Our Lady of the Glacier
Blogged by James Preece on 11th February 2013
This is exactly the sort of mumbo jumbo I have come to expect from Scientists...
(Antarctica) In the eternal cold of Antarctica researchers have erected a wayside shrine. The place, where the wood panel has been planted with a wooden crucifix and a Marian icon, is called Our Lady of the Glacier. "You will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all of Judaea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth" (Acts of the Apostles 1:8). The words, which Jesus gave in his departing message to the disciples, have been adopted by a group of researchers. They have erected a wayside cross in one of the most uninhabitable parts of the Earth, in the middle of the Antarctic. The researchers are active at the French/Italian station Dome Concordia, which lays on an enormous high plateau in the East Antarctic. On the station, laying at 3,233 meters above see level, the outline of Dome C may be found, located about 1,000 kilometers from the coast. The station is part of the European Commission and European Science Foundation funded Antarctic Research Project EPICA.
The chief doctor of the research team, Vincenzo Di Giovanni explains in a letter, that two members of the expedition came by the idea for the erection of a wayside cross and that it was agreed upon by the others. From wood, they set up a box of wood panel with a small roof and put a Crucifix and Marian icon on the panel and between the two is the inscription "Protect Us".
The wayside cross was put up between the research station and the ice field, on which planes land. In the mean time, the Scientists have ceased calling the station Concordia among themselves, but after the Virgin and Mother of God Mary "Mother of the Eternal Glacier".
[link]
Actual scientists - as distinct from people who worship science - include some of the most religious people I know. I never met so many theists as during my years as a physics student at university.
Reader Comments
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Phil Atkinson said...
The only Nobel Prize laureate for Chemistry I've ever met was a devout Christian.
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Catherine said...
www.fromoceantoocean.org
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Mockery of the Sacraments said...
The question must be asked, why are these scientists doing such a bad job of communicating their faith? Churches have all these resources, they ought to be doing a better job of convincing people of the truth of their claims.
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Mark Dobson said...
Same reason as everyone else I expect. Conversion comes from God, and grace is required. The best arguments in the world can only ever be an aid.
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Mockery of the Sacraments said...
LOL Even the Pope's scarpering Mr Dobson! You're in Italy, you may have to step into the breach!
I don't know, if people believed in the past & now practice of the Faith has fallen away in the West in recent times, are we to just say that God's grace is in short supply & leave it at that? Surely the religion of the "logos?" ought to be appealing to the questioning mind? These scientists ought to be beating out these pesky atheist all-comers with their explanation of the real truth. Something has gone wrong.
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Mark Dobson said...
"are we to just say that God's grace is in short supply & leave it at that?"
Not at all, we're meant to ask for it:
‘If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ Lk 11:13
Intelligence is a good thing, but if we rely on our intelligence, rather than on God, we fail. That's not how it works.
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 1 Cor 1:22-23 (cf. 18-29)
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Mockery of the Sacraments said...
This I shall bear in mind. Thank you Mark Dobson.
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Mark Dobson said...
Pleasure.
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Mr E said...
To be fair, James, you spent a great deal of your time at uni in the company of the Catholic Society.
A fine place to meet theists!
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Mark Dobson said...
What a thrilling exposé! A Catholic going to CathSoc! As I recall he also went to lectures and lab and that sort of thing.
Unless it was really a cover...
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