ChaunceyRiddle

MONISM OR DUALISM?

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Admin

Chauncey C. Riddle

The purpose of this paper is to delineate some of the factors pertinent to a monistic conception of man as contrasted with a dualistic conception. In the monistic thinking presently in vogue, man is seen as a material being wholly governed by laws of the universe as discovered and formulated by science. Some persons grant that man has a spirit, but in their accounts of and treatment of man, the spiritual aspect is nonfunctional; such persons may appear to be dualists but are here classed as functional monists. The dualistic concept entertained in this paper posits mortal man as a spirit, which is the real person, and a body, which is the tabernacle of the spirit person. Though the spirit as well as the body is of a material nature, dualism obtains because each represents a different order of matter; this difference is manifest in that the set of laws and influences governing the spirit aspect of man is different from that which governs the fleshly body. Basic to this whole discussion, of course, is the assumption that law and order govern all things in the universe, that all events are caused and that there is a regularity or uniformity in the universe.

The thesis of this paper is that the key concepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ have consistency and significance only when one conceives of mortal man as a dualistic being, these values being lost if a monistic conception is adopted. The key concepts here discussed are the Fall of Adam, agency, spirituality, sin, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, salvation, and righteousness.

The Fall: Before the fall, Adam and Eve were in a monistic state, we may presume, because they were subject to only one set of laws and influences, those of God. Their whole being was of a spiritual order, with spirit matter being the life-substance of their bodies. In this condition they had no freedom; they simply responded positively to the commands of the Father.

The influence of Satan in tempting Eve and Adam in the garden brought a new and opposing set of forces and laws to bear. The Father granted Adam and Eve freedom in the garden in that he allowed the influence of Satan to work upon them and allowed them to choose between his influence and that of Satan. Having chosen to obey Satan in rejecting the counsel of the Father, the promised death came upon our first parents. In this death their bodies were rendered spiritually dead; spirit was replaced by blood in their veins and their bodies lost the ability to perceive things of a spiritual order.

Fallen Adam was a paradigm of dualism in that his body was fully of the order of what we call physical matter, subject to the laws and forces of a fallen realm, while his spirit, trapped within the physical body was fully of the order of what we call physical matter, subject to the laws and forces of a fallen realm, while his spirit, trapped within the physical body, was yet subject to the laws and forces of the spiritual order of the universe. The true person, the spirit, was now set in opposition the the physical body, since each was subject to a different set of laws and forces. The fall was thus a sundering of man resulting in a duality. This duality is the basis of both conflict and progress in the individual person.

What would the fall become if man were construed monistically? Under a monism, death could only be physical, and if literal, the death of the body. Since physical death is explicitly not an immediate part of the fall, a monist must reject a literal interpretation. When the spiritual death of the fall is construed non-literally, is is usually seen either as a change of place, the process of being cast out of the presence of God, or as a change of the nature of man. Change of place, removal from the Garden of Eden, did occur, but this sort of change cannot alone account for the scriptures concerning the fall. If man’s monistic nature were considered to change in the fall, that change could only be accounted for by external forces. Because under a monistic system there is only one set of laws and forces, there could be no meaningful choice, and thus Adam could not be held responsible for his fall. If Adam was not held responsible for his fall, he is likewise not responsible in any way to the opportunity of redemption. This, of course, renders the Gospel meaningless.

Agency: Freedom is the opportunity to choose; agency is power. Man’s agency is then the freedom to choose and the power to attain what is chosen. Whereas God is completely free, man is but infinitesimally free. But man is free enough to respond to the influence of God, by means of which influence to become like God, or to respond to Satan and by means of that contrary influence to become like Satan.

The agency of man, then, is limited, specific. It is a freedom given of God to the spirit in man to become free of the governing and controlling influence of one’s own physical body. It is the freedom and power to respond to the commandments of God through the Holy Spirit, thus bringing the flesh into subjection to the spirit by denying the power and influence of Satan, which operates through the flesh. A father Lehi puts it, the agency of man is to be free according to the flesh. When that freedom is full and final, the body of man functions only under the powers, forces, and influences of the spiritual order of existence. This is to say that Satan never again has power over that being. He is free forever.

If man is construed monistically, freedom from the flesh makes no sense, for this monistic man is only flesh. If monistic man feels free it it either a psychological illusion or simply a physical freedom of a physical body to act without restraint. Under a monism, self-discipline is meaningless, for all discipline is a thing which must be superimposed upon a person by external force. Monistic freedom is the absence of that dualistic freedom, the discipline of the body by the spirit, which the Gospel affords.

Spirituality: In the Gospel, spirituality is the condition of the spirit of a person being responsive to the commandments and influences of God, specifically the influence of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is manifest in the control of the flesh wherein the walk, talk, eating, drinking, work, etc., of a person are models of fulfilling the words of the prophets of God to the degree to which the person is spiritual. The more spiritual a person is, the more complete and absolute will be the discipline of the spirit over the body.

It should not be supposed that spirituality enjoins what is often called “asceticism.” While self-denial is a frequent action of the spiritual person, pleasure of itself is not considered to be an evil. But pleasure is not sought for its own sake by a spiritual person. Such an one seeks first the kingdom of God and then to establish in the earth the righteousness of God. In line of duty of serving God and blessing his fellowmen, the spiritual person will strive for health, cleanliness, comeliness, strength and skill. But these are sought as means, not as ends. They are means by which to glorify God and to build his kingdom, and are an integral part of the control of the appetites and proclivities of the physical tabernacle of the spirit. Furthermore, this control when sought for the glory of God redounds to the blessing of the person spiritually and temporally. Part of these blessings will be pleasure that is pure, unmixed with lust, because it is allowed rather than sought. Pleasure that is spiritually pure does not turn to pain, regret, and remorse of conscience as do pleasures sought to fulfill the appetites of the flesh.

Especially noteworthy is that the more spiritual a person becomes, the less he will depend upon physical evidence through the flesh as to what he believes. This does not mean he ignores physical evidence; he accepts the responsibility of accounting for it, but he believes and interprets all things as he is instructed by the Holy Spirit. He will not judge on the basis of physical appearance only.

Under a monistic system, spirituality must be classed with insanity. Since the bodies of men are demonstrably very similar, any person who does not respond “normally” to physical stimulus must be tagged as “abnormal”–insane. The more spiritual one is, the more suspect he would become to the monistic mind. Persons with great self-control cause those without it to wonder and to feel uncomfortable. To sin a little, to laugh at the possibility of perfection, to justify pleasure sought for its own sake are normal to the monist. Youth, strength, and worldly learning are honored above all else in the monistic thinking because they represent the fullest accomodation to and power in the realm of the physical, the realm of the flesh.

The monist also has a curious insistence on omniscience. He will not pretend actually to know all things, but will assert that he does know all the factors pertinent to a given social problem and can therefore prescribe its solution. Thus he reserves to himself a practicing omniscience. Having denied the existence and influence of God as a Naturalist, he finds it necessary to pronounce himself at least a demi-god in order to justify rationally his practical decisions. Or if not himself, at least his leader, who then becomes the demi-god. Judging by appearance and arrogating to himself sufficiency, the monist has left a trail of blood, slavery and failure, confronted only occasionally by a John the Baptist or a Socrates who points our that he doesn’t really know what he is doing. But the monist has ways of dealing with John and with Socrates.

To a monist, spiritual people are indistinguishable from spiritualists—those possessed of evil spirits; both are classed as insane because they do not act “normally.” History shows that what is “normal” changes from age to age. There are vogues in what is socially acceptable from time to time, fostering first one species and degree of carnality, then another. But the Gospel is the same in every age: dominion of spirit over body through the gifts of God through Jesus Christ.

Sin: Sin in the Gospel is breaking a commandment of God; it is acting to yield to the influence of the world upon the flesh rather than a responding to the influence of God upon the spirit. Faith is willing obedience to God’s Holy Spirit, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Sin is the triumph of the flesh over the spirit, and is therefore the triumph of Satan over the person.

In the monistic system there is no meaningful concept of sin. People are said to act strictly according to their heredity and environment, and are not to be blamed for any act, since they are not free. To change people’s actions is simply to change the influences that touch them. Monists say that it is institutions of society that control mens’ actions. This is why control of educational programs and information media are crucial to the monist—though he never can quite account for how the governor of the system can himself escape what he is trying to cure in those whom he “benevolently” controls. The monist does not fathom the concept of repentance, because it, too, has no meaning in his thought. He will look upon sexual sin as “normal” and excuse any offender as is that were a light thing. Should he be a church worker, he sees social control (socialism) as the ultimate panacea, and thinks that in promoting social control he is doing God a favor.

The Atonement: The atonement of Jesus Christ is the central and crowning concept of the Gospel. In living a perfect life as a dual being, Christ overcame the power of Satan. His life was the great triumph of spirit over flesh, the example and pattern for all mankind. In his death, the Savior climaxed that triumph by seizing from Satan the keys of death. Through his suffering in taking the bitter cup, the Savior satisfied the demands of justice, making possible for all men an eternity free from the consequences of their sins. Through the sacrifice of his life, the Savior made it possible for all men to be raised again in the resurrection with a spiritual, physical body, thereafter to serve God through the spirit in eternity. As in Adam man became dual and fallen, even so in Christ men may be made spiritual and whole again, redeemed to the spiritual order of existence of their own choice.

