"Responsibility, what's that?"

I posted the following on my other blog, but i thought it's worth putting here since it is religious in nature. My good buddy Ian recently forwarded an article to me entitled "Enough with the self-esteem, already." It was written by Betsy Hart and published in Scripps Howard News Service. The main thrust of the article was about how we have entered into this social mentality of telling everyone that they are perfect just the way they are. From this mentality people are getting an attitude that they should be rewarded just for existing as themselves. She says, "We have young people being raised on a steady diet of 'I'm awesome just as I am.' One popular parenting Web site says, 'helping your child grow up with strong self-esteem is the most important task of parenthood.' Oh? What about learning to esteem others?" She also mentions that college students now feel they should earn at least a B just for showing and other things of this nature. I admit I mostly liked this article because I agree with it and she presented the topic in an interesting and funny. She had some good sarcasm. However it also reminded me of a talk that elder oaks gave several years ago called "Where will it lead?" Said he, "The wrong course is also set with another kind of parental indulgence. Some parents seem to have the attitude that their children can do no wrong. They defend them against any criticism, correction, or painful experience from anyone outside the family circle." He went on to say this about responsibility, "I am concerned about the current overemphasis on rights and underemphasis on responsibilities. Where will this lead in our public life? no society is so strong that it can support continued increases in citizen rights while neglecting to foster comparable increases in citizen responsibilities or obligations."I agree with this also. I think that we as a whole need to reemphasize the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions. It seems like we see too much pointing of the proverbial finger when mistakes are made, and not enough standing up for what needs to be stood up for. I just thought this was something interesting to think about.

Tolerance

It seems as though there has recently been a great deal more publicity given to the church because of the election regarding same-sex marriage policies. And in this time there has been some very negative feelings toward the church from those who are supporting same-sex marriage. I've been trying to follow some of this argument and a few things have stood out to me that I feel are necessary to comment on. First, I do no know all of the motivation behind all of the church's large financial contributions to oppose same-sex marriage. There is some good reading on this topic that can be found through www.lds.org and I recommend reading that. The basis of the church's position is of course the doctrine that God ordained marriage between one man and one woman. The Proclamation to the World on the family that the church released in 1995 is a clear resource regarding church doctrine as it relates to marriage and family. I don't wish to address my own opinion on this matter of whether the church should/should not be giving finincial support to this issue right now. "Tolerance" is an interesting concept. Many have accused the church of being intolerant of homosexual lifestyle and even of their rights. I do not understand this. True it is that the beliefs of many members of the church personally don't reflect the attitude of the church. I find it a shame that church members would be close minded or discriminatory towards those who believe other than what they believe. But it should be made known that the opinion of one member of the church is not the gold standard for the church's stance or doctrine. As a matter of fact, each member of the church has responsibility to understand the doctrines of the gospel for his/herself and apply them to the varying situations of life. As far as same-sex marriage is concerned, the church is clear on what marriage is and is defined as. Civil rights are an entirely different issue entirely. The church has not released statements as to how homosexuals should be taxed, or anything of the kind. That is not the church's agenda at all. The church serves as a vehicle for the gospel of Christ and as such deals with eternal truths, not present day trivialities. In this context I do not believe that any degrading remarks about a lack of "tolerance" of the church are justified. The church has long taught that it is crucial to be kind and have charity towards others who are not of our faith. Charity is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If there are members of the church who have not incorporated this attitude into their lives, they may wish to revise their perspective. However, having charity for others, caring about them, and treating them as people with feelings and needs, does not mean that moral transgression has to be welcomed or invited. To me, the church is one of the most tolerant entities I know of. What I do not accept is when people wish to define tolerance as an acceptance of all behavior universally and a lack of any moral or ethical code. Tolerance -- "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry." The church welcomes individuals into it's congregations freely and teaches to them the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Actions/behavior at odds with church doctrine are tolerated and individuals are to be treated with love and kindness, not slighted, hated, or shunned. I hope that individual members of the church are able to treat others with kindness.

Disease

I just graduated with a B.S. in microbiology and have been involved in a couple of discussions that prompted me to consider the following topic:

There has been the exchange of opinions concerning human suffering and disease and the station people have in life. Did they do something in the pre-mortal life that put them where they are today? Of course we believe that our life before this one influences us and who we are, but we don’t know the extent of that influence and certainly do not believe that because someone is some place that they are less faithful than others.

