vol VII: Notes

2013

Notes

[Notebook: DB 76 Liberation]

[Sunday 15 September 2013 - Saturday 21 September 2013]

[page 149]

Sunday 15 September 2013

The world is limited in memory by the need for physical embodiment and the finite size of the quantum of action. At the fundamental level form and action are identical because there is nothing to differentiate them, the same as saying God's essence is identical to his existence, ie it it it is by definition of the nature of God to be. This is the ansatz of all theology. From the practical point of view to be is to communicate, since to be only has meaning in the I Thou system of relationship. Buber again. The duality of I/Thou is captured mathematically by the complex exponentials rotating from real to imaginary, back to real, imaginary . . . Aquinas 17: Are essence and existence the same in God?, Ansatz - Wikipedia, Buber: I and Thou

Here we are using mathematical language practically or metaphysically.

The Bible is great literature but it has been given a radically wrong interpretation by the promoters and writers of Christianity.

Ash & Gross: In complex number, multiplication = rotation, page 43. Ash & Gross

[page 150]

Ash & Gross page 49: equations and how to solve them: the solutions to an equation are fixed points defined by the equation.

page 50: 'An equation is a statement or assertion that one thing is equal to another.' by measure or identity.

Monday 16 September 2013

Post letter to Pope Francis with copy of letter to Pontifical Acdemy.

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace,
00120 Vatican City

Dear Pope Francis,

As baptized Catholic I have been appalled for many years at the serious moral and intellectual failings of the Church.

On the moral side, I refer of course to the ongoing cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Church. This denial of culpability is endemic in the Church in Australia as elsewhere. Fortunately our secular authorities are slowly beginning to bring the Church to account by showing it that it is not above the law. No doubt you are deeply involved in trying to eradicate this evil, which has brought the Church into disrepute worldwide and threatens to totally destroy its financial viability. Even more devastating to the credibility of the Church, I believe, is its political control of theology, reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Lysenko era in the erstwhile Soviet Union. Lysenkoism - Wikipedia

I recently discovered that The Pontifical Academy of Sciences does not count theology amongst its scientific disciplines. On 30 November 2012 I wrote to the President of the Academy, Prof. Werner Arber, asking why this is so. I have received no reply, either because they bureaucracy is very inefficient, or they do not care to reply to those who question them, so I turn to you. A copy of my letter to the Academy is is enclosed [see below]. Pontifical Academy of Sciences

You are now CEO of the largest and most powerful organization on Earth, rivalled only by the Communist Party of China.

As Roman Pontiff you are Vicar of Christ and Pastor the universal Church on earth and therefore, in virtue of your office you enjoy supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which you can always freely exercise. There is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision or decree of the Roman Pontiff . Code of Canon Law: cc. 331-335

This is a terrible amount of power to entrust to one person. Pope John Paull II himself was responsible for the most blatant modern exercise of the infallible attitude when he answered question: may women be priests? with the words: 'I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.' This statement writes off half the human race and flies in the face of all modern ideas about the equal human dignity of of every one of us. John Paul II: Ordinatio sacerdotalis

Given such power, there is no way you or your predecessors can avoid responsibility for the child sexual abuse practised by many of your employees. It might be claimed that these crimes were perpetrated by a few bad apples. The Church itself is clearly implicated at the highest levels, however, by cover-ups of its crimes apparently designed to deny justice to its victims and to whitewash the public persona of the Church.

Why has this happened? Here it appears, power has corrupted. The criminal behaviour of the Church seems to be a clear consequence of its belief that it stands infallibly above any human power. Why does power corrupt? Essentially, because it evades feedback and the correction of errors. As we see repeatedly in political history, any individual who stands up against the errors of a dictator like Stalin, Hitler, Mao and their modern analogues is likely to pay with life or livelihood.

Since the Church appears to be absolutely convinced of its veracity, it is totally impervious to correction. Hans Kung sees the chief obstacle to reform in the Church as the Curia, a bureaucratic problem. Here I take a much deeper view. From a scientific point of view, the whole Church is built on a radical misunderstanding of God.

The Fathers of the First Vatican Council wrote:

We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra . . . is possessed of that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church.

But if any one—which may God avert—presume to contradict this our definition: let him be anathema. First Vatican Council

The enormous gulf between the behaviour of the Catholic Church and modern expectations of humanity and civility suggests that the Church is following a false God. A radical revision of the theological premises upon which the Church is built seems in order.

Theology, the traditional theory of everything, is a necessary discipline because it describes the entire space of human existence and so defines the human condition. Religion, that is applied theology, is shaped by theology, as engineering and public health are shaped by physics and biology.

Theology as practiced began to lose its credibility in the Galilean era. The epistemology of ancient authority began to be replaced with the epistemology of immediate experience. Galileo, with his telescopes, clocks and other instruments opened up a vast new and reliable world to human vision. Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia

The Church has claimed infallibility on the basis that its God would not let it go wrong. Scientists, on the other hand, tell us that if the Universe itself is infallible, their method, applied with sufficient care, will bring them ever closer to the truth. So great is the political power of the Church that it has been able to shrug off the scientific revolution and continue to live as though science did not exist.


The problem, in a nutshell, is that our current crop of theologies and religions are all mystery based. The Church has taken possession of God and hidden it. God is beyond our ken, it says. Only the Church can speak and act for God. This mandate is a matter of faith, bolstered by some documentary evidence created within the Church itself. Both the faith and the documents upon which it is based have minimal scientific value.


