ChaunceyRiddle

I. The word “pure.”

1.   Definition: from Latin purus = clean, pure, unmixed

2.   As applied to:

• a.   material: pure gold (no dross)
• b.   motives: unselfish
• c.   morals: chaste, not sensual
• d.   morality: free from blame
• e.   colors: unmixed
• f.    spirituality: pure love of (and for) the Savior

II. Related words and concepts

1.   Purify: to make pure (Latin purus, pure + facio, to make)

2.   Purge: to make pure (Latin purus, pure + ago, to make, to do)

3.   Holy: Anglo-Saxon halig, from hal, whole, complete
To be holy is to have impurities purged and to become completely like the Savior.

4.   Charity: Latin caritas, love, to care about someone unselfishly, purely

5.   Perfect: Latin perfectus, complete
To become perfect is to be purged of sin and to be remade whole (wholly) in the image of the Savior.

6.   Enduring to the end: to become like Him, to be purified even as He is pure. (Moroni 9:48)

III. Contrast of impure and pure states

Problems of impurity	Blessings of purity
1.   Try to serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)	Eye single to the glory of God. (D&C 82:19)
2.   Confusion (melting together) of thought (D&C 123:7)	Understanding reaches to heaven (D&C 76:5–10)
3.   Confounded (poured with unbelievers) (1 Nephi 22:5)	Gathered out of all nations to serve God. (2 Nephi 6:11)
4.   Poor judgment (1 Corinthians 3:19)	Wisdom (Luke 21:15)
5.   Weakness (1 Corinthians 11:30)	Strength in the Lord (Psalms 27:1)
6.   Ineffective prayers (Isaiah 1:15)	Effectual fervent prayers (James 5:16)
7.   Self-serving (2 Peter 2:10)	Great blessing to fellow man (Mosiah 8:18)

IV. How to become pure:

If people are honest and humble they can be made pure. (D&C 97:8)

No one can make himself pure. (D&C 18:23–24)

We can be saved from impurity only by faith in Jesus Christ. (3 Nephi 27:19)

If we put our trust in the Savior, He will guide us to stop sinning and will forgive our previous sins. (Moses 6:60)

We must pray to become pure, to have the pure love, with all the energy of our heart, (Moroni 7:48), yielding our hearts to the Savior. (Helaman 3:35)

It is the atonement of the Savior which makes it possible for us to become pure. (2 Nephi 9:7; Moroni 10:33)

V. Why we need to be pure:

When our hearts are not pure, we have neither the judgment nor the power to bless those around us maximally. (D&C 121:36–37)

VI. Special helps to become pure:

1.   Get rid of ego involvement. (become as a little child: Mosiah 3:19)

2.   Subdue the desire of the flesh. (2 Nephi 2:28–29)

3.   Learn to do things which take great discipline and sacrifice. (D&C 97:8)

4.   Learn might prayer. (Alma 34:17–28)

VII. The tests of purity

1.   Look upon sin with abhorrence.

2.   Complete obedience: Faith in Jesus Christ

3.   Chastity: Unspotted from the world

4.   Consecration: Serve the Lord in blessing the needy with all we have

5.   Sacrifice: Be ready to give up anything and everything to serve our God of righteousness.

VIII. Selected additional scriptures on purity.

1.   Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. (Psalms 24:3–4)

2.   Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

3.   The pure can have anything they ask for. (D&C 50:28–30)

4.   The pure in heart feast upon His love forever. (Jacob 3:2)

5.   Charity is the pure love of Christ. (Moroni 7:47)

6.   See that ye love one another with a pure love. (1 Peter 2:22–23)

7.   The words of the pure are pleasant. (Proverbs 15:26)

8.   Unto the pure let all things be pure (I.V. Titus 1:15)

9.   Pure religion and undefiled. (James 1:27)

IX. What are the marks of purity?

They are the same as those of charity. (1 Cor. 13)

Suffereth long	Rejoiceth not in iniquity
Envieth not	Rejoiceth in the truth
Vaunteth not itself	Beareth all things
Not puffed up	Believeth all things
Does not behave unseemly	Hopeth all things
Seeketh not her own	Endureth all things
Is not easily provoked	Seeketh everything which is virtuous, lovely, of good report or praiseworthy.
Thinketh no evil

15 March 1979

I. Definitions:

1.   Learning: Change in the neural mechanisms of the human body which result from the natural processes of reaction to environment, and which change the response of the person to the environment.

