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

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Without me you can do nothing

Our Lord Jesus Christ said "Without me you can do nothing" (John 15: 5). In the atheist world, especially with progress in science and technology and continuing research in the academia, this statement is ignored if not outright contradicted. When I wrote my post "What sets humans apart from other creatures", a number of readers responded with different opinions. Their responses helped me to continue my research in today's technology, psychology, and the Christian understanding of the ineffable God. One of my lectures in 2009 addressed the fact that while sentient life is found in plants, consciousness exists in animals but only the human mind is capable of relating things and building advanced civilizations. I gave some examples from the work of NASA's complex projects; the work of Marc Hauser, past professor of psychology and evolutionary biology at Harvard University that shows the uniqueness of the human mind; and the entanglement between subatomic particles that "once interacted with each other remain 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.”- See it here.
If anyone thinks that the above contradicts the words of Jesus "Without me you can do nothing", I would rather reply that everything in the cosmos reflects the same words of Jesus, The Word of God,  "through whom all things were made" (John 1:3). The entire scientific findings are made possible in development of thought and action through Christian minds going back to St. Thomas Aquinas with his development of "Natural Theology" in the 13th century (See Thomism here) and more recently to Blessed John Henri Newman's "Development of Christian Doctrines". Fr. Georges Lemaitre was a Belgian Catholic priest and a professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven when he proposed the Big Bang Theory and that the universe is expanding since the Big Bang - It was not a coincidence that Einstein's work on his Theory of General Relativity was experimentally confirmed together with that of Georges Lemaitre by Edwin Hubble and it was Georges Lemaitre who was the first to estimate what became known as The Hubble Constant in physics.
In April 2018, a report aired on CBS showed innovations and advances in technology made in the MIT Lab in the so-called "The Future Factory" here.
When I sent the report to my readers in September 2018, Professor Dr. Michael Sole, who was my cardiologist since 1986 until his retirement from medical practice in 2014, responded that it reminded him by the years that he spent at MIT. He wrote:
"I saw the episode. I was at MIT 1972-74 where I was sent by my supervisors at Harvard to develop my ideas on the neurochemistry of heart failure. At MIT I came into contact with experts on nutritional control of neurotransmitter synthesis and also experts looking at the dark hormone, melatonin. Twenty five years later that knowledge rose into my consciousness stimulating my interests in nutrional treatments for heart failure and the role of circadian rhythms in heart health and disease. I actually wrote a grant to prevent iron overload heart disease (Thalassemia etc) last fall. It has been fully funded - we enroll our first patient in November. It was a great place to work and learn. They let me develop my own ideas and gave me the money to do it. My work from MIT won the Research Award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society in 1974 and was recognized for as one of the best papers published in basic cardiovascular science that year."
Professor Dr. Sole continues his research with grants from MIT. After I had my stroke in July 2007, we asked him to see me. In my visit to his clinic he spent an extraordinary time to reassure me that the stroke did not cause heart failure but on the contrary it has corrected my blood pressure. He said "You fell on the right side...God is smiling on you." See my lecture in July 2008 here. In Early November 2018, I will be seen by my current cardiologist Professor Dr. Antonio Rocca, a devout Christian who teaches too at the University of Toronto and has worked with Dr. Sole. I was referred to Dr. Rocca by my current physician Dr. Michael Vecchio who continues his Christian missionary work and sees his patients with much patience. His clinic is decorated by images and statues of saints who loved to care for the dying and distressed persons including the contemporary Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Dr. Vecchio saved my life when in January 2017 he found low oxygen in my blood and asked me to seek hospitalization immediately. Since then, doctors at Toronto General Hospital found that my aortic aneurysm was getting larger and caused my difficulty in breathing. I have been helped by Dr. Ryan who observed me at the hospital and in January 2018 ordered a BiPap machine to be installed at home for my daily use - The BiPap machine not only helps me sleep well with much oxygen going to my lungs but also clears Carbon Dioxide from my system. When I was seen by her in early July 2018, the blood test showed a better picture of my over-all breathing system.
Back to "The Future Factory" Report (here) the advances in research at MIT may lead to the point that humanity will one day be controlled by artificial intelligent machines. The generations of our species need to get trained on how to use these machines properly for two reasons:
1. avoid hackers from taking control of machines and using them to dictate ideologies that contradict human freedom...
2. learn how to cooperate with fast machines in the high tech future in order to maintain human freedom...
Let us ask our Lord Jesus Christ to help every one with his merciful love; for without him we can do nothing good REALLY!

Today's Quote

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







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