In a monistic system, the Atonement of Christ can only be the suffering and death of just another person, having efficacy for us only as it might affect us in a physical way. A monist would see the Atonement at best as a symbol, as a noteworthy deed, as an ultimate protest. But he will see no connection between the shedding of the Savior’s blood and the forgiveness of our sins, since the physical world affords no such causal connections; in fact, he is likely to be appalled by this idea and see it as a barbaric superstition. Thus it is possible for one who in the relative innocence of youth was cleansed and forgiven through the blood of Christ might later in a state of monistic “erudition” to shed the blood of Christ afresh and put him to an open shame, not being able to see any point in the Atonement and thus rejecting Christ as savior.

Salvation: Salvation in the Gospel is to come to be beyond the power of one’s enemies. It is a thing of degree, progressing step by step as the spirit of a person triumphs over his own flesh through faith in Jesus Christ. Considered in the aspect of being able to stop sinning, salvation is self-denial of the lusts of the flesh, and the ultimate demonstration of it is in voluntarily giving up the life of the body. Only in our death is salvation fully manifest and only in willingness to die is it fully attainable. To be free of the control of the flesh, through faith in Christ and in death, is to be forever free from Satan. If through the Savior we also gain a remission of the sins we have committed and attain the character of Christ, we can then go on to inherit all that Christ has.

But salvation for the monist is quite opposite. It is ease, opulence, pleasure, comfort, and security for the flesh. The greatest of all evils for the monist is pain, though pain is challenged for that position by death. The body is the object of concern, the thing to pamper and perpetuate. Sacrifice of things material is a great misfortune. Indeed, the monist conceives it the moral obligation of every man who has physical salvation to furnish it to everyone who does not; thus the monist chooses forceful redistributive socialism over freedom of choice and conscience with faithful monistic regularity. He does not even comprehend the voluntary charity of a free agent, since he cannot comprehend either charity or agency in the Gospel sense.

Righteousness: In the gospel, righteousness is the way a man acts towards his neighbor when he has overcome the flesh through Christ. It is the power and authority of a saved being blessing others in leading them to Christ. A righteous man is concerned about both the physical and the spiritual needs of his fellowmen, but has no illusion that the physical needs are greater. He has kept the great law, and loves the Savior with all his heart, might, mind and strength. And because he has kept the commandments of Christ, he is able then to love his fellowman with the same pure love that he receives from the Savior. His goal is to make a heaven on earth where all who want to be saved can be saved, where Christ and his pure love reign supreme, where spirit has triumphed over the flesh. This involves concern for the temporal, for the material circumstances of men, as well as the spiritual. But the spiritual aspect of things is always seen as the key to progress in the material realm.

For the monist, righteousness has little meaning because sin has little meaning. To the monist, righteousness could be but conformity to human norms. The problem which the monist ever pursues is how to make a society of pleasure-seeking people productive enough to give each person all the fleshly freedom and pleasure he or she wants. Since that goal ha never been attained (and obviously, to a dualist, cannot be attained), the substitute is slavery. With slavery at least some can enjoy fleshly freedom and pleasure, even if others have to suffer. Thus the long series of social arrangements to perpetuate control of one person by another; clergy over lay, nobles over commoners, powerful over weak, educated over uneducated, majority over minority, voters over taxpayers, caste systems, party members over non-party members, etc.,–all bolstered by religious or moralizing theories, and all anti-Christ.

Now the real question of the whole matter is simply this: Is the universe monistic or dualistic? If the universe is monistic, then all the attendant ideas so abhorent to the dualist are true, and the dualist is indeed insane. But if the universe is dualistic, if there is a real Savior Jesus Christ in opposition to and opposed by a real Satan, then man is a dual being, spirit opposed to flesh, and the monist is indeed in sin.

The answer would seem to lie within the individual. Does he acknowledge the voice of conscience which warns him not to yield to the lusts of the flesh? Has he sought for the influence of God through humble prayer? Has he experimented with the word of God to see if the promises are fulfilled? The testimony of the prophets is plain. They teach us of God. They teach of dualism. They teach us to experiment honestly with our own conscience, to observe the fruits of doing the best which we know. It would seem that only the honest in heart can acknowledge the things of God, and that only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness can fully find the means by which to come unto God.

“The whole purpose of life is to bring under subjection the animal passions, proclivities, and tendencies, that we might realize the companionship always of God’s Holy Spirit.”

David O. McKay

Posted in Agency, Essay, Fall of Adam, Righteousness, Sin | Tagged Agency, atonement, dualism, monism, righteousness, Salvation, spirituality, the fall | Leave a comment

FREEDOM FOR WHAT? (Written in the late 1950’s)

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Admin

by Chauncey C. Riddle

There once was a lord who desired to bless his servants. Calling to him his master-builder, he charged him to build a spacious and beautiful dwelling place for his servants. But the lord required of the master-builder one special restriction: the dwelling place must be of a heavenly order, not conformed to the habitations of the world. The master-builder was taken aback at this restriction, but he inquired of the lord as to what manner of buildings one would find in the heavenly plan; he was told that as he sought to know and partake of the order of heaven, he would be given a vision of the heavenly mansion required at his hands.

Encouraged and enthused, the master-builder sought to ennoble his mind and heart to partake of the heavenly order. His sacrifice was not in vain for indeed he did begin to have small glimpses of the mansion he was to build. Carefully he treasured the insight he received, and began to draw the plans of the edifice. When his understanding of the footings and foundation was complete, he besought the approval of his lord. The lord’s countenance was radiant as he commended the master-builder for his faithfulness and bade him proceed with the foundations immediately.

As the master-builder and his fellow-workers toiled at the excavations and forms, men of the world came to view their labors. Duly noting the strangeness of the plan, these men of the world delegated another master-builders among them to warn the lord’s master-builder. In a kindly but firm way they showed him how the plans were not of the pattern of the world, and therefore would neither yield a stable building nor would anyone want to dwell therein.

The lord’s master-builder was pleased with the interest of his colleagues, but assured them that the plan was just what his lord wanted. But his colleagues pressed him. “Is your lord a master-builder, that he should know whereof he speaks?” “Anyone who is competent can see that these plans are formulated without due regard to the laws of physics.” “Do you have a right to squander the limited resources of our world in such a misguided undertaking?” “Where are the plans for the rest of the building?” “Do you mean to say that you would actually proceed to lay a foundation without having the total plans and specifications of your structure?”

The master-builder calmly stood his ground, even though he could not answer his would-be benefactors. Horrified at such naiveté and with mutterings about “intelligence,” “sanity,” and “senility,” the delegation hurried over to the master-builder’s fellow-workers who were toiling in the afternoon sun. With earnest purpose the delegation fanned out among the workers and began to explain that this foundation was ill-conceived and would eventually cause the misery and destruction of many souls. Being master-builders they easily overpowered the reason and understanding of the workers. The combination of hot sun and powerful arguments soon had all but a few convinced that the leader was in error. Carefully they listened to the delegation of master-builders as to how a responsible builder would build a good, reliable worldly building. Even the workers who did not believe the delegation gave up in despair as they saw everyone else stop and cluster around the delegates. “Surely,” they said, “we cannot build this structure alone.”

The lord’s master-builder spoke plainly and firmly to his fellow-workers. He told them to trust in their lord, not in these men of the world. But his voice was dim against the din of the delegation. With shouts and “hurrahs” the workers received the standard worldly plans offered to them, and hastened to tear down the forms and to lay the building out according to these new plans. The delegation cheered them on and even took up a collection and procured refreshments for the the workers. The workers who did not believe the delegates stood idly by and said, “Surely we will see the end of this thing. If our master-builder is right, perhaps our lord’s building will build itself; if this worldly building is sufficient to our needs, then we do not need our lord’s building. Meanwhile, we will not waste our labor in the hot sun.”

Seeing no way he could convince his workers, the distraught master-builder went to his lord and prayed for relief. The lord instructed him to continue to plead with the workers and to fear nothing. “Your own mansion is assured,” he comforted the master-builder. “Those faithless workers cannot destroy your blessings. It is their own blessings which they reject, for now they will have no heavenly mansion wherein to dwell.”

With the courage born of hope, the lord’s master-builder returned to the construction site and began to entreat his fellow-workers one by one. They listened respectfully to him, then went on with the new plans. The master-builder called them all together for an evening meeting. They rejoiced and commended him for his inspiring talk. But some said, “I understood him to say that the new worldly way is really better.” In the morning they all went back to work on the worldly building.