2.   Teaching: Deliberate imposition of an artifactual environmental factor intended to change the responses of a target population to its environment.

3.   Curriculum: An artifactual environmental factor designed to produce a desired change in the responses of a target population to its environment.

4.   Curricular intervention= teaching: All teaching involves curriculum.

5.   Education: A general concept which sums the learning and teaching related to a desired behavioral outcome in a given population.

III. Postulates:

1.   Learning is a spiritual function made possible only by divine intervention.

2.   Human learning requires no human teaching if sufficient divine intervention (divine teaching) takes place.

3.   Divine teaching supplements human teaching only where necessary for human learning.

4.   Morality maximizes divine teaching in a person’s life and the efficiency of human teaching. Immorality minimizes divine teaching in a person’s life and diminishes the efficiency of human teaching.

III. Principles of Human Learning and Teaching:

1.   The number of learning instances necessary to adequate behavior is inversely proportional to the emotional interest involved.

2.   Fear inhibits learning of all things except those related to the avoidance of the object of the fear.

3.   Human teacher productivity is limited by the following factors:

• a.   Teacher learning
• b.   Teacher ability to communicate
• c.   Adequacy of the curricular artifact employed
• d.   Time and resources available to the teacher
• e.   Homogeneity of the target population
• f.    Student interest

4.   The average human population can tolerate a novelty factor of no more than 20% in a learning situation.

5.   The most important teacher variable is character.

6.   The characteristics of delivery systems govern the effectiveness and efficiency of human learning.

7.   Improvements of teacher performance affects learning minimally.

8.   Change of learner values affects learning maximally.

9.   Teaching innovations usually fail when they pass from the hands of the inventor.

10. Human learning productivity is limited by the following factors:

• a.   Previous learning
• b.   Present emotional state
• c.   Time and resources available (including teachers and curriculum)
• d.   Spiritual state
• e.   Desire

11. Review after 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days: remember forever.

6 November 1984

Let us imagine together the following scenario:

1.   The focus of priesthood activity in the LDS Church is doing, not just knowing: acting, not speaking.

2.   Persons holding the Melchizedek Priesthood participate in quorum meetings according to their activities:

• a.   Some focus on perfecting the saints (home teaching). This effort to strengthen every member of the Church and to establish Zion would replace what is now called the Elder’s Quorum meeting. Instead of having a doctrinal lesson each week, emphasis would be placed on learning how to do superb home teaching. Practice sessions on various skills would be appropriate. This group’s part in ward social and welfare activities would be planned, and previous performance would be reviewed. Care and nurturing of junior (Aaronic Priesthood) companions in home teaching would be stressed. High Priests, Seventy, and Elders whose calling and interest is in this labor attend and participate in this weekly priesthood session.
• b.   Others focus on teaching the Restored Gospel to non-members (missionary work) as the weekly meeting of the Seventies group in each ward. The meeting activity is preparing prospective full-time and part-time missionaries, organizing proselyting activities in the ward and stake. It may include studying the language, customs and beliefs of some far people of the world (as preparation of both young missionaries and older couples to reside in and do missionary labor in that area of the world. High Priests, Seventy and Elders whose calling and interest is in this labor attend and participate in this weekly priesthood session.
• c.   Others focus on redemption of the dead in a meeting which replaces the weekly meeting of the High Priests group in each ward. Practical instruction in genealogical research, the organizing of research projects, the implementation of the extraction program, and concern for meaningful participation in temple ordinances are the focus of attention. The conducting of temple preparation sequences for persons anticipating going to the temple for the first time is a responsibility of this group. High Priests, Seventy and Elders whose calling and interest is in this labor should attend and participate in this weekly priesthood session.

3.   Ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood is contingent upon both the worthiness of the individual and upon an expressed and affirmed pledge to be fully active and devoted to these three priesthood activities for the remainder of his mortal life.

4.   In annual interviews with his Bishop, each holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood negotiates with the Bishop his calling in the ward or stake as related to the priesthood group with which he will associate and labor with his heart, might, mind and strength for the coming year.

5.   In subsequent annual interviews (after ordination and assignment of labor) temple recommends are issued only to those persons who, in addition to other worthiness, had been found to be active, diligent and faithful both in fulfilling their formal callings and in fulfilling their agreed upon participation in one of the three priesthood functions.

