Randolph Harris II International Institute

It Remains Absolute for All Time and Eternity–Thanks be to God for His Indescrible Gift!

 

God is the timeless, the invisible, for us is visible through faith, the intangible, the impassible who for us was made accessible through revelation. The principles of geometry are known instinctively by the heart, and reason employs these principles to establish certain theorems. Both heart and reason yield results that are certain, but by different routes, and it would be ridiculous to require proofs of the heart’s instincts and intuitions or intuitive knowledge of what is proved. The inability of reason to establish first principles serves to humiliate reason, but not to undermine our certainty. The realization of the limitations of reason helps us to recognize our own wretchedness, and the greatness of humans is that one alone is capable of such recognition. We have no assurance of the truth of any first principles apart from faith and revelation except that we feel them within us. This natural feeling is no convincing proof of their truth, since apart from faith we cannot tell whether people were created by a good God, an evil demon, or by chance. “To the LORD your God belong the Heavens, even the highest Heavens, the Earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD sets his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all nations, as it is today. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes,” reports Deuteronomy 10. 14-15 and 17. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5

Know then, proud humans, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, weak reason. Silence yourself, foolish nature, earn that humans infinitely surpasses human, and hear from your master your real state to which you do not know. Hear God. The problem of knowledge becomes a religious one. Only through submission to God and through acceptance of his revelation can we gain completely certain knowledge. The greatest achievements in science and mathematics rest on a fundamental uncertainty, since the basic principles employed, know through instinct and intuition, are open to question. Skeptical probings can only reveal the human predicament in its fullest and prepare us to submit and accept a religious foundation of knowledge. To live always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in lie, and can be applied only with some faith. “Yea, and how is it that they have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of humans, if it so be that they exercise faith in the Lord? Ans if it so be that we are faithful to the Lord, we shall obtain the land of promise; and we shall know at some future period that the word of the Lord shall be fulfilled,” reports 1 Nephi 7.12-13. God is uncontained, without needs, incomprehensible, eternal, imperishable, and invisible. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5

God is eternal, without beginning (what begins also ends) or end (what ends is destructible); the Lord therefore ungenerated, uncreated, immutable, and immortal. The Lord has no defects nor needs; he is not contained nor measurable but contains all; God is immobile (he could not move from one place to another); and he is absolutely Wisdom and wholly Mind. God has no name, form, or parts. God is completely transcendent, since the Universe cannot speak of him nor contain the Lord in thought; Go cannot even be called ineffable. The soul is innately immortal, and its reminiscence of the eternal World stems from premortal times. If there is stagnation in our spiritual life, it is important that we get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. The stagnation could possibly be linked to the fact that we have been interfering in the life of another—advising when we had no right to advise. When we do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through us with the direct understanding of his spirit. To do even the most humbling takes to the glory of God takes the Almighty God incarnate working in us. “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: ‘Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?’ You will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure speech, with their strange, incomprehensible tongue,” reports Isaiah 33.17-19. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5

God sees entirely, knows entirely, hears entirely. Human welfare and an objective perfection are the ends (meaning) of life. The good life is thus grounded in the will, not in feeling. In determining the valid ends of conduct, the individual must be guided by the historical tradition, which may be trusted ultimately to destroy evil and to bring about the survival of the good. Ethical thought involves the problems of evil, of freedom, and of God. Evil is justified in a monistic World, because by overcoming evil we find the way and the will to the good. Although human freedom is real, it is never a motiveless freedom of action. The psychological theory of freedom is correct in finding the ground of free action in the human will or in human’s determining one’s conduct through deliberation and resolution. The metaphysical theory of freedom, which denies that there are causes of the will, must itself be defined. Morality, in its historical development of responsibility and a sense of duty, comes to require a higher will with a right to command and the provides an argument for the existence of a deity who is also implicit in the evolutionary account of nature. “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but the Lord is unchangeable from all eternity to eternity,” reports Moroni 8.18. The moral law does not consider our weakness as human beings, it simply demands that we be absolutely moral. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5

Principles of ethics are rational in the sense that they arise from the conditions of life. They need not determine one’s metaphysics, but teleological ethics demands an evolutionary teleology in which the purpose of nature is fulfilled in human reason. Mind and body are distinct aspects of a unified All-One, a mental process of which history and nature are the two series of modifications. This identity is affirmed of God in the relationship to nature and to history. Science is limited to the phenomenalistic aspect of nature. Although God enters into interaction with lesser spirits, the concept of personality must be purged of its human limitations before it can be ascribed to God, who is to be thought of rather as a superpersonal source of energy and reason in nature and humans. “Now om who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescrible gift!” reports 2 Corinthians 9.10-12 and 14. It remains absolute for all time and eternity. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5

 

Simile Because You are Loved–God’s Love is Infinite and it Will Endure Forever

 

Worthiness is achieved through obedience. God represents order, harmony, beauty, and elegance. The Universe is a single connected system. Research into DNA has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved.  Because God alone truly is, all that is must in some sense be God, or at least a manifestation of God. Many Scientist now believe the existence of God is not only possible but probable. From their perspective, an intelligent force predating our Universe initiated creation. God is the creator and that into al created beings have returned. The created Universe is in process of passing from God in his first form to God in his last form. Natura is eternal; the whole process is eternally present; and everything is a theophania, a manifestation of God. God is the immanent cause or goal of nature, distinct from each finite particular only because the Lord includes them all within is own being. The study of nature, even with all its intellectual rigor, is filled with spiritual wonder. Every physical object in this vast Universe, including our human bodies, is built of the light of creation. The divine life which informs everything also informs the human mind and soul, and the soul is immortal because it is part of the divine. Since all events are equally ruled by divine law, miracles are part of Godly rituals. Scientific minds have drawn clear links between this force of intelligence and the spiritual realm. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

The breath of the human knowledge base is increasing exponentially. Our minds, like the Universe, are expanding. The Universe must necessarily be a single all-inclusive system if it is to be intelligible. There is an inward mystical union because something predates our Universe. In recognizing the limitations of the human mind to understand something as transcendent as a God-like force, modern science concedes that such force is actually a much more likely explanation for our beginnings than our minds would have some to believe. And in doing so, echoes the sentiments of metaphysical inquiry across the ages. Nature is entirely the manifestation of the spirit. God is good and independent of all the ordinary contingencies of chance and misfortune. He is capable of completely filling and occupying the mind and is the supreme good. The only knowledge which can satisfy these requirements is the knowledge that the mind is part of the total system of nature and is at one with it when recognizing that everything is as it must be. Felicity is the knowledge of necessity, for if the mind can accept the necessity of its own place in the whole ordering of things, there will be room neither for rebellion nor for complaint. The Universe as a single connected system might be difficult for our human mind because we can only grasp so much; our understanding is limited by our own three-dimensional capacity for thought. And this is quite enlightening. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

We can reflect on our thinking. If nothing else, this concept opens our eyes to the limitations of the human mind and the possibilities that may exist, if would could only perceive them. We might then contemplate the things in our own lives which continue to elude us. Things we do not understand or have stopped questioning. Recognizing the limitations we place on our own minds can help us to see how these thoughts might be holding us back. And how our reality might change if our perceptions could change. For human knowledge is sometimes of the confused kind which does not rise to the rational and scientific explanation of phenomena, let alone to that Scientia intuitiva (intuitive knowledge) by which the mind grasps the whole necessity of things and becomes identical with the infinita idea Dei (infinite idea of God). Freed from all those passions which dominated human actions so long as one did not grasp them intellectually, human beings are moved only by a fully conscious awareness of one’s place in the whole system. It is this awareness that which can also be used to identify as the intellectual love of God. The Universe is one spirit and immense beauty. And we must each create or own meaning. Living with purpose and love. And yes, continue to strive to understand. “The LORD our God is testing us to find out whether we love him with all our hearts and with all our souls. It is the LORD our God we must follow, and him we must revere,” reports Deuteronomy 13. 2-4. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

God and the Universe are identified because the World is the material through which the beings realizes their infinite moral vocation, and the divine is the moral order that includes both the World and the beings. The divine is identified with this ultimate nature of things. The divine is identified with this ultimate distinctionless merging of nature and spirit, a unity more fundamental than any of the differences of the merely empirical World. God himself is in a state of everlasting expansion and contraction, and this constitutes the creation and existence of the World. We are to respect the voice of conscience as the voice of God in the soul of human beings and are encouraged to develop a spirit of free inquiry in all directions. Because God is perfect, the perfectibility of human beings is possible because the voice of God is also in the human heart. The goodness welcomes us kindly as a mortal human in divine company, shakes our hands, and sets our minds at rest by telling us that it is right and just that we should have taken this road. We must now learn both the true and the unreliable beliefs of mortals.  What is clear is that the whole journey is nowhere on Earth, but in the Heavens, and it begins in the realm of darkness and ends in the realm of light. The worth of a soul is its capacity to become as God. The spirit of God will confirm to each of us individually our divine worth.  #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Order, vanity, misery, boredom, and causes of effects all portray the human condition by showing humanity’s ways of dealing with and reacting to the ordinary World. This tendency to wrongfully identify ourselves. We can find truth and happiness in God. If humans are miserable, vain creatures, unable by our own resources to find first truths from which to derive other, we have to realize that we know truth not only by reason but more so by the year. It is in this latter way that we know first principles, and it is in vain that reason, which plays no part in this, tries to combat them. As children of God, we are all important. If we hold our heads up, our arms our, and walk with the Lord, God will build us, mold us, and magnify us. What a great blessing to be created in the image of God and know of our true potential in and through him! What a great blessing to know that in God’s strength we can do all things. We seek for happiness, but cannot find it apart from religion. It is not unreasonable to believe in God and to seek for religious guidance. We can frequently savor the sweet whisperings of the Holy host verifying the truth of our spiritual worth. Let there be no question about the value of our souls as humans. The whole intent of the gospel plan is to provide an opportunity for each of us to reach our fullest potential, which is eternal progression and the possibility of Godhood. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

Spiritual worth and worthiness are not the same. Spiritual worth means to value ourselves the way the Heavenly Father values, not as the World values us. The secrets of nature are hidden from us, and although it always active, we do not always discover its effects. In the course of time, through experience and understanding, we come to learn more about the natural World. Hence, as more data are accumulated, we should expect to find previously accepted hypotheses replaced by newer ones. Our conclusions about nature are always limited by the amount of experience gathered up to now. In time we seek for truths in terms of our experience and comprehension. What is sought for may be unchanging, but the results of the quest are the variable developments that constitute the history of science. “When you enter the land of the LORD is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices one’s son or daughter in the fire. We must be blameless before God,” reports Deuteronomy 18.9-10 and 13. The Lord assures us that when we have virtuous thoughts, God will bless us with confidence, even the confidence to know who we really are. There has never been a more crucial time to heed the Lord’s words. We acknowledge our Heavenly Father and praise the Lord for his blessings. We then rejoice that we are counted worthy to receive. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

Something Real is Being Created in the Ritual of Keeping the Covenants of God

 