Notwithstanding the fact that the delegation of worldly master-builders had successfully thwarted the work of the lord’s master-builder, they were worried that he might win some of the workers back and begin to build strange buildings again. They sought out the governor of the land and explained their case. The governor was sympathetic, but lamented that since men in that society were free, there was no law by which he could legally restrain the lord’s master-builder. The delegation then went to the legislature and with vivid descriptions portrayed the irreparable damage to morals and society which the plan of the lord’s master-builder would inflict. With anxious indignation the legislature decreed that it was society and not men which should be free, and it enacted into law a statute providing that no person had the right to promote causes that were not first approved by a council of the world’s foremost experts. This would guarantee that no person’s mind would be trammeled by anything but the best which the world has to offer. It would also block the squandering of resources on projects which did not serve the interests of the whole society.

Armed with legal sanctity and moral indignation mixed with pity, the delegation confronted the lord’s master-builder with a writ and led him away where he could not disturb the workers in their enjoyment of their natural blessings. Triumphantly the delegation declared the elimination of all disunity among the people and proclaimed the era of universal peace and the brotherhood of men. But a peculiar problem haunted that millenial era. They could all agree on Mother Nature, but they never could quite agree as to who was worthy to be the Father of all those brothers.

This parable portrays the problem of establishing Zion. Zion is the great creative work of the latter days. It is the preparation of a people and a dwelling place where the Lord Jesus Christ may come to live and reign for a thousand years. This task is more demanding of ingenuity, efficiency, astuteness and, above all, faithfulness, than any other task men could undertake. For while the world tries to create a utopia through force, coercion, control and propaganda, Zion is built only by laying a sure foundation of purity in righteousness in the heart of every person who would participate.

The problem in establishing Zion, as in the parable, is to convert the workers to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and to serve him through the Holy Spirit. This is to say that every worker must himself be a master-builder. Any man who attempts to labor in the kingdom of God who does not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, does not see the vision of the goal, does not know the Lord, cannot stand. The pressures of the world, the ardor of the labor, but more especially the misguided thinking of the world destroy the effectiveness of him who does not know Christ. He who knows not Christ feels restricted by Christ’s Church, and is horrified that the Lord’s way of doing things is not in harmony with the thinking of the world. In warm appreciation of the things of the world, the misguided worker who knows not Christ rejects the prophets of God and proceeds to serve God and man after the image of the world—not even conceiving that he is thereby fighting Christ.

The issue of freedom is plainly one of objectives if we are concerned with the work of the Savior’s Church. The man who knows not Christ feels hampered and destroyed because the prophets of the Church do not laud him when he promotes worldliness. He may sense something great and wonderful about the Gospel and thus remain bound to the Church, but he will likely deny the power thereof, which constant personal revelation from Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost. Such an one can only be set free by converting him to accept and abide in the spiritual order of Christ’s plan for the salvation of men.

Let us proceed to examine the matter of freedom from a more fundamental point of view. The issue at hand concerns the dual nature of man. It is not the traditional mind-body dichotomy that is pertinent. Rather should we look to the choice which each man enjoys to select for himself a nature, a character.

Man may on the one hand choose to be “natural.” This means simply that he chooses to remain as he finds himself in the world: subject to the flesh and without Christ. This natural man has a carnal mind: his thinking is furnished data and influences only through the flesh. He relies upon his eyes, ears, and the opinions of other men as he communicates with them through the flesh. The natural man is not inherently bad. But in either not knowing or in rejecting the influence of Christ, he cannot keep the laws of God, and thus becomes an enemy to God.

Man may on the other hand be born again, to have his spiritual feelings, ears, eyes, touch in turn become sensitive to the influence of Christ in this world. Adding to the senses of the body and the information derived thereby the senses of the spirit as he communicates with divine beings, the spiritual man sees, know, and judges out of a double insight. The law of the Gospel is no mystery to him and he delights in receiving commandments through the Holy Spirit, for he stays himself upon the God of Israel. Such a man is free from the blindness of the natural man, free to know the gods and to learn of righteousness, free to do and to gain every good and righteous thing.

But the choice between remaining a natural man and becoming a saint is not a simple matter. It cannot be decided once and for all, putting on sainthood as we might don a robe. Choosing to be a saint is to choose to gain a divine character, to take upon oneself the divine nature of Christ. To become a saint is the adding together of thousands, perhaps millions of consecutive moment-to-moment correct choices. At each moment a man may yield to Satan by yielding to the impulses and ideas of his flesh, or he may, if the Holy Spirit is with him, choose to be obedient to the voice of Christ. As a man chooses to yield himself unto Christ, moment after moment, his nature and character are changed. With the increment that accrues with each correct decision he becomes more like Christ, to have the understanding, emotions, insights, expressions, appearance and powers of his beloved master. If he endures to the end, nothing will be withheld from him as he becomes a joint heir with his Savior.

The greatest freedom in this world then is the freedom to become Christ-like. The alternative is to stay relatively as we are: to be damned.

In all fairness it should be noted that to a man who wishes to be carnal and natural, the greatest freedom of becoming like Christ is not seen by him as a freedom at all, but as a threat. Not wanting to be different than he is, rather wanting to be conformed to the world, he resents any encouragement to repent and feels terribly put upon if in any way the Kingdom of God places any stigma on his speech, dress, work, etc. He wants to be free to do as he wants, to create and revel in greater and greater worldliness. He will cry in righteous indignation, “I am a moral man. I love children. I am active in my church. I am diligent in my work. How can you accuse me of being worldly? All I want is academic freedom, to do and say as I please, to investigate anything, anywhere, anytime. It is truth which I worship, and you and your narrow-minded religion are not going to stop me from finding and creating truth.”

This natural man does not understand or accept several fundamental ideas. He does not know that why we act is even more important than what we do. He therefore cannot understand that only acts which are willing obedience to the personal commands of Jesus Christ are good and that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. He does not know that the greatest thing in the world is doing good, not knowing truth. He does not know that a man cannot know any important amount of truth except through Jesus Christ. He does not know that Jesus Christ will not and cannot fill him with truth except his goal is to do good. He does not know that the most difficult part of learning to do good is to be good. He does not see the necessity to transform his character and nature to be Christ-like so that he can stand to receive the knowledge and power that enable one to do real good, to love with a pure love. Not understanding or accepting these ideas, the natural man fights against the work of Christ, and even in all the charity he can muster of himself, he only promotes the damnation of himself and others.

If this natural man is a member of Christ’s church, there are other important ideas he will not be able to understand or accept. He will not see that if there seems to be an anti-intellectual influence in the church that it is an anti-natural-intellectual influence, a resistance to the man who sets himself up as a light unto the world but who knows not Christ. He will not believe that to be spiritual demands intellectuality, and that the best way to solve any intellectual problem and to develop one’s intellect is to come unto Christ and to be tutored and reproved by the Holy Spirit from moment to moment. He will likely belittle the group of men who have the greatest intellectual attainments of any group of human beings on the earth today: the prophets, seers, and revelators of Christ’s church. And because he will not accept the constant influence of the Holy Spirit in his life, he cannot accept the prophets, and thus cannot accept Jesus Christ. He indeed may say, “I am a servant of Christ.” But when he rejects the Holy Spirit and the prophets, both of which are in agreement, he indeed rejects Christ.

To the humble man of God, there is no boundary to this freedom or to his creativity. If he wishes to relieve the suffering of the poor, his master will show him how it can be done in righteousness and will give him the power to do it. If he desires to produce great art for the edification of the souls of men, his master will comfort him through the long struggle of gaining technique and judgment, and then will inspire the great themes to be portrayed. If he wishes to conquer the secrets of the physical universe that the kingdom of God may roll forth and fill the immensity of space, nothing will hinder him. If his soul hungers to bring happiness and salvation to men by bringing them the glad tidings of the Gospel, his feet will be sped and prospered, till they become beautiful upon the mountains to the nations of the earth.

The servant of Christ feels no restriction because he does not want to create after the manner of the world. He delights in instruction and reproof, for his only desire is to create, to bless, to improve according to the heavenly pattern, which he sees only dimly at first. Barriers to the ways of the world are not barriers to him, because he seeks to go up, not down. The only barriers he fights are the chains of error in his mind, the evil impulses of his breast, the weakness of his physical powers, the shallowness and inconsistency of his own love. He does not need to rebel against any segment of society to quiet his fears, for he fears only himself and the degree to which his own character is yet unlike that of Christ.

The servant of God seeks first, then, to bring to pass that greatest of all miracles, the creation of a Christ-like being out of his own natural self. He struggles through repentance to gain a new mind, a new heart, a new countenance, a new body, a new faith, a new hope, a new charity. Having gained that miracle, he then turns to the work of enticing every person and every thing to partake of the goodness of Christ, even as he has. He will create ideas, programs, cities, industries, families, friends, servants of Christ—all done by persuasion, by love unfeigned, even as he himself was drawn unto Christ without compulsion. He does not fear age or death, for his work and his creations are eternal. All he accomplishes will endure, and passing into eternity is but one further step of freedom.

But in this life he hopes that he will not be the only master-builder. He hopes and prays that others will dedicate themselves to the Lord, that together they might perfect their characters, that together they might establish a Zion that never will be taken away. And all this for the glory of that great God who begat them unto a newness of life.