6.   It is anticipated that every faithful bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood would move through each of the three activities of the priesthood in the normal course of events. Young elders might first be assigned to meet with the Seventy in preparation for their missions. Upon returning home from their missions, their assignment might be to the Elders, to prepare for their marriages and in participating in the work of converting and strengthening the members of the ward through home teaching. When appropriate, each would be assigned to the High Priests to first work out his own four-generation program, then to participate with others of his own family or group on research and temple work. As appropriate, reassignment to the Elders or Seventy after serving with the High Priests is ordinary.

7.   The solid foundation upon which this work of the Melchizedek Priesthood is based is the accomplishments of each young man in his experience as a bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood. In addition to learning to perform his part in the ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood, each young man works in the program jointly drawn up and agreed upon by the young man himself, his parents, and the Aaronic Priesthood leadership of the ward. The focus of this program is to assure that by the time he is of age to be considered for receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood, he has (a) learned to perform faithfully and well in the work and ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood; (b) has learned to work hard, skillfully and well in some aspect of the physical subduing of the earth (to the point that he could earn a livelihood by this skill, if necessary); and (c) that he is preparing adequately and intelligently for his life’s work (which may or may not be the same as (b) above). Being ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood is contingent upon worthiness and upon a willingness to learn to be a person who works hard, intelligently and skillfully. Being then ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood is then predicated upon worthiness which includes demonstrated ability to work hard, intelligently and skillfully.

8.   The Sunday School activity in each ward is changed from a program in which the students were more or less passive observers and consumers to a program in which each student is assigned to make preparations outside of the class to become responsible for a working knowledge of the scriptures and basic doctrines of the Church. Because this Sunday School program is effective, priesthood meeting time need no longer be used as a second Sunday School session. Thus the work of the priesthood can be the focus of priesthood meeting time.

	Vision 1	Vision 2
Goal	Provide for the wants and needs of every human being. Make the world safe for each person. Save everyone.	Assist all who so desire to attain the character of Christ. Make each person safe for the world. Save those who want to be saved.
Means	Concentrate power in the intelligencia (smartest humans) so they can create heaven on earth.	Give each person the knowledge and power to become like Christ. Then establish Zion.
Strategy	Control education, media and governments to impose an “enlightened” mind-set on each person.	Empower every person to become like Christ through the laws and ordinances of the Restored Gospel.
Tactics	Use propaganda and force to control everything centrally and spoil the rich.	Preach the Restored Gospel to every human creature so that all can become unselfish.
Opposition	All theistic religions with their beliefs, traditions and scruples.	Selfishness of persons, temptations of Satan.
Religion	Glorify the human mind and treat human leaders as if they were gods.	Glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and their righteousness.
Theology	Only physical matter exists and all nature is governed by chance. Man evolved from primates, ceases to exist at death.	All things physical are controlled by an unseen spiritual universe controlled by the Gods. Humans are children of the Gods.
Morality	Obey your political leaders, break traditional moral scruples, there is no sin.	Be honest, true to your covenants, chaste and benevolent, do good to all men.
Rituals	Worship science, government leaders.	Pray to God, repent, partake of ordinances.
Church	Universities, public schools, the legal system.	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Vestments	Cap and gown.	Garments, temple robes.
Results	This system has never fully succeeded but its adherents will keep trying to implement Satan’s plan that was rejected in the war in heaven.	This system has often succeeded but not yet in this dispensation.

The bottom line: We are nearly to the point where there will be only two churches. Then the end will come. The engine for producing full righteousness and preparing the world for the Second Coming is the Holy Temple. We need to do all we can to promote the Cause of Christ in the earth. The greatest thing we can do to promote the Cause of Christ is to establish Zion. The greatest help to establish Zion is the Holy Temples of Christ.

“Force and compulsion can never establish peace on earth. Men’s hearts must be changed.”
— President David O. McKay

The problem: We deal with many worlds.

• World 1: The construct universe in our minds.
• World 2: The world we see (sense). (Appearances)
• World 3: The reality of the world we see (sense). (Reality)
• World 4: The unseen world which is back of the seen world.
• World 5: The world(s) other persons believe in.
• World 6: The world(s) of the past.
• World 7: The world(s) of the future.
• World 8: The true world as seen by God and the prophets.

The challenge: To reduce the number of worlds by making some of them identical.

