Donovan) to investigate allegations of sexual abuse in one of the world's oldest and most trusted institutions. Schreiver is hard to recognize as his usual energy is tucked inside and a minimal, soft voiced mensch emerges as the boss whose gentle words have the impact of a bomb and his bearded persona adds to his gravitas.

Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) as Mike Rezendes showed the most transformation as he was so deeply rooted in his character that he was barely discernible. His performance is riveting. Rachel McAdams (True Detective) portrays Sacha Pfeiffer in a thankless role. Her talents are left unnoticed while Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games) as Mitchell Garabedian again gives a dynamic portrayal of the lawyer who represented the many victims who were ignored and silenced by the Catholic Church and the media until the Boston Globe's Spotlight team began its tenacious investigation which led to exposing worldwide corruption. John Slattery (Mad Men) as Ben Bradlee Jr again gives a vital energetic performance which drives the film. While Brian d'Arcy James (Law and Order SVU) as reporter Matt Carroll rounds out the newsroom.

Academy Award nominee Tom Mc Carthy does a superlative job in directing the understated by allowing the fine acting and script do their magic. The sets are bland and boring as only a newsroom can be which allows the drama to be the focus. The camera work also is without tricks and the sound track emphasizes this thriller at just the right moments. Mc Carthy also wrote Spotlight along with Josh Singer.
Don't miss Spotlight for an exciting night at the movies and you will cheer its filmmakers and the Boston Globe for their Oscar worthy balls!
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Looking at the latest issue of Catholic New York, the classifieds had butt plugs cheaper than the ones I saw on Angie's List!

 

I guess bigger font means something.

http://news.yahoo.com/chile-bishop-says-knew-nothing-priests-sex-abuse-211734238.html

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A bishop who has been defended by Pope Francis from critics who accuse him of covering up for Chile's most infamous pedophile priest said Friday that he had no knowledge of the man's sex abuse of young boys.

Bishop Juan Barros also said he didn't help the Rev. Fernando Karadima get a trip to France as the priest testified in court this week. Karadima said that Barros helped him get the trip for the 50th anniversary of his priesthood and that he had a "very sincere friendship" with the bishop.

"I had nothing to do with the trip. I only helped him to enroll to officiate Mass at the Lourdes grotto," Barro said about the Catholic shrine in France.

He also denied knowing about Karadima's crimes. "I participated in the (El Bosque) parish for years, but as I've said before, just because I participated, it doesn't mean I was witness to everything that happened there," Barros said.

Karadima led the parish of El Bosque in Santiago for nearly six decades before the abuse allegations came to light in April 2010. Two months later, the then archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, forwarded the allegations to the Vatican amid an eruption of abuse cases globally.

Victims say allegations against Karadima were reported earlier but were ignored by the cardinal. Errazuriz, who is one of nine cardinals on Pope Francis' key advisory panel, has acknowledged in court testimony that he failed to act on several abuse allegations because he believed them to be untrue.

Fernando Karadima is escorted from a court, after testifying in a case that three of his victims bro …
The Vatican ordered Karadima to a life of penance and prayer in 2011 for abusing young boys. A Chilean judge later dismissed a criminal case against the priest because the statute of limitations had expired, but she determined the abuse allegations were truthful.

"I've never participated in the things that went on there and that led to the sanction" by the Vatican, Barros said.

Three of Karadima's victims are suing Chile's Catholic Church, accusing it of a cover-up and are demanding a total of $640,000 in compensation and a public apology. The church has rejected the accusation.

Abuse victims and Catholic faithful have questioned the pope's recent appointment of Barros as bishop of the southern city of Osorno. At least three of Karadima's victims have said Barros knew of the priest's crimes and did nothing.

Video recently broadcast by a Chilean television channel showed Francis defending Barros.

"Don't let yourselves be led by the noses of the leftists who have plotted this" campaign against Barros, the pope told Chilean visitors at the Vatican.
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The Sgt. Schultz defense.