Posted in Essay | Tagged Freedom | Leave a comment

Language, Communication, and Morality – Deseret Language and Linguistics Society Symposium – April 1983

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Admin

Chauncey C. Riddle
Brigham Young University

This paper is an attempt to clarify the spiritual functions of language, communication, and morality as seen in the framework of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The hope is that you who receive this message will be able to say about it both “How correct” and “How obvious.” We shall proceed by stating a series of these ideas, demonstrating each as we go.

Thesis 1. All human action is the expression of the desires of a spiritual self. Each human being is a self, a spirit body, which spirit body has a physical tabernacle. The heart and mind of each person are functions of his spirit body. The heart is the seat of desire and the decision-maker. The mind is the power to perceive, to understand, to plan. A person’s strength is the ability of the physical tabernacle to respond to the desires and plans of the heart and mind. Strength involves health, physical stamina, skills, and procreative power.

The paradigm for human action seems to follow this pattern:

a. The mind perceives the self in some spiritual and physical relationship with the external universe.

b. The heart desires a satisfaction, either of the flesh or of the spirit, which the mind has envisioned in the relationship of the self to the universe.

c. The desire of the heart triggers the mind to invent a course of action to attempt to satisfy the desire.
d. The mind creates a course of action and implements it, largely through its control of the physical tabernacle.

e. The mind perceives the result of the action taken and reports satisfaction or non-satisfaction of the desire to the heart.

(Step e is the beginning of the second cycle, recapitulating step a.)

Thus all human action is the attempt of the spirit of the person to gain some satisfaction.

Thesis 2. The actions of a person are his spiritual language. All human action is the attempt to change the perceived relationship between the spirit of the person, the self, and the external universe, which external universe includes his or her own physical body.

There are two basic ways of doing that. One is for the heart to ignore the perceptions of the universe which the mind presents to the heart and to instruct the mind to create a more desirable universe out of imagination. That is what we call insanity. The other way to change the relationship between the spiritual self and the universe is for the heart and mind to seek to change the external universe so that perception of the universe will later reveal the desired change. For example, if my stomach reports hunger and my heart chooses to satisfy that hunger, it instructs my brain to plan and execute an action through my physical body which will eventually cause perception of gustatory satisfaction as a replacement for the present perception of hunger.

We now stipulate that every human action, every attempt to change the perceived relationship between the self and the universe, is an example of the person’s language. Action is language as language is action. Part of that action may be verbal, but it need not be. Language is the expression of self, the revealing of the desires of the self as it struggles with the universe for satisfaction. Taken as a totality, the actions of a person become a total revelation of the nature and desires of the self. If we are not able to perceive the nature of a self directly, another way to form a correct idea of what a person is is to observe his or her total expression of desires as revealed in the totality of action, his or her language. All human action is communication of a self with the universe, the attempt to make the universe a more satisfying place for the self. Non-verbal action is classed as language along with verbal functions because both kinds of action have identical origin and goal, differing only partly in the form of the means to the goal.

Thesis 3. Communication is to affect and/or to be affected by another being by interlocking with that being. All action is for the sake of effect. All action is language. One cannot correctly interpret the verbal expressions of another person apart from the totality of that person’s actions, which are the totality of his language. Language expression is the communication of the desire of the actor to affect the universe in the hope that the universe will change to in turn affect the actor in such a way as to fulfill his desire. A man plants a tree, which communicates his desire for shade and beauty, in the hope that later the tree will communicate back to him shade and beauty.

Communication between two beings is thus the totality of all the effects they have upon each other. Communication is not the transfer of ideas. It is simply affect. That affect may have many dimensions. What one person does may affect the feelings and desires of another, or the perceptions, understandings, plans, and concepts of another; or the pain, pleasure location or disposition of the physical body of another being. The first may affect something that in turn affects the body and/or spirit of the second being.

Communication must have an effect to exist. The effect need not be consciously intended or consciously received. If nothing is sent when there is an expectation of something being sent, that too is a communication, a message, for that lack can affect the non-recipient. One message may be intended and quite another received, but that is still communication as long as there is an effect. Communication is the creation of change and therefore must exist in time as well as space. If there is no space there is no being, but if there is no time, there can be no communication.

Communication is an interlock of one being with another being, a form and degree of union. That interlock may be physical, or spiritual, or both. The interlock increases with space shared, time spent, increase of number of avenues of affect, number of contacts and degree of change created by affect. Perhaps the ultimate communication is between husband and wife who share and affect each other in all things, physical and spiritual. But spiritual affect is always more important, more profound, than physical affect.

Thesis 4. All communication is translation. For the sender, communication is the encoding or translation of desire into action which affects the universe. That desire has at least three dimensions in normal communication. First is the meaning or the intention of the sender; this may be seen as the result the sender desires to have on the universe. Second is the truth of the message, the correctness of its representation. Third is the rightness or morality of the message. For example, suppose I say to you, “Provo will experience a severe flood in the next twenty-four hours.” I say it because I desire to affect you; I speak either truly or falsely; and I speak either in righteousness or not. When I speak or act, I translate at least these three aspects of my spiritual self out into the universe.

You as the receiver of my message must translate whatever spiritual and physical impact my action of sending you a message has upon you. You must create a meaning for what I say, guessing at my intention; you must assign some degree of truth-value or credibility to that meaning, and you must decide whether I was right or wrong to say it. You translate whatever effect I have on you, inventing this three-fold impact on your own spirit.

Translation, sending and receiving, is a spiritual phenomenon. For one has intentions, relates to truth, and is moral or righteous or not according to the desires of his or her own spirit at the moment. It is not uncommon for a hearer to receive one meaning, truth and rightness translation for a message, then shortly afterward ascribe a quite contrary meaning, truth-value and rightness translation because his or her own spirit has changed during the interim and now ascribes other meaning-values to the affect of the sender.

Thesis 5. There are two kinds of human spirits revealed in communication. One kind of spirit perceives the universe as being filled with other beings at least as important as himself, having desires of their own which are as important in his own eyes as are his own desires in his own eyes. Esteeming the desires of others to be as important as his own, he does not insist on the total satisfaction of all of his own desires, but hopes rather that all can be satisfied, others as well as himself. To that end he is willing to be only partly satisfied himself if such sacrifice will help others to gain some of their basic desires. He hopes to find a way to communicate with others and with the universe so that everything and everyone will be fully satisfied; or failing that, to achieve a situation wherein everything and everyone will have as much basic satisfaction as possible. This kind of being perceives himself as holy, as special, but also perceives other beings to be at least as holy and special in their own being as he perceives himself to be.

The other kind of spirit revealed in communication is the being who sees himself and his own personal desires as being preeminently important above all else in the universe. He sees other people and other things as beings which exist for his own personal satisfaction only. He may acknowledge that they have their own personal desires as he does, but he will not accord the satisfaction of their desires as having any necessary value relative to his own satisfaction. Thus he sees the satisfaction of his own desires as the only really good thing in the universe. He takes account of others’ desires only as data which may affect as means or deterrents the fulfilling of his own desires. He uses other beings as means, to his own end, helping them to the satisfaction of their own desires only as means to achieving his own desires, sacrificing their satisfaction wherever expedient to the fulfilling of his own desires. This kind of being perceives only himself and his own desires to be holy or special.

The first kind of spirit communicates to make the universe a better place for everyone. In an LDS frme, this is to be moral. If this action is done in willing obedience to Jesus Christ, it is righteousness. The second kind of spirit communicates to make the universe a better place only for himself. In an LDS frame, this is selfishness, sin.

Thesis 6. Communication with God assists those who esteem others. Our being, verbal and non-verbal, essential and unfolding, is fully perceived by our God and Father. We are interlocked nearly fully with him in that everything we are, feel, think, do, and say, is translated fully and immediately to him, directly through our actions as they affect his other sons and daughters and creatures. He, of course, perceives our being, directly, as well as our actions. The extent of that interlock is unbeknownst to most of us, however, for we do not perceive him to the same degree that he perceives us.. We are told that in him we live, move, and have our being, but the consciousness of what that means comes to few and is believed by yet fewer. If our eyes and understandings were opened, we would see that we are in his arms, enfolded in his love and being, already.

But generally we humans do not perceive that interlock because he, God, has left part of the interlock incomplete. He is in full communication with each of us, with our heart, might, mind, and strength. But he treats as holy, as special, our hearts and minds. He is the first kind of spirit. Though he perceives all, he does not attempt to control our hearts and minds. Rather, he lets us become aware of his heart and mind in our hearts and minds only at times, only by degrees, only on special topics. The fact that he does let us know his heart and mind somewhat makes us free to become as he is. The fact that we do not always have that influence with us unless we seek and cultivate it makes us free to become something unlike God. Because he loves and esteems us, holds us as being holy, he sets us free, to become as he is or not to become as he is.

If we esteem him as holy and respect his heart and mind when it comes to us, we learn a most remarkable thing: when we yield our hearts and minds to God, he affects us to be able to desire, to think, and to act in such a way that we are then able to assist all others around us to have more opportunity and power to fulfill the desires of their own hearts. We find further that the more we communicate with God and seek to interlock our heart and mind fully with his, the more we can help others. We soon realize that the ideal is a full, explicit conscious interlock of our being with his being. That full communication makes us one with him. Then we have all of his heart, might, mind, and strength at our disposal to assist us to help others to fulfill their desires, even as he has then all of our heart, might, mind, and strength of each of us at his disposal to help others. Through love, full communication has brought us to become one with him. Then as we communicate with others, it is the love of God which we communicate, which shines out of us to all others, inviting them also to share in the goodness of God.