• Worldly solution: On the authority of some small group of people (ignoring other persons) make worlds 1, 3, 4, 5 (past) 6, and 7 the same, tolerating 2 and ignoring 8.
• Gospel solution: Bring 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 into unity with 8, by discounting world 5 and using world 2 as a test.

Historic devices to unify and simplify these worlds:

• Apostate religion (take the word of the priest).
• Scholarship (dig it out of the records, then imagine it).
• Philosophy (invent it out of whole cloth)
• Science (invent it under strict rules)
• True religion (come to know God, then ask and have Him reveal the truth to you).
• Art has wavered between trying to capture one of these worlds to make it real, and inventing another world to escape the problems and the challenges (temporarily, at least).
• Metaphysics: Philosophic inquiry into the possible general features of the unseen world.

Basic questions:

1.   Is the universe made of matter or ideas?

• Materialism: Belief that the real universe is matter in motion.
• Idealism: Belief that the real world is ideas (matter non-existent or secondary).

2.   Is the universe made of one, two, or more basic substances?           

• Monism: Belief that the universe is made of one kind of substance. (mind or matter, for example.)
• Dualism: Belief that the universe is made of two kinds of things (e.g., mind and matter; or, spirit and matter.)
• Pluralism: Belief that the universe is made of three or more basic kinds of things.

3.   Is the universe made of classes or of individuals?

• Nominalism: Belief that reality in the universe is all individual, that all classes are just more or less convenient fictions of man’s mind.
• Realism: Belief that the reality of the universe is in universals (classes), that all individuals have any reality only in relation to those universals.

4.   Is the universe regular, orderly, or is everything a matter of chance?

• Determinism: Belief that the universe is orderly, subject to law.
• Causation: Things believed to be regular, law-like, which impart regularity and order to the universe.
• Tychism: Belief that all things are uncaused, fortuitous, that apparent order and regularity is either accident or appearance.

5.   Is the universe natural or does it also have a supernatural component?

• Naturalism: Belief that the universe is all the same and that this “same” includes no spirits, demons, gods, but (usually) only matter in motion.
• Supernaturalism: Belief that the universe has in it, besides the natural realm, another realm which is not part of nor subject to the natural realm.

6.   What are space and time?

• Space: The possibility of existence.
• Personal space: the place where I am changing values from my body outward.
• Mathematical space:
              Euclidean: One Cartesian coordinate for the whole universe.
              Non-Euclidean: Space of positive or negative curvature.
• Time: The possibility of change.
• Psychological time: Finite present, directional.
• Mathematical time: Infinitesimal present, bi-directional.

7.   Is the universe Being or Becoming or both?

• Being: The essence of something which characterizes something at a given time. E.g. a seed.
• Becoming: The change process which characterizes some cycle of nature. E.g. life cycle of a seed.

8.   Is the reality of the universe its permanence or its change?

• Permanence: The eternal verities.
• Change: The only thing constant is change.

What is the nature of man?

1.   Is man a free agent or is freedom only an illusion?

• Freedom: Relative to some goal or attainment, man is free to attain it if he so chooses, but need not do so.
• Illusion of freedom: Man’s actions are pre-determined by the initial conditions and by the laws of the universe. Freedom is the illusion of making a choice. The reality is           that the choice is already made.

2.   Which is more important or prior, man’s essence or his existence?

• Essence: Man is a type. Individuality is all accidental. It is the type which should be fostered, not the accidents.
• Existence: Each man’s existence precedes his essence: what he is as a unique person is more important than whatever he has in common with other persons. Therefore, each person should find (create) his own best way of life.

3.   Is man’s knowledge all a posterini or is some of it a priori? (which enables him to solve metaphysical problems).

• A posterini view: All of man’s knowledge arises out of and after the beginning of his empirical experience. Therefore man cannot solve metaphysical questions.
• A priori view: Man knows some things prior to experience. These are the metaphysical categories he needs to understand his experience of the world.

4.   Is man’s knowledge objective or solipsistic?

• Objective: Man’s ways of knowing can and do give him true knowledge of the real world.
• Solipsism: Each individual “knows” only his own thoughts. Everything else, the universe, including all other people, are only figments of each individual’s imagination.

5.   What is man’s reality? Is he natural or divine? Is he a body only, or is he body plus mind, or body plus spirit? Did man’s body evolve from some lower form of life or was it transplanted or was it created?