The alternative to a mysterious God is a visible God. Let us reject the hypothesis that God is a mysterious other, existing outside the Universe but somehow controlling its every move. Instead let us observe that there is no evidence to suggest that God and the Universe are anything other than identical. If this is the case, all of our experience is experience of God.

On this assumption, theology can become a real, evidence based science. Here we encounter a vast emotional obstacle. For many thousands of years theologians have tended to deprecate the ‘material world’.  The world of reproduction, war, trade and all these practical things is considered inferior to the invisible perfect world of their imagination. We must reject this idea. On the alternative hypothesis the world is universally divine. Science Council

The divine Universe is one. It is an article of scientific faith that apparent inconsistencies can be resolved with sufficient understanding. The scientific method is designed to lead us by trial and error to true models of reality. We can therefore expect a theology founded on the scientific method to evolve toward global unity, as we see in other scientific disciplines. Such a theology is the foundation for global theological and religious ecumenism. Fortun & Bernstein

Like any revolutionary hypothesis this one challenges the credibility of the established power. Will you respond, as monarchs so often do, with violence? Or will you bend to reality? A religion based on scientific theology no more needs central commanding authority than the other science. In a divine Universe, all the information we need to understand God is available locally to each of us.

There can be two objections to the hypothesis that God and the Universe are identical. First, it might be simply wrong. Second, we may argue that weight of history is so great that although the hypothesis is true the cost in terms of rethinking all our religious positions may be felt to outweigh the benefit.

We cannot accept the second argument. God is the way things are, and if we are to survive we must accept God as it is.

The Church must overcome the pride that has led it to see itself as the ultimate authority on earth. Pride that has prompted so much burning and torture through the ages. The Church must have the courage to subject its beliefs to a bit of bona fide scientific quality control. The Church's recent blunders suggest that the claim to infallibility is no help.

As Pope, you have the opportunity to initiate a Theological Spring. The Church cannot be healed until theology breaks free from political and institutional control and joins the other sciences in the free world of uncontrolled exploration.

Perhaps you could commission the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to study the question and decide whether the Universe as we now know it is the puppet of an unseen God or a self sufficient entity, capable of controlling and explaining itself.

The weight of history will be with you. Scientific theology and the corresponding evidence based religion are embedded in the divine world and are slowly entering our consciousness through science, art, literature, democracy and the rule of law.

I further hope you might eventually accept the fate awaiting all absolute monarchs and enter a constitutional arrangement where your role has powers defined by a scientific and democratic Church,

My interest: Fifty years ago I entered the Catholic Dominican Order. After five years, and solemn profession, I was asked to leave because I was judged non-compliant with the 24 philosophical theses promulgated by Pope Pius X . Pope Pius X

Thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

[Letter to the Pontifical Academy]

The President,
Prof Werner Arber,
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
Casina Pio IV,
00120 Vatican City.

Dear Professor Arber

I read, among the goals of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: ‘Fostering interaction between faith and reason and encouraging dialogue between science and spiritual, cultural, philosophical and religious values’.

I notice that Theology is not included among the disciplines mentioned on the Academy website, although Philosophy and History of Science (Epistemology) is. Taken with the goals listed above, this suggests that the Academy does not consider theology to be a science based on experience, but rather a faith based discipline.

There seems to be nothing apart from ancient faith to prevent a scientific exploration of the hypothesis that the Universe itself is divine, so that all experience is experience of God and, as a consequence, theology can be an empirical science.

Saint Thomas Aquinas expressed Church doctrine when he concluded that sacra doctrina is a science (Summa theologiae I, 1, 2). In this article he noted quod duplex est scientiarum genus. Quaedam enim sunt, quae procedunt ex principiis notis lumine naturali intellectus, . . . Quaedam vero sunt quae procedunt ex principiis notis lumine superioris scientiae, . . . Et hoc modo sacra doctrina est scientia: qui procedit ex principiis notis lumine superioris scientiae, quae scilicet est scientia Dei et beatorum. Aquinas 2: Is sacred doctrine a science?

Around the time of Galilei, science underwent a second epistemological bifurcation. Aquinas, following Aristotle, saw science as the process of logically deducing true conclusions from a set of true principles, revealed or naturally known. From the time of Galileo, science began to incorporate empirical as well as logical methods. Galilei’s observations of the phases of Venus, for instance, supported the view that Venus circulated the Sun following an orbit that lay inside the orbit of Earth. Phases of Venus - Wikipedia

Today we see science as a mixture of hypothesis and observation. A scientific hypothesis is a set of principles from which we deduce observable consequences. The comparison of these consequences with observation strengthens or weakens our confidence in our hypotheses. This two pronged approach has proven remarkably effective, as is obvious from the technological effectiveness of our scientific understanding of the world. Popper

The second question of the Summa asks does God exist? Aquinas begins by arguing that the existence of God is not immediately obvious but can be demonstrated through the effects of God’s existence which include the existence of ourselves and our world. He then outlines the famous ‘five ways’ to to argue for the existence of God. Each of these arguments says in effect that although the world exists, it cannot explain its own existence, and we must therefore postulate a source outside the world which we traditionally call God. Aquinas 13

These arguments have been subjected to extensive criticism over the last seven hundred years, but from the point of view of the Church as an institution, their logical and scientific strength is not so important: the Church sees the existence of God as a matter of faith. Bruce Reichenbach: Cosmological Argument

From a scientific point of view, however, an article of faith is but an hypothesis. It is true that in order to test an hypothesis, researchers must have sufficient faith in their ideas and induce sufficient faith in funding agencies to raise the thousands, millions or billions of dollars necessary to test their ideas. In science, however, no amount of institutional inertia can maintain an hypothesis that is inconsistent with observation in the long term. Funding of science - Wikipedia