Religion makes certain claims—that the World is conditioned and dependent, that there is a providence, that there is a side other than that which appears to us. Religious World views often hold that people have a destiny, a predetermined purpose in life. These claims are not put forward as poetry but as truths. Reason may show that science does not conflict with these claims and even that science is unable to consider their truth value. Reason may also point out hints in nature which suggests that these claims are true; reason cannot, however, justify them. These truths differ in kind from those of science and common sense and have their own grounds—the heart and conscience, feeling and intuition. Correlation can be made between various feelings, on the one hand, and religious claims, on the other. Corresponding to the claim that the World is conditioned and dependent is the feeling of the dependence and conditionality of all things. The claim that there is a providence, or teleological order, in things implies that certain value judgments are true and these value judgments rest on feeling and intuition. Corresponding to the claim that there is a beyond is piety—a feeling and intuition, which is bound up with our experience of the beautiful and mysterious, that there is a reality behind appearances. And that makes sense because even on Earth there are life forms and light that we cannot view with our own eyes like ultra violet rays and bacteria, so what else could be here? #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Many people who are religious very much rely on the technological advancements and medical interventions derived from science. They believe that there are metaphysical forces beyond science at work in the World. At the same time, they also believe that science and technology have limits and they therefore embrace the supernatural, religious qualities in the World. Self-control is at the core of our lifestyle. Psychologists have proposed that religious-inspired practices can benefit mental and physical healthy by helping people exercise self-control. Studies reveal that self-control promotes adaptive psychological functioning because it helps people regulate their emotions and behavior. Religious doctrines typically include prescriptions for taking care of one’s own body (your body is a temple), and support psychological traits that are associated with self-control, such as humility, patience, mindfulness, and compassion. In addition, religious doctrines offer behavioral techniques, including prayer, that can be people regulate their emotions and actions. When people are exposed to religious themes or call to mind their religious beliefs, they are better able to endure discomfort, delay gratification, and follow through on challenging tasks. Higher levels of self-control are associated with lower levels of aggression, and when people are angry and feel the urge to hurt others, their level of self-control determines whether or not they act on these urges. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

The psychological benefits of religion extend beyond self-control. Religions also helps people find a sense of meaning in life, the feeling that one’s existence has purpose and value. The idea of reality is the reign of purpose from the principle of the dignity of the person which underlies the concept of duty. People can derive meaning from life without religion, but psychological studies indicate that, for many, religion is a major source of meaning in life. Religion also helps people cope with tragedies and other stressors that threaten meaning. The meaning that religion inspires can be of great consequence because people who perceive their lives as meaningful tend to be healthier and live up to an average of four years longer.  The spirit has fundamentally different laws from those of the natural World. In effect, they are the prescriptive laws of logic and ethics rather than the descriptive laws of physics and psychology. Insofar as a spirit determines itself by prescriptive laws, it is free. Spirit is the source of concepts, principles, intuitions, and valuation which cannot be derived from sense experience. And although the spirit develops under the influence of external stimuli, it is something unique in its own right. Spirit cannot be explained by, nor can its occurrence be predicted on, the basis of a consideration of sense experience alone. Spirit and its operation emerge under certain conditions but are not explained by these conditions. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

The circle of civilization is soon to be completed and the commerce and science are supposed to combined to improve the World to the point where there will no longer exist a need to make war profit. A World in which all people have equal rights and in which leadership depends upon talent and wisdom is superior. We praise God for the regularity of the Universe, and the only suffering mostly comes is caused by social injustice. God grasps the whole-time process instantaneously; for him time and eternity is all one. Our knowledge catches eternity in the fleeting moment, which is both temporal and eternal. The nature of the human frame implies that it is God’s will for us to be happy in this life as well as in the next. Virtue is doing good to humankind, in obedience to the will of God and for the sake of everlasting happiness. Allegiance to God’s will and a desire for everlasting happiness are sufficient grounds for moral obligation. Moral obligation follows from the command of a superior, which is made persuasive by the prospect of a reward. We discover the will of God by consulting either Scripture or the light of nature, both which lead to the same conclusion. The will of God with regard to any action may be found by inquiring into its tendency to promote or diminish the general happiness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

Promoting the general happiness requires paying attention to the general consequences of our actions. The general consequence of any action may be estimated by asking what the consequences would be if the same sort of actions were generally permitted. No special faculty is required to enable us to have moral knowledge. Morality does not require a moral sense, nor an intuitive perception of right and wrong, nor any other innate nor instinctive capacity. All that is required for the foundation of morality is that each person have the wit to see that certain actions are beneficial to oneself. Then the sentiment of approbation that naturally arise when these actions benefit one will continue to accompany one’s perception of these actions when they benefit someone else. Thus the custom of approving certain actions is begun, and children, who learn everything by imitating their elders, carry it on. “And, we ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things. And it is the faith which we have had on things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy. And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things,” reports Mosiah 5.3-4. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Grant the possibility that God has destined his human creators for a future state and that the Lord will acquaint human beings with our destiny. “In one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal World, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one. For every person receives the wages of one whom the individual listened to obey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to truth,” reports Alma 3.36-27. If these possibilities are granted, then the need for miracles is clear, for they are the certification of revelation. The credibility of the Christian revelation hangs, therefore, on the issue of whether its miracles are genuine. Miracles on which Christianity is based (including those of the Old Testament) are genuine; and indeed the only genuine miracles are those of Christianity. A miracle must be exceptions to Universal experience or they would not be miracles. The real issue is whether there is a test for the reliability of the witnesses who reported an event that necessarily only they could have experienced. Such a test in our observation of whether the person who reports a miracle will cling to his or her report at the risk of one’s comfort, happiness, and even their mortality. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

The original witnesses of the Christian miracles pass this test, since they labored and suffered in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those. Hospitality for miracles is not as broad as we think. The miraculous event must be in support of a revelation that is important to human happiness. Mere wonders are thus ruled out; we also hold out against any event that may be resolved into a false perception and against any report that is guilty of exaggeration. The distinguishing mark of a human being is self-consciousness, and the moral aim of life is self-realization, which is expressed in perpetual self-development. The driving force being this development is the individual’s sense of limitation. An important mode of moral action is self-sacrifice, which is a genuine diminishing of one’s possessions or powers. “The Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles,” reports 1 Nephi 17.51. Something real is being created in the ritual of keeping the covenants of God. The only abiding reality is God himself, and the Lord’s order comes to us moment by moment. We are continually in touch with the reality of God. The more a person knows of the inner life of God’s most mature saints, the more one sees what God’s purpose really is. If we are not stretching our faith, you are not accessing everything God has in store. We must realize God is infinite and through God anything is possible, and we will see God do extraordinary things. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

Let Us be Faithful and True to the Covenants We Enter Into

We assume that the fabrications of power all around us are genuine, and we fall victim to them. The youthful spirit of idealism, the melting pot, everyone has a chance, all people are equal—these tenets of the American ideal not only cast a dark shadow, the also make power seem undesirable to many people. It gets repressed as shadow material, and as a result many power struggles take place in secret, in an underhanded way. The word sin comes from a root meaning to miss the mark, and this despite human being’s high origin and nature, some continually miss the mark. Humans are meant to be noble, and are ordinarily less than such; meant to be generous, they seek their own. Created more than animal, humans often skin to be nothing else. Yet, never in these missings is human’s misstep required. Freedom has always been unquestioned. The first recorded act of human beings was an act of free choice. In eating Eden’s forbidden fruit, Adam and Ever were, it is true, seduced by the snake, but they had the power to refuse. The snake merely tempted them; it is clearly a story of human freedom. Inanimate objects cannot be others than they are; they do what their natures determine them to do.  Human beings once created makes or breaks themselves. They create their own destiny through their choices. “Cease to do evil, learn to do good,” reports Isaiah 1.16-17—for human beings only does this injunction hold. “I have set before you life and death…therefore choose life,” reports Deuteronomy 30.19. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Even in the World, immense and ringed by mighty powers of nature, humans can walk with the confidence of a child in a home in which he or she is fully accepted. Our concept of God is a God that loves human beings and other creatures as his beloved children. God is the one than whom there is nothing superior. God is not defined as the most perfect being that there is, but a being than whom no more perfect is even conceivable. God gives us power, encouragement, and blessings. “I have made the Earth rich, and behold it is my foundation, wherefore, again I will stand upon it. And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land of flowing milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord comes; and I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts. And this shall be my covenant with you, you shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the Earth shall stand, and you shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 38.17-20. God is the most adequate conceivable object of worship; there is no possibility of another reality beyond the Lord to which he is inferior or subordinate and which would thus be an ever more worthy recipient of human’s devotion. The Lord has demonstrated throughout the generations that when the inhabitants of the Earth remember him and are obedient to his direction, he will bless them not only with spiritual blessings, but with material abundance as well. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Thus metaphysical ultimacy and moral ultimacy coincide; one cannot ask of the most perfect conceivable being, as one can of a first cause, necessary being, unmoved mover, or designer of the World (supposing such to exist) whether people ought to worship him. The scriptures contain many evidence of the Lord’s willingness to prosper his people with the riches of the Earth when they demonstrate that they will use this abundance prudently, with humility and charity, always acknowledging the source of their blessings. Just as a triangle necessarily includes among the defining attributes of a triangle that of having its three internal angles equal to two right angles, so the idea of a supremely perfect God necessarily includes the attribute of existence. Consequently we can no more think, without contradiction, of a being than whom no more supremely perfect is even conceivable which lacks existence than of a triangle which lack three sides. When the lives of the people are in harmony with the Lord’s will, all of the essential factors that produce the blessings God deigns to give to his children seem to come into line. Love and harmony prevail. Even the weather, the climate, and the elements seem to respond. This will allow us to live in our families and as people, we will live as one, seeking each other’s good. It is by imitation, far more than by precepts, that we learn everything, and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more effectually, but more pleasantly. When people are free to do what they please, they usually imitate each other. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

The Holy Ghost brings back memories of what God has taught us. And one of the ways God teaches us is with his blessing; and so, if we choose to exercise faith, the Holy Ghost will bring God’s kindness to our remembrance. We can test that in prayer today. We can follow the command, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things,” reports Doctrines and covenants 59.7. There is a great tendency for us in our prayers and in our pleadings with the Lord to ask for additional blessings. However, sometimes we need to devote more of our prayers to expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving for blessings already received. We enjoy so much. If we exercise our faith, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, we will find that memories of other blessings will flood into our mind, which will allow us also to learn by insight. Psychologists, for a long time, have found insight puzzling, partly because they cannot identify this sort of learning and it seems almost mystical, which it might be. Insight is like a sudden flash of light flooding into a darkened room, a quick and spontaneous illumination that provides the answer to the problem we are working on. It is has been called the “Aha! Experience,” because we frequently see the answer flash and shout out our surprised joy. Insight is most useful in our struggles of life experiences, puzzles, mazes, math problems, logic problems, and other complicated bits of thinking. As we express our gratitude, our prayers may take a little longer than usual, and insight and remembrance will come. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Those of us who keep a book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in commemoration in our daily lives. Insight and freedom from conflict’s grip are obtained by bringing the misleading model that distorts one’s thinking to the conscious foreground, by making quite clear in detail how our thought is governed by it, and by giving us a proper view of the nature of, for example, our knowledge of other minds. Thus, Wisdom’s first aim is to induce and sharpen philosophical perplexity by showing how it arises precisely out of the sort of position that is at first sight the most attractive to us. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of those blessings for our posterity. As we start to write, we could ask ourselves, “How did God bless me today?” If we do that long enough and wit faith, we will find ourselves remembering blessings. And sometimes, we will have gifts brought to our mind which we failed to notice during the day, but which we will then know was a touch of God’s hand in our lives. Only then will we see psychological statements and the ways in which we know of the existence of other people’s thoughts and feelings in all their idiosyncrasies and in all their similarities to other statements and to other ways knowing things. Until this is done, we cannot be entirely freed from our tendency to see things are they are not. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