Communication with God poses a problem for those who see only themselves as holy. He is an affront to them. He tells them that what they are doing is wrong, and that unless they change they will be very sorry about themselves in the long run. If they do not desire to change, they scrupulously avoid discussion or thinking of the long run and try to see how they can turn the influence of God—his words, his priesthood, his church—to the present satisfaction of their own personal desires, regardless of what happens to anyone else in the process, including God himself.

Thesis 7. Communication with Satan assists in this life those who esteem only themselves. Satan is not in full communication with anyone, for he would need to cooperate fully with them to do that. But he has been given by God the freedom to communicate something of his mind and will to every accountable human being. His net message to them is to encourage them to be selfish, to esteem only themselves and to use all human beings and other creatures only as instruments to their own personal satisfactions. He treats all humans this same way, using them to achieve his own ends, then discarding them whenever they lose the power to further his own selfishness. Though not full, Satan’s communication is sufficient to entice every human being to evil, to selfishness. Those who accept that enticement are rewarded by heightened feelings of self-desire and the revelation of ingenious means of using and abusing others to fulfill that selfish desire. The more a person interlocks with Satan, the more such a person rejects communication with the Lord. He or she becomes more and more selfish until mortal probation is over. Then, having denied the Lord when he spoke to them, they are delivered to eternal torment to use and be used by the selfish dregs of the universe to all eternity.

Thesis 8. Every accountable human being is influenced both by God and by Satan. The point of this thesis is that there is no middle ground. Every accountable person is in communication with God and Satan. The only question is: What is the person’s reaction? Some are strong in the Lord and do great good in the earth. Some are strong in Satan and do great evil in the earth. Many are swayed to and fro, do a little good and do a little bad, but do nothing outstanding. At any given moment, any accountable person is in communication with Satan or the Lord and acts accordingly. All actions, words and deeds, are the acts of selfishness or of righteousness. The sum of actions may be a mixture, but each specific action is either of the Lord or of Satan.

Thesis 9. To communicate with another human being is to interlock either with Satan or with the Lord. To be in the presence of another human being is to interlock, to communicate with him or her to some degree. We carry into that interlock the influence of God or the influence of Satan. The influence, good or bad, of one person is stronger than the influence of the other. The weaker person must reject the interlock and flee unless he or she wishes to be influenced by the stronger, for as time and contiguity increase, communication or the flow of influence increases, flowing from the stronger to the weaker. “Charisma” is the worldly term for the strength of strong people, which can be either good or bad. People like charisma, for they feel strength flow to them in its presence.

Thus, when we enter into an association, whatever spirit we take into the association retreats if the other person has an opposite and stronger influence. If both enter with the same spirit, that spirit is strengthened in both. The situation need not be another individual, of course. We can enter into communication with a group of people, a book, a TV program, a mountain, etc. The principle of spiritual flow remains constant in all of these situations. Spirit always flows from stronger to weaker whether it be a good or an evil spirit. Whatever spirit possesses us than determines what we do. We always represent and influence others either for the Lord or for Satan. When two people communicate, Satan and/or the Lord are always part of that interlock of being.

Thesis 10. To be a moral person one must be strong as well as good. It follows then that to be moral, one must not only have the Spirit of the Lord but have it in sufficient strength that he will not be overwhelmed. Perhaps anyone can be righteous in the presence of the Lord. Who then can be righteous when he leaves the presence of the Lord and enters the presence of great evil? Only he who carries with him the presence and the power of the Lord when he goes into the presence of great evil. The basic ways in which this is done are:

a. To have incorporated the Lord God into our feelings, thinking, strength, and might, so that we are one with him. This we do by seeking his presence and his influence, letting that strength flow into our self, stronger to weaker, until we have built up a great reservoir of his strength. The reservoir is the good deeds we have done and the good words we have said in obedience to him which have strengthened our fiber and changed our being.

b. To be on his errand at all times. While on his errand we have his continuing presence with us and the promise that we will never be tempted above our ability to withstand. But if we ever depart from his errand and begin to seek our own selfish desires, we lose our protective shield. Should we then encounter an evil influence stronger than that residual good which we retain in our fiber and being, we would then lose our agency to resist Satan. He could then sift us as wheat.

To be a “good” person, that is, never having done great evil, is a good thing but not the best thing. Much better is the good person in whom the Spirit of the Lord has welled up until he or she is a tower of strength. To be a “good” but weak person and then deliberately to seek our evil influences to “find out what the world is all about” is to commit spiritual suicide. Wisdom would have us seek out the very best in all things and to hold fast to that which is good. Those who seek the Lord and become strong in him, increase thereby their ability to communicate with him, to receive strength from him. Strength thus begets strength. To be moral and righteous one must be good and strong in the Lord.

Thesis 11. Communication among humans is good only for those who are in communication with God. We humans need to communicate with each other to solve our problems, to make a better world. What is it that we need to communicate?

First, we need to discern, to understand one another. To understand a person is to discern both the ideas and intentions of his heart and the kind of spirit which possesses him, either God or Satan. That discernment is a gift of the spirit, fully known to and used by only those who seek and find a full communication or interlock with the Lord.

We need to communicate about truth. We need to have a common and true understanding of the way things are and were and will be. Since we each can observe directly only a small portion of what is real and not at all what was or will be, we have no direct personal access to enough truth to achieve the common true understanding which we need. We are then thrust back to our spiritual resources. If it is our desire to be selfish, then Satan rules us and he distorts and falsifies the communications we give and receive as to what is, was, and will be. That is why the world of ideas is awash in a sea of falsehood and personal opinion. Only when we deliberately turn to the Lord and deliberately interlock with his being can we gain those true ideas of what is, what was, and what will be to be able to ground our labors in reality. But truth is a stranger, an unwanted interloper, in a world of selfish people. Only the righteous cherish truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

We need to communicate about what is best to do and how best to do it, that we might gain the advantage of working in concert in making this world a better place. No one of us knows enough about truth or about what is possible, let alone what is best, to become the guide. So the programs of the world must find spiritual resources. Those stimulated by selfish personal interest are abetted by Satan: their promise is false and their glory fades as time passes. Witness all of the political kingdoms of the earth in all of its history. Those leaders stimulated by righteous desires know that they of themselves are not wise, and must turn to God himself who is the fountain of all righteousness. In him, the strong in righteousness find wisdom and success in earthly ventures that build forever and increase in beauty into eternity. Witness the eternal families of those that know and love the Lord.

Should human beings strive to discern, to find truth and to find wisdom but do not do so in the Lord, then their communication is prospered only in Satan. They may indeed communicate and accomplish things, but their creations will represent degradation and will enthrone selfishness. Such was the situation at the time of the flood, when the thoughts of each heart were only to do evil continually. Such will be the state of the world in these last days. The sum of the matter is that the only intelligent thing to do in this world for any person who desires happiness for anyone other than himself is to seek first to find the true and living God. One must come into full communication with him, then in the strength which flows only from him, to seek to establish his righteousness wherever and whenever possible in this earth. Then the language of such an one will become pure and holy, perhaps even Adamic. Then his communication with all other righteous beings will be full and joyous. Then he will never be overcome nor thwarted by the strength of selfish beings. Then he will speak and do all that is true and right, and in that communication will find that joy which his Creator had in mind as the reason for his existence.

Posted in Deseret Language and Linguistics Society Symposium, Language | Tagged Communication, language, morality | Leave a comment

Principles Regarding Testimony — CCR 10 August 2014

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Admin

Testimony: The witness that any human being gives.

The words “I know” and “I believe” are essentially synonymous.
Much human testimony and most testimonials have no face value.
The spirit that accompanies a human testimony is the essence of any human testimony.
The message the spirit gives when a human being bears a testimony is what is important.
Two persons could give the exact same words and bear very different testimonies.
Every word and every deed of a human being are expressions of testimony.
Every scientific treatise is a testimony.
Every historical narrative is a testimony.
Every work of art is a testimony.
No human testimony can save any other human being.
The only means of a human being being saved is through revelation from God.
Willing and immediate obedience to revelation from God is Faith in Jesus Christ.
Only through Faith in Jesus Christ is anyone saved from his or her sins. (There are two senses of being saved from our sins: 1) to be helped to stop sinning, and 2) to be forgiven of past sins. Both senses of being saved from sin are important, but the first is far more important.)
The ultimate testimony bearing is deeds, not words. The best bearing of testimony is acts of faith in Christ.
Gaining a real testimony is essentially receiving revelation from God. There is no other rock. Witnessing miracles, Book of Mormon internal and external evidences, having questions answered, etc., are all helps for receiving a testimony, but all are insufficient.
It is impossible to bear a real testimony without having received a real testimony from God.
Having a real testimony itself does not save anyone. Only faith in Christ saves anyone.
The most important testimony you will ever hear: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
It is impossible to be saved without bearing our testimony if we are instructed by God to do so.