The Catholic Church holds that God is not the Universe but from a scientific point of view, the alternative, that God is the Universe, is, at least prima facie, equally valid. As Galilei wrote l'autorità dell'opinione di mille nelle scienze non val per una scintilla di ragione di un solo , even though an institution standing on two thousands years of faith may find the idea unthinkable. Galileo Galilei

To the best of my knowledge, the scientific rationale from distinguishing God from the Universe was first developed by Parmenides of Elea. Parmenides was concerned with a fundamental scientific question: how can we truly represent the moving world in static text? Parmeindes expressed his thoughts through the persona of a Goddess in a poem of which some fragments have survived. Parmenides - Wikipedia

The Goddess reveals to him both the unshaken heart of rounded reality and the notions of mortals in which there is no genuine trustworthiness.What Is, she says, is ungenerated and deathless, whole and uniform, and still and perfect. Parmenides idea was taken up by Plato, who separated reality into a heaven of invariant forms and the world of illusion which we experience. This general idea was taken up by Christianity, becoming the eternal world of God and the temporal world of human life in Earth. Plato: Parmenides

Aristotle softened the Platonic dichotomy, bringing some of the forms down to earth but the idea of an invariant divinity sustaining the world has remained with us. At the dawn of mathematical science, Newton produced a system of the world, the invariant features of whose dynamics were maintained by the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. Aristotle - Wikipedia, Isaac Newton

Having established that God is distinct from the world, Aquinas continues: Cognito de aliquo an sit, inquirendum restat quomodo sit ut sciatur de eo quid sit. Sed quia de Deo scire no possumus quid sit, sed quid non sit, non possumus considerare de Deo quomodo sit, sed potius quomodo non sit . . . removendo ab eo quae ei non conveniunt, utpote compositionem, motum et alia huiusmodi. Quia necesse est id quod est primum ens, esse in actu, et nullo modeo in potentia, it follows that God is omnino simplex, perfect, infinite, immutable and one. Aquinas takes over the doctrine of potentia and actus from Aristotle, who established the axiom that no potency could be actualized except by a an agent already in act. As a consequence, as Aristotle deduced, the first unmoved mover must be ‘pure act’. Aquinas 14: Prologue

At first glance, the God modelled by Aquinas using the theory developed by Aristotle could not be more different from the world we experience. Our world appears to be complex, imperfect, finite, changing and many. But as quantum mechanics, the psychology of sensation and the history of science have taught us, what we see depends very much on how we look.

Modern cosmology rests on two somewhat incompatible pillars, general relativity and quantum field theory. Hawking and Ellis found that Einstein’s equations and the observed expansion of the Universe predict that one fixed point of spacetime may be a structureless ‘initial singularity’. From a purely formal point of view, there is no reason not to establish a correspondence between the initial singularity and the classical model of God recorded by Aquinas. General relativity - Wikipedia, Quantum field theory - Wikipedia, Gravitational singularity - Wikipedia

Insofar as quantum mechanics is an accurate description of the processes that lie behind our world of experience, we may model the initial singularity as an isolated quantum system. Such a system is described by two axioms: physical states are represented by vectors in a complex Hilbert space; and the dynamics of quantum systems is encoded as operators on Hilbert space. The quantum mechanical description of an isolated system reads dψ/dt = Hψ where ψ is a state vector and H is the Hamiltonian or energy operator. Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia

Aquinas, following Aristotle, writes Movere enim nihil aliud est quam educere aliquid de potentia in actum [To move is nothing other than to lead something from potency into act]. Aquinas uses his definition, coupled with the axiom de potentia . . . non potest aliquid reduci in actum, nisi per aliquod ens in actu [nothing can be reduced into action from potency, except through something existing in act], to prove the exstence of the first unmoved mover which we call God.

Although Aristotle held that no potential could actualize itself, modern ideas of potential and actual (kinetic) energy put them on par with one another, as we see in such classical harmonic oscillators as the simple pendulum. In other words, motion in the Universe is not the motion from potential to actual described in Aristotle’s physics, but rather the motion from actual to actual, described in Aquinas’ article on the life of God (I, 18, 3, ad primum). Simple harmonic motion - Wikipedia, Aquinas 113: Is life properly attributed to God?

Mathematically, we may model motion in the Universe as the mapping of a set onto itself. In general, any continuous mapping of a convex compact set onto itself has a fixed point. Thus there may be no reason why a dynamic system of pure act may not have fixed points. Fixed point theorems thus formally answer Parmenides’ problem: fixed points are not distinct from dynamics, but part of it. Fixed point theorem - Wikipedia

Classical theology places our Universe and ourselves outside God. If the Universe is divine, on the other hand, we have an inside view. The fact that the Universe appears complex rather than simple is a logical consequence of the fact that pure act maps onto itself.

