What Sets Humans Apart From Other Creatures ?

After reading the introduction to Homo Sapiens by Dr. Yuval Noah Harrari, I stumbled across a fascinating video that explains what sets Homo Sapiens apart; how their physiological features and brains helped them to use language and therefore gave them the edge over their competitors to build empires and conquer the planet earth.
Titled "Homo Sapiens vs Neanderthals | The Evolution of Language" it can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9KnOjsc0g4
Dr. Jean-Michel Geneste at the National Centre for Prehistory in France described how 200 thousand years ago Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals developed technical skills and tools to make food of animals and possibly Neanderthals had thoughts similar to ours. However, only homo sapiens were able to develop complex relationships of objects which in turn allowed them to represent objects and animals in paintings - some of the more recent paintings are found in the 30,000 years old Lascaux Caves. What advantage do modern humans or Homo Sapiens have over Neanderthals who at one time made extensive wars for survival and controlled much of the land? Dr. Jefferey Laitman at Mount Sinai School of Medicine continued research and found that it was at the base of the skull that the larynx in modern humans developed and made it possible for humans to communicate through language. Human babies in their very early years are similar to monkeys as they breathe through the nose and eat through the mouth. However, as human babies get older the larynx can choke the person on food. This remains a possibility throughout life. But in human children, the  larynx leads through the throat to a wider tube which in turn makes it possible for humans among all animals to use the vocal cords connected to the brain. To be able to articulate in language what we mean gives us an advantage to communicate much faster and create cultures around tribes which then developed in ancient civilizations.
Dr. Ian Tattersall at the American Museum of Natural History comments: The essential advantage of  Homo Sapiens Cro-magnons in Lascaux over Neanderthals is precisely the ability to communicate in symbolic mental processes, and throughout their descendants produce sculptures, and artistic works that reflected their thought, and allowed them to share their findings. From generation to generation, Homo sapiens have been able to accumulate knowledge and use it for their societies.
Dr. Richard Dawkins, professor of evolutionary biology at Oxford University, indicated that genetics lasted for the first four billion years of life's history then, quite suddenly, genetic evolution gave rise to creatures with big brains which developed a second kind of genetics which is language and the transmission of linguistic information down through generations. It is clear from what he said that the the language development was recast into cultural development. This was the beginning of ancient civilizations but with advances in thought we not only left behind the old thoughts but have also attained complex technology. Development in human understanding continues to impress many people. The well-known Dr. Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of history and philosophy at MIT, says that the choice in the future is a question of history not evolution and it is up to us in using human intelligence to save life on this planet and to support the needy with the technology developed in so many fields - Humanity is capable from the study of its history, to bring about its own destruction or live in peace and preserve life.
It is really relationship that sets humanity apart from animals...The possibility of life is embedded in mankind created in the image of God (Genesis, 1: 27). The world only reflects God's goodness and providence. In Christ, God prepares us and restores us through his Spirit to eternal life...
In his "introduction to Christianity", Joseph Ratzinger wrote "God, too, is absolute permanence, as opposed to everything transitory, for the reason that he is the relation of three Persons to one another, their incorporation in the 'for one another' of love, act-substance of the love that is absolute and therefore completely 'relative', living only 'in relation to'. As we said earlier, it is not autarchy, which knows no one but itself, that is divine; what is revolutionary about the Christian view of the world and of God, we found, as opposed to those of antiquity, is that it learns to understand the 'absolute' as absolute 'relatedness', as relatio subsistens."

