Stephen Hawking is wrong and here is why

Stephen Hawking, the great British physicist is putting out a new book.

In The Grand Design Hawking argues that, “”It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

He argues that gravity alone will always do it without any kick necessary from any Eternal power.   Part of his proof is the discovery of other planets in other solar systems.  To Hawking it proves that God did not create a world specifically in the perfect place for a once in an eternity chance of humanity.  I am not a physicist, nor have a I read the book, but just going on what I have read in various sources here is my unscientific opinion.

I think most Mormons accept that the universe is run under laws.  They are natural laws which govern all level of worlds.  That is one thing that both science and our faith agree.

Hawking and others seem to see that as justification for the lack of a God like figure.  I think most Mormons see it as God in everything.  We see his power in how the universe is governed not under pure chaos as some feel but rather under a structure and order which is influenced by God where necessary to get the right outcomes.  I would suggest that is how each of our lives work.

Give that then rather than seeing earth as an accident of one time positioning seems counter to the Mormon understanding of the universe.

Abraham 3

11 Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face, as one man talketh with another; and he told me of the works which his hands had made;

12 And he said unto me: My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out), behold I will show you all these. And he put his hand upon mine eyes, and I saw those things which his hands had made, which were many; and they multiplied before mine eyes, and I could not see the end thereof.

In this writing it appears that Abraham was introduced to the concept that the earth was not alone and that there were many more like them.  To my mind the simple discovery of more earths does not suddenly suggest that this one is just some cosmic event ruled only by gravity.  In my estimation we have known about other planets for a while now, ever since some one realized Mars and Venus were not simply stars.

I think that the big bang or the new Darwinian moment that some are spinning, much like Book of Mormon DNA everyone will go too much on both sides.

Though I think he did a great service for the Creation from Nothing crowd:

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.

So there you go Creation from nothing DOES exist, or doesn’t, or something…

Personally I think that is a stretch of logic but as I say my physics ended in grade 12 so I might not be the most logical source for an opinion ;0).

God are you against me?

It a common question that people ask themselves.  How do we deal with God when it appears we get hurt by decisions that seem right, seem authorized and yet explode in our face?

What do we do when doubt and anger creeps in when it seems like God does not hear our prayers or worse, he allows all these things to happen to us?

About two years ago things happened to me that I found myself left empty and outraged.  I was mad, not at the church, not at the leadership, but at God.  I felt that he abandon me after leading me down a primrose path which created a terrible set of circumstances.  So I hated God, I disbelieved his ability to save me.  In other words I lost my belief.

I spent probably 18 months going through the motions.  Doing all the things I used to but losing any desire to continue to act as a real Latter-day Saint.   This is not an uncommon experience, of course, many have fallen out with faith in religions world wide.

During my four years in Britain it was common to see chapels being used as pubs, garages and houses.   Some were just plain abandoned, they had become derelicts because the population rarely attend church.  In fact our kids easily got into a Church in Wales (Anglican) school because we were attending church.  I was told that many were amazed because it was “difficult” to qualify.

As the years have gone by and I have become more in tune with God again I have realized that while I am still not happy with my so-called Job moment, I understand better that I needed to overcome it.  Unlike Job I found I could not just let it all fall off my strong testimony.

I have seen now that some aspects of what happened would have made life difficult on us as we were entering a depressed economy in a tiny community in the mountains. However though my goal has changed some it is not completely turned on its heels.  In fact I am still able to do some of the things I wanted to even if it was not in manner I wanted.  In fact I have picked up the derelict bricks and slowly rebuilt the temple in my heart.

My understanding of God and his role in my life has changed to some degree, yet I feel like I have a much better understanding of how my Father in Heaven works with me.  My personal relationship with God is like any other relationship.  I can build or destroy it, it is my choice.  Can I rebuild that relationship with someone I cannot see?

There is a key I decided that the problem was me.  In evaluating my anger I decided that it was something that created a gap.  I felt discouraged and annoyed about all that had happened and blamed it on God.  Deciding to begin reaching out to God once more is something which seemed easier said than done.  But I felt the need, to once again accept that I am unable to control everything.

However, with a rebuilt relationship there is a slow and steady approach.   So anyone could return to accepting that God is not to blame for everything, and maybe one border guard should not determine how I view my relationship with God.  I am not the best of students but I can say I am learning on this eternal path… I hope all of those who question God can come to an understanding.

What the bloggernacle means to me

With the Banner of Heaven retrospective going on over at Bloggernacle Times it has made me reflect somewhat on what the whole bloggernacle might mean to me.

Historically I came to the bloggernacle later than most.  After being heavily involved in political blogging I had only read a few LDS blogs once in a while and mostly read the FAIR website for its semi-once-in-a-while articles.  I ended up reading blogs in earnest in the spring of 2006 because I got thinking that if there are so many blogs about so many subjects then there must be a large LDS blog populace.  I was not wrong.