As may be deduced, Wisdom’s writings about other minds are almost as much about induction, the past, the perception, philosophy of science, and so on as they are about other minds. From the scriptures we learn that all of us existed as spirits, literally spirit children of our Father in Heaven, before we were born in the flesh. All were not of equal intelligence; some were more obedient and faithful than others, and as a result they merited special blessings and were chosen for very special missions here on Earth. From the scripture we can identify some of these chosen individuals, starting with Michael who was referred to as the Archangel, one of high rank in the spirit World. He was chosen to be Adam, the first man, to stand forever under the Father and the Son at the head of the human family.  Even the Word of Wisdom was given for a principle with a promise. Those who receive their endowments and receive this high knowledge, make covenants with God that they will observe the instruction given and carry them out in their daily lives. Blessings will follow those who accept the truth, practice it, and live the gospel as they should. We must never be careless about the sacred and eternal nature of the covenants that we enter into the temples, so we do not place our eternal future in jeopardy. We all have our free agency; but none of us have the free agency to determine the consequences of the choices that we make, because we will be held accountable and be responsible for our acts. There is no conceivable means of checking up on the conclusion of the argument from analogy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

 

And God Seeks Our Trust Only by Showing Himself to be Trustworthy

 

 

Love is the only way of knowledge, which in the act of union answers our quest. Material aspects of life are important (hence the strong emphasis on humanitarianism and social service); matter can participate in the condition of salvation itself (as affirmed in the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body); nature can become host to the divine (the doctrine of the Kingdom of God on Earth and, later in Christianity, the Incranation). The concept of God is something which nothing greater can be conceived (aliquid quo nihil maius cogitari possit). It is clear that greater, we mean more perfect. (Sometimes we use Melius, better, instead of maius, greater.) Since we have this idea, it follows that something than which nothing greater can be conceived at east exists in our minds (in intellectu) as an object of thought. We know God exists otherwise we should be able to conceive of something greater than that which nothing greater can be conceived—which is absurd. Therefore, something than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality. The idea of spiritual contemplation is essentially an act of the will leading to a charitable union with God. In the light of this union, it becomes clear that we live in a God created Universe. God is the entirely other: a metaphysical abyss divides him from all others beings. The Lord alone is the eternal; all the rest is temporary and mutable. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

The World has always loved the saint as being the nearest possible approach to the perfection of God. God’s power, liberty, and independence are unlimited. The Lord’s omnipotence is not qualified by the existence of demigods. Every Angel possess infused universal ideas and forms a species apart. “I saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with are numberless consourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising God; yea, and my soul did long to be there” reports Alma 36.22. Thinking back to that day, wading Sun shined waters fast, watching time pass away. It is no good to live in the past. Tread the ground on which you stand as all life’s memories are in your hands. Shaded dawn burst to light, watch as the day lightens the light. Dreams get better all the time, and still I hope the Day will come—that Day when Sun rays will shine when God and I will be as one. Sometimes it is useful to understand that dream figures are like Angels. They look human, but their World is ratio realis, which postulates logical distinctions that are grounded in reality. However, the natural and moral laws of actual life are suspended. Each is ruled by its own laws and exigencies. Entities are not unnecessarily multiplied. Their actions may be mysterious being in themselves beautiful holy things and modes of perfection. Created spirits are composed of matter and form; humans are composed of matter and spirit; and there is a plurality of forms in corporal beings. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

The human body is actualized by corporal matter and the formae corporeitatis before its union with the soul. The soul, although, a unity, has three partial forms—the vegetative principle, the sensitive principle, and the rational principle, which moves the other parts only through the mediation of the spiritual matter. If the rational part of the soul informed the body directly, the soul would no longer be purely active. Every substance is a wholly active and dynamic principle which continually unfolds its intrinsic forces, thus reaching perfection. This concept is applied in our psychology and our doctrine of knowledge. “And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yes, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!,” reports Alma 36. 19-20. This object was considered the causa terminativa (final cause) of knowledge; it might also be considered to be a kind of causa cooperans (cooperative cause). “My limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I have been born of God. Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of what I did taste that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost,” reports Alma 36.24. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

That process explains the development of higher knowledge from lower connection of the potencies of the soul (colligantia potentiarum). By virtue of the unity of the spiritual matter of the soul, the act of knowledge that originated in the vegetative and sensitive parts continues in the rational part of the soul, causing a spiritual image to form there. It is primarily the dree will which elevates humanity above all other creatures and energetically is the will’s self-determination. “Yea, and now behold, the Lord does give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; for because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in God, and he will still deliver me. And I know that God will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he brought me by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time,” reports Alma 36.25-29. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

This principal contribution to philosophy is the description of the relations between the knowing subject and the object. In the field of human psychology, it is the root of religion as humanities immediate sense of the Supernatural. The primary religious awareness is not inferential but is, an institution of reality, an intercourse between a Universe, present always in all its meaning, and a spirit, responding with all its meaning, and a spirit, responding with all its understanding. By the Supernatural, it is not to be understood as the mysterious, the uncanny, nor the miraculous but a larger environment than physical nature, a special kind of environment, which has its own particular sanctions through commerce with which humans receives their characteristically human degree of independence within their natural environment. “And the Lord God does work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord does confound the wise and brings about the salvation of many souls. And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls,” reports Alma 37. 7-9. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

The Supernatural is variously conceived in different types of religion, as is the character of redemption that the supernatural makes it possible. In primitive religion, redemption is found by seeking the Supernatural in nature as an animistic force indefinitely any and yet vaguely one. In polytheism, the Supernatural consist of individual spirits that rule different parts of nature, and redemption means the managing of nature through its many divine masters. Cosmic pantheism accepts nature in its wholeness as the Supernatural, while the acosmic mysticism of India wholly excludes nature from the Supernatural, as illusion. Religions of the ceremonial—legal type, such as priestly Judaism and Island, divide the Natural into a scared realm and a secular realm, cultivating the sacred or religious whole leaving the secular outside the sphere of redemption. Finally, for the prophetic monotheism of the Hebrew prophets and of Christianity, redemption is reconciliation to the Natural by finding within it the purpose of the one personal Supernatural. “Remember how strict the commandments of God. And the Lord said: If you will keep my commandments you shall prosper in the land—but if you keep not his commandments, you shall be cut off from his presence. God has entrusted you with these things, which are scared, which he has kept sacred, and also which he will keep and preserve for a wise purpose in one, that one may show forth the Lord’s power unto future generations,” reports Alma 37. 13-14. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

To be reconciled to God is to accept all the experiences of one’s life as of God’s appointing, and one’s duties as divine commands. Thus, prophetic religion is intensely practical and this-Worldly. Speaking of its Ancient Testament, what determines their faith is not a theory of the Supernatural, but an attitude towards the Natural, as a sphere in which a victory of deeper meaning than the visible and of more abiding purpose than the fleeting can be won. We must emphasize that knowledge of our environment, whether the natural or the Supernatural, does not consist in the mere registering of impact, but always consists in a perception of meaning. In order to become aware of our environment, we must rightly interpret its impingements upon this. Thus, knowledge is not knowledge as an effect of an unknow external cause, but is knowledge as we so interpret that our meaning is the actual meaning of our environment. “And behold, I tell you by the spirit of prophecy, that if you transgress the commandments of God, behold, these things which are sacred shall be taken away from you by the power of God, and you shall be delivered up onto the adversary, that he and/or she may sift your as chaff before the wind. However, if you keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord does command you (for you must appeal unto the Lord for all things whatsoever you must do with them) behold, no power of Earth nor Hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all the words,” reports Alma 37. 15-16. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

In this interpretative process, the mind exercises a degree of freedom. That degree is established by the individual frontiers of each mind, which are largely controlled from within and across which the meaning of the environment can pass only as a meaning recognized by the individual. “For God will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has made unto our fathers. For God promised unto them that he would preserves these things for a wise purpose in him that he might show forth his power unto future generations,” Alma 37. 17-18. The Supernatural presents itself to the human mind with the quality of the sacred or of absolute worth. To be aware of the Supernatural is to recognize some sacred value that lays an absolute claim upon us, even if in these early stages of human’s dealings with the Supernatural this is only an irrational taboo. “Now, these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me; therefore I shall forbear. And it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he does counsel in wisdom over all his works, and his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round,” reports Alma 37. 11-12.  Religion is essential a dealing with an unseen environment of absolute worth, which demands worship. This recognition of and allegiance to the sacred frees us from the dominance of our physical surroundings: We can obtain a foundation to deal with our environment the moment we regard anything as scared, because we can say “No” and are no longer its mere creature. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

While our sense of the Supernatural gives us a fixed point amid the evanescent and a degree of freedom in relation to the natural, we can gain this only by our exercise of our own freedom. For the peculiarity of the supernatural environment is that we cannot enter it except as we see and choose it as our own. “For behold, there is a curse upon all this land, that destruction shall come upon all those workers of darkness, accord to the power of God, when they are fully ripe; therefore I desire that this people might not be destroyed. Therefore, keep these secret plans of their oaths and their covenants from this people, and only their oaths and their wickedness and their murders and their abominations shall you know known unto them; and you shall teach them to abhor such wickedness and abominations and murders; and you shall also teach them that these people were destroyed on account of their wickedness and abominations and for their murders. For behold, they murdered all the prophets of the Lord who cam among them to declare unto them concerning their iniquities and the blood of those whom they murdered did cry unto the Lord their God for vengeance upon those who were their murderers; and thus the judgments of Go did come upon these workers of darkness and secret combinations. Yea, cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before fully ripe,” reports Alma 37. 29-31. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

The religious person’s awareness of a larger supernatural environment, in terms of which we live, means awareness has no greater need nor possibility of philosophical justification than our awareness of the natural environment. Attempts have been made to prove the existence of a material World by other evidence than the way it environs us, but the result is no more reassuring for the reality of the natural World than for the reality of the supernatural. The insight or experience that God is the supremely personal reality, that his dealings with humans take place in the personal realm, and that the greater central Christian terms—revelation, faith, grace, sin, reconciliation—are to be understood as part of the language of personal relationship and are perverted when construed in nonpersonal ways. “And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause those should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day,” reports Alma 37.40. Religious truths are not infallibilities declared authoritatively from Heaven, but claim acceptance only because they irresistibly impress our minds as true, and God seeks our trust only by showing himself to be trustworthy. God’s works and the elements of a religious philosophy might well appeal to many today because it is consistently empiricist, being based upon what is given in human experience and because it is on a higher level of generality. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10

 

 

 

 

 

The Sun has Been the Focal Point of Scientific Investigation for Centuries

 

Therapy is about helping people find their way, not forcing anyone to subscribe to the views of someone else—that is what gets most people in to trouble in the first place! “Continue in your narrow path which leads to eternal life,” reports 2 Nephi 31.18. The moral improvement of my mind and the regulation of my life is very important. Ideal of conduct, even the pursuit of knowledge is conceived of as a Worldly enticement.  As philosophers and as metaphysicians we hope to use words in ways whose intelligibility is not completely context dependent; we try to speak in sentences which can be paraphrased, taken from their original context, and used to illuminate a range of related issues. This is not always possible. To make a new point it may be necessary for the philosopher, as much as for the poet or the scientist, to speak in a new form of words not simply translatable into any of the old forms. However, the philosopher who speaks too often in semisentences runs the risk of semiunderstanding from only a semiaudience. Since truth is by its nature eternal and immutable this condition can be fulfilled only by ideas which are in the mind of God—that is, manifestations of God’s essence. Thus, the existence of God is deducible from the very nature of truth. There are two kinds of love—desire, which seeks to unify itself with the good it pursues, and benevolence, which seeks good for others. The objects of desire, from a hierarchy—God, the good of the community, intellectual pleasures, and sensual pleasures are all in some measure good. God is the highest, but not the only good. However, I love nobody, but God. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