Just the other day my roommate asked me why God causes people to get sick. Why is there disease at all? He told me that he understands that God made the world so that animals have to eat other animals, but what about disease. Being a student of microbiology, I told him that disease caused by microbes is the same concept as animals eating other animals, just on a microscopic scale. It’s the microbes’ effort to survive. Of course, this is sort of a lame and superficial answer to his question. There are plenty of holes in this argument. What about genetic diseases, my roommate wondered? What about cancer? What good do these bring? I am of the opinion that these things and other physical human frailties are what we inherit by becoming human. They are part of the consequences of the fall of Adam and part of the test mortality. Prior to the fall there was no pain, suffering, death, or sickness. Christ’s infinite atonement redeems us from the fall, and the effects thereof.

The second article of faith states, “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression.” In other words, we are not blame for Adam’s spiritual or physical fall. The spiritual fall results in being cut off from God’s immediate presence, which is universally overcome via the atonement. We will all return to God’s presence, not necessarily for eternal life, but to be judged. This is an unconditional aspect of the atonement. “For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, It behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord. Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind from the first death –that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.” Though we may suffer a bit from the separation from God caused by the fall, all mankind universally redeemed from that spiritual death. The conditional aspect of the atonement is that we have to repent of our own sins that we commit every day.

Being mortal and living in a fallen world exposes us to disease, death, and other physical troubles. Like spiritual pain resulting from the fall, we may also suffer due to our mortality brought on by the fall. We are, however, universally resurrected and can access the atonement to gain comfort from our physical pains.

But what does the knowledge of these things mean for me? The covenant of baptism comes to mind. “Willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places…” (Mosiah 18:9). Despite the atonement’s availability to everyone, and the comfort that derives there from, this baptismal covenant affects all who are baptized into the church. I have a responsibility to fulfill this covenant as a card-carrying member of the church and as part of the society of eternal souls. I’m going into medicine, and my ability to comfort those suffering from physical maladies should be relatively extensive. I’ll be able to help others professionally, but hopefully in everyday life I’ll recognize the chances to do the same. Those chances are out there.

Living by Faith not Fear

I gave a talk in church a while ago and the assigned topic was "Living by Faith not by Fear," the topic was taken from a talk given by newly called apostle Elder Cook. I hope to show that some of my beliefs as a mormon coincide with belief others have who are not of my faith, especially concerning our Savior Jesus Christ. When I was first assigned the topic, I was intrigued that these two words were combined as a topic. I hadn't thought through exactly why faith and fear were opposites. Reading again the talk given by Elder Cook was helpful and I also decided to examine the ideas one at a time. Fear After reading the talk the first thing I did was make a list of fears, it won't be exhaustive of course and any additional fears you would like to mention would be appreciated in the comments. You can fear: Rejection Embarrassment Not reaching your potential/failure Death, of yourself or a loved one Injury or disease Hell Murderers Rapists No one will read or like your blog Your house will fall down if your magazines aren't straight on the coffee table Stepping on a crack and breaking your mother's back Police (I've found this to be more common in law breakers) Heights Salmonella/E. coli Snakes, Spiders, Sharks, Lions, Tigers, Bears Bees - this was a big one for me due to an experience when I was camping at four years old. I came out of a building and there was a bee flying around in front of me, it looked to me like it was trying to sting me so I tried to swat at it but I couldn't hit it. I couldn't fight so I tried to run and as soon as I thought I was safe, I got a sting right on the back of my neck. For a long time after that I thought there was no way to defend against a bee attack. At least with a cougar you can fight back so for me it was the feeling of being helpless that I was afraid of. Everyone has their own reasons to fear something. Some specific fears are particular to callings in the church: Priesthood leaders can fear that no one fulfills their assignments, like hometeaching. Activity planners can fear that no one will come to their activities Some fears are specific to sharing the gospel: Friends could take religion as just something to disagree about Maybe you are appearing to act "holier than thou" You could fear that your testimony is insufficient or hypocritical When I finished this list, one theme that stood out to me was that fears are preventative motivational influences. Some fears motivate you not to do bad things, which is good. For instance, a fear of injury or disease can motivate you to wear your seatbelt or put on sunblock, wash your hands and keep things clean so you don't have cockroaches. A fear of Hell can make us keep the commandments. However, many fears prevent us from doing things that we would enjoy or that would benefit ourselves or others. A over perceptive fear of embarrassment can lead us to not talk to that cute girl from class, or not take up dancing, singing, or woodcarving which we otherwise might have enjoyed. A fear of not reaching our potential could mean that we mask talents so no one knows we have them. We try to trick ourselves into thinking that we never had the potential in the first place. Faith In the same way that fear motivates us not to do something, faith motivates us to do something. I made a similar list of things that we could have faith in: Sun coming up every day Police Brakes, Seat belts, Climbing ropes, helmets Municipal utilities Military protection Laws - civil, physical, spiritual Our own abilities to learn, forgive, study ---> pass, Other people's abilities Medicine/Doctors Teammate Many of the things we have faith in, we don't even think about. Faith can be a motivating factor that counteracts fear. A fear of heights can be assuaged by having faith in your equipment. A fear of a disastrous car accident can be overcome by faith in traffic laws and in the driver's ability to drive. Faith can motivate us to do the same things that fear would do. Faith in God and fear of hell will motivate a person to do similar things such as keep the commandments. One important point that I have felt strongly as I have studied this topic is that it is better to do something because of faith rather than due to a fear. Jesus Christ Up to this point in the blog, I have said much that non-Christians can take and use. Faith doesn't have to be limited to a definition of religion. However, I have also learned that the greatest motivating influence we can have in this life is a faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement. I learned this long ago when my dad told me that one of the general authorities in the church had said that the first principle of the gospel was not faith. I was confused because Joseph Smith wrote some Articles of Faith and the fourth one says "We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith..." I had the articles memorized and so I knew this part. That day however, the general authority had taught us that the important part of the principle of the gospel comes where I wrote those three dots. "first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Faith is useless as far as salvation goes unless it is in Jesus Christ.

