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

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Risk


"for `In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The above words were said by St. Paul. But does this mean that he did not have to risk his life when preaching about Christ who is the "The Way, Truth, and Life" ?

Every act involves risk. This is true for everything that exists - from the subatomic world to the cosmic galaxies...

This can be illustrated too in the development of the very ancient human tribes whose leaders had to take the risk of fighting animals as well as any strangers or other tribes for preserving their lives and reproducing themselves...In the history of ancient nations, it is found online here.  The ancient civilization of Egypt is one such example. Egyptians found that survival necessitated living around the Nile where water flows for many kilometers - The most astonishing achievement in Ancient Egypt that survives to today is the Great Pyramid of Khufu since it orients Egypt's kings to the god Sun that rises and sets and symbolizes the resurrection cycle - In 2019, NOVA published a documentary showing the precision of engineering and the great work it took to make it an achievement - See it here.
The late contemporary philosopher René Girard expressed competition in his "mimetic rivalry" and the mechanism of the scapegoat - See Bishop Robert Barron comment on Girard's work here

Risk management was one of the questions that I answered in my online Master's degree studies at the University of Phoenix (earned in 2010)  Complex Projects versus Complex Mind! here

In my thesis, I wrote:

I would like to offer a glimpse to the reality of the interconnectedness of projects in different sciences only because they all have in common the uniqueness of the human person. Quantum physics which I studied in my Engineering undergraduate studies further confirms new understandings of relatedness. I will mainly base my post on:
1) The article by Mizell and Malone published in Engineering Management Journal on cost estimation used at NASA (December 2007)
2) Scientific American article on the origins of the mind (September 2009 issue)
3) Quantum physics, explained in numerous works by great contemporary physicists

Marc Hauser, past professor of psychology, human evolutionary biology, and organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, proposes what he calls “humaniqueness” as properties of the distinctive mind of humans that sets it apart from the minds of other creatures. Professor Hauser shows the following characteristics of the human uniqueness (My post here has to be limited to only mentioning them in brief):
1. Generative computation: the ability to create a virtually limitless variety of “expressions,” be they arrangements of words, sequences of notes, combinations of actions, or strings of mathematical symbols
2. The capacity for the promiscuous combination of ideas. We routinely connect thoughts from different domains of knowledge, allowing our understanding of art, sex, space, causality and friendship to combine. From this mingling, new laws, social relationships and technologies can result.
3. The use of mental symbols. We can spontaneously convert any sensory experience—real or imagined— into a symbol that we can keep to ourselves or express to others through language, art, music or computer code.
4. Only humans engage in abstract thought. Unlike animal thoughts, which are largely anchored in sensory and perceptual experiences, many of ours have no clear connection to such events.
We alone ponder the likes of unicorns and aliens, nouns and verbs, infinity and God. “Indeed, mounting evidence indicates that, in contrast to Darwin’s theory of a continuity of mind between humans and other species, a profound gap separates our intellect from the animal kind. This is not to say that our mental faculties sprang fully formed out of nowhere. Researchers have found some of the building blocks of human cognition in other species. But these building blocks make up only the cement footprint of the skyscraper that is the human mind. The evolutionary origins of our cognitive abilities thus remain rather hazy. Clarity is emerging from novel insights and experimental technologies, however.”

Hauser thus establishes the basis of different mind in humans. It shows, in contrast to Darwin’s theory, a profound gap between us and animals, or as the well-known paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin put it, there is a leap from the biosphere to the noosphere which is the sphere of the human mind that can ask himself about himself. The complexity of the human mind, unmatched by that of any other creature has been confirmed by much recent research. Hauser gives this example: “One of our most basic tools, the No. 2 pencil, used by every test taker, illustrates the exceptional freedom of the human mind as compared with the limited scope of animal cognition. You hold the painted wood, write with the lead, and erase with the pink rubber held in place by a metal ring. Four different materials, each with a particular function, all wrapped up into a single tool. And although that tool was made for writing, it can also pin hair up into a bun, bookmark a page or stab an annoying insect. Animal tools, in contrast—such as the sticks chimps use to fish termites out from their mounds—are composed of a single material, designed for a single function and never used for other functions. None have the combinatorial properties of the pencil.”

Let’s now compare the above with some of the findings & conclusions proposed by Mizell & Malone for complex projects at NASA:

First: The cost estimating process becomes harder as the complexity and size of projects increase. This is particularly clear from the fact that key variables are not known at the start of large projects – for example staffing requirements are unknown with certainty at that point while client management requires a budget estimate before sign off. Moreover, software development activities are labor intensive. They are affected by and affect HUMAN PERFORMANCE. This shows that complex projects for the most complex creature require an understanding of subtle cognitive functions at least in human relationships e.g. human resources staffing and the effect human performance has on delivering a project which in turn affect human performance in next projects. Even these relationships cannot be understood in isolation – See below.