People used to have respect for executive’s privileges. We should treat other human beings as means—occasions of happiness to us—and never as ends. Some people believe that humans are made for a sociable life and that we should love our fellow people in the say same way that we love God and that is, of course, possible as long as they display qualities that are Godly. Knowledge is of the eternal and, therefore, of God. We see all things in God, which suggests to the careless reader that sensation is our analogue for knowledge. Divine ideas are the immediate objects of our thought in the perception of things. However, these are minor reformulations. Of much greater significance is the fact that the World is a great mechanism and goes like a clock. God is the efficient cause of all happenings, the only good, the only object of knowledge. We know God directly; everything else is known by way of our apprehension of God’s nature as revealed in the ideas which emanate from the Lord. Spiritual ideas can represent a material World; the material World is, indeed, very beautiful. God put a lot of work into making this World a paradise for us and many people have tried to keep the peace and restore the natural beauty. When we do what is necessary to stay healthy on the inside, we become more attractive on the outside—and we lay a great foundation for remaining healthy longer. “Unto those whom endures to the end shall the Lord give eternal life,” reports 3 Nephi 15.9.  #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

From now on, we should all make it a point to do what people with true physical vigor do: welcome any physical activity as a gift, always ready to give us a boost and life our spirits. May our bodies pay tribute to the incredible, pivotal point of midlife by feeling better, looking great, and staying healthy. It is our job to be in this life and be joyful. Nous is a term that refers to the mind and its functions generally, and it is increasingly identified with knowledge, and with reason as opposed to sense perception. When communication breaks down and people become too emotional to confess truly with their desires are, the World becomes a savage land. Human beings are highly intelligent creators, and as such we have these beautiful tools call language and self-esteem, vocabulary, and laws that are here to protect us and keep society peaceful and safe. Nous is equated generally with the rational part of the individual soul (to logistikon).  Nous is the only immortal part of the soul. Nous is a passive intellect which is affected by knowledge, and an active intellect, which alone is immortal and eternal. We believe that this power is in us and it is the spirit that comes from God. We lived before we came to this Earth, and are here now to strive to perfect the spirit within. “We shall have hope, through Atonement and Resurrection, to be raised into eternal life,” Moroni 7.41.  #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

At sometime in this life, every person is conscious of a desire to come in touch with the Infinite. Our spirit reaches out for God. This sense of feeling is Universal, and all people ought to be, in the deepest truth, engaged in the same great work—the search for the development of spiritual peace and freedom. We can offer the hope promised by God: Peace in this World, and eternal life in the World to come. Anyone regardless of culture or economic circumstance, can go to the depths of our spiritual wells and drink of this water. Self-esteem, peace of mind, and personal contentment can be fully satisfied by faithful obedience to the commandments of God. This is true of any person in any country or culture. Have you take the time to consider what would be without God? Nothing is an awe-inspiring yet essentially undigested concept, highly esteemed by writers of a mystical or existentialist tendency, but by most others regarded with anxiety, nausea, or panic. Nobody seems to know how to deal with it, and plain persons generally are reported to have little difficult one to tread and that altogether the less said of it the better. This escape, however, is not so easy as it looks. Anything a philosopher can find to talk about must somehow be there to be discussed, and so let loose upon the World that unseemly rabble of centaurs and unicorns, carnivorous cows, republican monarchs and wife burdened bachelors, which has plagued ontology from that day to this. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

Nothing (of which they are all aliases) can apparently get rid of these absurdities, but for fairly obvious reasons has not been invited to do so. Logic has attempted the task, but with sadly limited success. Of some, though not all, nonentities, even a logician knows that they do not exist, since their properties defy the law of contradiction; the remainder, however, are not so readily dismissed. Whatever Lord Russell may have said of it, the harmless if unnecessary unicorn cannot be driven out of logic as it can out of zoology, unless by desperate measures which exclude all manner of reputable entities as well. Such remedies have been attempted, and their effects are worse than the disease. Lord Russell himself, in eliminating the present King of France, inadvertently deposed the present Queen of England. Quine, the sorcerer’s apprentice, has contrived to liquidate both Pegasus and President Truman in the same fell swoop. The antiquated logicians, who allowed all entities subsistence while conceding existence, as wanted, to an accredited selection of them, at least brought a certain tolerant inefficiency to their task. Of the new it can only be said that solitudinem faciunt et pacem appellant—they make a desert and call it peace. You walk this road alone, you must reach out. Follow God, he will take you all the way home. He is sorry for the hole in your heart. A part of you is lost, that cannot be found. If the curtains come to close, just breathe out. “God has given to humans to choose life or death,” reports Helman 14.31. I do not know what you are waiting for. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

While realms of being have been abolished without warning, at the mere nonquantifying of a variable. The poetry of Earth has been parsed out of existence—and what has become of its prose? There is little need for an answer. Writer to whom noting is sacred, and who accordingly stop thereat, have no occasion for surprise on finding, at the end of their operations, that nothing is all they have left. The logicians, of course, will have nothing of all this. Nothing, they say, is not a thing, nor is it the name of anything, being merely a short way of saying of anything that it is not something else. Nothing means not-anything; appearances to the contrary are due merely to the error of supposing that a grammatical subject must necessarily be a name. Asked, however, to prove that nothing is not the name of anything, they fall back on the claim that noting is the name of anything (since according to them there are no names anyway). Those who can make nothing of such an argument are welcome to the attempt. When logic falls out with itself, honest people come into their own, and it will take more than this to persuade them that there are not better cures for this particular headache than the old and now discredited method of decapitating a patient. We know you have been lonely, we know that you have been down, for years people have been unkind. However, “This day of life given to prepare for eternal life,” Alma 34.33. reports #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

The friends of nothing may be divided into two distinct though not exclusive classes: the know-nothings, who claim a phenomenological acquaintance with nothing in particular, and the fear-nothings, who, believing, with Macbeth, that nothing is but what is not, are thereby launched into dialectical encounter with nullity in general. For the first, nothing, so far from being a mere grammatical illusion, is a genuine, even beneficial, feature of experience. We are all familiar with, and have a vocabulary for, holes and gaps, lacks and losses, absences, silences, impalpabilities, insipidities, and the like. Voids and vacancies of one sort or another are sought after, dealt in and advertised in the newspapers. And what are these, it is asked, but perceived fragments of nothingness, experiential blanks, which command, nonetheless, their share of attention and therefore deserve recognition? Sartre, for one, has given currency to such arguments, and so, in effect, have the upholders of negative facts—an improvident sect, whose refrigerators are full of nonexistent butter and cheese, absentee elephants and so on, which they claim to detect therein. If existence indeed precedes essence, there is certainly reason of sort for maintaining that nonexistence is also anterior to, and not a mere product of, the essentially parasitic activity of negation; that the nothing precedes the not. “God is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity,” reports Moroni 8.18 #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

However, verbal refutations apart, the short answer to this view, as given, for instance, by Bergson, is that these are but petty and partial nothings, themselves parasitic on what already exists. Absence is a mere privation, and a privation of something at that. A hole is always a hole in something: take away the thing, and the hole goes too; more precisely, it is replaced by a bigger if not better hole, itself relative to its surroundings, and so tributary to something else. Nothing, in short, is given only in relation of what it is, and even the idea of nothing requires a thinker to sustain it. It we want to encounter it an sich, we have to try harder than that. Better things, or rather nothings, are promised on the alternative theory, whereby it is argued, so to speak, not that holes are in things but that thing are in holes or, more generally, that everything (and everybody) is in a hole. To be anything (or anybody) is to be bounded, hemmed in, defined, and separated by a circumambient frame of vacuity, and what is true of the individual us equally true of the collective. The Universe at large is fringed with nothingness, from which indeed (how else?) it must have been created, if created it was; and its beginning and end, like that of all change within it, must similarly be viewed as a passage from one nothing to another, with an interlude of being in between. “What evidence have you that there is no God?” reports Alma30.40. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

Such thoughts, or others like them, have haunted the speculations of nullophile metaphysicians from Pythagoras to Pascal and from Hegel and his followers to Heidegger, Tillich and Sartre. Being and nonbeing, as they see it, are complementary notions, dialectically entwined, and of equal status and importance; although Heidegger alone has extended their symmetry to the point o equipping Das Nichts with a correlative (if nugatory) activity of noth-ing, or nihilating, whereby it produces Angst in its votaries and untimely hilarity in those, such as Carnap and Ayer, who have difficulty in parsing nothing as a present participle of the verb to noth. Nothing, whether it noths or not, and whether or not the being of anything entails it, clearly does not entail that anything should be. Like Spinoza’s substance, it is causa sui; nothing (expect more of the same) can come of it; ex nihilo, nihil fit. That conceded, it remains a question to some why anything, rather than nothing, should exist. This is either the deepest conundrum in metaphysics or the most childish, and though many must have felt the force of it at one time or another, it is equally common to conclude, on reflection, that it is no question at all. “Plan of redemption can be brought about only on condition of repentance in this proclaimed state. Continue the straight and narrow path until the end of proclaim,” reports Alma 42.13 and 2 Nephi 2.21. “ We must prepare our souls so we will not remember our awful guilt in perfectness, reports 2 Nephi 9.46. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

The hypothesis of theism may be said to take it seriously and to offer a provisional answer. The alternative is to argue that the dilemma is self-resolved in the mere possibility of stating it. If nothing whatsoever existed, there would be no problem and no answer, and the anxieties even of existential philosophers would be permanently laid to rest. Since they are not, there is evidently nothing to worry about. However, that itself should be enough to keep an existentialist happy. Unless the solution be, as some have suspected, that it is not nothing that has been worrying them, but they who have been worrying it. The ultimate character of self-consciousness is absolute free will. This absolute free will, when genuine, cannot be reflected upon, for it transcends reflection and is that which causes reflection. The center of tis will, the self, is always the eternal now; paradoxically it is also unlimited development. Place is the substratum within which all forms become actualized. We have seen absolute free will as emerging from creative nothingness and returning to creative nothingness. Further, it must be basically a certain place wherein everything else exists. This transcends subjectivity completely and is the place of nothingness. Nothingness, however, it not merely nothingness in opposition to phenomenal existences, that is a relative nothingness. It is the unity of opposites, as discovered through our investigation of the relationship between the self and the World. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

The contradictions of human’s existence, where the satisfaction of desire means the extinction of desire and the will makes it own extinction its object. In these problems is religion established, for in the awareness of the absolute contradictoriness and nothingness of the self’s existence we first touch the absolute and God. Although spirit develops under the influence of external stimuli, it is something unique in its own right. Spirit cannot be explained by, nor can its occurrence be predicted on, the basis of a consideration of sense experience alone. Spirit and its operations emerge under certain conditions but are not explained fully by these conditions. Thus, God’s existence is either logically necessary or logically impossible. However, it has not been shown to be impossible—that is, the concept of such a being has not been shown to be self-contradictory—and therefore we must conclude that God necessarily exits because we exist, the World exist, the Galaxy exist, the Universe(s) exist. In this way, we can validly infer from it that God’s existence is ontologically necessary. Give no one your faith undeserved. God exists without beginning or end and always as a whole. (This is virtually the scholastic notion of aseity, from a se esse, self-existence, that is, eternal and independent existence.) For if an eternal being exists, he cannot, compatibly with the concept of him as eternal, cease to exit: thus his existence is necessary. “Of course, the Lord is one eternal round,” reports Alma 7.20. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11