The New testament introduced theology to the Trinity. Following Augustine and other ancient authors, Aquinas develops the psychological model of the Trinity which sees the Word of God as God’s image of itself. Formally, this model of the Trinity is very close to our contemporary quantum mechanical understanding of observation or measurement. Aquinas 160: Is there procession in God

We may see fixed points as messages between dynamic systems. This idea is reinforced by quantum mechanics. An isolated quantum mechanical system is considered to be in perpetual motion. When such a system observes itself, we find fixed points corresponding to the eigenfunctions of the observable used for the observation. Eigenfunction - Wikipedia

Insofar as fixed points are parts of dynamics, they are distinct but connected. As quantum mechanics suggests, the actual dynamics of the Universe, represented mathematically as complex amplitudes, is invisible to us. What we do observe are the fixed points. Quantum mechanical fixed points are the eigenvalues of measurement operators. Although it has long been held that the Universe is continuous, from an empirical point of view it is everywhere quantized in units ranging from a single quantum of action through atoms, molecules, planets, stars galaxies up to the total system. Quantization - Wikipedia

This is consistent with the mathematical theory of communication, discovered by Shannon. Shannon showed that messages could be transmitted without error in the presence of other messages (‘noise’) so long as the messages were encoded in a quantized form. One can see the theory in action here, where I am encoding the part of the content of my mind in digital form for transmission to you. Claude E Shannon

From the point of view of the hypothesis proposed here, creation and evolution are nothing other than the creation and annihilation of stationary points in the dynamics of the divine Universe. There is no reason to believe that such creation and annihilation are in any way contrary to the hypothesis that the divinity is pure actuality.

It is 45 years since I was asked to leave the Order of Preachers for questioning the 24 Theses of Pope Pius X. In that period I have developed the ideas presented here, and believe that they form a consistent whole well worth scientific consideration.

I am a baptised Catholic and so a stakeholder in the Church, and, at least in modern understanding, entitled to a voice. I am also Australian. Australia is about to begin a Royal Commission to hear evidence from all those young people who have been maltreated and silenced by religious institutions in this country, not least the Catholic Church. Australian Government: Royal Commission

The Church faces a period of extreme pain through the revelation of its crimes. Jesus berated the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his time. He proposed a radical overhaul of his religion, which transformed Judaism into Christianity.

Now two thousand years later, it seems to be time for another radical overhaul to turn Christianity into a natural religion based on evidence based understanding 0f the human condition. Not just Jesus was Divine, we all are. There are two important practical advantages to my hypothesis, if it becomes established.

First, if the Universe is divine, all our experience is experience of God and all our science is science of God. Theology can recover the place it lost when the Church failed to understand Galilei and his contemporaries. Since its inception, science has been engaged in a long battle with politically conservative forces which value the role of an entrenched elite over the truth.

I hope you have sufficient academic freedom give these ideas a proper hearing, an, if possible, a detailed scientific refutation.

Second, the world is at bedevilled by religious divisions which lead the extremist elements of the various religions to violence. Many of the differences relate to interpretations of ancient texts which have very little to do with the modern human condition. By enabling theology to become a real science, we can expect the scientific foundations of the various religions to converge on a unified picture of the Universe as we have found with the other sciences. This in turn may be the foundation for the unification of religion based on a community of human experience of God.

I am looking forward to your reply,

Yours sincerely,

The key to security is the ability to make one self do things, ie to make reason rule instinct, the key to the ability to track a changing environment. Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents - Wikipedia

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Things sometimes become perceptibly clearer. Now we see how to transfintitize quantum mechanics, since Hilbert space is a function space and Cantor space is a function space, QED. Working on the quantum mechanics page of the second edition os a theory of peace and now have clarified my task as an exploration of transfinite quantum mechanics mixing Cantor, Hilbert and the quantum mechanics, particularly Function space - Wikipedia

There will be peace when there is space for everybody, not just cubic metres and real estate, but social, political, religious space. Our economy creates space, the dynamic space of life, an action space, which is in some sense isomorphic to quantum mechanics.

[page 151]

Mathematics finding solutions, that is consistencies. What values of x are consistent with the function f(x) = 0 [a fixed point arithmetically coupled to fixed points in values of x

Our life is being reduced to a number 'Should mines be approved on money alone.' Harris and Sainsbury, Conversation. Patrick Harris and Peter Sainsbury

A depressing few days, but this little insight is worth it, bringing me closer to explaining the whole story in a short book, A Theory of Peace. A while ago I though the second edition would just need a bot of tweaking but now it is cear that a lot has happened in the 26 years since that was written. A Theory of Peace 1987

Function space is the space of life, the space of possibility through which we can all move on our life lines. Hilbert space - Wikipedia

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Thursday 19 September 2013

Still on p5Quantum. The problem at the moment is to succinctly capture the idea that the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics arises from the limited resolution of a finite string of digits. This is in contrast to the standard Platonic assumption that continuous mathematics is deterministic and also has unlimited resolution. Turing's proof tells us that this is not possible only a countable subset of the mappings of the natural numbers into themselves are computable.

Friday 20 September 2013

Saturday 21 September 2013

[page 152]

We let the 0 dimensional Hilbert space correspond to the classical God and jump straight to to dimensional space, a two state system or clock, analogous to Father and Son. We may let the 1 D space be equivalent to the energy equation, as a fixed point., the quantum mechanical equivalent of Newton's second law. The first law tells us that God, having nothing outside it to influence it, always remains in a state of rest of uniform motion. The third law, which can only apply within the divinity, establishes the equivalents of the Father and Son, the two state system. [confused yet]

A Theory of Peace: a concatenation of wild guesses.

I keep coming to a standstill. How does the two state quantum system look like the Father-Son part of the Trinity? The Father and Son, like the two states in the basis, are the fixed points in the dynamics and the divine dynamics is the communication between them, the wave bouncing between the ends of the stretched piano string. Quantum mechanical basis is the set of stationary points (reference frame) from which we describe the dynamics.

Each time round the higher resolution picture reveals new problems, the devilish details., but there is no going back — pressing on is the only way.

The big problem is having to go too far in one leap, but on the other hand there is no way to jump halfway across the divine from a non-divine to a divine Universe.