Second: Human nature prefers a single number for an estimate as opposed to a range of numbers even though a range estimate will have a much higher probability of including an accurate value (Boehm and Fairly, 2000). This is why a range is recommended.

This shows that humans have to deal with ranges of numbers rather than single numbers for their complex projects. Here is a hint about quantum physics which we ought to deal with. Quantum physics stipulates that every process-result is probable until it is measured. According to the Uncertainty Principle, only at the time of measurement is there certainty. Furthermore, John Polkinghorne, retired professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, wrote, in one of his latest books: Quantum Physics and Theology, about relationship as science is attempting to discover it at the subnuclear level: “Quantum theory brought to light a remarkable form of entanglement between subatomic particles that have once interacted with each other (the so-called EPR effect), which implies that they remain effectively a single system however far they may subsequently separate spatially- a counterintuitive togetherness-in-separation that has been abundantly confirmed experimentally as a property of nature. The physical world looks more and more like a universe that would be the fitting creation of the trinitarian God, the One whose deepest reality is relational”

Third: Expert judgment relies on experience of past projects and industry average which fail to tell the entire story. On the contrary, every project is unique in its environment and organization factors. This is true since we know that no one human can subsist in isolation – The environment, the tribe, society or whatever makes up a human organization is vital for human action. This has been shown also in apes. Moreover, subjective experience counts. This is what has been missing in the Newtonian world.

This is why Mizell and Malone propose a simulation model as follows:
1. Use a software development process model: A graphical representation is useful to educate decision-makers on the inherent complexity of large software projects
2. Capture uncertainty for key parameters by using probability distributions: Three are most important: a. Size of project/product; b. Productivity of project team; c. Defect rates. This will allow us to develop range estimates that consider the uncertainty that exists before the start of a project.
3. Run Model and Obtain Confidence Intervals for Effort and Schedule: Calculate confidence intervals and focus on the top half of the confidence interval to dissuade managers from accepting the lower part in order to meet the lowest possible cost and schedule.
4. Compare Model Results with Other Estimating Techniques.
5. Use model results to debate unrealistic budgets: Run it with animation so that decision-makers can visualize the process and its complexity.
6. Update Model with Actual project data as project evolves (Experience): This can be very useful in analyzing problem areas and effort based on actual project data to-date.

We can therefore safely conclude that:
1. The human mind is the most complex in all creatures on earth
2. However, this mind requires complex computer tools to realize its complex projects today.
3. Which requires this mind to use quantum physics probabilities 4.
Which then (according to the EPR Experiment) shows that this mind cannot stay in isolation of other creatures – Relationship is of the essence to cultivate – How more important would it be to cultivate it in business and social life?
5. That gets us, in my opinion, into the most fundamental of all principles: Communication, collaboration and, if possible, love. (Comment for this blog: This was a post in my Master studies of Information Systems. Christian teaching is referenced multiple times particularly in the work of John Polkinghorne, and in the final conclusion on love as the epitome of the Christian way of life.)

References: Mizell, C., Malone, L. (2007), A Project Management Approach to Using Simulation for Cost Estimation on Large, Complex Software Development Projects, Engineering Management Journal, Retrieved on September 3, 2009 from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=1&hid=3&sid=1d33c98f-9e1e-4296-bb45-fbbbb64b33ef%40sessionmgr11
 Hauser, M. (2009), Origin of the Mind, Scientific America, Retrieved on September 5, 2009 from http://www.sciamdigital.com/
Polkinghorne, J. (2008), Quantum Physics and Theology, Oxford University Press.

About Post-Modernism
In 2019, Bishop Robert Barron spoke about Friedrich Nietzsche and the New Scientists here. He said that Nietzsche was right because he though that God competes with his creation. However, Nietzsche misunderstood the Biblical God who glories in his creation. St. Irnenaeus in the 2nd century AD, he quoted, said that "the glory of God is man fully alive". It seems that the "Hero" that Nietzsche called for and the blame game in which his philosophy called for the strong-willed to rise and crush the timid and weak, is behind the rise of the Nazi who, according to René Girard's scape-goating mechanism, exploited the German people feelings for becoming a super power and blamed the Jews for Germany's economic difficulties since World War I, and ended by burning them in Auschwitz concentration camps...(see Bishop Robert Barron here) - Friedrich Nietzsche was the subject of the doctoral dissertation by Fr. George Farah when he obtained his doctorate in philosophy from the renowned Sorbonne University.

In 2017, Bishop Robert Barron spoke about communication and image making of everything which, if followed in reasoning, it leads us to The Trinity in God (here). In 2003, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad had also spoken about the Trinity in as simple way as possible (here).