 

 

 

 

The Hybrid Theory–No Price is too High to Pay for the Privilege of Owning Yourself

 

We need, every one of us needs, to pause from the hectic pace of our lives and to reflect upon things sacred and divine. Where the danger is, also grows the saving power. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) was a German philosopher and poet, and is one of the most influential figures in modern philosophy. In 1848 his father, Ludwig Nietzsche, became seriously ill as consequence of a fall, and after his death in 1849, his skull was opened, and it was discovered that he had softening of the brain and that caused him to die early. In January of 1850, Nietzsche’s widowed mother lost her youngest son (who was born in 1848) and the family then moved to Naumburg. Friedrich accepted free admission to Pforta in 1858, it was a famous boarding school just a few miles from Naumburg. He was often at the head of his class and acquired an excellent classical education. In 1861 he wrote an enthusiastic essay on his favorite poet Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin, of whom the majority of his people scarcely even knew the name. Holderlin’s childhood was marked by bereavement, and he never recovered from his grief and spent the last years of his life hopelessly in agonizing pain. However, six years after Friedrich wrote his essay, Holderlin was widely recognized as Germany’s greatest poet after Geothe. The teacher wrote on the paper, “I must offer the author the kind advice to stick to a healthier, cleaner, more German poet.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

The medical records from the school of Friedrich Nietzsche contained an entry, recorded in 1862: “Shortsighted and often plagued by migraine headaches. His father died early of softening of the brain and was begotten in old age [actually, when his father was 57, his mother 35]; the son at a time when the father was already sick [most experts deny this]. As yet no grave signs are visible, but the antecedents require consideration. Throughout his life Friedrich’s health was poor. His doctors kept warning him to preserve his very bad eyesight by reading and writing less. He disregarded this advice, fought severe migraine and gastric pains with long walks and much writing, and took pills and potions to purchase a little sleep. Nothing of his brilliance relieved the sadness in his mind. Friedrich Nietzsche’s books became his life. He vegetated until his death. When the novelist Arnold Zweig wanted to write a book on Friedrich Nietzsche, Dr. Sigmund Freud wrote him that Friedrich Nietzsche’s psychological development could not be reconstructed and that he had more penetrating knowledge of himself than any other person who ever lived or was ever likely to live.” What has always made the state a Hell on Earth has been precisely that humans have tried to make it a Heaven without correcting their own behavior. We are nothing; what we search for is everything. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

Socializing is an important aspect of life. We encourage people to cultivate friends with happy conversations among people who are similar to them. The offering of the prayer is not a ritual to be thoughtlessly spoken. It is, rather, the voicing of an obligation and a promise. Cleanliness of hands, as well as purity of heart, should be a common cultural practice. When I was a young boy God often rescued me from the shouts and the rods of people and I played among trees and flowers, secure in their kindness and the breezes of Heaven were playing there too. God is friendly and faithful, and I wish he could know how much my soul loves him. As we grow, we learn to know God better than we have ever known him. Standing under the stillness above the sky, some never know the words of humans. Trees are our teachers, melodious trees, and we learn to love among flowers, as we grow up in the arms of God. Sometimes people like us more when we are prouder and wilder, more full of works, yet emptier. Giving style to one’s character is shown to be a sign of power, while it is the weak characters without power over themselves who hate the constraint of style, who become salves as soon as they serve, and who hate to serve. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

The one thing needed is that a human being attains one’s satisfaction with oneself; those who do not will make others pay for it. The only thing that all people want is power, and whatever is wanted is wanted for the sake of power. If something is wanted more than something else, it must represent more power. Most people would rather be Socrates in prison than Nero on the roof; hence, Socrates must be more powerful. However, the acme of power is embodied in the perfectly self-possessed person who has no fear of other people, oneself, or of death and whose simple personality, unassisted by any props, changes the lives of those who meet the individual and even imposes itself on the minds of those who encounter the person only at second hand, in literature. We must surpass even Socrates insofar as he suffered life; to have to fight the instincts—that is the formula for decadence. Friedrich Nietzsche and some others considered Goethe superior even to Socrates. Our personality must equal self-mastery and that is considered exemplary. A person of passion must come to master one’s passions, while a pure fool, destitute of passion, is hopeless because they are s synthesis of the inhuman and superhuman. Heroes are admired for surpassing intelligence, mastering their passions and employing them creatively. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. Human behavior is generally capable of being overinterpreted, and indeed, people are demanding nothing less than this before they can be fully understood. Even if almost all behavior can be illuminated by finding the will to power at work in it, it does not follow that this is the only ultimate motive and the only way of illuminating such behavior. Moreover, in some cases an appeal to the will to power is farfetched and not very illuminating. No poll can actually settle the question of what all people would prefer. What matters is not what they might say they prefer but what they really prefer, and we could say that something is really wanted if, and only if, failure to get it results in frustration that disappears with attainment. The human being who has organized the chaos of one’s passions, given style to one’s character, and becomes creative is aware of life’s terrors, and affirms life without resentment. Once you have lost faith in anything great, you are doomed, then, doomed to perish unless that faith returns, like a comet from unknown skies. If we renounce supernatural religious and accept a scientific approach to humanity, we lose the right to attribute to human beings as such a unique supernatural dignity. Such dignity is not gegeben but aufgegeben, not a fact but a goal that few approach. There is no meaning in life except the meaning we give to our lives, and the aims of some people has no surpassing dignity. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

To raise ourselves above the senseless flux, we must cease being merely human, all-too-human. We must be hard against ourselves and overcome ourselves; we must become creators instead of remaining creatures. Near and hard to grasp is the God. However, where danger is, deliverance also grows. Is not everything alive not already in your blood? If we could truly understand the Atonement of the Lord, we would realize how precious is one son or daughter of God. We would wish them well and pray that all suffering, being forsaken, profound self-contempt, the torture of mistrust of oneself, and the misery of one is overcome. The select individual is not the petulant person who thinks oneself superior to the best, but the person who demands more of oneself than the rest. The most radical division that it is possible to make of humanity is that which splits it into two classes of creatures: those who make great demands of themselves, piling up difficulties and duties; and those who demand nothing special of themselves, but for whom to live is to be every moment what they already are, without imposing on themselves any effort towards perfection; mere buoys that float on the waves. It is a privilege to serve the Lord. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

After our planet has been destroyed, it will eventually be reconstituted as the power quanta that make up the Universe once again reach a previous configuration and thenceforward repeat all the following patterns, to the point where some of us will be born again on the same timeline that we once existed. “The LORD is going to completely destroy everything on Earth. He will twist its surface. He will scatter those who live on it. Everything of value will be taken out of it. The Earth will dry up completely. The World will dry up and waste away. The Heavens will fade away along with the Earth. The Earth is polluted but its people. They have not obeyed the laws of the LORD. They have broken the covenant that will last forever. So the LORD will send a curse on the Earth. Its people will pay for what they have done. They will be burned up. Very few of them will be left. Those who used to have a good tie will groan. The happy sounds of the tambourines will be gone. Those noise of those who enjoy wild parties on the boat will stop. The joyful music of harps will become silent. People will no longer sing as they drink wine. Beer will taste bitter to those who drink it. Destroyed cities will be empty. People will lock themselves up inside of their houses. All the buildings will be knocked down. Those who are left alive will shout for joy. People from the west will praise the LORD because he is King. So give glory to him, you who live in the east,” reports Isiah 24.1-15 #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

In 1882, while taking a walk, it suddenly struck Friedrich Nietzsche with a force of a revelation that this was the most scientific of all the prophecies and that the prospect of eternal recurrence is gruesome unless one has succeeded in giving style to one’s character and meaning to one’s life to such an extent that one can joyously affirm one’s existence and say, unlike Goethe’s Fast: Abide, moment—but if you cannot abide, at least return eternally. “Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea,” reports Revelation 21.1. The power to will contains attempts to show why eternal recurrence is the most scientific hypothesis. If we assume a finite number of power quanta in a finite space and an infinite time, only a finite number of configurations are possible. However, no end state has been reached yet; hence, unless we follow Christianity in positing a beginning of time, the same configurations must recur eternally. Even if there were only a few things in a finite space in an infinite time, they need never repeat the same configuration. Imagine three wheels of equal size, rotating on a single axis, one point marked on the circumference of each and the three points lined up in one straight line. If the second wheel rotated twice as fast as the first and if the speed of the third was 1/3.14 of the speed of the first, the initial line-up could never recur. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

However, if time was infinite, eventually the same patters on the three wheels will recur because they have a countless number of times to reconfigure. The soul that, living, did not attain its divine right cannot repose in the nether World. But once we are bent on, what is holy, our poetry, is accomplished: Be welcome then, stillness of the shadows’ World! We shall be satisfied though our lyrics will not accompany us down there. Once we lived like the gods, and more is not needed. “At that time the LORD will punish the spiritual forced of evil in the Heavens above. He will also punish the kings on the Earth below. They will be brought together like prisoners in chains. They will be locked up in prison. After many days the LORD will punish them. The LORD who rules over all will rule on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The Elders of the city will be there. They will see God’s great glory. His rule will be so glorious that the Sun and Moon will be too ashamed to shine. However, we are warned against judgment and against being too resentful toward unbelievers and, indeed, toward the World. To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. She is a beast, I call her Karma. Lady Justice (Justitia) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems, and she will eat their hearts out like Jeffrey Dahmer. Be careful, try not to lead her on. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

Thus far, we have learned about dealing with the errors of confusing cause and effect, the error of false causality, the error of imaginary causes, and the error of free will. However, our concern is primarily with mortality and religion. Morality and religion teach that if you are good you will be happy. Virtue is the effect of happiness and vice is bred by unhappiness—a commonplace in the twenty first century, but not in the nineteenth. Against the error of a false causality, there are no mental causes at all, no spirits as entities or agents. Imaginary causes include events in dreams that explain ex post facto such events as noises outside, but they also include sin as a supposed cause of suffering. One should speak only where one may not remain silent, and speak only of that which one has overcome—everything else is chatter. Of what one cannot speak, one must remain silent. Many people have gotten stuck in the snares of grammar. Language talks of opposites where there are only degrees and many refinements of gradation. The misleading errors of language (and the fundamental fallacies of reason which have become petrified in it), which understands, and misunderstands, all activity as due to an agent, a subject. It is very important to know what you are saying because if you expose someone to something they are allergic to and they die, the difference between the using the words could and would could send you to jail for murder. We are not rid of God because we still have faith in grammar. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

Without music, life would be a mistake. People sometimes tear coinages and even whole sentences out of context to suit their purposes. However, what love and spirit give cannot be extorted. The God, when he draws near, will the heart stand fast. And let me say at once that I approached to see the Heavenly. We must turn to the sciences for knowledge or reality, and there is high hopes for the future development of psychology and physiology and their relevance to issues previously considered philosophical. Too long now things divine have been cheaply used and all the power of Heaven, the kindly, spent in trifling waste by cold and cunning people without thanks, who when he, the Highest, in person tills their field for them, they think they know the daylight ad the thunder, and indeed their telescope may find them all, may count and may name every star of Heaven. Yet will the Heavenly Father cover with holy night, that we may last on Earth, out too knowing eyes. Never will our free-ranging power coerce his Heaven. The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. However, no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. We love life, not because we are use to living but because we are used to loving. What peace, what comfort this great gift is which comes through the loving grace of God.  #RandolphHarris 11 of 11Reese+Witherspoon+Jim+Toth+21st+Annual+Screen+lVvt8CUxeGcl