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The Bearing of Philosophy on Theorizing about Language – March 1985

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Admin

Philosophy is the study of the questions and answers that pertain to the fundamental issues of human life. The three most basic questions to ask and answer for any human being in any problematic situation are: How do you know? (Epistemology); What is the reality of the situation (Metaphysics); and, What is good or right to do in the situation (Ethics). We shall explore each of these provinces of philosophy noting how each bears on thinking about language.
Epistemology: The study of how human beings succeed and fail in attempting to come to knowledge about themselves and their universe. The main and standard means of knowing for any individual are as follows:
a. Authoritarianism: Establishing belief on the basis of information obtained from other humans.
b. Rationalism: Establishing belief on the basis of what is logically consistent with what we already believe.
c. Empiricism: Establishing belief on the basis of what I can sense here and now (in the frame of prior beliefs).
d. Statistical Empiricism: Establishing: Establishing belief on the basis of arrayed masses of sensory evidence.
e. Pragmatism: Establishing belief in those ideas which cannot otherwise be verified but which are functional in fulfilling present desire.
f. Mysticism: Satisfaction of the hunger to know the truth by substitution of a feeling about things.
g. Revelation: Personal communication from a person who is not a human being to establish belief about the universe.
Scholarship: Construction of belief about things not present using documentary evidence available.
Principle constraints: (Current rules of the community of scholars.)
1) All extant relevant documents must be examined and accounted for.
2) Primary sources are to be given precedence over secondary sources.
3) All interpretation and construction must be done in a naturalistic frame. (No supernatural, no right or wrong, no secrets.)
4) All extant relevant documents must be examined and accounted for.
5) All theory construction must be rational (self-consistent).
Science: Construction of beliefs (facts, laws, theories and principles) about the present state and the nature of the universe and its parts on the basis of statistical empiricism and adduction of theory.
Principle constraints: (Current rules of the community of scientists.)
1) Every science must be based in empirical data. (No private or mystical evidence.
2) Laws and theories must account for the facts in a consistent manner.
3) All data must be accounted for in construction.
4) All observations must be repeatable (at least in principle); all experiments must be reproducible.
5) Construction must be done in a monistic, naturalistic frame.
6) Construction must assume uniformity of space, time, causes and rates.

Epistemological considerations relevant to linguistics:
1) Can a theory of language be built without allowing introspection?
2) Is the real test of a theory of language peer acceptance or pragmatic power? (Science or technology?)
3) Is there an intellectual test for truth? (There are intellectual tests for error.)
4) What is the relationship between concepts and words? Message and code? Meaning and assertion?
5) Is there such a thing as knowing what someone thinks? Knowing that we know such?

4. Metaphysics: The search for the ultimate reality of things, asking questions which cannot be decided on the basis of reason or empirical facts. It is necessary to have a metaphysics to think, but one can never prove that his answers are correct. The metaphysical stance of most persons is usually determined socially. Standard answers to metaphysical questions usually take one side of a polarity.

Important questions and their standard polarities:
a. Is the universe one or many systems? Monism vs. dualism (or pluralism).
b. Is the universe Matter or idea? Materialism vs. idealism.
c. Is there a supernatual? Naturalism vs. supernaturalism.
d. Does law govern the universe? Determinism vs. tychism.
e. Does a God exist? Theism vs. atheism. If one does, what kind of being is he/she/it?
f. Is man natural or supernatural? (Evolution or divine creation).
g. Is man an agent? Agency vs. mechanism.
h. Limited or infinite variety in the universe? Types or individuals only.

Metaphysical considerations relevant to linguistics:
1) Is there a unique human neural linguistic facilitator? If so, what are its limits?
2) Does language have a natural or supernatural origin?
3) Are humans agentive or mechanical in using language?
4) Are the universe and language determined or indeterminate, nomothetic or idiosyncratic?
5) What is the status of universals and particulars? Do names always refer to universals or not?
6) Is there a spiritual component to some or all communication?

5. Ethics: Consideration of what men should, could or ought to do to be wise. What is good for man and how is it to be obtained? Is good the same as right, and if not, how is it discerned and obtained?
Standard answers:
a. Cyrenaicism: The good is maximal physical pleasure guided by desire.
b. Platonism: The good is to know the truth guided by reason.
c. Aristotelianism: The good is the mean between excess and defect in those things appropriate to the nature of man, to be found through reason.
d. Stoicism: The good is to be unperturbed by pleasure or pain, to be achieved through reason in seeing that all things are rigidly predetermined.
e. Epicureanism: The good is a proper balance between higher pleasures (intellectual and social) and lower pleasures (physical), to be discovered by reason and experimentation.
f. Moral sense: The good is to do the will of God as found by following one’s conscience.
g. Kantianism: The good is a good will, to be achieved by doing that which everyone should do if in your situation, as discovered through reason.
h. Utilitarianism: The greatest sum of physical pleasure for the greatest number as found by reason and science.
6. Restored Gospel: Good is what each person wants, right is the will of God learned through personal revelation.

Ethical Considerations relevant to linguistics:
1) Is there a connection between morality and linguistic ability?
2) What is the lesson of the Tower of Babel?
3) What does it mean to bear false witness?
4) Is goodness/badness rightness/wrongness part of all communication?
5) Should language be stable?
6) Should language be regular?
7) Should there be a universal language?
8) Is every person entitled to hear the Restored Gospel in his own tongue? What is a tongue?
9) Should linguistics be prescriptive as well as descriptive? (Is it science or technology?)
10) Is there a divine language? Is it the same as the Adamic language? Is it conceptual only?

Posted in Conceptual Analysis, Epistemology, Ethics, Metaphysics | Tagged epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, scholarship, science | Leave a comment

Bondage

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Admin

Human bondage: The condition wherein a given human being lacks the ability to choose and/or to act relative to a certain opportunity, as seen by an omniscient observer or as approximated by human understanding Bondage is the complement of agency.

Physical bondage:
Synonyms: Slavery, serfdom, imprisonment
Definition: 1. The location, change of location, and physical activities of a normal adult human being are controlled by some agency other than his own will. 2. A person is deprived of a physical body and thus cannot do those things which a physical body makes possible
Ultimate: Death
Examples: Russian peasant, 1784, 1984
U.S. Negro in Georgia, 1820
Feudal serf, England, 1100
Inmate in a penitentiary.
An unembodied spirit.
Drug addict.
Non-examples: A small child being carried by his or her mother.
A patient in intensive care.
Controls: Food, freedoms, guns, chains, iron curtains, promises.
Opposite: Freedom to go anywhere and to do anything that can be done physically.
Release: Increase of strength and/or might.