The Trinity is a three state system, with three basis states, and the number of states grows like

[page 153]

the natural and transfinite, remaining one divine system while increasing the number of fixed points as required by Cantor's theorem (ie consistency) [maybe solutions to all problems by exploring increased complexity, eg me].

I progress by putting myself on the spot a common feature of my life, overloading vehicles, setting out without sufficient backup, starting without a celar idea where I am going to finish, but all the while being rewarded after difficulty and remaining alive and relatively uninjured, although ageing somewhat.

Copyright:

You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.

---

Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Ash, Avner, and Robert Gross, Fearless Symmetry: Exposing the Hidden Patterns of Numbers, Princeton University Press 2006 Jacket: 'Mathematicians solve equations, or try to. But sometimes the solutions are not as interesting as the beautiful symmetric patterns that lead to them. Written in a friendly style for a general audience, Fearless Symmetry is the first popular math book to discuss these elegant and mysterious patterns and the ingenious techniques mathematicians use to uncover them.'  Amazon   back

Buber, Martin, I and Thou, Martino Fine Books 2010 Review: 'I and Thou, Martin Buber's classic philosophical work, is among the 20th century's foundational documents of religious ethics. "The close association of the relation to God with the relation to one's fellow-men ... is my most essential concern," Buber explains in the Afterword. Before discussing that relationship, in the book's final chapter, Buber explains at length the range and ramifications of the ways people treat one another, and the ways they bear themselves in the natural world. "One should beware altogether of understanding the conversation with God ... as something that occurs merely apart from or above the everyday," Buber explains. "God's address to man penetrates the events in all our lives and all the events in the world around us, everything biographical and everything historical, and turns it into instruction, into demands for you and me." Throughout I and Thou, Buber argues for an ethic that does not use other people (or books, or trees, or God), and does not consider them objects of one's own personal experience. Instead, Buber writes, we must learn to consider everything around us as "You" speaking to "me," and requiring a response. Buber's dense arguments can be rough going at times, but Walter Kaufmann's definitive 1970 translation contains hundreds of helpful footnotes providing Buber's own explanations of the book's most difficult passages.' --Michael Joseph Gross  Amazon   back

Fortun, Mike, and Herbert J Bernstein, Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the Twenty-First Century, Counterpoint 1998 Amazon editorial review: 'Does science discover truths or create them? Does dioxin cause cancer or not? Is corporate-sponsored research valid or not? Although these questions reflect the way we're used to thinking, maybe they're not the best way to approach science and its place in our culture. Physicist Herbert J. Bernstein and science historian Mike Fortun, both of the Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies (ISIS), suggest a third way of seeing, beyond taking one side or another, in Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the 21st Century. While they deal with weighty issues and encourage us to completely rethink our beliefs about science and truth, they do so with such grace and humor that we follow with ease discussions of toxic-waste disposal, the Human Genome Project, and retooling our language to better fit the way science is actually done.'  Amazon   back

Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and its Discontents, Wilder Publications 2010 'Newly designed in a uniform format, each new paperback in the Standard Edition [of Freud] opens with a biographical essay on Freud's life and work—along with a note on the individual volume (Peter Gay, Sterling Professor of History at Yale )   Amazon   back

Kreyszig, Erwin, Introductory Functional Analysis with Applications, John Wiley and Sons 1989 Amazon: 'Kreyszig's "Introductory Functional Analysis with Applications", provides a great introduction to topics in real and functional analysis. This book is part of the Wiley Classics Library and is extremely well written, with plenty of examples to illustrate important concepts. It can provide you with a solid base in these subjects, before one takes on the likes of Rudin and Royden. I had purchased a copy of this book, when I was taking a graduate course on real analysis and can only strongly recommend it to anyone else.' Krishnan S. Kartik   Amazon   back

Lonergan, Bernard J, and Michael G Shields, Frederick E Crow (Editors), The Ontological and Psychological Constitution of Christ, University of Toronto 2002 Amazon Book Description 'Bernard Lonergan's De constitutione Christi was written to accompany a course being taught in Latin at the Gregorian University, Rome during the 1950s and 60s. This little-known treatise, volume seven in the series, is presented in English translation, accompanied by the original Latin text. Here, Lonergan tackles the metaphysical and psychological questions raised by the unique makeup of Christ, who is both fully human and fully divine, according to traditional Christian theology. His analysis falls into two parts: ontological and psychological. In dealing with the ontology of the incarnate Word, Lonergan explores the notion of person, and in doing so provides an interesting treatment of the existential question of personal authenticity raised by Kierkegaard and treated by Lonergan under the heading of Existez. Moving into his psychological analysis, he argues that consciousness is not a matter of introspection, a perception of oneself as object, but rather an awareness of oneself as subject. He then applies this understanding to the self-awareness of Christ, with particular reference to the question of Christ's knowledge of himself as both human and divine. This book is a foundational text in critical areas of contemporary theology; however, it was never widely circulated and has remained effectively unknown to contemporary scholars. With this translation the work will finally be made accessible'  Amazon   back

Peacock, John A, Cosmological Physics, Cambridge University Press 1999 Nature Book Review: 'The intermingling of observational detail and fundamental theory has made cosmology an exceptionally rich, exciting and controversial science. Students in the field — whether observers or particle theorists — are expected to be acquainted with matters ranging from the Supernova Ia distance scale, Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory, scale-free quantum fluctuations during inflation, the galaxy two-point correlation function, particle theory candidates for the dark matter, and the star formation history of the Universe. Several general science books, conference proceedings and specialized monographs have addressed these issues. Peacock's Cosmological Physics ambitiously fills the void for introducing students with a strong undergraduate background in physics to the entire world of current physical cosmology. The majestic sweep of his discussion of this vast terrain is awesome, and is bound to capture the imagination of most students.' Ray Carlberg, Nature 399:322  Amazon   back