The Human Spirit Transcends the Self, Time, and Nature as it Opens the Door for Eternal Life

 

 

A word of hope is poured out on every generation of people by those who advocate accomplishment, an exemplary life, living up to one’s abilities, and keeping one’s commitments. Events and circumstances in the last days make it imperative for us to become more grounded, rooted, established, and settled. The journey to God allows us to come to a space where climatic revelation is disclosed. The basic purpose of our pilgrimage is to heighten our devotion to God and to reveal his will, and the practice has many beneficial ancillary effects as well. For instance, it is a reminder of the equality between humans, all distinction of rank and hierarchy is removed, and we stand before God in our undivided humanity. It also provides a useful service in international relations as it brings people from various countries together, while demonstrating that we have a common loyalty that transcends any bonds to warring kingdoms of humans. Reading and studying the scriptures make us conscious of the many conditional promises made by the Lord to encourage obedience and righteous living. The Lord made a covenant with Noah, and the rainbow became the token of that eternal covenant with all humankind that God would never flood with World again. Remember, God did not just flood a city or state, at one time he flooded the World because he did not approve of how wicked people had become. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Our life with our people obviously goes more smoothly if we behave morally, but if ultimate reality does not support such conduct, if our World is such that morality does not pay, we face an impasse in how to live. It is required that for a meaningful existence that immoral, vindictive, and capricious behavior must be denied. Our God possesses none of these traits. God meted out the Heavens with a span of goodness which is supposed to be from everlasting to everlasting. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and saw everything he had made, and behold it was very good.” For whatever now exists, exists for the good of the whole, and because this whole is always and everywhere equally perfect, all its parts must always exist. Hence, on the principle of the Good, every ultimate entity in the Universe is eternal. Fresh with the morning of Creation, the Earth was to be relished with zest. The abundance of good made the Promise Land a good land, a land of wheat and vines and figs which people were allowed to consume without scarceness. There is good reason to make our decision now to serve the Lord. Because we are so involved in the Universal purpose of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to the Lord. If we choose, we can disobey God and grieve our Lord. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

When the complications and temptations of life are somewhat removed, and when we have the time and more of an inclination to take an eternal perspective, we can more clearly evaluate what will bring us the greatest happiness in life. We should decide now, in the light of morning, how we will act when the darkness of night and when the storms of temptation arrive. True happiness is not made in getting something. True happiness is becoming something. This can be done by being committed to lofty goals. We cannot become something without commitment. We should be diligently engaged in a good cause, and do many things of our own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. Individuals should det there own goals, and goals should always be made to a point that will make us reach and strain. However, success should not necessarily be gauged by always reaching the goal set, but by the progress and attainment. In setting our own goals, we need to examine our own needs and abilities. This direction in which we are moving is more important than where we are at the moment. Goal setting should cause us to stretch as we make our way. There is no way to have any evident knowledge of any substance other than one’s own soul starting from the objects of sensation or of inner experience. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

A divine, forgiving, and timeless love beyond history gives meaning to human life. Nothing can actually operating in human history can ever be sufficiently dominant over sinful narcissism and sensuality to deliver humans from despair, although some people attempt to conceal reality with optimistic illusions. However, if we look beyond the temporal process to transcendent being, we find, though faith, a forgiving and perfect love which gives to human life a grandeur being the reach of despair and a zeal beyond the reach of apathy. This love from beyond history has been revealed to us in Christ. We know it is from beyond history because in history this kind of love, called agape, is ineffective before the powers that rule the World. It is futile and meaningless except when, as in the Christian faith, it reveals the ultimate purpose of our existence by an evaluation which transcends all time and space. Sin arises from anxiety, although anxiety is not sinful in itself. People are rendered anxious by criticizing themselves and our World, by recognizing our own limitations and the contingencies of our existence, and by imagining a life infinitely better than what actually is. When our progress seems to be at a standstill, we must have the drive, the push, the want to will us to succeed in any field. We must also learn to employ the power of prayer. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

It is important to learn the value of commitment, and remember to turn to God for direction, guidance, and help. If we brought it under control by trusting ourselves to God’s forgiving love and ultimate power, anxiety would not lead to sin. However, instead of this, we seek to bring anxiety under control by pretending to have power or knowledge or virtue or special favors from God, which we do not have. This pretense leads narcissism, cruelty, and injustice. Or we seek to escape anxiety by dulling the awareness of it with sensuality. All this is sin because it is a turning away from God to a self-centered existence. Sin thus induced is not inevitable, but it is Universal. Sin was in the World before humans became sinners, this prehumen sin being symbolized by the adversary. In this predicament we have to alternative. We may trust ourselves along with the whole of human history to God’s forgiving love. The other alternative is twofold: to sin into annihilating despair or to conceal our predicament with illusions that render our condition ever more desperate in the end. If we take the first alternative, we live not only for whatever love can be attained in history but also and primarily for the divine love beyond history. In this way the whole of human history takes on meaning. Otherwise we have only glimpses of meaning in developments occurring here and there but no meaning for the whole history. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Many people are motivated by spiritual goals. Total commitment to correct gospel principles brings joy, satisfaction, and the abundant life. If we are not in the process of becoming the person we want to be, we are automatically engaged in becoming the person we do not want to be. Transcendence is the timeless ideal of perfect love. But this love is not merely an ideal. It is a God who loves, yet is beyond time, cause and World. Self-transcendence means that the self can change into a better self. It does this by surveying past and future and by self-criticism. However, to survey past and future is to be aware of one’s involvement in time; and in self-criticism the self in retrospect is criticized by the self at a later time. However, we can predict how we might behave and the future and think about how we would like to respond to situations and therefore adjust our behavior before it happens. Humans are both bound and free, both limited and limitless; we are, and yet are not, involved in the flux of nature and time. A spirit we stand outside time, nature, World, and self, yet are involved in them. Freed of paradox, these affirmations assert that humans are free in the dimension of spirit but not in the dimension of natural existence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

The human spirit transcends the self, time, and nature because the individual can know oneself as an object, can judge oneself to be a sinner, can survey the past and future. The ultimate proof that the human spirit is free is its recognition that its will is not free. The unknown reality extends beyond our knowledge; but if we refuse to conceal our ignorance by superimposing religious beliefs where knowledge cannot reach, then our spirit is free, but our will will be condemned to doing evil things. And as you know, there are consequences for wicked actions. Therefore, in a sense the will is no free if we want eternal life because have are commanded to live a righteous life. Belief in God and following his commandments also relieves anxiety by providing courage and hope. Another sinful use of reason is to make it the basis of a false security, thus turning away from the one sure ground of security, which is a belief beyond the tests of reason, namely, that, God in forgiving love will overrule all evil at the end of history. Christian beliefs offer courage, hope, peace, zeal, love, sense of being forgiven, and other psychological effects resulting wen these beliefs are affirmed. These psychological effects are offered as the grace bestowed upon us by God when we affirm these beliefs with the total self. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

Thus, we are assured that we are loved and forgiven by God, while we are sinners. However, again, there is a clause. We must repent and make a conscious effort not to repeat the same sins because at sometime it will be too late to repent and we will be held responsible by God, in a spiritual realm, for our choices, actions, thoughts, and decisions.  Still, beyond all the incoherence of our existence and beyond all our rational powers we know there is an all-comprehending and perfect coherence which somehow overcomes and absorbs all the manifest incoherence that we experience. We must realize that not all of our problems can be solved at once. A commitment to solve our daily needs and the reaching of immediate lesser foals will bring meaningful success. We have to realize that God will judge us by the way we make use of all our possibilities. Humans beings cannot come together, with the pack mentality and judge us, by thinking they are the Godhead. “If we judge and condemn, how much more just will be our condemnation,” reports Mosiah 4.22. It is wise to male the most of every opportunity, but do not quit nor weep because of failure or disappointments. We can always divide huge commitments into smaller one that we can handle. Then self-esteem will grow and commitment toward goals of greater magnitude will become possible.  #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

The journey of success is long and possesses a series of commitments to worthy goals. A person does not become committed to worthwhile goals just by making the declaration or decision. It must be a daily progression toward established purposes. When one is wholly committed, added strengths and talents become evident. Assistance comes from unexpected sources. Who of us has not accepted some assignment with fear and trepidation, feeling totally inadequate to take on such a responsibility? However, with concern and obedience we move forward—working hard and praying often. As the task is completed, to our surprise, we have been successful. We humbly realize that our own abilities have been added upon. What we can do, or dream we can, it is important to begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Commitment also has genius power, and magic in it. “For I know that the Lord gives no commandments unto the children of humans, without preparing a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he has commanded them,” report 1 Nephi 3.7. Our enemies are becoming more hostile with each passing week. They seem intent on not only deceiving the uncommitted among us, but also on leading astray the elect. They criticize our leaders and scoff at what they consider to be sacred. They mock ordinances and covenants we know to be true and holy. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

The wicked delight in discovering and sharing human flaws and frailties among our leaders past and present rather than acknowledging and benefiting from the truths they taught. They go to the tree, and instead of enjoying the fruit thereof, they point out the scars discovered on the tree trunk. Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. We have no intention of quarreling or demanding equal time to refute. We invite the dissenters as well as all others to open their eyes and see the beauties and thrills available to those who walk in God’s path looking for good. There are three kinds of love: heedless love (agape), which seeks nothing in return; mutual love; and human beings by God’s grace may have it to some degree. Since it seeks nothing in return, it cannot have the intention of awakening responsive love, although this may be its unintended result. Suffering endured with intention to awaken responsive love would be calculating love. Hence God’s suffering love in Christ is not to awaken responsive love, although this may be its unintended result; but the intention is to protect God’s righteousness in forgiving sin because forgiveness without atonement would be condoning sin. To reap the full benefits of life, we must fill our days with commitment to worthy goals and principles. There is no other way. A productive life here on Earth will open the door for eternal life with our Father in Heaven. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

In making political judgment, the individual is inevitably biased by the social positions and historical process in which one finds their security and personal identity. No one can be entirely free of this bias, but its distortions are reduced by a faith which finds its ultimate security not in any social position or historical process but in the God of love and mercy who rules supreme over the whole course of history, determining its final outcome as no plan or purpose of humankind can ever do. Such a faith in God’s power and forgiveness enables one to practice Christian realism, whereby one is able to see the evil in the self and in the historical process with which the self is identified, as well as the depth of evil in all human life. Political judgment can then be more free of the illusions generated by false pride, on the one hand, and by despair, on the other. Justice requires the coercions of government to support moral demands; and the power of opposing parties must be equalized if one is not to be subordinated unjustly to the interests of the other. Also, to have justice, freedom to criticize is required. Justice serves love by providing the social conditions required for the practice of love. Love is the final norm but cannot by itself guide political action, because every project set forth in the name of love amid the contests for political power is infected with self-interest whereby the needs of others are falsely identified with those of self. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

With our highly developed rational powers and critical intelligence, we know that some people’s lives attract more attention from interpreters. Misrepresentations of almost every facet of an individual’s life are crucial, for they bear on an understanding of one’s significance. It is also difficult to obtain reliable information on the authenticity and relative importance of one’s work through when things are taken out of context or distorted or completely fabricated. Life is supposed to be meaningful and moving. However, where is the pleasure for people who, attending a big league baseball game, will not cheer or clap for the home run hitter who drives the winning runs, but rather would dwell upon the fact that when the start, according to their “research” out of the darkness of their mind, in grade school he was kept after school for misconduct. Woe unto those who feast on the dirt and the distasteful instead of the fruits.  Contrast that attitude with that demonstrated by a senior widow acquaintance of ours who travels to the temple every morning, spend the day attending sessions, and returns home by buss tired and work just because, “I love everyone, even those I cannot see.” Her attendance records? “I go every day it is open. Sometimes when I do not feel too strong it is difficult, but I make it somehow.” The word is commitment. We all have eyes, ears, and minds to lift, lead, and love. Each day, we must be committed to lofty Christian performance because it is essential to our eternal joy and happiness. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12