 

http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-priest-sexual-abuse-trial-1110-20151109-story.html

Jury Selection Begins In Priest's Sex Abuse Trial

HARTFORD — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy in East Windsor.

The Rev. Paul Gotta, 57, is charged with second-degree sexual assault and six counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. Gotta, who had assignments at churches in East Windsor at the time of his arrest, is on leave from the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Gotta is also facing federal firearms charges. Gotta's defense attorney is William Paetzold of Glastonbury. Debra Collins is the prosecutor. Testimony is scheduled to begin Nov. 23 at Superior Court in Hartford.

Gotta is accused of abusing a teenage boy he met through one of the East Windsor churches where he worked as a priest.

The teen was arrested in June 2013 on allegations that he tried to manufacture bombs, illegally possessed explosives, illegally possessed a silencer, made disturbing comments about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and the Boston Marathon bombing, and about his own school, Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield.

Gotta called local and federal authorities to report the teen, according to court documents.

The following February, Gotta was indicted by a federal grand jury on federal firearms charges. His indictment noted that Gotta tried to have the teen arrested "when, in fact, Gotta himself was directly involved in the firearms and explosives offenses that he was reporting."

The next month, in March 2014, Gotta was charged by state authorities with sexually abusing the teen.

According to the warrant for Gotta's arrest, the priest spent years developing a relationship with the teen, whose family attended one of the parishes in East Windsor where Gotta served as priest.

Gotta employed the then-16-year-old to do odd jobs for the church in 2012, then allegedly used the employment as an excuse to be alone with him. The teen would often take the bus to the church rectory after school, the warrant says.

The teen told police that, at first, Gotta would grope him or ask him to reach into Gotta's front pocket to retrieve keys when Gotta had his hands full, the warrant says. Gotta had the teen do personal chores in addition to work for the church, including doing Gotta's laundry, and the teen told police that Gotta watched him as he folded the priest's underwear, the warrant says.

The warrant also says that Gotta showed the teen a pornographic video and once called the teen into his bedroom in the rectory and jumped on him, wearing only underwear, and pinned him to the floor.

The sexual contact escalated in the spring and summer of 2012, according to the warrant. At one point, Gotta allegedly began forcing the teen to strip before he could receive his paycheck each month for working at the church. The warrant also alleges that Gotta gave the teen extra money, which he referred to as "hush money."

During the summer of 2012, the teen went to Arizona on vacation with his family. Before he left, Gotta gave the teen money to purchase a firearm for him, the warrant says. The teen told police he thought that if he purchased the firearm for Gotta, the sexual contact would stop, the warrant says.

"Investigators discovered that a pattern of manipulation by Father Paul Gotta contributed to [the victim's] willingness to participate in illegal activities on Father Paul Gotta's behalf," the warrant states.

The teen pleaded guilty to reduced weapon charges in state court and received a suspended sentence. A prosecutor said Gotta's legal troubles weakened the case against the teen.
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http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/nov/12/new-film-highlights-contribution-san-diego-researc/

San Diego Man’s Role In Uncovering Priest Sex Abuse Featured In ‘Spotlight’

The new film "Spotlight" chronicles the work of Boston Globe investigative reporters into the priest sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church.

One of the sources the reporters relied on is,Richard Sipe, a San Diego mental health counselor and former priest who spent many years investigating the sexual lives of clergy.

Sipe's character in the movie isn't seen on screen, but some of his many real life phone conversations with reporters are dramatized in the film and are voiced by actor Richard Jenkins.

Sipe, a La Jolla resident and author of “A Secret World: Sexuality and the search for celibacy,” said he began researching celibacy in 1960.

“That’s when I started collecting data,” Sipe told KPBS Midday Edition on Thursday. “I was on a staff at a psychological hospital that treated a lot of clergy.”

Sipe researched behavioral changes and traced cases back to other people.

“It’s one of the key things that has changed something worldwide,” Sipe said of the Boston Globe report. “At the end of the movie, it shows all the places in the United States, then worldwide where this has taken place.”

The film is playing at AMC La Jolla.
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