A few thoughts I had while listening to the endowment creation presentation:
One of the signs of a well designed system is when it's self-correcting. An example of that is the steering assembly of modern automobiles. The mechanical linkages are designed in a way that the car's weight helps center the steering wheel to help the car track straight down the road. While a simple, yet elegant design, it is one which some unknown mechanical engineer spent many hours of work to get it right. Today, we don't even think about it -- we just expect cars to behave that way.
Consider now something far more complex: the oxygen level in the earth's atmosphere. How is it that the chemical binding energy of oxygen is such that enough of it can exist in the atmosphere to empower animals, including us, to move about while being low enough that it doesn't cause plants and dried carbon-based things to spontaneously combust? If the atmosphere contained a higher percentage of oxygen, fires would be much more prevalent and advanced cultures would be much harder to develop because of the volatility of the building materials.
We take take the world we live on for granted because it just works. Yet, because we see it working day after day, it rarely comes to mind just how amazingly well designed it is. Like Alma the Younger, I think one of the great witnesses of God's existence is this amazing planet we live on. The more astrophysicists learn about exoplanets, the greater is their awareness of how rare the Earth is. To paraphrase one scientist, its existence makes you "think twice" about the odds that were beat if random chance was the only determinant in its creation.
To wit: we live on a planet that's an engineering marvel. According to our understanding of cosmology and physics, mathematically, the Earth is an improbable place. Yet here it is! We have Heavenly Father to thank for it.
Showing posts with label Proof. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Proof. Show all posts
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
1 Nephi 1 - Who is Nephi?
I rarely spend more than one entry on one chapter, but this is The Nephi we’re talking about. Without him and his commitment to do whatever the Lord commanded, we’d not have the Book of Mormon. So, he gets special attention with another entry.
There are several interesting traits about him in this chapter. One is, at that time and place in the world, almost all people were illiterate. Only those with means could afford to learn and take the time to write. It’s more evidence Lehi was a wealthy man, since it was a luxury to have the time to write and teach it to his sons. The small plates show the ability to write was handed down, father to son for many generations thereafter.
Nephi was also a metal smith. He made his own plates on which he wrote, his own tools to build the boat and weapons for his people. This is one of those “proofs” critics used to use to debunk the Book of Mormon but don't mention now because it shows its authentic. Until lately, metal smiths from this time were considered bottom-dwellers of the social order like common laborers. Yet, recent archeological discoveries in the Middle-East show they were regarded much like we do doctors and lawyers today. Imagine that! A perceived "flaw" is actually evidence of the narrative's internal consistency.
I have some bonus material I came across just this morning. In 2000, archeologists found a stone tablet, written about 100 BC, in Jordan containing writings about a messiah who would come, suffer, die and then rise again. It's non-canonical evidence a belief among Jews in a suffering messiah existed before He came. It's known as the “Gabriel Stone” because it also references an angel named “Gabriel.”
This find corroborates the Book of Mormon's pre-exilic belief in a Messiah. In the past, critics have said this notion is one of the proofs it’s a fraud, that it was just made up. I wonder, will they say the same about the Gabriel Stone?
There are several interesting traits about him in this chapter. One is, at that time and place in the world, almost all people were illiterate. Only those with means could afford to learn and take the time to write. It’s more evidence Lehi was a wealthy man, since it was a luxury to have the time to write and teach it to his sons. The small plates show the ability to write was handed down, father to son for many generations thereafter.
Nephi was also a metal smith. He made his own plates on which he wrote, his own tools to build the boat and weapons for his people. This is one of those “proofs” critics used to use to debunk the Book of Mormon but don't mention now because it shows its authentic. Until lately, metal smiths from this time were considered bottom-dwellers of the social order like common laborers. Yet, recent archeological discoveries in the Middle-East show they were regarded much like we do doctors and lawyers today. Imagine that! A perceived "flaw" is actually evidence of the narrative's internal consistency.
I have some bonus material I came across just this morning. In 2000, archeologists found a stone tablet, written about 100 BC, in Jordan containing writings about a messiah who would come, suffer, die and then rise again. It's non-canonical evidence a belief among Jews in a suffering messiah existed before He came. It's known as the “Gabriel Stone” because it also references an angel named “Gabriel.”
This find corroborates the Book of Mormon's pre-exilic belief in a Messiah. In the past, critics have said this notion is one of the proofs it’s a fraud, that it was just made up. I wonder, will they say the same about the Gabriel Stone?
Thursday, July 30, 2015
3 Nephi 7 - Overthrow of the Nephite Government
Pop quiz: who destroyed the Nephite government three years before the sign of Jesus' death?
It's not the Gadiantons. At this time in the Nephite history, there weren't any as they'd all been executed or converted six years earlier. The correct answer is lawyers, lower judges and their friends destroyed the government.
Today's equivalents are politicians, senior government officials, the Judiciary (have to put the lawyers somewhere), and their cronies, family and friends. It should be no surprise then, to a student of the Book of Mormon, who is changing the government in radical ways that take away our rights, and liberties. I'll bet you're surprised. Not.
It's one of those not so subtle proofs showing the content of the Book of Mormon is far beyond something an 1829 farm boy, school teacher or minister could ever dream up. Its insights into our day are so prescient, the contents of this chapter ought to be alarming.
Someone once said history repeats itself and if you don't learn from the past, you'll get the full brunt of its lessons the hard way. Actually, history rhymes. But the themes and lessons are no less dangerous or painful to endure when they come. It's fortunate we have the warning of 3 Nephi 7 because it gives us time to prepare.
It's not the Gadiantons. At this time in the Nephite history, there weren't any as they'd all been executed or converted six years earlier. The correct answer is lawyers, lower judges and their friends destroyed the government.
Today's equivalents are politicians, senior government officials, the Judiciary (have to put the lawyers somewhere), and their cronies, family and friends. It should be no surprise then, to a student of the Book of Mormon, who is changing the government in radical ways that take away our rights, and liberties. I'll bet you're surprised. Not.
It's one of those not so subtle proofs showing the content of the Book of Mormon is far beyond something an 1829 farm boy, school teacher or minister could ever dream up. Its insights into our day are so prescient, the contents of this chapter ought to be alarming.
Someone once said history repeats itself and if you don't learn from the past, you'll get the full brunt of its lessons the hard way. Actually, history rhymes. But the themes and lessons are no less dangerous or painful to endure when they come. It's fortunate we have the warning of 3 Nephi 7 because it gives us time to prepare.
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