Comprehending The Spirit and Spiritual Truths

Gaining spiritual truths is an interesting process. It requires different skills than we’re sometimes used to using when we learn things. D&C 8: 2-3 says the following in regards to learning via the spirit: “Yea, Behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holgy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation.”

It’s one thing to ‘feel’ something in your heart and think it might be a nice idea. It’s another thing to rely on those feeling for the learning of essential eternal truth. Fortunately, we are told that the spirit speaks to both our minds and our hearts. The process is spiritual and intellectual. We are to know and also to feel the truth. There is a definite language of the spirit by which we are to learn. The Lord would not leave such an essential process up to guessing.

The Cave

Plato (who lived from 429 to 347 B.C.) wrote the well known book, The Republic. Though it is largely a political commentary with some philosophical overtones, he also discusses some other issues concerning knowledge and truth. He makes an analogy of the cave that I believe is applicable to our understanding of spiritual truths. The analogy is somewhat lengthy, and I summarize it as follows:

Several people are born in a cave with only the dimmest flame as light by which to see. Those people do not even face the flame. They are forced to sit in a position all of their lives where they can see only the wall, and whatever is happening behind them they can see only as the faint shadows that are cast upon the wall. If you were to take one of these individuals at adulthood and suddenly bring him outside into the light at noonday, he would essentially be blind. His eyes would not at first be able to comprehend the light there. He might even retreat back into the cave. After a while, however, he would be accustomed to the light and his whole world would be changed. After a time in this light, if you were to again face him toward the wall in the cave, he would not be able to perceive the shadows as well as he once did. The others facing the wall might even mock him for having lost his skill at seeing shadows on the wall, but that man would likely not care, having seen the greater light and existence without the cave.

The obvious application here is to learning spiritual truths. We can receive spiritual promptings, or see the light of day as Plato put it, and not comprehend them. If we don’t persist in trying to comprehend the spirit, we might even shy away from them and back into our cave of spiritual ignorance. However, once we have become more accustomed to the spirit, and living a life which allows for revelation, we would never want to retreat back into the cave. If we visit our old lives, the people there might even mock us for having moved on to other things. But the spirit still speaks the truth.