Intellectual bondage:
Synonyms: Intellectual blindness, being brain-washed.
Definition: The knowledge, ideas, and thinking of a normal human being are controlled by other agent(s), possibly against his will and possibly unbeknownst to him.
Ultimate: Lobotomy
Examples: Cuban subject for whom all media presentations and educational opportunities are carefully controlled.
A member of a church who is prevented from learning of other churches and religions.
Non-examples: Students in a university class who are exposed to a variety of ideas and positions on the same subject.
A child who believes his father and mother, knowing other beliefs which other people have which differ from his parents’ beliefs.
Controls: Opportunities to learn, shame, rejection, grades.
Opposite: To have a thorough understanding of all options on an issue. To have a complete understanding of all existence, of all possibilities and of all issues.
Release: Increase of mind.
Emotional bondage:
Synonyms: Neurosis, psychosis, self-pity, self-justification.
Definition: The feelings of an adult human being are self-controlled to create misery, the condition of an unhappily divided self. This self-destruction is often performed unconsciously, unbeknownst to that person himself.
Ultimate: Insanity
Examples: One who is enraged at the economic injustices of his society. One who feels unloved. One who is bitter about how his family treats him.
Non-examples: Feeling temporary grief at the loss of a loved one.
Feeling sorrow for one’s sins.
Feeling sorrow for another person’s sins.
Controls: Authorities, culture, which teach a person that he is not responsible for his own feelings, that feelings are just things which “happen” to a person.
Opposite: A person who through correct ideas and habits has achieved the ability to feel any way he desires to feel, regardless of any influence his environment may have on him.
Release: Increase of mind to understand every person feels only that which he desires to feel (speaking of emotion, not of sensation), plus increase of self-discipline to feel only positive emotions (gratitude, love, forgiveness).
Spiritual bondage:
Synonyms: Spiritual death, spiritual impotence, the bondage of sin.
Definition: The spiritual experiences and powers of a person are limited to evil sources because of his sins.
Ultimate: To suffer the second death.
Examples: One who prays and receives no answer from the Lord.
One who lays his hands on to heal, but nothing good happens.
One who wonders but cannot gain a testimony of the Restored Gospel.
Non-examples: One who gives up a promising career to fulfill a church calling.
One who does everything which the scriptures suggest.
Controls: Pleasure taken for its own sake, social power and esteem, physical strength used selfishly, indulging in evil thoughts and feelings, not using one’s might to serve God.
Opposite: To have a fullness of spiritual gifts and spiritual power such that the powers of Satan and the powers of the earth can restrain that person no longer.
Release: Increase of heart, might, mind and strength through forgiveness of sins (thus not to have to carry the weight of those sins and to suffer the lack of spiritual opportunity which those sins make necessary). This forgiveness is made possible only through the atonement of Jesus Christ and is available to men only through accepting and living by the laws and ordinances of the Restored Gospel.
The bondage of desire:
Synonyms: Selfishness, perversion, self-indulgence.
Definition: The situation of a divided person, part of whom desires that which is good, the other part desires that which is evil. Desiring that which is evil is the bondage of desire.
Examples: A medical doctor who smokes.
A poor man who desires to be righteous, but who lusts after is neighbor’s wealth.
A missionary who desires to help people understand the Restored Gospel but who thinks lascivious thoughts.
Non-examples: A poor man who wishes he could help his equally poor neighbor.
An ill person who desires to have the strength to fill a mission.
Controls: Habit, past history.
Opposite: One who has first reduced his needs and desires to zero, and then has come to desire with all of his heart that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord.
Release: Increase of understanding until one understands that which is good and right, then increase of self-discipline until one desires only that which is good and right. This is the achieving of a pure heart.
The ultimate (and independent variable) bondage is the bondage of desire. The bondage of desire is always the self-imposed bondage of desiring evil. As a Latter-day Saint disciplines himself to reduce his own personal needs (desires) to nothing, and at the same time learns fervently to desire those godly things which are shown to him by the Holy Ghost, he begins to be one person (to have integrity), to be a whole person (to be sanctified), and to be a new person, born again as a child and servant of Jesus Christ. That process is of course partly unavailable to a person who does not have the opportunity to accept the Restored Gospel. They may learn this unselfishness and implement it to a degree through the light of Christ, but one nees the gift of the Holy Ghost to find the fullness.
- But if a person hears and accepts the Restored Gospel and then is born again of the water and of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit then teachers him what is good and right that he may be able to desire what is good and right in all things eventually. He then has the opportunity to achieve a pure heart. A pure heart is a heart so trained to choose only that which is good and right that it never deviates from that choice. That training is done by each individual person as he allows himself only to desire that which is good and right. This is the agency of man: to choose what is good and right through the Savior, or to choose captivity and death through the flesh (and with the help of Satan). A pure heart is not the result of one such choice. It is the result of a long, unbroken series of such choices. Another way to describe such a long series is to say it is to learn to love the Lord with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.
  - A person who has a pure heart is able to bring himself to do the very best he knows to do in any and every situation of choice in his life. The first thing which a pure heart enables him to do is to gain control of his feelings so that he never feels any emotions except gratitude, love and forgiveness. This sets him free emotionally. Being free emotionally, he can than of his own present power minimize the intellectual and physical bondage in his life. If the Restored Gospel is available to him, it is possible for him to achieve elimination of the spiritual bondage altogether. But what can a person do if he does not know the Restored Gospel? He can do the best that he knows to do. The best one knows is to respond to the light of Christ rather than to the adversary. As one responds to that light, desiring and choosing the best he knows to do, one begins to feel better about himself and to be able to see the truth of things about himself and the Savior more clearly. Eventually that spiritual discipline of doing the best that he knows to do will lead him to accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ when it is presented to him. Through the Restored Gospel and its ordinances (through the gifts and mercy of the Savior), he may obtain eventual release from every degree of each bondage. To know the truth is to become free, and to be free indeed.
  - In the beginning man is not free. Each person suffers two versions of each kind of bondage except the bondage of desire, which is always totally self-imposed. The other bondages consist of bondage imposed upon him by others and also of bondage imposed upon himself by himself. The real freedom which this world affords it to desire and to choose what is right, this to be released from all self-imposed bondage. He who thus releases himself is then a candidate to be released from all other bondage by the Savior.
  - To reject the light of the Savior is to reject all of the good in one’s self, to reject righteousness, to reject freedom, and to reject increase. In other words, to reject that light is to be damned. Because our God is what and who he is, that damnation is always self-imposed. We conclude that though every human being is born to self-awareness, each being fettered in the chains of multiple bondages, and ultimately each of these bondages is self-imposed.
  - He who avails himself of the freedom to increase through the Savior will be able to enjoy increase forever, even eternal increase. All of which begins with the freedom to desire what is good and right.

Posted in Conceptual Analysis, Definitions, Epistemology | Tagged bondage | Leave a comment

Keys for Interpreting the Scriptures

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Admin

The fullness of the scriptures is the key to knowledge.

The scriptures do not bring knowledge of themselves, for they are only sets of inkblots on paper. But as those inkblots are examined carefully and prayerfully, they become an occasion for revelation from the Savior, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost. Those revelations are the word of God, which is his law, Willing, heartfelt obedience to that revelation is faith in Jesus Christ. As a person lives by that faith, that person gains knowledge of the being and ways of God. The fullness of the scriptures provides what a person needs to ponder to begin the process of knowing God. Thus the fullness of the scriptures is the key to knowledge. (Luke 11:53, Inspired Version.)

There is a parallel between things spiritual and things physical. All things physical have a spiritual counterpart.

Whenever the scriptures tell a story or mention a physical counterpart, whatever is being discussed physically has a spiritual counterpart which should be sought. For instance, the ark that Noah built to save animals and righteous souls from the great flood is a representation of the New and Everlasting Covenant which will save every righteous soul from the flood of evil which the scriptures call “the world.” Every so-called temporal commandment is a representation of the spiritual wisdom which will save human beings. For instance, the word of wisdom as given in D&C 89 is a representation of the wisdom of God which will save every person spiritually, even as physical commandments help a person physically. (D&C 29)

It is the spiritual side of existence which drives the physical, not vice-versa.

It is sometimes tempting to believe that physical things govern themselves, that the physical universe is a great clock which just clicks on with all of its gears meshing. A fundamental contrary truth of the universe is that everything physical is governed and controlled by the spiritual order of existence. For instance, most people believe that when a storm comes, it does so because it is simply the play of atmospheric forces at work. While indeed there are aspects of atmospheric physics at work, all is governed and controlled by the hand of God. Thus there never was a storm which did not accomplish that which God wanted it to do. To please God, we must recognize his hand in all things. (D&D 59)

We should liken the scriptures unto ourselves.

The real fruit of all scripture is to help each individual to receive and to be faithful to the present revelations of God as they are teceived by that person at a given moment. The value of reading the scriptures, is, then to inquire of the Lord constantly as to how what we are reading applies to our own present personal situation and predicaments. Knowing the scriptures does not of itself save us in any way. But making application of the scriptures to our daily lives as Christ gives us promptings is the very thing that will bring us to the Savior that he might save us. For that is Faith in Christ. (1 Nephi 19:43)

This principle is a species of a more general principle which would have us liken all things unto ourselves. Whenever we see any person speaking or acting we should ask ourselves what we would and should do in that situation as covenant servants of the Savior. Whenever we see a problem to be solved, we should ask ourselves how that problem might be solved in the Savior’s way. Since the formation of a Christ-like character is our most important and precious accomplishment in this world, and since character is formed by making correct decisions and then carrying them out without procrastination, likening all things to ourselves and making these correct responses is the process of salvation. Likening all things to ourselves and responding as Christ would is the process of taking upon ourselves the divine nature

The scriptures are especially helpful in the process of likening all things to ourselves because we see there both the acts of good and godly men and those of evil men. And to be constantly in the presence of good and godly men is a great blessing to help us do as they do, we can live with them in our imagination and burn into our souls the values, beliefs and action patterns of those godly men.

Posted in Essay, Scripture | Tagged knowledge, scriptures | Leave a comment

Why Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do Temple Work

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Admin

If you desire to know why members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do work for their ancestors in their temples, please consider the following basic information which explains why they do it.

