From: "CORNEL DACOSTA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
What the Cardinal (Murphy-O'Connor) said in London is
exactly as quoted by Santosh. Santosh has made nothing
up as you imply. Nor is he "making him [the Cardinal]
say" anything.
***Quoting a passage outside the context is not to say exactly what the
Cardinal said.
Read the full lecture and try to understand it. I am stating again that the
Cardinal did not say what is being quoted, he means exactly the contrary.
God is not to be treated as an object of science, but as a mystery, as a
living reality that exists and can be experienced. Therefore, the Cardinal
is not an 'atheist' or 'agnostic'.
"God is the meaning that secures the meaning of all that I do, all that I
am, all that we can be as humankind. His objective reality as goodness,
truth and love secures the significance of all that happens, of all that is.
God is not a fact in the world, as though God could be treated as one thing
among other things to be empirically investigated, affirmed or denied on the
basis of observation. Many who deny God's existence treat God in this way,
and they simply don't know how to ask the proper question about God. God is
why the world is at all, the goodness, truth and love that flows into an
astonishingly complex and beautiful cosmos, and we are the part of that
cosmos, consciously and freely open to goodness, truth and love; and we are
frustrated when this openness is blocked. We are designed for ultimate
meaning and purpose, unrestricted truth and love: that is why Julian Barnes,
atheist though he may declare himself, 'misses' God. God is at the heart of
every person. And until that is acknowledged, we will always feel his
absence".
You are of course free to interpret the
Cardinal as you wish and you can even interpret
Santosh as you wish but please do not misquote Santosh
nor perhaps even the Cardinal.
***I am not free to interpret the Cardinal as I wish. Read the words within
the full context and understand it.
I have not interpreted wrongly the statements of Dr.Santosh, but have
rejected his statements,
which are being taken outside the context, for they do not give us the
thought of the Cardinal. It is not what the Cardinal is saying in the
lecture. The Cardinal rejects the wrong approach to the "mystery of God", of
a living God, and shows the right approach to God.
When I heard the Cardinal on the TV news, I was a wee
bit surprised. I wondered if this senior theist was
perhaps on the route to becoming an atheist.
***This is totally wrong. You have completely misunderstood him.
About casteism, I have already answered you earlier.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