Popper, Karl Raimund, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1992 Jacket: 'A striking picture of the logical character of scientific discovery is presented here ... Science is presented as ... the attempt to find a coherent theory of the world composed of bold conjectures and disciplines by penetrating criticism.'  Amazon   back

Papers

Atran, Scott, Robert Axelrod, Richard Davis, "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution", Science, 371, 5841, 24 August 2007, page 1039-1040. 'Our research team has measured emotional outrage and propensity for violence in reaponse to peace deals involving compromises over issues integral to Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Israei settlers, Palestinian refugees, and Hamas versus non-Hamas students. Our proposed compromises were exchaning land for peace, sovereignty over Jerusalem, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their former lands and homes inside Israel, and recognition of the validity of the adversary's own sacred values. We found that the use of material incentives to promote the peaceful resolutiuon of political and cultural conflicts may backfire when adversaries treat contested issues as sacred values. Symbolc concessions of no apparent material benefit may be the key in helping to solve seemingly intractable conflicts.'. back

Frey, Bruno S, Alois Stutzer, "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research? ", Journal of Economic Literature, 40, 2, June 2002, page . Abstract: 'In recent years, there has been a steadily increasing interest on the part of economists in happiness research. We argue that reported subjective well-being is a satisfactory empirical approximation to individual utility and that happiness research is able to contribute important insights for economics. We report how the economic variables income, unemployment and inflation affect happiness as well as how institutional factors, in particular the type of democracy and the extent of government decentralization, systematically influence how satisfied individuals are with their life. We discuss some of the consequences for economic policy and for economic theory.' . back

Links

AEAWeb Journal of Economic Literature Editor's Note: 'The Journal's purpose is to help economists keep up with the ever-increasing volume of economics research. This goal is effected by publishing survey articles and essays, book reviews, and an extensive bibliographic guide to the contents of current economics periodicals.' back

Ansatz - Wikipedia Ansatz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In physics and mathematics, an ansatz (German: initial placement of a tool at a work piece) is an educated guess that is verified later by its results.' back

Apostles' Creed - Wikipedia Apostles' Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The Apostles' Creed (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum or Symbolum Apostolicum), sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol".[1] It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists.' back

Aquinas 113 Summa I, 18, 3: Is life properly attributed to God? Life is in the highest degree properly in God. In proof of which it must be considered that since a thing is said to live in so far as it operates of itself and not as moved by another, the more perfectly this power is found in anything, the more perfect is the life of that thing. ... back

Aquinas 13 Summa: I 2 3: Whether God exists? I answer that the existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. . . . The second way is from the nature of the efficient cause. . . . The third way is taken from possibility and necessity . . . The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things. . . . The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. back

Aquinas 14 Summa: I 3 1:Prologue 'Once we have learnt that something exists, we can go on to ask how it is, so that we may bnetter understand what it is. But becasue we cannot know of God what it is, but what it is not, we cannot ask how God is, but rather how it is not. So first we must talk about how God is not, then how it is klnown by us, and thirdly, how it is named. It is possible to show how God is not by removing from it those properties which are not appropriate, like composition, motions and other things like this. So first we ask about the simplicity of God, through which is removed composition. And because simple things in the corporeal world and imperfect and parts, we secondly look into the perfection of God, third, his infinioy, fourth its immutability, fifith its unity. back

Aquinas 160 Summa: I 27 1 Is there procession in God? 'Our Lord says, "From God I proceeded" (Jn. 8:42).' back

Aquinas 17 Summa I 3 4: Whether essence and existence are the same in God? 'I answer that, God is not only His own essence, as shown in the preceding article, but also His own existence. This may be shown in several ways. First, whatever a thing has besides its essence must be caused either by the constituent principles of that essence (like a property that necessarily accompanies the species--as the faculty of laughing is proper to a man--and is caused by the constituent principles of the species), or by some exterior agent--as heat is caused in water by fire. Therefore, if the existence of a thing differs from its essence, this existence must be caused either by some exterior agent or by its essential principles. Now it is impossible for a thing's existence to be caused by its essential constituent principles, for nothing can be the sufficient cause of its own existence, if its existence is caused. Therefore that thing, whose existence differs from its essence, must have its existence caused by another. But this cannot be true of God; because we call God the first efficient cause. Therefore it is impossible that in God His existence should differ from His essence.' back

Aquinas 2 Summa Theologiae I, 1, 2: Whether sacred doctrine is a science? 'I answer that, Sacred doctrine is a science. We must bear in mind that there are two kinds of sciences. There are some which proceed from a principle known by the natural light of intelligence, such as arithmetic and geometry and the like. There are some which proceed from principles known by the light of a higher science: thus the science of perspective proceeds from principles established by geometry, and music from principles established by arithmetic. So it is that sacred doctrine is a science because it proceeds from principles established by the light of a higher science, namely, the science of God and the blessed.' back

Aristotle - Wikipedia Aristotle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics.' back

Australian Government Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Terms of reference. back

Bruce Reichenbach Cosmological Argument (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) 'On the one hand, the [cosmological] argument arises from human curiosity as to why there is something rather than nothing or than something else. It invokes a concern for some full, complete, ultimate, or best explanation of what exists contingently. On the other hand, it raises intrinsically important philosophical questions about contingency and necessity, causation and explanation, part/whole relationships (mereology), infinity, sets, and the nature and origin of the universe. In what follows we will first sketch out a very brief history of the argument, note the two fundamental types of deductive cosmological arguments, and then provide a careful analysis of each, first the argument from contingency, then the argument from the impossibility of an infinite temporal regress of causes. In the end we will consider an inductive version of the cosmological argument.' back