In July 2019, Maggie Ciskanik, senior consultant associated with Jesuit Fr. Robert Spitzer President of Gonzaga University from 1998 to 2009, and quite active on EWTN, contacted me in order to publish some material that I had posted on my blog about the cosmos. In early September 2019, I received this message from her - I am sending it with humble heart as, in my opinion after reading Sir John Polkinghorne,  it shows that the cosmos is stamped by the Trinity - The God of Christians:
Great resources for learning more about quantum theory (and its relationship to a Trinitarian God)


There is an enormous corpus of talks, articles, commentaries, and youtube presentations focusing on one of the strangest discoveries of the 20th century: quantum mechanics and its startling attendant features, the principles of uncertainty and superposition. When you consult the resources identified in this post by Mr. George Farahat, be prepared to increase your understanding of how quantum mechanics has changed our understanding of reality, and how it relates to theology.


Two phenomenal lectures by two outstanding professors in two countries have enlightened research about the vast cosmos we live in and its quantum fields that penetrate every creature on earth.


The first is a lecture given by Professor Leo Kowenhoven at Delft University in the Netherlands, 2015 (here). In his talk, Professor Kowenhoven shows how nature itself works through quantum processes. He uses the example of a plant leaf which takes the light of the Sun. Through quantum superposition, electrons find a way to efficiently bind to the oxygen molecule, a process essential for human life since we need oxygen to live. He goes on to explain how “qbits” are necessary in building quantum computers and reveals that he and his team have already made these “quantum bits” in the lab. Some of the most interesting ideas come near the end of the talk (starting around the 11th minute) when he lists the big challenges that super quantum computers can help solve, such as: more efficient energy use and storage, better airplane design, optimization for robotics, machine learning, and the use of nanotechnology in healthcare


The second lecture, “The Real Building Blocks of the Universe” was given by Professor David Tong at Cambridge University in 2017. In a brilliant summary of quantum theory, he reveals that there are 16 “fields” that interact in a “harmonious dance.” Along the way, Tong also discusses Einstein's Theory of General Relativity (space-time flow), J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron, Ernest Rutherford's model of the atom (a nucleus made of protons and neutrons with the lighter electrons moving around it), Faraday's discovery of electromagnetism, James Clerk Maxwell's work, Schrodinger's Wave-Particle Equation, Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty, and the thought-experiments of Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen.


Black holes and quantum theory


A great explanation of black holes, by a panel of experts found in this 2015 World Science Festival presentation, was delivered in the presence of the late British physicist and black hole expert, Professor Stephen Hawking. The presentation also explains the relationship between black holes and quantum theory.

Astonishment at quantum behaviour


In 1982, Alain Aspect and his team were able to experimentally prove that two photons emitted from the same atom will still be in contact tens of miles away. The reader may wish to listen to his lecture here, animated by his love for and “astonishment at” quantum behaviour.


Quantum theory and its relationship to a Trinitarian God


In the printed word, much of the material written by Sir John Polkinghorne, retired professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, is very informative and insightful. In one of his latest books, “Quantum Physics and Theology” (2008), he comments on how “relationship” is being discovered even at the subnuclear level: 


Quantum theory brought to light a remarkable form of entanglement between subatomic particles that have once interacted with each other (the so-called EPR effect), which implies that they remain effectively a single system however far they may subsequently separate spatially—a counterintuitive togetherness-in-separation that has been abundantly confirmed experimentally as a property of nature. The physical world looks more and more like a universe that would be the fitting creation of the trinitarian God, the One whose deepest reality is relational.” -Sir John Polkinghorne


Dr. Stephen Barr has written extensively on the relationship of quantum physics and theology as well. (See, for example, his article in First Things here).


What can we conclude?


The above resources reveal and help explain the 2 most important observations in quantum physics:


1. The probabilistic nature of particles which yields the Uncertainty Principle
2. The communication between particles at long distances (quantum entanglement)


From 2 above, we can say that everything must be in a relationship. In Christianity, the concept that God is relatedness or relational is found not only in Holy Scriptures (see for example 1 John 4:8; John 10:30; Col 1:15-19; Phil 2: 6-11; John 15), but also in doctors of the Church like St. Thomas Aquinas and, in our days, Bishop of Rome Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.


If this is true, then we can say that the cosmos is signed by the stamp of the Triune God of Christians. 


George Farahat holds a Masters degree in Information Systems and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He is a retired systems analyst who now uses his time to pursue numerous interests which include Biblical theology, anthropology, history of civilizations, and information technology. He regularly shares his insights on his blogspot Today’s Questions. The original post can be found here
In all of the above, there is always a measure of risk. In God it is absolute, since God is limitless. It is total self-giving love in the One God of three Persons. In the Trinity, the Father risks his own divinity from eternity to give himself to his image the Son.  And the Son receives the Father's self-emptying love-divinity and returns it to his Father.  The Holy Spirit binds the Father and the Son in eternal love...

The crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha was an event in which he risked his life as in-trust he gave himself to the Father. He had challenged the chief priest, priests, and the pharisees in his claim that he is the only Son of God (Examples include John 8:52-58; John 10:32-38; John 17:21...).  Only in the Resurrection did the Apostles and early Christians understand the meaning of Christ's redemptive act - See an excerpt from "Introduction to Christianity" by Joseph Ratzinger i.e. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI hereIn it Joseph Ratzinger recalls the Jesuit visionary Teilhard de Chardin "To use Teilhard de Chardin's terminology; where that took place, the decisive complexity or "complexification" would have occurred;bios, too, would be encompassed by and incorporated in the power of love. It would cross the boundary--death--and create unity where death divides. If the power of love for another were so strong somewhere that it could keep alive not just his memory, the shadow of his "I", but that person himself, then a new stage in life would have been reached. This would mean that the realm of biological evolutions and mutations had been left behind and the leap made to a quite different plane, on which love was no longer subject to bios but made use of it. Such a final stage of "mutation" and "evolution" would itself no longer be a biological stage; it would signify the end of the sovereignty of bios, which is at the same time the sovereignty of death; it would open up the realm that the Greek Bible calls zoe, that is, definitive life, which has left behind the rule of death. The last stage of evolution needed by the world to reach its goal would then no longer be achieved within the realm of biology but by the spirit, by freedom, by love. It would no longer be evolution but decision and gift in one."

The Resurrection is a happy event. In it, the risen Christ shows his divinity - His body is glorified. It is why many people spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney used to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. when asked, he answered "I talk to him and he talks to me"!. see here a little profile...Bishop Robert Barron commented on the "Hour of Adoration" (here)- In his talk he mentioned two great French philosophers in the Neo-Thomist renewal: namely Jacques Maritain and Étienne Gilson. He also mentioned St. Edith Stein; a Jewish convert to Catholicism who was arrested by the Nazi in the Netherlands (August 1942) and martyred in the Auschwitz concentration camp in the same month. She was beatified by  Pope Saint John Paul II in 1987 and canonized by him in 1998.
One of the most delightful statements is the one on the "Degrees of  love" attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (see it here)...

With scientific development, technologies have advanced in a way that could help humanity... 
See here a NOVA documentary published in February 2019 and titled Einsteins Quantum Riddle
In November 2019 two scientists showed how robots can soon help solve much of today's health and communication challenges (here in this TED Talk). A report in 2018 by CBS showed how MIT Lab has manufactured artificial limbs to help those that need them (here).

Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. shows that each of as humans has a transcendent soul (here). Positive psychology too emphasizes the need for a meaningful purpose for life to be truly enjoyed in the family (see Prof. Martin Seligman in this TED Talk here). 

This past Sunday, February 16, 2019 commenting the Gospel's reading - Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-37), the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad gave a homily from Cairo which I followed on YouTube (advanced technology owned by Google that lately made a super-quantum computer in addition to its Web-based query engine using artificial intelligence) -  In his homily (in French here; "Pas de loi pour ceux qui vivent de l’Esprit ...") Fr. Boulad said that according to St. Paul, Moses 'Ten Commandments' are inscribed in everyone's heart (called the Natural Law) regardless of whether they followed the Mosaic Law or were from the Gentiles - As Moses revealed the 'Ten Commandments' from Mount Sinai, so Jesus too revealed his law from the Mount of Galilee. We, therefore, could question what new laws did Jesus announce... There is no law for those who live in the Spirit of God...Jesus frees humanity from the slavery of the Law... In his charismatic style, Fr. Boulad said that everything that makes you love and grow is from the Spirit; for you are loved - God is 'Our Father'...It is the way of human civilization - Grow in love...Perfect your love...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you "So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).
Earlier in the same day, I listened to two other giants in Toronto: My spiritual director Fr. Daniel Callam; CSB interpreted to me the meaning of Jesus words "But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" - He said that sexual instinct is natural, but one sins if he chooses to abuse it by desiring the body of someone as if it is a thing as it could reflect self-pride...At the 10 am Mass at Holy Rosary, Msgr. Robert Nusca said in his homily that we have lost much of our freedom as Christians in Canada - The Liberal government has been implementing laws that contradict natural life from the conception of the child in the mother's womb to natural death, since it actively supports abortion and assisted suicide. Furthermore the secular society we live in is based on neo-post-modernism which Pope Emeritus Benedict frequently condemned as moral relativism...

Indeed Christianity faces today some real risks as it did in different phases of its development. While Christians are confident that Christ will always be triumphant in the end, you may wish to read two posts here:
1.  Who will triumph (written in October 2014) here.
2. The development of Christian history (written in March 2018) here.

Let us sing this hymn which the Congregation at St. Anne's in Belfast made on "Love Divine" (here)

Today's Quote

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







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