The Cross

Last night,  Friday September 14, 2018, the Melkite Catholic parish in Toronto celebrated "The Exaltation of the Cross." The elaborate Mass was presided over by the Pastor Fr. Ibrahim El-Haddad and his Assistant Pastors, Fr. Michel Chalhoub, and Fr. Youhanna Hanna and served by the renowned Homsy choir. The Gospel's reading reminded me by a lecture given in September 2008 by Fr. Georges Farah, Ph.D. on the dialogue of Pilate with Jesus before his crucifixion. The comment by Fr. Farah applies to us today. The reader may wish to read the lecture here: https://todayquestions.blogspot.com/2008/09/georges-farah-on-exaltation-of-cross_14.html
The illumination of fire is a tradition which to-date is followed by the faithful in Lebanon. The reason of illuminating mountains with fire on this day is precisely that fire used to be the fastest way of communication between different locations and mountains in the empire. Horses, which were then the fastest method of communication, would take weeks or months to transport messages. Christian leaders understood the message since they had agreed on it generation after generation.
In his book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", a Professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and holder of a doctorate from the University of Oxford, Yuval Noah Harari shows how the first homo sapiens evolved and challenged by their intelligence other forms of animals, building primitive cultures in Africa and eventually moving to Eurasia. The "imagination" of homo sapiens distinguished them with respect to other animals, but above all allowed them to develop social connections to live together and conquer the known world. Primitive religions unified people to worship deities.
Now we continue with history: Kings made themselves gods to control the rest of their tribes, which created a class of priests that assist them. This is found in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Babylon. In Rome the emperor claimed to be a god, The Greeks worshiped many gods; one for each star...
However, the Hebrews believed in one God who revealed himself to Abraham and ordered him to leave Ur in Babylon. When Abraham had to go to Egypt due to a famine in Palestine, the Hebrews mixed with the Egyptians until Moses, resisted by his Israelite people, led them out across the Red Sea according to the Old Testament.
In his homilies, the Jesuit scholar, Fr. Henri Boulad says that Christ who started a revolution of love in Judea is the axis of history. Jesus Christ was a man who equated himself to God the Father and was crucified by the chief priests because of  "blasphemy". Christians believe that Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven (or rather brought heaven to earth). Following his commands to the Apostles they went preaching in his name to the known world.
Today we seem to have forgotten the cross of Christ. Atheism is rampant while most Christians hardly go to Church and receive Christ in the Eucharistic meal. Pilate seems to still ask sarcastically "What is Truth?"

Read me

In his homily today,  the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad commented on the second reading in today's Mass according to the Roman Catholic Church (James 2: 1-5): (Découvrir la valeur de l'être ...in French, subtitled in English here). Fr. Boulad gives some real-life examples of a lady whose husband was a minister of the state - their son was in the Jesuit College in Cairo so she thought that Fr. Boulad would seat her in the front row but she was upset when he invited her to sit anywhere in the hall with other less classy parents. Although God created everyone in his image (Genesis 1: 27), Fr. Boulad wonders how we seem to deny this reality and are still prisoners of how things and people appear. We seem to respect rich persons driving expensive Mercedes cars but do we respect the woman carrying bags of food and tired of going upstairs in the same way we respect the rich? This reminds me by the Parable of the rich to whom God said "You fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong" (Luke 12: 20).
However, if we read the Gospel's reading in the same Mass, we find this text about how Jesus healed the deaf man with speech impediment:

He put his finger into the man’s ears

and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly. 
He ordered them not to tell anyone. 
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it. 
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well. 

He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Jesus heals the sick and takes care of the despairing and lonely ones...He calls us to become His Father's children. I wrote on May 14, 2018 about Our Generous Father based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son as interpreted by Fr. Georges Farah (Luke 15: 11-32). I also remember the Lord's Prayer which the congregation recite before receiving the Eucharist in the Mass. The Lord's Prayer starts with putting ourselves in God's will. We need to trust Him who is the purpose of our existence. We start the petitions with "Give us this day our daily bread". This has a very special meaning that links it to receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharistic meal...See this research that I wrote on August 23, 2018 here. Christ heals us physically, psychologically, and spiritually in the time accorded by God and according to His providential plan for each one.

On April 21, 2018, I wrote how since my conception in my mother's womb I have been particularly blessed by heaven through the intercession of St. George (here). I have also shared my illnesses and thanked God that in His merciful love He gave me more life to live (see this post written on April 3, 2018 here and an earlier one written in 2008 here).