Claude E Shannon A Mathematical Theory of Communication 'The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem. The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages.' back

Eigenfunction - Wikipedia Eigenfunction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In mathematics, an eigenfunction of a linear operator, A, defined on some function space is any non-zero function f in that space that returns from the operator exactly as is, except for a multiplicative scaling factor. More precisely, one has Af = λf for some scalar, λ, the corresponding eigenvalue.' back

First Vatican Council Decrees of the [first] Vatican Council Decrees of the Vatican Council, IV: Concerning the Infallible Teaching of the Roman Pomntiff back

Fixed point theorem - Wikipedia Fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In mathematics, a fixed point theorem is a result saying that a function F will have at least one fixed point (a point x for which F(x) = x), under some conditions on F that can be stated in general terms. Results of this kind are amongst the most generally useful in mathematics. The Banach fixed point theorem gives a general criterion guaranteeing that, if it is satisfied, the procedure of iterating a function yields a fixed point. By contrast, the Brouwer fixed point theorem is a non-constructive result: it says that any continuous function from the closed unit ball in n-dimensional Euclidean space to itself must have a fixed point, but it doesn't describe how to find the fixed point (See also Sperner's lemma).' back

Function space - Wikipedia Function space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In mathematics, a function space is a set of functions of a given kind from a set X to a set Y. It is called a space because in many applications, it is a topological space or a vector space or both' back

Funding of science - Wikipedia Funding of science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Most research funding comes from two major sources, corporations (through research and development departments) and government (primarily carried out through universities and specialized government agencies). Some small amounts of scientific research are carried out (or funded) by charitable foundations, especially in relation to developing cures for diseases such as cancer, malaria and AIDS.' back

Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei - Wikiquote 'in the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.' back

Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Galileo Galilei (. . . 15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly known as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science".' back

General relativity - Wikipedia General relativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916.[1] It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. General relativity generalises special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the four-momentum (mass-energy and linear momentum) of whatever matter and radiation are present. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of partial differential equations.' back

Genesis Genesis, from the Holy Bible, King James Version from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library back

Gravitational singularity - Wikipedia Gravitational singularity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'A gravitational singularity (sometimes spacetime singularity) is, approximately, a place where quantities which are used to measure the gravitational field become infinite. Such quantities include the curvature of spacetime or the density of matter. More accurately, a spacetime with a singularity contains geodesics which cannot be completed in a smooth manner. The limit of such a geodesic is the singularity.' back

Hilbert space - Wikipedia Hilbert space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The mathematical concept of a Hilbert space (named after the German mathematician David Hilbert) generalizes the notion of Euclidean space in a way that extends methods of vector algebra from the two-dimensional plane and three-dimensional space to infinite-dimensional spaces. In more formal terms, a Hilbert space is an inner product space — an abstract vector space in which distances and angles can be measured — which is "complete", meaning that if a sequence of vectors approaches a limit, then that limit is guaranteed to be in the space as well.' back

Isaac Newton The General Scholium to Isaac Newton's Principia mathematica 'Published for the first time as an appendix to the 2nd (1713) edition of the Principia, the General Scholium reappeared in the 3rd (1726) edition with some amendments and additions. As well as countering the natural philosophy of Leibniz and the Cartesians, the General Scholium contains an excursion into natural theology and theology proper. In this short text, Newton articulates the design argument (which he fervently believed was furthered by the contents of his Principia), but also includes an oblique argument for a unitarian conception of God and an implicit attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, which Newton saw as a post-biblical corruption. The English translation here is that of Andrew Motte (1729). Italics and orthography as in original.' back

John Paul II Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 22 May 1994 '4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.' back

Lysenkoism - Wikipedia Lysenkoism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Lysenkoism . . . or Lysenko-Michurinism was the centralized political control exercised over genetics and agriculture by Trofim Lysenko and his followers. Lysenko was the director of the Soviet Union's Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Lysenkoism began in the late 1920s and formally ended in 1964. . . . Lysenkoism is used metaphorically to describe the manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological bias, often related to social or political objectives.' back

Parmenides - Wikipedia Parmenides - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Parmenides of Elea (early 5th century BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, his only known work is a poem which has survived only in fragmentary form. In it, Parmenides describes two views of reality. In the Way of Truth, he explained how reality is one; change is impossible; and existence is timeless, uniform, and unchanging. In the Way of Opinion, he explained the world of appearances, which is false and deceitful. These thoughts strongly influenced Plato, and through him, the whole of western philosophy.' back

Patrick Harris and Peter Sainsbury Should mines be approved on money alone? 'Imagine this: it is 2015 and coal is discovered under the Bondi to Bronte coastal walk. The community is concerned and the local council moves to block mining development. But the 2013 amendment to the NSW State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) for mining, petroleum and extractive industries has come into force. The Minister for Planning and Infrastructure states that, under the amended planning policy, the Bondi mine is a “relevant significant mineral resource to the State and to regions, based on economic benefits…” The heavy machinery rolls in.' back

Phases of Venus - Wikipedia Phases of Venus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The phases of the planet Venus are the different variations of lighting seen on the planet's surface, similar to lunar phases. The first recorded observations of them were telescopic observations by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Although the extreme crescent phase of Venus has been observed with the naked eye there are no indisputable historical pre-telescopic records of it being observed.' back