All human beings are children of a God who loves them. All humans are brothers and sisters to each other, begotten by a Father in Heaven who is good and great, who knows all things and controls all things in this universe. As a kind and wise Father, he wishes to share all that he has and is with each of his children. If those children are willing to become good and great, kind and wise as he is, then he can share all he is and does with each one. What our Father is and does makes him happy, and he desires that all of his children become as happy as he is. Our Father will see that each of his human children is as happy as he or she can stand to be for the rest of eternity.
Our Father has a plan to help each human being become as good and great, as kind and wise as he is. That plan of happiness is known as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Part of this plan was that Jesus Christ would be sent to teach each of Father’s children how to become good and great, kind and wise. The gospel plan is that we should each put our trust in Jesus Christ (have faith in him), change our ways of acting to act as Christ acts (repentance), make a covenant to gain the character of Jesus Christ (promise in baptism to become good and great, kind and wise as he is), receive his personal guidance as to how to transform our lives (by receiving the Holy Ghost, the personal messenger of the Father and the Son Jesus Christ), and follow the guidance until our character achieves the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ (enduring to the end).
Our Father knows that we cannot become as he is and like Jesus Christ, who is already like him, unless we have more knowledge and power than do ordinary human beings. That is why he offers his children the companionship of the Holy Ghost, so that the Holy Ghost can teach us all good things. Father offers his children the Holy Priesthood so that we can gain the power to do all the things that he, our Father, and our Savior, Jesus Christ, do. That power comes through accepting ordination to the Holy Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek and learning to use that power in pure love. The fullness of that priesthood is given only in the blessings of the Holy Temples of God, which temples have been dedicated and consecrated by the power of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood possessed by the prophets of God on the earth who have been sent by Jesus Christ to represent him in these latter days.
Those who accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and live it, and who accept the fullness of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood and magnify that priesthood, and who learn to bless others as Christ idid in his mortal ministry, have accepted the opportunity to rise to the full stature of Jesus Christ.
They will have done this through faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of every sin, and enduring to the end. One of the things a person will do as they become like Jesus Christ is to want to share all of the good things they have with others of their human brothers and sisters. This is why they become missionaries, so they can share the good news about Jesus Christ and Father’s plan with other human beings. This is why they do temple work for their ancestors, so that they can share the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and its power with other human beings. This is why they minister to their neighbors in love, kindness and power. This missionary work, temple work and ministering is the spreading blessings and the plan of happiness, for every child of God was born to become blessed and happy.
Because our Father does love us so much, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a mortal on this earth and to teach all human beings by both precept and example what it means to be good and great, kind and wise. Christ did this and was great by being the servant of all mankind. He showed us how to react to evil, how to bless others, how to teach the truth, how to live a holy life. But the greatest thing Jesus Christ did for each human being was to suffer for the sins of each person and to die for each person. This great unparalleled act of atoning love makes it possible for Father to forgive all men their sins (transgressions against their neighbors) which they have committed but have repented of doing, and to make it possible for every human to be resurrected after mortal death into a glorious and eternal body. Because Jesus Christ did this great thing to save all mankind from sinning and from the penalty of justice that follows sinning, and from never-ending death in an earthly grave, he is called our Savior. He, Jesus Christ, desires that all of his faithful disciples become like him, to love with a pure love as he does, and to become saviors also. This was prophesied by Obadiah when he spoke of the latter days: “And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” (Obadiah 1:21)
To become as our Savior and to do a work of pure love, even as Christ would and did, Latter-day Saints offer to their departed ancestors the full power to become like Christ, by helping them to receive in Holy Temples the blessings of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood they did not gain while mortal. As those ancestors accept and live in the world of the departed spirits the gospel of Jesus Christ and also accept and live up to the opportunities afforded by the fullness of the Holy Priesthood, they also can be ready when the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of Christ at his second coming. Which is near, even at the door.

Posted in Temple | Tagged plan of happiness, temple, templework | Leave a comment

Temptation

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Admin

Temptation is an opportunity to sin to which we are strongly attracted. We have opportunity to commit many sins which we find not at all attractive. Why the difference? What tempts us is our own desires. If we have thought upon some act, some object, some experience, and have thought how delicious that would be, we have thus desired that thing. Having desired something, we have lowered the barriers of judgment and good sense which normally keep us out of trouble. When that trouble suddenly stares us in the face as we turn some corner, we embrace it because we have already embraced its idea. The only cure for sinning is to purify our desires, to search with honesty the depths of our souls, and to reject every evil thing whose idea we have ever embraced.

Posted in Conceptual Analysis | Tagged chauncey riddle, sin, temptation | 1 Comment

I Give Thanks

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Admin

This is in response to the request by President Russell M. Nelson’s recent plea on November 20, 2020 to #GiveThanks with a daily post to social media for 7 days.

I give thanks #6 – November 29, 2020

Consider the marvel of the planet on which we reside, earth. So delicately balanced for heat and cold, light and darkness, air and water, plants and animals, minerals and soil to provide a wonderful habitat for human probation. All bespeaks the hand of a careful creator, though some prefer to give the credit to blind chance. But thanks be to the gods who put all things in order for our wonderful habitat. Those persons of a spiritual inclination see that appreciation for nature is one form of worshiping that generous God who gave us all this.

What a miracle it is to drop a seed in the ground and have it reliably turn into a tomato plant or a melon vine. What a blessing that sun and rain bless the ground so plentifully in most places. What a blessing that this earth can sustain billions of God’s children and could support many times more people than there are now were it not for selfishness and greed.

Part of our human probation and training for godhood is the opportunity to deal with the delightful earthly environment with which we have been blessed. May we each prove appreciative of this great blessing and strive to leave our physical surroundings better, cleaner, more productive than we found them.

How grateful we should be!

I give thanks #5 – November 28, 2020

Because of the Fall of Adam all accountable humans are in the power of Satan and sin, breaking the commandments of God. Having sinned, we become unclean, and no unclean thing can come back to the presence of our Father in Heaven. Some sin much, some sin little. But we all sin and would be lost forever were it not for our Savior.

But Christ is of sin the double cure: He saves from wrath and makes us pure. He saves those who accept his atonement from the punishment justice demands for their having sinned. And he makes us pure by teaching us to repent, to replace each of our ways of disobedience with coming into the strait and narrow way of righteousness.”Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1: 18)

Could there be a blessing greater than having a Savior? Could there be a human action wiser than giving ourselves to follow our Savior, to become his humble imitators? There is hope for all of us, but only in true faith in Jesus Christ.

I give thanks #4 – November 27, 2020

One of the greatest blessings of being a human is to have a physical body. We are not that body. The real “us” is our eternal intelligence (person) clothed in a spirit body given to us by our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. Our physical body is a temporary “loaner” from our Heavenly Parents to see what we will do with it while it lasts. How we use it determines what kind of physical body we will be rewarded with for the rest of eternity: celestial, terrestrial, telestial, or perdition.

The basic options for use of our mortal human tabernacle are to use it to bless others or to use it strictly for our own imagined pleasures. The first option is called righteousness and the second is called selfishness. Almost all humans try both to see how they feel about each, then settle into a pattern favoring one or the other.

The greatest power our Heavenly parents have given us is to use this physical tabernacle to beget children, to bless other spirits with physical bodies. Satan hates this power because he will never have a physical body and tries to destroy as many human bodies as he can through wars, murders, drug use, celibacy, etc. But his favorite tactic is to entice humans to murder their own children. Anciently he did this by getting his followers to pass their children through fire as a sacrifice to some fictitious god. Today he prevails upon humans to kill their children in the womb, preferably at conception.

Blessed are those humans who choose righteousness and bless others, especially their own children.

I give thanks #3 – November 26, 2020

Father has given his human children two great gifts to guide them away from the grasp of his unfaithful son to be able to follow his faithful son. The first is conscience, the light of Christ which lightens every human being, and which brings to each of us feeling of what is right to do and what is wrong to do. The second is the Holy Ghost which brings to those who accept the light of Christ and try to do what is right a witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind. If any human accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and makes the covenant to remember and to serve Christ always, then the Holy Ghost will bring to each accepting soul a knowledge of the truth in any matter where the person needs it.

Thus accepting a feeling for righteousness is the first step to salvation from eternal servitude to the unfaithful son. The second step is to accept the witness that Jesus is the appointed Savior of mankind, then to accept Christ through the covenant of baptism, then to follow the Holy Ghost until we gain a new being in the image of Christ himself, full of righteousness and truth.

Oh the graciousness of our Father in giving us these two great gifts to guide our mortality!

I give thanks #2 – November 25, 2020

Because Father so loved his children, he sent his unfaithful son to cause his human children to fall in dying both spiritually and temporally to create a mortal situation. But this fallen condition made each child an agent, the perfect context for each of Father’s children to choose for himself or herself what each would be happiest doing in eternity. The context and agency were made complete when Father also sent his faithful son, the Son of Man (of Holiness), to atone for the sins of all mankind and to bring about the resurrection of each person. And messengers were sent to Adam and Eve and all of their children so that they could know how to be saved from the power of the unfaithful son by committing to and following the faithful son, Jesus Christ. Thus it is that all who love blessing others like the faithful son can become free from the power of the unfaithful son by binding themselves to the faithful son to become like him and by rejecting the messages from the unfaithful son.

That is why I am so grateful for the faithful son, Jesus Christ, and his precious gospel.

I give thanks #1 – November 24, 2020

I am thankful for my Heavenly Father. “Man of Holiness” is his name because he only does that which blesses others. In him there is no selfishness of any kind. His actions are one eternal round of creating and blessing. Because he does no evil and is dependable in doing all the good that can be done, he is trusted by everyone and everything in the universe that is not satanic. All the elements of the universe obey and worship him because of his goodness. This gives him great power to bless. He became a God by choosing righteousness over evil. And he blesses all of his children with that same opportunity.

Posted in Essay, Faith | 2 Comments

MONISM OR DUALISM?

FREEDOM FOR WHAT? (Written in the late 1950’s)

Language, Communication, and Morality – Deseret Language and Linguistics Society Symposium – April 1983

Principles Regarding Testimony — CCR 10 August 2014

The Bearing of Philosophy on Theorizing about Language – March 1985

Bondage

Keys for Interpreting the Scriptures

Why Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do Temple Work

Temptation

I Give Thanks

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