Dr. Hawking’s Pi
Today is Pi Day, the third month and 14th day, signifying of course 3.14, the first digits in the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Pi has now been calculated to 22 trillion digits, by a computer, of course, although Chao Lu pi to 67,890 decimal places, which took him 24 hours and four minutes to recite. Poor Mr. Lu had actually memorize pi 100,000 digits, but made a mistake on 67,891st. Alas. But he’s still the record holder, one I am not sure anyone wants to beat anytime soon.
This is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, a fitting day for the passing into eternity of Dr. Stephen Hawking, perhaps the second most famous scientist, besides the frizzy-haired Einstein. Like his mentor, Hawking ‘wanted to know the mind of God’, and achieved world fame with his 1988 A Brief History of Time, a popular, if still rather erudite and esoteric book on theoretical physics, a record-setting bestseller which has sold 10 million copies. He was also known for his numerous television appearances, which introduced a wide audience to the mysteries of cosmology, relativity theory and the paradoxes of black holes and quantum mechanics. Hawking also accepted a position at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, bumping up Canada’s profile in the scientific world.
Hawking suffered from a slow progressive form of ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which paralyzed him, except for a cheek muscle, which he used to speak through a voice recorder; initially falling into depression, he overcame his disability to achieve excellence in science, holding the same Lucasian Chair in ‘Natural Philosophy’ that Newton did in the 17th century.
Hawking had an interesting view of metaphysics, believing the universe had to exist the way it is, by mathematical necessity, and his view of God was not anything a Christian would accept. He accepted the ‘many worlds’ interpretation of quantum physics, that there were infinite universes branching off with each ‘quantum event’, an idea first proposed by Hugh Everett in 1957. I will have to look more into Hawking’s version of this odd theory, but presumably in some of them, the scientist is still alive; in others, he never had his debilitating disease, and an infinity of other possibilities.
We know not how many were influenced by Stephen Hawking’s agnostic and rather Pythagorean views, that ‘everything is math’, embedded within science since at least the time of Galileo, but all truth, if followed diligently and truly, leads to God, in some way or other. Dr. Hawking certainly knows now what’s up, or down, and beyond, and that math itself is a creation of great and good Creator, who made all things in freedom and omnipotence. Here’s hoping in his life of searching made what peace he could with what God he knew.
Requiescat in pace.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→