During the past decade The Irish News has very kindly published several of my letters claiming that original sin with the fall did not happen in space time on earth (Garden of Eden) but is a transcendental catastrophe which embraces the whole universe. In a transcendental beginning humanity existed as a living immortal idea or design of creation in the mind of God. This design had a free choice to accept or reject the divine will for its full true being. Tempted by Satan it rebelled so the whole of creation is blemished by original sin and fallen into the distorted finite space-time reality we live in.
At the Big Bang, the beginning of the universe is already Adam and Eve, personal and universal humanity and all life at its lowest fallen level, stained in all matter-energy by original sin. Given billions of years matter-energy evolves to produce life and finally homo sapiens, to our souls as well as bodies are stained by original sin. Baptism removes the blemish from the personal soul but not the body which is universal as well as personal so even though the immaculate soul goes to heaven at death, the body has to wait until the general resurrection.
The only two ideas in the original great design which did not rebel where the Alpha-Christ and the idea of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who freely accepted to be born and live in fallen space-time exile with us – the Alpha-Christ generates and contains the whole design.
Scientists during the past century have rapidly increased our knowledge of matter-energy as can be seen by frequent programmes on TV but so far there is little theology about nature and physical substances.
Yet I have just noticed in the Good Friday liturgy a remarkable hymns, Faith Cross (Crux Fidelis) written in Medieval period which confirms what I am claiming.
“From that holy body broken
Blood and water faith proceed
Earth and stars and sky and ocean
By that flood from stain are freed”
To a medieval scholar ‘earth and stars and sky and ocean’ would have been the whole universe. The only modern scholar who makes the same claim is the late Frank Sheed in his book Theology and Sanity. He states that the most mysterious consequences of original sin is that the whole of nature is damaged of it.
Thus our bodies as well as souls, and all matter-energy in the universe which we share dynamically in this life, is stained, except the bodies and souls of Jesus and Mary on earth and Jesus in the Eucharist.
The gulf which has rapidly grown between science and religion, knowledge of nature an theology, requires urgent attention, otherwise our youth will reject all belief in transcendental realities.
Prof JOHN ROONEY
Belfast BT9
Ensure what happened in past never occurs again
I once said to two IRA men, who had both served time for murder, that the best I could do in summing up the Troubles was that we had got into a mess that we should have avoided as a society and as a result young men and women had acted in ways that otherwise they would not have done.
One agreed with me but the other insisted that the IRA campaign of violence was necessary and justified. The first I can work genuinely together with despite that past, the second I will be pragmatic with but trust will be limited.
My perspective, which is one shared by many across our society is that nothing was achieved through violence that could otherwise have been achieved through peaceful means. However the violence occurred. Thousands killed and injured, billions of damage caused, thousands imprisoned, our society deeply divided and the economy blighted for years.
We should ensure that what happened never occurs again.
The governments seem to effectively be proposing an amnesty for all murderers using ‘Statute of Limitations’ legislation.
My view is that we either investigate the past crimes in full, no matter the consequences, including senior members of Sinn Féin going to prison where appropriate, or we suspend pursuit of justice, forensic truth, inquests, civil actions and all other forms of investigations for 30 years at least and give our society a chance to continue to undo the damage from that unnecessary conflict.
If we are to consider an amnesty or suspension I would like to see some element of a commitment to real reconciliation such as a forum to allow victims to tell of the impact the violence had on them and their families, genuine shared housing and schooling and a clear statement that violence should never again be used to further political aims on this island and a politics that strives to maximise the potential of this place we share no matter what your constitutional preference might be.
TREVOR RINGLAND
Holywood, Co Down
Market economics
Gemma Weir’s limited understanding of market economics is evidenced by her assertion that things happen in the private sector on a ‘whim’ (April 27). On the contrary the benefit to the consumer of a competitive environment is that decisions, such as those to close branches, will be taken with due regard to the actions of competitors and the likelihood of customers to change banks as a result.
The nationalised banking system she proposes would not only lift more money out of the pockets of people who are more than happy to use online banking in order to pay for branches where the state deems there is need, but would set innovation back generations. After all, what impetus does a gargantuan, unwieldy, centralised bank have to treat its customers any better?
The recapitalisation of failed banks that occurred in 2008 was a wholly insensible course of action and one which grossly increased both the actual debt and the budget deficit. However, it was understood to be a once in lifetime action. A permanently nationalised banking system, not bound by the fear of failure that exists in a market, would fail astronomically and consistently, leaving us all to pick up the tab every time.
NEIL WILSON
Belfast BT5
Territorial claims
In response to the question raised by Fergus Lambe (April 26) ‘If Spain has a veto over what they do not like about their land border with Gibraltar why does nobody in the Irish Government not say that they also have a veto over the UK leaving the EU?’
It is quite simple Fergus, the Irish government, aided and abetted by Sinn Féin/SDLP (to their shame) abandoned its territorial claim over the six counties when they negotiated away Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution and conceded that the national territory of Ireland was no longer all 32 counties. They conceded ownership of six counties of Ireland to Britain, thus legitimising partition.
As Patrick Murphy pointed out in his original article (April 8) ‘Whereas the north is part of the UK, Gibraltar is a colony. However, a more significant reason might be that Spain still claims ownership of Gibraltar but Dublin abandoned its territorial claim over the north at the time of the Good Friday Agreement.’
There’s your answer, Fergus.
SEAMUS McALORAN
Belfast BT15
RHI fiasco summed up perfectly
Now that the RHI scandal is back in the news with the enquiry going to cost at least £4m this year alone brings to mind what an old friend, Willie Davey, told me what his opinion of it was.
He said: ‘Tony it is as if I owned a wee shop and you came in and asked me for a £1 worth of sticks and I gave them to you and then gave you £1.60 back. I wouldn’t be in business for long, would I?’
I think he summed the whole fiasco up.
TONY CARROLL
Newry, Co Down