How do we expect to comprehend God (who we are to know, in order to receive eternal life, John 17:4), if we do not even comprehend the spirit by which he speaks? If we shun spiritual learning and impressions, we cannot hope to draw closer to God. God is a God of truth (Ether 3:12). Being perfect, we can assume that he does things in the best way possible that we can learn and grow. The best way that we have to learn from God and about Him, is through spiritual means. Learning the language of the spirit will

God IS Truth

The “Source” of Truth

Despite physical evidences of spiritual truth that might be brought forth, the ultimate knowledge of such truths must come from the spirit. Why? If physical things can support that which we already believe, why not lean on that? Why do we need to rely primarily on the Holy Ghost, on inspiration and revelation, for our spiritual knowledge?

I believe the answers to these questions stem from the knowledge of where truth can be found. God possesses all truth. Truth is communicated through the spirit. Moroni 10:5 states that, “by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” ALL things. I don’t believe this is an overstatement of the truth that God knows and communicates through his spirit. Neal A. Maxwell made this insight concerning this topic:

“Below the scripture that declares that God knows “all things” there is no footnote reading “except that God is a little weak in geophysics”! We do not worship a God who simply forecasts a generally great frequency of earthquakes in the last days before the second coming of His Son; He knows precisely when and where all these will occur….There are no qualifiers, only flat and absolute assertions of the omniscience of God.”

Because God knows all, He is the source to which we can turn for truth.

As mentioned above, the Holy Ghost is the personage that conveys this truth to mankind. And it isn’t just that the Holy Ghost knows all truth. An often repeated phrase in the scriptures is there is a “spirit of truth.” D&C 93: 24-26 even goes so far as to say that Christ IS this spirit of truth.

How Is God Truth?

I don’t suppose that I completely understand how someone (The Holy Ghost, Christ, or God) IS truth. It makes some sense to say that they KNOW truth, but it’s different if you say that Christ IS the spirit of truth. However, if they are perfect, and know all, then it logically follows that they are truth. All truth rests in the Godhead. We will never find a particle of truth that is not a part of them or that they do not already possess. Taken in this light, it’s as if the Godhead (or any individual member thereof) is synonymous with truth. Gathering, understanding, and applying truth, therefore, makes us more like God.

This can also be understood from the opposite side. Satan is full of deceptions and lies. He twists truths to make their application untruthful. Again, D&C 93: 24-25 reads, “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come; And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.” In other words, as long as we are dealing in truth, we are dealing with God. When we vary from this, it’s not simply not of God, it’s the spirit of the adversary. Satan is fallacy, error, and untruth.

Often times we have difficulty determining if something is truth or error, and for good reason; there are opposing forces at work trying to convince us of each side. Things often fall into that gray area. But in regards to truth, given that there are two sources only, and that these sources are on the extreme ends of the spectrum, one being truth and the other untruth, I’m led to believe that the more truth that we gather and understand, the less gray area there is, and the more clear things become. There is likely no “spectrum” or gradient of truth at all. There is truth and untruth. It’s only our combination of these that muddy the waters and bring gray area into our understanding of truth.

A Brief Overview of Truth

I think that a good place to start a religious blog, especially one advocating Mormon doctrine and beliefs, would be to address the topic of truth. Why? Here are a few of the reasons I can think of:

1. People today are looking for truth, and are often tired of simple speculation
2. Religion deals with truth
3. Some unacquainted with the church believe that it somehow teaches some form of ignorance or at least filters the truth its members receive, which is false.
4. Truth really exists, can be found, and it’s discovery/application is advocated by the church

What Is Truth?

Part of the problem we deal with today is that the nature of truth is not understood. Latter-day scripture provides the best definition of truth yet available. D&C 93:24 “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob states that “the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be.” We can see from these definitions that truth is a knowledge of reality, or what is.

It’s interesting to look at some of the terms of truth presently circulating in the world in the light of these definitions. ‘Absolute Truth’ is a redundant phrase. Given that truth is unchanging, it must be absolute. ‘Relative Truth’ by these standards is a contradiction of terms. I would agree that many things in the world today are relative. But to believe that everything is relative, or that nothing is fixed, lasting, or eternal, would be to deny that truth exists at all. If there is no truth, then we lose track of who we are and we lose notion of having any purpose in life.