• Natural: Man is an animal among animals, like them in every respect, but more intelligent.
• Divine: Man is a child of God, of the race of the gods, and each person may become a god.
• Body only: Man is only a complicated machine.
• Mind only: Man is only the ideas he is conscious of having.
• Mind and body: Man is a body plus a mind which is made of different “stuff.”
• Spirit and body: Man has a spirit body which is the pattern after which his physical body was formed.
• Evolved: Mankind was created by chance in an entirely natural way.
• Transplanted: Mankind was brought to this earth from some other planet.
• Created: Mankind was created on this earth by a superior intelligent power.

6.   What is the nature of God? Is God natural or divine? Corporal or spiritual? Personal or impersonal?

• Natural: God is the law and order in the universe.
• Divine: God is supernatural, the power which governs the natural universe.
• Corporeal: God is a physical, tangible being limited to one place in time and space for a given moment.
• Spiritual: God is a spiritual essence which is in, around, and through all material things.
• Personal: God is a real person, a father, with emotions, likes, dislikes, etc.
• Impersonal: God is a being that takes no notice of humans as persons, but deals with them categorically.

7.   Arguments for the existence of God:

• Authoritarian: The prophets say he exists.
• Rational:
• Ontological: He is the greatest idea, He must exist.
• Cosmological: Only God could cause the universe.
• Teleological: Only God could cause the order in the universe.
• Moral: God must exist to punish the wicked and reward the righteous.
• Empirical: I see Him.
• Statistical: Percentage of people claiming to have seen him is statistically significant.
• Critical: God is a useful idea in any case.
• Skeptical:
• Mystic: God is pure feeling.
• Revelatory: One comes to know God first by knowing and obeying the Holy Ghost, then by seeing, knowing and obeying Jesus Christ.

8.   Arguments against the existence of God.

• Authoritarian: The more educated people deny His existence.
• Rational:
• Parsimony: Nature can be accounted for without God.
• Naturalism: All that exists is natural.
• Monism: Only the universe exists. To call it God is foolish.
• Empirical: I don’t see Him.
• Statistical: So few claim to have seen him, so that the claim is negligible.
• Critical: God is not a useful idea.
• Skeptical: All accounts are mythological.
• Mystic:
• Revelatory: A demonic messenger says there is no God.

November 1989

Step 1: Establish the problem.

• a.   Locate the topic and do a concept formulation on it.
• b.   Do an internal systems analysis of the topic.
• c.   Seek for any laws or rules that govern this topic in the world.
• d.   Locate the major problems related to the topic.
• e.   Select a problem for further work and state it with clarity.

Step 2: Relate the problem to its context.

• a.   Do a systems analysis of the place of this problem in the larger world or universe system.
• b.   Detail the relationship of the problem to three or four major components of the larger system.
• c.   Locate the key system element(s) which governs the problem area.
• d.   Identify the principal system outputs which make this problem important.

Step 3: Examine the thinking which governs the problem area.

• a.   Examine the epistemological roots of the problem.
• b.   Show the metaphysical involvements of the problem.
• c.   Show the ethical complications of the problem.
• d.   Relate the problem to worldviews.

Step 4: Propose and justify a solution to the problem.

• a.   Propose a solution for the problem which furthers some stated general goal.
• b.   Propose a systems analysis of the implementation of this solution.
• c.   Tell why your solution will work better (be more effective and/or more efficient) than other solutions.
• d.   Propose an assessment and an evaluation which would serve to measure progress in actual solving of the problem and in establishing the cost/benefit assurance.

The Original Covenant	The New and Everlasting Covenant
And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them. (Abraham 3:25)	And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good. And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment. Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there. … For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified; (Moses 6:55–60)
End Goal To be perfect in keeping the commandments of God under the pressure of fallen mortality.	End Goal To become perfect in keeping the commandments of God under the pressure of fallen mortality.
Means to the end: Never to sin during mortality by always obeying God.	Means to the end: 1. After sinning by following Satan, accept Jesus Christ as one’s Savior in baptism. 2. Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, then follow the commandments of God. 3. Completely repent of ever following Satan by hungering and thirsting after righteousness unto complete obedience to God. 4. Receive forgiveness of past sins through the Atonement of Christ. 5. Never again sin during mortality by always obeying God.
Result: A perfect person who can be exalted.	Result: A perfected person who can be exalted.

Problem: Is technology more helpful to good or to evil (LDS frame)?

