'The rational man seeks God, and the Godly man loves reason'... (Updated)

(this is a serious topic, but I couldn't resist this photo... good to laugh too, eh?)

I haven't featured Mac Johnson in awhile, but his latest effort is strong:

... The point of the Pope’s speech, for those that bothered to read it, was that the Christian faith and the modern Western concept of reason are not in conflict with or threatened by one another. Indeed, Christianity, thoroughly Hellenized by its infancy in the Greek-speaking provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean, has been one of great foundations underlying the high accord given to reason, logic, and free will in the European world, the Pope argued.

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[The Pope's point] was that the Christian faith
and the modern Western concept
of reason are not in conflict with
or threatened by one another

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Those Western intellectuals who reject Christ and the Church in the name of reason thus undermine their own house. There would be no “Western” intellectuals had there been no Western church teaching that God was a rational force and capable of being known and understood through logical philosophy. In Europe, the church and reason have always been like brothers - often in conflict, but more often of the same mind and protective of one another. To separate them now would impoverish both and rob us of one of the world’s most successful collaborations.

Of course, the Pope, being both a priest and a former professor, took about 4,000 words to say that. He also decorated his points elaborately with historical examples and quotes, among which was an exchange between the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and a Persian Noble, circa 1391 AD. In this discussion, they debate the relative merits of their respective religions, Christianity and Islam, against the backdrop of the Muslim siege of Constantinople - once the seat of Orthodox Christianity before its conquest and conversion to Islam by the sword. ...



... From London to Lahore, howls and threats have been directed at the Pope, as well as Christendom in general. But one of the strangest protests arose from a member of the Turkish ruling party, Salih Kapusuz, who compared the Pope to Hitler for his remarks.

Apparently, he meant this as an insult, but one never knows for sure quite how to take such a reference in a part of the world where anti-Semitism is served up like potatoes at every meal. For example, a government-owned Saudi newspaper reported the arrest of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1960 under the headline “Arrest of Eichmann, who had the honor of killing six million Jews.”

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one never knows for sure quite
how to take such a reference
in a part of the world where
anti-Semitism is served up
like potatoes at every meal

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Kapusuz’s reference was made even more ridiculous by the claims in the Iranian state news agency that the Pope’s remarks show that he is not really a Christian, but is actually a ZIONIST! Yes, Pope Hitler II, Zionist. ...

The Religion of Violence and Outrage.

More of today's reactions:
Murchison: The Pope and the Nut Cases
Buchanan: Benedict XVI - On God and the Prophet
Caruba: What the Pope Actually Said
Prager: The Pope Didn't Apologize (audio)
Medved: The Pope's Big Mistake: Invoking Past Conflict

News links from Drudge:
Muslims Want Further Apology From Pope...
Pope denounces violence after nun's murder...
Angry Turk workers urge Pope's arrest during visit...
The unholy past of Muslim cleric demanding Pope's execution...

Update: Melanie Phillips - The jihad against the Pope...

... If we are ever to defeat the global jihad against free societies, it is vital to tell that truth — that it is the West that is under attack. It is in that context that the Pope’s remarks must be seen — defending Christianity and western civilisation from an onslaught that has not just snuffed out many innocent lives, but seeks to snuff out freedom and truth itself.

Worldistan?

Update #2: Michelle Malkin on "Cataclysmic times".