The prophet Brigham Young taught the following:

“Mormonism embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical. God has revealed truth that is now in the possession of the world, whether it be scientific or religious. The whole world are under obligation to him for what they know and enjoy; they are indebted to him for it all…I want to say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in heaven, earth or hell, it belongs in our doctrine. We believe it; it is ours; we claim it. Our religion is simply the truth. It is all said in this one expression—it [the Mormon faith] embraces all truth.

If the church embraces all truth, how is truth obtained? First, we know that there are different types or categories of truth, and that not all truth is of equal importance. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. divided truths into two types, temporal and spiritual. For the most part, these are not terribly difficult to distinguish, so I won’t worry about that too much now. Needless to say, the truth that involves the eternal soul and destiny of man, which is the truth that matters the most, generally falls under the ‘spiritual’ category. Said Spencer W. Kimball, “The secular knowledge is to be desired; the spiritual knowledge is a necessity.” It makes very good to sense to me that the church primarily teaches truth that it is of a spiritual nature, as this is the weightier truth to be found.

How Do We Find Truth, And What Is Its Source?

The ultimate source of truth is God, as Brigham said in the quote above. Jacob said that the “Spirit speaketh truth” and this is the medium through which God delivers truth and his will to man. It is the doctrine of most Christianity in general, and the Mormon church, that God is omniscient. A key doctrine to understand is that the spirit, or the Holy Ghost, also knows all things (D&C 35:19; 42:17). Therefore the spirit can speak the truth to our souls. “Feeling” the truth is not a fiction and is extremely important in knowing truth, especially those very important spiritual truths.

Because God is omniscient, there’s no reason to believe that he would only convey truths that we consider spiritual. As Brigham Young said, he conveys ALL truths to man, and every truth we have comes from God. This includes the acquisition of temporal truths.

How do we come to truth? J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, “Temporal truths are not normally controlled by the revelations of the Lord concerning them and are, so to say, in the public domain. They may be discussed, investigated, experimented upon, theorized about, and handled in any way we wish, with exception noted [that is, the things which the Lord has revealed]. Spiritual truths, on the other hand, are to be found in and are governed and controlled by the revelations of our Heavenly Father as contained in the scriptures and in inspired utterances of his prophets.”

Therefore, in the searching of truth, it is important to study, learn, reason, and investigate. The ultimate source of knowledge and truth, especially concerning the most important truths, or those which are spiritual, come from the Lord through revelation. These revelations are the basis of the doctrine of the Mormon church and revelation is what makes the church a living one that is interactive with the Lord. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims revelation from the Lord, and thus has access to the most important truths that man will need in this life as well as in the life to come.

Lastly, it interesting to note a few scriptures: John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE: no man cometh unto the father but by me.” John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.” We find truth in Christ, and it is only through truth, and through Christ, that eternal life is found. Truth is eternal, and of eternal importance

How Does Truth Fit Together?

People begin to run into problems when they start to exclude different parts of truth from what they ‘believe.’ For those outside the religious world, many exclude spiritual truths because it is not something they understand and they don’t feel like it fits into what they accept as true. For those within Christianity, including some who are members of the church, there can be an inclination to reject temporal (and even spiritual) truth that they do not understand. What do we do when we think that we have found ‘truths’ that don’t blend with our view of what truth is? Or rather, what do we do when we think that two truths contradict each other?

A Jigsaw Puzzle

I like the analogy of a jigsaw puzzle. All the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle can represent pieces of truth. If a person is working on the puzzle, he/she may be making good progress in finding pieces that fit together. However, what happens when you’re working on part of the puzzle, and you encounter a piece that just doesn’t fit? Of course you wouldn’t throw it away, ignore it like it wasn’t there at all or worst, try to destroy it. You would hold onto it until you found out how it fit into the puzzle. You may keep looking through the pieces until you can add to the part of the puzzle you’re constructing, or you may take that piece that you’ve found and try to build upon it with other pieces. I believe that truth works in much the same pattern in our lives when we’re trying to unravel the big picture and figure out how things fit together. When I encounter something that I don’t understand, I either hold onto it until I know where it goes, or I examine it more carefully and see if I have other pieces of truth that it goes together with. I have faith that someday I’ll have the whole puzzle.

It seems to me a very arrogant perspective to believe that when you encounter something that appears to be true, that you will immediately understand it fully. Or similarly, that you will immediately know how it fits in with all other truths. It takes time, patience, and a lifetime and study and growth to comprehend all the truth that is available.