(Hypo) Thesis: Technology fosters evil more than good.

Definitions:

• Good: The work of righteousness through Jesus Christ.
• Righteousness: Ministering to the needs of others.
• Evil: Anything not as good as it should and could be.
• Power: The ability to accomplish what one needs (desires) to accomplish.
• Technology: Power to cause change in (on) matter by the application of physical force.
• Priesthood: Power to cause change in (on) matter by the application of spiritual force.

Argument:

1. Jesus Christ gives men technology and priesthood.
2. Jesus Christ wants men to be able to use both technology and priesthood in solving problems, and to act according to His instructions at the time in using each. To act in faith (obedience to His instructions at the time) is the only way to please Him.
3. The use of priesthood depends upon faith (righteousness).
4. Not everyone knows Jesus Christ well enough to enjoy having the priesthood power.
5. Most men are ignorant of Jesus Christ, or are unrighteous, or both, so must depend upon technology to solve their problems.
6. Technology is always limited so that men will see the need for more power.
7. Men inclined to righteousness will welcome the opportunity to gain additional power through the priesthood.
8. As technical power grows, most men feel less need for priesthood power (carnal security).
9. A person who has priesthood power can survive and prosper at any level of technology (stone age to the future) because he can fully accomplish his mission by using the combination of the two authorized by Jesus Christ.
10. An increase of technical power increases the power of unrighteous and ignorant persons to fulfill their desires, but does not always increase the opportunity for righteous persons to fill their missions.

Therefore: An increase of technical power is more helpful to evil than to righteousness in many cases.

(Is this why technical power has been allowed to flourish only just before the world is about to be destroyed?)

October 1991

1.   Human being consists of doing: Be-ing.

2.   Human beings assert themselves to fulfill desire.
      Assertion: Any deliberate action (doing: Be-ing)

3.   Assertion results in conversations.
      Conversation: A series of interactive assertions and receiving of assertions with a partner.

4.   The more and better conversations one has, the more be-ing one has.

5.   Human beings have four different kinds of partners in conversation:

• a.   Other human beings (who tend to be unpredictable).
• b.   Nature: Everything physical which is not human. (Tend to be predictable.)
• c.   God: Predictable, the source of all good and all truth.
              Good is that which increases the long-term happiness of any individual.
• d.   Satan: Source of all evil, many lies and some truth. (Tends to be unpredictable.)
              Evil is anything which is not as good as it could and should be.

6.   No human being can escape conversing with all four kinds of partners.

7.   Conversational competence: Ability to converse with a partner to satisfy one’s desires.

• One must converse competently with other humans to satisfy social desires.
• One must converse competently with nature to satisfy desires for food, clothing, shelter, location, etc.
• One must converse competently with God to satisfy desires for truth and good.
• One must converse competently with Satan to avoid doing evil.

8.   Sanity is conversing to increase one’s quotient of be-ing.

• Insanity is self-destruction: conversing to reduce one’s quotient of be-ing.
• Quotient of being =     One’s present ability to converse
  One’s potential ability to converse.

9.   Good conversation is sane conversation because in doing so, one advantages one’s partner, enhancing the being of one’s partner. But as the be-ing of one’s partner is enhanced, the opportunity for one to converse is enhanced. So as one enhances one’s partner, one enhances one’s own being as well.

10. Evil conversation is insane conversation because in doing so, one disadvantages one’s partner in conversation, thus diminishing the be-ing of one’s partner and their conversational ability. So as one diminishes one’s partner in conversation, one diminishes oneself, because one has diminished the conversations one may have with that partner.

11. Fostering conversation with God is the best way to foster conversational competence and sanity, for all good comes from God.

Lack of sufficient competent conversation with God automatically forces one to be incompetent and insane in conversing in with other people, nature and Satan.

12. Conclusions:

• a.   Those who wish to be fully sane and fulfilled will do all in their power to foster more and more conversation with God, which will enable them to grow in conversational competence and good. Then they can converse with every kind of partner correctly and competently to fulfill every desire, which is to have a fullness of Be-ing. (Which is Eternal Life.)
• b.   Goodness is conversational competence which advantages and enlarges one’s partners.
• c.   Evil is built on the insane untruth that disadvantaging one’s partners in conversation will somehow enhance and enlarge one’s self.

Individual Freedom vs. Social Constraint

Only individuals exist. Societies are conveniences of mind for understanding the relationships of individuals to one another.