On the Peace of Faith with Pure Inspiration from Heaven

 

Our Father in Heaven knew that in mortality we would face challenges, tribulation, and turmoil; the Lord knew we would toil with questions, disappointments, temptations, and weaknesses. We must accept the doctrine of free will and the immortality of the soul. A person is only wise if he or she is aware of the limits of the mind in knowing the truth. Knowledge is learned ignorance (docta ignorantia). Endowed with a natural desire for truth, humans seek it through rational inquiry, which is a movement of the reason from something presupposed as certain to a conclusion that is still in doubt. Reasoning involves a relating or comparing of conclusion with premises. The greater the distance between them, the more difficult and uncertain is the conclusion. If the distance is infinite, the mind never reaches its goal, for there is no relation or proportion because the finite and the infinite. Hence, the mind cannot know the infinite. The infinite is an absolute, and the absolute cannot be known by means of relations or comparison. Accordingly, the mind cannot comprehend the infinite God. By rational investigation we can draw ever nearer to the Lord, but cannot reach him. The case is the same with any truth, for every truth is an absolute, not admitting of degrees. Since reason proceeds by steps, relating conclusion to premises, it is relational and hence never arrives at the absolute truth. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

Our intellect, which is not the truth, never grasps the truth with such precision that is could not be comprehended with infinitely greater precision. As a polygon inscribed in a circle increases in number of sides but never becomes a circle, so the mind approximates to the truth but never coincides with it. Thus, knowledge as beat is conjecture (coniectura). This is no mere guess or supposition that may or may not be true; it is an assertion that is true as far as it goes, although it does not completely measure up to its object. Reason is like an eye that looks at a face from different and even from opposite positions. Each view of the face is true, but it is partial and relative. No one view, nor all taken together, coincides with the face. Similarly, human reason knows a simple and indivisible truth piecemeal and through opposing views, with the result that it never adequately measures up to it. The weakness of human reason is evident because its primary rules is the principle of noncontradiction, which states that contradictories cannot be simultaneously true of the same object. However, there is a coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum) in reality, especially in the infinite God. In contrast, the principle of noncontradiction stubbornly refuses to admit the compatibility of contradictories in reality. It takes almost a miracle to get some to understand this; and yet without this admission the ascent of mystical theology is impossible. #RandolpHarris 2 of 8

In human beings there is a power of knowing superior to reason called intellect by which we rise above the principle of noncontradiction and see the unity and coincidence of opposites in reality. An example would be when Joshua prayed for the Sun and the Moon to stand sill, this motion of Heavenly spheres is called dusk. And think about how God brought stone into existence in a state containing moisture, the entire definition of stone would be different than what is needed for an inhabitable planet. At first, God has to create substances, which are defined as how they first come into existence in distinct forms, each containing specific, essential properties. Once a certain substance exists in a desired form with its essential properties, only then can God make aberrations in its nature, without altering the actual substance in general. God desired that stone exist—this means an arid, hard substance. So God first brought stone into existence as a dry, hard element, and not as a moist object, which would not be stone. Subsequent to its creation, God can make aberrations. Meaning, first God defined matter by giving each substance specific, unique properties. This occurred during the six days. Only subsequent to the completion of all substances, could God incorporate a suspension of those properties in a few items, but suspension means altering that which already exists. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Certain miracles were needed for future events, without which, catastrophe would occur. As it is God’s wish to benefit humanity, the suspension of a few laws was essential to preserve humankind. Therefore, God made concessions to human beings (implied by making these miracles at the last moment possible) by altering law of created matter. All miracles are built into created matter. Miracles are multiple forces operating simultaneously, which some might see as a contradiction. Due to the need for substance to maintain essential, structural properties, matter needed to come into existence as a defined entity. Only once existing in an essential form could God alter it to assist humans. We are most concerned with showing the coincidence of opposites in God. God is the absolute maximum or infinite being, in the sense that he has the fullness of perfection. There is nothing outside of God to oppose him or to limit him. God is the all. God is also the maximum, but not in the sense of the supreme degree in a series. As infinite being he does not enter into relation or proportion with finite beings. As the absolute, the Lord excludes all degrees. If we say he is the maximum, we can also say he is the minimum. In short, in God, the infinite being, all opposition is reconciled in perfect unit. The Holy Ghost binds us to the Lord. By divine assignment, God inspires, testifies, teaches, and prompts us to talk in the light of the Lord. We have the sacred responsibility to learn to recognize his influence in our lives and respond.  #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

 The coincidence of the maximum and minimum in infinity is illustrated by mathematical figures. For example, imagine a circle with a finite diameter. As the size of the circle is increased, the curvature of the circumference decreased. When the diameter is infinite, the circumference is an absolutely straight line. Thus, in infinity the maximum of straightness is identical with the minimum of curvature. Or, to put it another way, an infinite circle is identical with a straight line. There are several priori proofs for the existence of the absolute maximum, or God. For one, the finite is inconceivable without int infinite. What is finite and limited has a beginning and an end, so that there must be a being to which it owes its existence and in which it will have its end. This being is either finite or infinite. If it is finite, then it has its beginning and end in another being. This leads either to an infinite series of actually existing beings, which is impossible, or to an infinite being which is the beginning and end of all finite beings. Consequently, it is absolutely necessary that there be an infinite being, or absolute maximum.  The next proof deals with the absolute truth about the absolute maximum stated in the propositions: It either is or is not. It is and it is not. It either is nor is not. These exhaust all the possibilities, so that one of the must be the absolute truth. Hence there is an absolute truth, and this is what is mean by the absolute maximum. Remember the Lord’s promise: “I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

As the absolute maximum, God contains all things; he is their enfolding (complicatio). He is also their unfolding (explication) because they come forth from him. Creatures add nothing to the divine reality; they are simply limited and partial appearances of it. As a face reproduces itself more or less perfectly in a number of mirrors, so God reflects himself in various ways in his creatures. In this case, however, there are no mirrors. God transcends the Universe but is also immanent in it, as a face is present in mirrored images. Each creature is also present in ever other, as each image exists in ever other. Everything is everything else. The most universal of all created forms is the form of the Universe, called the soul of the World. This form embraces in its unity all lower forms, such as those of genera and species. These lower forms are contradictions of the form of the Universe; they are the Universe existing in a limited way. They exist in the Universe, and it in turn exists in a limited way in them. Individuals are further contractions of universal forms—for example Socrates is a contradiction of the form of humanity. The Universe as a whole is a contradiction of the infinite God. Thus, all things exist in a unified manner in the Universe, and the Universe in turn exists in the unity of God. Oppositions and contradictions that appear on the level of individuals and lower universal forms are reconciled in the unity of the Universe and ultimately in the unity of God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

Since the Universe mirrors God, it too must be a maximum—not the absolute maximum, to be sure, but the relative maximum, for it contains everything the exists except God. The Universe is absolutely infinite; only God, in his view, cold be described in these terms. However, the Universe has no circumference and consequently is boundless or undetermined—a revolutionary notion in cosmology. Just as the Universe has no circumference, it has no fixed center. The Earth is not the center of the Universe, nor is it absolutely at rest. Like everything else it moves in pace with a motion that is not absolute but is relative to the observer. Beneath this oppositions and contradictions, there is a fundamental unity and harmony, which, when it is recognized by all people, will be the basis of Universal peace. Morality is based on social sense and experience. Many of the traits of the Renaissance people are love of classical antiquity, all-encompassing curiosity, optimism, cultivation of literary styles, critical spirit, preoccupation with the individual, and love of mathematics and science. Religion is a feel for God’s goodness and providence as mirrored in the goodness and beauty of the Creation. Joy that fills our souls brings with it an eternal perspective in contrast to day-to-day living. That joy comes as peace amidst hardship and heartache. It provides comfort and courage, unfolds the truths of the gospel, and expands our love for the Lord and all God’s children. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Thanks to be my Lord; God the Adorable, and only to be adored. My Lord, the Eternal, the Ever-existing, the Cherisher, the True Sovereign whose mercy and might overshadow the Universe; the Regulator of the World, and Light of the creation. His is our worship; to God belongs all worship; God existed before all things, and will exist after all that is living has ceased. Thou art the adored, my Lord; Thou art the Master, the Loving and Forgiving. My Lord, Thou art the Helper and the afflicted, the Reliever of all distresses, the Consoler of the broken hearted; Thou art present everywhere to help Thy children. My Lord, Thou art the Creator, I am only created; Thou art my Sovereign, I am only Thy servant; Thou art the Helper, I am the beseecher; Thou art the Forgiver, I am the sinner; Thou, my Lord, art the Merciful, All-knowing, All-loving. Lord, grant to me the love of Thee. Grant that I may love those that love Thee. Grant that I may do the deeds that win Thy love. Make Thy love to be dearer to me than anything else. Lord! Grant me firmness in faith and direction. Assist me in being grateful to Thee and in adorning Thee in every good way. I ask Thee for an innocent heart, which shall not incline to wickedness. I ask Thee for a true tongue. I pray Thee to defend me from that vice which Thou knowest, and for forgiveness of those faults which Thou knowest. My Defender! Assist me in remembering Thee and being grateful to Thee, and in worshipping Thee with the excess of my strength. Forgive me out of Thy loving kindness, and have mercy on me; for verily Thou art the forgiver of offenses and the bestower blessings on Thy Servants. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

Our Lives Pass Away Like as it Were Unto Us a Dream

 

God’s interior presence and providence is the only evidence of life. We do not have to be perfect today. We do not have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can as a way of discharging an intellectual debt for our generation and to religious seekers of every age. Every person is faced with practical decisions and moral choices that require personal assessment of the circumstances and particular means and end in view. There is a point at which even a great military leader cannot rely solely upon the rules of strategy and one’s formal conception of warfare; one must place all these abilities at the service of his or her personal estimate of a particular military situation in order to make a responsible decision. One is directly engaged in concrete reasoning in the natural mode of inference. We all are going through different life experiences. While some are filled with joy today, others feel as though their hearts could burst with sorrow. Some feel as though the World is their side show; others feel as though they are the star of a romantic film, plucked from their twinkling fairy tale, and the swooning waltz, and placed in devastation and confusion and robbed of all that is precious to them. No matter one’s situation, no matter one’s emotional or spiritual state of mind, regardless of where one is in this sojourn through mortal life, being our true selves is the real challenge in life. It is all about honesty, making our yearnings known, and expressing our feelings openly and without reservation. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

The concrete uses of intelligence are not thematized and critically controlled. The reasoning is informal insofar as it deals with questions that cannot be settled by appealing simply to the formal logical rules, but still it is a quite deliberate and reflective way of reasoning. Informal reasoning is required by our World of particulars, but this World does not prevent us from reflecting upon the way in which we explore and interpret it. Illative sense is only a grand name for designating a very ordinary way of using the mind. Life, just like a romance, is an adventure. It is fraught with conflict and fluctuations, but if we let go of the myth of the fairytale, we get to the real heart of the story. Certainly, we have much to be grateful for. And if we will consider the blessings we have, we will forget some of our worries. Of course, serenity and joy will come to us if we realize the blessings we have, and it will help us a great deal. The illative sense refers to the type of operation of the human mind as it engages in concrete reasoning, reaches a conclusion of inference, and determines whether to give its certitudinal assent to the inferred proposition about a concrete reality. Certitude consists in an active response of the mind to the weight and tenor of the argument, a living recognition of the meaning and the truth of the proposition that states some findings. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

