By Tom Jensen

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Maintenance of doctrine necessary in Catholic schools

Religion and science's intersect explained

One day, while at work, I made a joke referencing evolution. My coworker laughed at it, but then turned solemn and said, “But seriously, you don’t actually believe in evolution, right?” The question took me aback and sparked a half-hour-long discussion  about science and its place, or lack thereof, in religion. The problem my coworker had was he belonged to a Christian denomination that practices biblical literalism. This is the idea that the Holy Bible used by Christians was word-for-word inspired by the Holy Spirit, and is therefore infallibly correct (note that there are other versions of this idea and not all Christians who consider themselves biblical literalists will agree with the definition my coworker was using). Because of this, he was obligated to believe Earth was indeed created in six days by God and on the seventh day God rested and all was as it ever would be. Genesis says so and Genesis is infallible. Many of us have probably had a similar discussion and I think it is important to take a moment to look at the issue. There isn’t sufficient space in one opinion column to cover every detail and aspect of this issue, so you can expect me to cover different parts of it in the coming weeks. Today we will look at a basic overview of the problem.

The papacy, more than just a funny hat

Jose Canseco tweeted 9:03 Monday morning “What all does a Pope do?” Canseco asks an important question, and I don’t think he’s the only one who ponders for what purpose the pontificate exists. With Pope Benedict XVI’s recent retirement announcement, I thought this would be a good time to educate readers on who the pope is, how the office came to be and what exactly papal infallibility is all about. You can use this information to wow friends when the topic of cut-throat Vatican politics comes up, or you can just tuck it away for future use in crossword puzzles.

Defining life and when it begins underlies abortion debate

Greetings, fellow Badgers. My name is Tom Jensen and I am a senior majoring in Religious Studies. As such, this column will focus on religious topics and hopefully shed some light on why certain religious groups do and think as they do. If you have a topic you would like me to cover, or if you feel I misrepresented a certain group, please feel free to contact me. Additionally, if you disagree with anything I say, let’s get a good old-fashioned newspaper debate going. Write a letter to the editor. Call me out. It will be way more exciting than watching “The Office” on Netflix, so I guarantee a response.