“A society” is not a sufficiently precise term to use in any definitive way. “Society” is a collective term for groups. Groups are collections of people who influence one another.

Benefits from group membership: The functions of the ideal group are essentially summed in the idea of supplying the needs of the individual. (Cell and body example). A first-approximation list of such needs might be:

1. Existence: being born
2. Nurture: being supplied with the physical necessities of life
3. Culture: being supplied with the products of the arts of communication.
4. Education: assistance in forming mental constructs, attitudes, and skills to be able to adapt actively to one’s environment.
5. Opportunity: the chance to produce benefits for other members of the group, to find fulfillment through contribution.

In the ideal group, the opportunity to contribute to it is its greatest benefit.

Problems to the ideal group are principally two:

1. Inefficiency inherent in the human situation.
2. Exploitation by other individuals.

1.   Inefficiency inherent in the situation in necessitated by three factors:

• a.   Presence of non-productive members of the group.
• b.   Law of entropy; loss of benefit in transmitting benefits from the producer to the consumer.
• c.   Lack of knowledge and power to solve certain problems.

2.   Exploitation by other individuals is the tendency of some men deliberately to take more from the group than they are willing to give and could give.

Because of the factors of the human situation that create inefficiency, the benefits of society that men are able to imagine usually are greater than what the society can produce for everyone. This gives rise to exploitation.

Exploitation occurs when some individuals of the group contribute less than what they could, thus producing further inefficiency, or forcibly constrain members of the group so that they benefit from group production more than their needs justify relative to the needs of other members of the group. These tendencies are variously known as laziness, feather-bedding, gold-bricking when one produces less, and as tyranny, graft, excess profit when one forcibly takes more than his share.

Individual freedom may now be defined as the opportunity to participate willingly in a group that suffers from no inefficiency or exploitation. This indeed would be fulfillment.

How has history treated human beings? We note an interesting relationship between efficiency and exploitation.

1. The Australian aborigine, remarkably free from exploitation, is cursed with extreme inefficiency.
2. Groups inhabiting fertile lands of the earth where efficiency is relatively high have traditionally been the most exploited peoples.
3. Islanders in tropical climes where nature is benevolent have until recently been little exploited, but have suffered from lack of cultural progress due to their isolation.

In sum, few individuals in recorded history have enjoyed any marked degree of individual freedom, and most of that has been freedom from material want by exploitation of others. Our own national experiment is one of the greatest achievements known to the world. But most men in this or any other age have suffered terribly from inefficiency and exploitation.

What are the possible solutions to overcome inefficiency and exploitation?

The Worldly Solution

1. Science as the cure for inefficiency
2. Balance exploitation through law

Why the worldly solution won’t work.

1.   While it is true that science is doing wonders to subdue the earth, it is inherently incapable of solving value problems or of assuring us of just how we ought to solve an individual problem.
Examples.
Science is the god of the modern world. But it is a god that knows only the past and that only partly, whose stony face turns only to material, to animal problems, and whose high priests are continually rationalizing its failures to hear and answer prayers. But this is not fault of science. Science is a wonderful and exciting way to approach the unknown aspects of the material universe. But it is not God.

2.   The attempt to balance exploitation through re-exploitation by law suffers similar difficulties. It supposes now that men are omniscient and can pass equitable laws to redistribute the benefits of society equably. But history again gives the lie to this arrogance. Human law never can catch up with exploitation; it would take an infinity of laws to do so. Historically judged, most lawmakers themselves have suffered from the disease they try to cure: exploitation.

The Lord’s Solution

The mission of Jesus Christ is to make men free so that they might live more abundantly. How does He achieve this?

He overcomes inefficiency through divine omniscience, and through omnipotent power over the laws of nature. Whatever the problems of men, He has the solutions and dispenses aid as fast as men can stand it. The principal reason men can’t stand more is that they put their trust in false Gods.

He overcomes exploitation by freeing men who wish to be free from the power of Satan, from avarice, greed, cruelty, and laziness. He helps them to realize that to give is more blessed than to receive, and that true happiness comes only in helping others to have real benefits.

We must belong to a group. There are two essential choices; join Mammon to exploit and be exploited, or to serve the Lord who exploits no one and blesses all far more than we can possibly repay. May we choose this day to have freedom and eternal life before the curtains of time consign us forever with the exploiters.