As I was recovering from the partial nephrectomy surgery that Professor Dr. Michael Jewett performed in early 2005 at Toronto General Hospital (TGH), the chief in residence physician warned me that I may bleed due to gradually increasing counadin (an anticuagulant agent). When this happened in the same night that I was released I had to go back to TGH and be re-admitted in emergency. There I stayed 20 days as Dr. Jewett visited me several times. The physician in charge noticed that I was continuously losing blood. After many attempts to restore my hemoglobin level to 100, I was vomiting, and starting to lose consciousness as my hemoglobin went down to 80. He started to warn me that he may have to stop the process in which case I would likely die...But somehow, my  hemoglobin started to go up to 90 at which point I started to feel better and eat. As I remember this today - 13 years later - it seems that a little miracle took place! I recall that in my long recovery I received requests from friends to pray with visiting priests for the recovery of one of their relatives who had cancer. Earlier this year 2018 two dear persons passed away because of cancer. I remember them as do others in our prayers...I also pray for eternal peace that God would grant in His merciful love to all those of our families, relatives, and friends that passed away.

It is particularly in my requests to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, that I ask her to pray for the sick, the lonely, the elderly, and those who departed.

Mathematics in Engineering from Ancient Civilizations to Complex Artificial Intelligence

1. Introduction:
Man is a social animal that needs to understand how things came to be and why. He also solved some of the practical problems, built or engineered constructions to help him in his quest for deeper understanding of astronomy and the origins of his existence. This is shown in the ancient Greek philosophies and the ancient Egyptian civilization. Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, engineer, and astronomer. Pythagoras of Samos discovered the Pythagorian theorem in geometry (the square of the hypotenus in a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of squares of the two other sides). See this YouTube presentation on the Pythagorian theorem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6RfgP-AHU
When I was 14 years-old I developed a little theorem in geometry - If you divide any two angles in any triangle, the angle that results from the two lines coming from the angles divided must be greater than a right angle.

The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids with stones whose sizes and the way they were put together still amazes archaeologists and engineers today. On YouTube a little presentation shows how the Great Pyramid in Giza shows mathematical symmetry and alleged "secrets": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7o0rf6o-z0

Renewal of the Self and of the Church

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

Indeed imitating Christ's life, teachings, and acceptance of his cross is the only way in which we will be raised to eternal life with him...

I think that the renewal of the Church must start with Rome. When St. Athanasius was exiled to Rome in the 4th century in his battle with the Arians and Semi-Arians, he wrote a book on St. Anthony the Great, and the Desert Fathers in Egypt. Following him, Pope Saint Leo the Great met Attila the Hun and persuaded him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. The Tome of Pope Leo to the Fathers of the Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451 AD) settled the dispute on the human nature and divine nature of Christ in the single Hypostatic union. Traditionally, it was Pope Saint Gregory the Great who started the reform that endured Christianity in Europe for centuries following his departure. St. Benedict inherited the Desert Fathers tradition and expanded it in the West.

The reform called by St. Francis of Assisi was acted upon by Pope Innocent III.  Thomism which is still taught today in seminaries and Catholic universities such as the University of St. Thomas in Texas and others is due to the reform started by St. Albert the Great and his disciple St. Thomas Aquinas at the great universities of Paris and Rome. Fifty years after Thomas' departure to God, he was proclaimed a saint by Pope John XXII in 1323. Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Saint Pius V in 1567, St. Thomas most enduring thought recorded in his Summa theologiae was placed at the Ecumenical Council of Trent on the altar alongside the Bible and the Council's Decretals. His reform of philosophical thought introduced Aristotle's philosophy of nature where Thomas taught that the mind can discover God and the created beings from studying nature. This introduced the first scientific thought on nature in the West which was carried out by Galileo, Newton, and more recently Einstein and Bohr in quantum physics. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII ordered Catholic universities and seminaries to use Thomism as the basis of their theological and philosophical studies.

For more on Thomism see: http://www.aquinasonline.com/
Following the Franciscans, the Benedictines, and the Dominicans, a fourth renewal came through St. Ignatius of Loyola whose Spiritual Exercises are a great source of helping the faithful to have an insight in the Truth of Christ. 

I believe that renewal in contemporary Catholic thought and action was started by Pope Saint John Paul II in his New Evangelization. His philosophy stems from "Personalism" based on Thomistic thought in the 20th century as formulated by the Jesuit priest Fr. Joseph Maréchal.  We find it most clearly in Vatican II's Constitution where the Council's Fathers proclaim human dignity, freedom, and responsibility (see Gaudium et spes here). 

Pope Benedict XVI stressed inter-personalism in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate:

As a spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. The more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God.