Plato Parmenides 'Parmenides By Plato Written 370 B.C.E Translated by Benjamin Jowett Persons of the Dialogue CEPHALUS ADEIMANTUS GLAUCON ANTIPHON PYTHODORUS SOCRATES ZENO PARMENIDES ARISTOTELES Scene Cephalus rehearses a dialogue which is supposed to have been narrated in his presence by Antiphon, the half-brother of Adeimantus and Glaucon, to certain Clazomenians. back

Plato The Internet Classics Archive | Works by Plato Apology    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Charmides, or Temperance    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Cratylus    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett    Critias    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Crito    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Euthydemus    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Euthyphro    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett    Gorgias    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Ion    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Laches, or Courage    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett    Laws    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Lysis, or Friendship    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Meno    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Parmenides    Written 370 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Phaedo    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Phaedrus    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett    Philebus    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Protagoras    Written 380 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett    The Republic    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     The Seventh Letter    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by J. Harward    Sophist    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Statesman    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Symposium    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Theaetetus    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     Timaeus    Written 360 B.C.E    Translated by Benjamin Jowett     back

Pontifical Academy of Sciences Home page of the Pontifical Academy of Scences 'Founded in Rome on 17 August 1603 as the first exclusively scientific academy in the world by Federico Cesi, Giovanni Heck, Francesco Stelluti and Anastasio de Filiis with the name Linceorum Academia, to which Galileo Galilei was appointed member on 25 August 1610, it was reestablished in 1847 by Pius IX with the name Pontificia Accademia dei Nuovi Lincei. It was moved to its current headquarters in the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens in 1922, and given its current name and statutes by Pius XI in 1936.Its mission is to honour pure science wherever it may be found, ensure its freedom and encourage research for the progress of science.' back

Pope Pius X 24 Thomistic Theses 'The Twenty-Four Fundamental Theses Of Official Catholic Philosophy Commentary by P. Lumbreras, O.P., S.T.Lr., Ph.D. Latin translation of theses by Hugh McDonald Citations of St. Thomas from CatholicApologetics.info and Fr. Edouard Hugon, O.P.'s Les vingt-quatre theses thomistes (Double-click any Latin word for its definition in Lewis & Short.) In our preceding paper we proved by documents of recent Popes that the Church, in exercising her right, has adopted the scholastic philosophy as her official philosophical teaching, that by scholastic philosophy the Church understands not only chiefly but exclusively the philosophy of St. Thomas, and that St. Thomas' philosophy stands for at least the twenty-four theses approved and published by the Sacred Congregation of Studies. In this paper we will give a translation of these theses with a very brief explanation of each. Sacred Congregation of Studies Decree of Approval of some theses contained in the Doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas and proposed to the Teachers of Philosophy Sacred Congregation of Studies Datum Romae, die 27 iulii 1914. B. Card Lorenzelli, Praefectus Ascensus Dandini, a Secretis' back

Quantization - Wikipedia Quantization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Quantization is the procedure of constraining something from a relatively large or continuous set of values (such as the real numbers) to a relatively small discrete set (such as the integers).' back

Quantum field theory - Wikipedia Quantum field theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Quantum field theory (QFT) provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically described by fields or (especially in a condensed matter context) of many-body systems. . . . In QFT photons are not thought of as 'little billiard balls', they are considered to be field quanta - necessarily chunked ripples in a field that 'look like' particles. Fermions, like the electron, can also be described as ripples in a field, where each kind of fermion has its own field. In summary, the classical visualisation of "everything is particles and fields", in quantum field theory, resolves into "everything is particles", which then resolves into "everything is fields". In the end, particles are regarded as excited states of a field (field quanta). back

Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia Quantum mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a theory of physics providing a mathematical description of the interaction of matter and energy.' back

Russel Shorto The Irish Affliction 'Of the various crises the Catholic Church is facing around the world, the central one — wave after wave of accounts of systemic sexual abuse of children by priests and other church figures — has affected Ireland more strikingly than anywhere else. And no place has reacted so aggressively. The Irish responded to the publication in 2009 of two lengthy, damning reports — detailing thousands of cases of rape, sexual molestation and lurid beatings, spanning Ireland’s entire history as an independent country, and the efforts of church officials to protect the abusers rather than the victims — with anger, disgust, vocal assaults on priests in public and demands that the government and society disentangle themselves from the church.' back

Science Council What is science? 'Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.' back

Simple harmonic motion - Wikipedia Simple harmonic motion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Simple harmonic motion is the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator, a motion that is neither driven nor damped. The motion is periodic, as it repeats itself at standard intervals in a specific manner - described as being sinusoidal, with constant amplitude. It is characterized by its amplitude (which is always positive), its period which is the time for a single oscillation, its frequency which is the number of cycles per unit time, and its phase, which determines the starting point on the sine wave. The period, and its inverse the frequency, are constants determined by the overall system, while the amplitude and phase are determined by the initial conditions (position and velocity) of that system.' back

Vatican Archive Code of Canon Law 'The Holy See reserves all rights to itself. No one is permitted without the knowledge of the Holy See to reprint this code or to translate it into another language. In keeping with n. 3 of the Norms issued by the Cardinal Secretary of State on January 28, 1983, this translation has been approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Latin text is printed with permission of the Holy See and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Nihil obstat Most Rev. Anthony M. Pilla, President National Conference of Catholic Bishops Imprimatur Most Rev. William E. Lori, S.T.D., V.G. Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington This translation, foreword, and index © copyright 1998 by Canon Law Society of America.' back