Today's Wisdom

Those who do not pass from the experience of the cross to the truth of the resurrection condemn themselves to despair! For we cannot encounter God without first crucifying our narrow notions of a god who reflects only our own understanding of omnipotence and power
Pope Francis

Friday, January 25, 2019

A Compelling New Finding of The Universe...

Einstein's Quantum Riddle - NOVA - Published January 10, 2019


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGF34iPfPDY

Monday, January 21, 2019

Should Christians be concerned? Strategies to dominate the world through space missiles and artificial intelligence

Yesterday, January 20, 2019, I published an article of a report from Donald Trump, President of the United States dated January 17 in which he announced the expansion of U.S. missile defense. "Donald Trump has announced that the United States will develop new technologies -- including in space -- to acquire unrivaled missile-defense capabilities and maintain an advantage over adversaries such as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea...Speaking after acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Trump said the U.S. goal was simple: 'that we can detect and destroy' any incoming missile launched against the United States 'anywhere, any time, any place.'" Quoted too was the first reaction of Russia's Viktor Bondaryov, the chairman of the Defense and Security Committee in Russia's upper house of parliament. He said "an additional layer of space-based sensors to detect missiles can be viewed as a component of a policy of increasing tensions...Under no circumstances should attack weapons be based in space. This is fraught with catastrophe." The feeling of being under threat is not new. What is new is the use of space to launch attacks using advanced intelligence. This is far more complex than conventional wars because advanced technology, including computer-simulated machines, quantum computers, artificial intelligence and big data in space can be catastrophic not only for nations attacked but for the nation that started the attack. Space satellites have been used by the powers of the world to spy on each other and influence their strategies on smaller nations such as those of Islamic and/or Arab identity that challenge Israel in the Middle East. But the United States has kept its superior military advances in the Middle East since the Egyptian Pan-Arab nationalist leader Abdel-Nasser challenged the West. Abdel-Nasser's rhetoric helped Israel defeat Arabs one more time in June 1967. When his successor Sadat reversed Nasser's dependence on the Soviet Union military experts, Americans got in. When Sadat got the Egyptian army to cross the occupied Suez Canal in 1973, his heroic military act was hailed by Arabs but in 1976 he went to Jerusalem in order to end 'the blood of wars' with Israel. He was encouraged by the diplomacy of America's Secretary of State Henry Kissinger working closely with President Nixon. America's ascendance to the state of superpower took place with President Ronald Reagan's collaboration with Pope Saint John Paul II to end communism in Europe and the role played by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to end the dictatorship of the USSR.  It was later seen in the use of force by George H. Bush when Iraq' Saddam Hussein dared to invade Kuwait in 1990, and his son George W. Bush's direct invasion of Baghdad to finish off Sadam's government in 2003. Earlier the United Stated suffered humiliation in the 9/11 2001 Islamic terrorist attack when airplanes were hijacked and went through two towers in New York killing thousands of Americans (see this documentary here). With the increasing anti-Islamic tensions, books written by the late philosopher Professor René Girard increased in sales as he revealed the mimetic tendencies found in early and primitive cultures including those of Islamic cultures and how Christ's divinity and cross are the foundation of truth (here in First Things, 1996) - see also Bishop Robert Barron's article about Girard after the latter passed away here). John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at St. Andrews University was invited by BBC Radio to comment, among other scholars, on the Thomistic powerful work that helped in the  ascendance of Christian Europe in the 13th century AD while commentaries on Aristotle's natural philosophy by the Islamic philosopher Averroes were banned by Islamic authorities (here). It was St. Thomas Aquinas who started the scientific exploration that the West inherited and continues to make its own. 
Alarmed by the decline of Western Europe's Christianity in face of  politically-correct leaders welcoming immigration of radical Muslims to Europe, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad gave a powerful homily in France in October 2017 calling on Europe to rediscover its Christian roots (here in French).The challenge today is not only against Islam where many Muslims are leaving their heritage but also the new wave of lovers of death in Islamic culture that they wish to take lives of innocents in Europe and North America - How they penetrated Western institutions (in Arabic hereصندوق الإسلام with Hamed Abd el-Samad published in January 2019).
Back to the advanced technologies we need to explore how giants like China and Russia have put the West on an alarming note. In March 2018, Russia's President Putin addressed his Federal Assembly with powerful promises (here). In December 2018, Forbes published a report that showed how China has advanced its own Artificial Intelligence (here).
Why should Christians be concerned? 
First: The challenge of radical Islam,
Second: The challenge of powerful dictators (Russia's Putin and China's Xi Jinping) 
Third: The United States President Trump warned his allies that they should pay back for America's military protection: (NATO), Japan, South Korea. But he has withdrawn from Syria leaving it to the Russians, Turks, and Iran against advice by his top aides. His sanctions against Iran seems to be effective in trade between European countries and Iran but how far could they be effective within Iran itself? The CIA is working to effectively bring Iran's leaders to their knees. His negotiations with Kim Jong un of North Korea have not improved but are expected to continue in February 2019 (see The New York Times here).
As the week of prayers for Christian unity comes to a close, let us pray for peace.

Today's Quote

"Behold I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)







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