Furthermore, this certitduinal apprehension of the truth of the proposition is an inalienably individual act. We come to grasp the important argument; see the bearing of the evidence; give our assent to the proposition as true. An ancient proverb states that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The sole and final judgment on the validity of an inference in concrete matters is committed to the personal action of the ratiocinative faculty, the perfection or virtue of the illative sense. Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. It is the mind that reasons, and that controls its own reasonings, not any technical apparatus of words and propositions. This power of judging and concluding, when in its perfection, is called the illative sense. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination. The same principle applies to how we can climb to higher spirituality. The illative use of the mind is observable not only in the concluding act of an inference in concrete issues, but also at the outset and along the way of reasoning. The need for personal use of intelligence—especially in creative work suggest the governing hypothesis, to gauge strength of some particular stage in the inquiry, and to discern the bearings of many outlying investigations upon the main problem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

Our Heavenly Fathers know that we must begin our climb from where we are. When we climb up the ladder, we must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until we arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel—we must begin with the first, and go on until we learn all the principles of exaltation. However, it will be a great while after we have passed through the veil before we will have learned them. We seek to conduct ourselves responsibly in all these operations, and illative sense refers to the intellectual mastery or perfection that an individual develops for inquires in some concrete field. It comes close to the Aristotelian habit of prudence or practical wisdom, except that it can reach into the speculative order and attain certitude there. However, despite a similar pattern of concrete logic for different fields, the personal mastery cannot simply be transferred from one area to another. A person may give us good grounds for trusting his or her judgment in military affairs or biological questions, whereas one may be utterly lacking in sagacity in respect to political legislation. Our Heavenly Father loves each one of us and understands that this process of climbing higher takes preparation, time, and commitment. God understands that we will make mistakes at times, that we will stumble, that we will become discouraged and perhaps even wish to give up and say to ourselves it is not worth the struggle. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

However, we do not isolate religious inquiry from other concrete uses of intelligence, but it is required to conform to the common requirements of concrete inquiry. Religious people are not concerned solely with abstract and general issues but seek the truth about the reality of God, the person of the Savior, the complex life of the church, and the individual soul’s response to them all. These matters belong in the region of concrete existence and thus impose their own requirements upon the searcher’s mind. The interested individual cannot do justice to the issues if one confines oneself to what can be ascertained exclusively from the use of formal reasoning. Such a restriction is bound to lead a noncommittal attitude, not because of the religious issues as such but because of the failure to make use of the concrete reasoning requires by the situation. We know it is worth the effort, for the prize, which is eternal life, is the greatest of all the gifts of God. And to qualify, we must take one step after another and keep going to gain the spiritual heights we aspire to reach. A notional assent is on made to the truth of a proposition itself, whereas a real assent is one made to the reality itself intended by the proposition. Thus one may give a notional assent to God in terms of some abstract divine attributes and also give a real assent to God considered as a personal being who cares for one as an individual person. This is a matter of interpretation on the part of the mind that is considering the statement. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

In the case of purely ideal inquiries, a notional assent is sufficient. However, we live in a translinguistic World, and our questions reach out to the community of real existents, especially to other persons. Here, the mind’s notional assent must be integrated with, and further perfected by, a real assent to the very realities under investigation. An eternal principle is revealed in holy writ: “It is not requisite that a person should run faster than he or she has strength. And again, it is expedient the one should be diligent, that thereby one might win the prize. We do not have to be fast; we simply have to be steady and move in the right direction. We have to do the best we can, one step after another. The fully appropriate intellectual response to our human situation is unavoidably a complex one, involving both notional and real assents. Taken by itself, the way of real assent is intense but unclarified. We need to engage in both formal and informal inference, weighing the evidence carefully and arriving at a careful act of notional assent. Inference and notional assent are indispensable elements in human cognition; otherwise we could not weigh the pertinent evidence on an issue, do justice to the difficulties, or formulate the theoretical findings with cool precision of statement. Thus, we assign a large role to the modes of formal and informal inference and to notional assent in the total composition of human knowledge. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

However, we must also insist upon the need for directly relating the mind to individual existents. The act of real assent achieves our intellectual orientation toward the domain of concrete existents and their values. It does do by furnishing a concrete image of the individual being under consideration and by establishing the relevance of that imaged reality to the inquirer’s own personal life. Real assent does not necessarily ensure action, but it does furnish a necessary condition for our practical responses by directing our mind toward the real existent, grasped in an image that can appeal to our passions and will. Love is not easy—and it should not be. Love is beautiful because it nurtures us and forges us into who we can become. We have to work for it. We have to focus on things that encourage growth. Do not worry much about trying to be better than someone else. Learn from others, but do not just try to be better than they are. It is important to focus on thing we can control by trying, and trying very hard to be the best we can. Our relationship to God is not yet one of direct vision; hence we must engage in inference. A concrete personal mode of reasoning is also required in order to proportion our inquiry as fully as possible to the situation of our search after the truth about God. Our aim must be grounded propositions to which we can legitimately give our notional assent, and also of forming a concrete image of the personal, morally good, and providential God to whose reality we can then give our real assent and practical attachment. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

There is an area where we personally can realize this synthesis of intellectual acts bearing on the being of God. There are many ways to God and many natural informants lead us to the Lord: the way of causality and purpose, the meaning of human existence and history, and the import of our moral life. We have scriptures that reveal the word of God to humankind through the ages. When we feast upon the word of God, we open our minds to eternal truths and our hearts to the gentle whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Truly God’s work, through scriptures and modern-day prophets, is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. To reach the transcendent, personal God, we must examine the witness of our moral life, for this is a person region where relations with other persons are best established. It is here that we have the experience of conscience, of being under command to do and not to do, of being responsible to a just and caring person who transcends our human reality but does so in a way that keeps the Lord personally concerned about our conduct. Conscience as a commanding act discloses the full human situation of our responsibility toward the good God. As we read about the great souls who have preceded us, we learn that they too had hard times of discouragement and sorrow. We learn that they persevered in spite of hardship, in spite of adversity, sometimes even in spite of their own weakness. We learn that they too continued to ascend one step after another. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

We can be like those righteous souls. Three features of the living command of conscience are also some of the best methods we have learned of achieving real as well as notional assent to God: its intentional character, its personal significance, and its practical ordination. The dictate of conscience by its very structure refers the conscientious person beyond oneself, pointing one toward the reality of the supreme lawgiver and judge of one’s moral actions. This is not purely abstract orienting of our mind but involves a concrete image of God as our concerned Father. Another advantage of this way of conscience is that the moral relationship in which it consists is personal in both poles of reference. Conscience engages us precisely as a personal self; hence it enables us to give a real assent to God as a morally concerned person. Finally, the acts of conscience relate to us the personal God in a concrete way that leas to moral and religious actions. Hence the approach to God from conscience encourages us to assent to the truth about God not only notionally but really, not only in respect to our propositions but also in respect to the personal, provident reality of God himself as the practical goal of our knowledge and love. In order to really love, we must have knowledge of what is really good. The good is essentially dependent upon and interiorly penetrated by knowledge. Knowledge stems from the relationship of the intellect to the thing know. The natural tendency of the intellect is to come to the knowledge of truth. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

Real assent to God as the Lord of conscience furnishes a frame of reference for wrestling with evil and discerning the Lord’s providential presence. A mind that is carefully formed upon the true key of that maze to the vast complicated disorder; and this it gains a more and more consistent and luminous vision of God from the most unpromising materials. Thus, conscience is a connecting principle between the creature and his Creator. Whereas the naturalistic critic appeals to the vast disorder as an antecedent reason for withholding our assent from God, we must secure first of all the inward principle of interpretation provided by the personal and moral relation of people to the Lord of conscience. The work of this principle is not to soften or gloss over the concerning God and moral humans that will enable us to understand and work with hope against physical and moral evil in our World. We must also widen our horizon to include the social, developmental, and historical aspects of human experience so that can explore the logic of those social ideals that grip the minds of humans and account for developments in their beliefs and institutions. Interpretative activity of many minds as they are engaged in judging, relating, evaluating, and dealing practically with our complex World inextricably bound together in our very nature and if we live according to our nature, they will lead us straight to our Source and Ultimate end. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

This union is achieved through a life lived in the cultivation of virtue on our part, and by God’s perfect love for us that constantly pulls us toward him. If we do not follow this natural path of love and knowledge, we will only find emptiness and despair since our nature will never be fulfilled. There are some meanings that can be worked out only in this gradual social way. Historically important ideas are those that contain many facets and require the interpretative activity of many minds, testing and developing them over many years. Ordinarily an idea is not brought home to the intellect as objective except through this variety; like bodily substances, which are not apprehended except under the clothing of their properties and results, and which admit of being walked around, and surveyed on opposite dies, and in different perspectives, and in contrary lights, in evidence of their reality. We can grasp the intentional structure of basic human meanings only through studying their carious perspectives, forcing them to enter the battlefield of critical discussion, and sometimes embodying them in visible, powerful social institutions. Through counsel and prayers, we can reach into the Heavens and personally commune with the Infinite. Through faith, Heaven itself can be moved in our behalf. Doors will be opened and answers received. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

 There is a common pattern of development that has certain traits distinguishing a healthy growth from a sickly one. The seven criteria for genuine development are preservation of the type of principle that is socially influential, continuity of these principles, their capacity for assimilation of new data, their logical sequence in organizing a complex social process, their anticipation of their own future, conservation of their past achievements, and their chronic vigor. These criteria are illustrated in kingdoms, economic policies, religious convictions, scientific hypotheses, and philosophical theories. Crucial decisions affecting the course of cultural development is being made within the University. It is replacing the episcopal palace, the banking house, and the parliamentary floor as the real center for determining the long-range direction of human history. There is a fresh synthesis of tradition and originality in the University community. The task of such a community is to educate the men and women of the World by gradually introducing them to the full complexity of our humanistic, scientific, and religious interpretations. This the University should try to do by cultivating an understanding of the various methods and ways of knowing, along with an awareness of their differences, limitations, and possibilities for unification. Our most important goal, however, is to praise the Christian faith and its practical institutions, especially as they are brought into close relation with modern humanistic and scientific ideas. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

Our contributions to faith and its practical institutions that are also concerned with modern humanistic and scientific ideas might be considered as a sustained effort at education that draws its strength from both Christianity and the other components in the University. This will fill people with light and direction. Our beloved Heavenly Father and the amazing Son will appear to them. Their direction will sweep away the thick darkness that has seized them and threatened to destroy them. It will forever sweep away confusion. Our time here is precious and so short. All too soon, our time is finished. While we can—while we have the time to complete our work—let us walk in the right direction, taking one step after another. So look upward in joy and take hold of the Lord’s hand; God will lead you to heights that are new—a land holy and pure, where all trouble does end, and your life shall be free from all sin, where no tears shall be shed, for no sorrows remain. Take God’s hand and with him enter in. Our Heavenly Father lives and knows and loves each one of us. If you do your best in life, you will be happy and content. The actions of righteous people ripple on and on through time and space and even generations. “Be not weary in well-doing, for you are laying the foundation of great work. And out of small things proceeds that which is great,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 64.33. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13