At the time I had no desire to start my own blog I just wanted to get a feel for what other Latter-day Saints thought in the world.  It was then that I found the Mormon Archipelago.  Using its links I was able to find a number of blogs.  Some I found were ones that were easy to gravitate to and others were sometimes thought provoking and others were, well, not my cup of tea.  I am not alone in this discovery nor particularly new at it.

Most of us I think find the Bloggernacle in similar fashion.

For me commenting on issues was fun, I thought after a while if I got invited to a bigger blog I would probably be willing to do so.  But mostly I did not know the crowd so I supported the ones I liked and commented as often as I could.

After leaving my political jobs and returning the university I felt like starting my own LDS blog would be a good way to share some of my history research with everyone, LDS history I found was a popular topic on the blogs I read.  It was about that time that the Juvenile Instructor started up.  So we were kind of kin to one another as same era blogs.

I have over the past couple of years floated around blogging very inconsistently due to just being too busy or less interested in LDS blogging.   This burn out phase has hit more often than I would admit but at the same time I am writing for a number of things so after a while I just found myself getting burned out and not having a lot to say on some issues.  Again this can and does happen.  Lots of rich writers and commentators on the bloggernacle have fallen off and in some cases gotten back on.

After four years I can say that I know what I appreciate about the bloggernacle.   It is a two fold thing that I want to express.

1.  I think the LDS Blogs offer perspectives and thinking that at once can be revelationary and on another side can be mundane or hostile.  Each of these have their place, I know some blogs I have read have challenged me from all three and some that bored me from all three.   Yet each category has reached me at different times when I was looking for different things.  Blogs I do not normally frequent, Feminist Mormon Housewives and Mormon Mommy Wars have both offered me something I can think about.

2.   The intellectual contributions and out of the box thinking, this is something the blogs can do to help develop ideas of faith.  They are out growths of Dialogue and Sunstone magazines, where some of this began.  In some ways it reminds me of the ancient and medieval philosophers who helped to set ideas about religious institutions.  Often I see Thomas Aquinas, Moses Maimonides and Al-Ghazali in some of the discussions about the role of God, the foreknowledge of the Father, and in the role and place we have in the afterlife.  In some ways these discussions are mind blowing but in others they advance religious understanding and conformity which is more developed than your garden variety Sunday School meeting.

In ways the bloggernacle has added to my understanding of gospel topics, and has blown some of my own preconceptions away.  I love it when it does that and this more than anything else is the reason I return to understand and grow both in intelligence and in faith.    That for me is what the bloggernacle has meant to me.

Blood, water, and spirit

This week in Elders Quorum we were discussing Adam and Eve.   Funny last two lessons have disproved my concerns over the use of the Gospel Principles book for our lessons.  Last month we got into a discussion about creation and evolution which was mildly respectful.  This time we discussed Adam and Eve, the discussion was the usual story with the usual info.

Then our teacher sprung this scripture on us:

Moses 6: 59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the ^aspirit, which I have made, and so became of ^bdust a living soul, even so ye must be ^cborn again into the kingdom of heaven, of ^dwater, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and ^eenjoy the ^fwords of ^geternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal ^hglory;

 60 For by the ^awater ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are ^bjustified, and by the ^cblood ye are ^dsanctified;

He demonstrated this idea of being born by blood water and spirit and how each of these things are key to your eventual death and return to God through a second birth.

Water = baptism
Spirit = the way that we are made holy though the Holy Ghost
Blood = blood of Christ and the atonement

The concept is a facinating one because it compares rebirth and birth as parts of the same whole.   The circle of life, to misuse a saying.   I think that is the key for the story of Adam and Eve, that whether we take the story literally or not the lesson we learn from it is eternal in nature. 

We all must enter this life to meet our second estate.  To go beyond that second estate we must meet the conditions in a way which has symbolic unity with the previous entrance.  In a way it is beautiful in its simplicity.

Pilgrimage sites and their significance in Mormonism

Above are four of the major religious centres of worship for Christians, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism.  These sites have significants for different people.

For followers of Islam making the Hajj is seen as important part of fulfilling religious observance.  For various reasons people go to these sites seeking to build a relationship with their deity, or with an enlightened state.   In each case worshippers have their ways of showing that devotion.  In the Hajj one of the important points is to stone the devil or Ramy al-Jamarat as a part of their purification ritual.

In Judaism praying at the Western Wall of the temple, the Wailing Wall, is seen as a way to achieve more purity, the prayer there is worth more than a normal prayer.

In Christianity, especially in Catholic and Orthodox circles, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has taking on a holy pilgrimage point since the early medieval period.  It is considered the traditional site of Jesus Christ death and burial place.  (in Protestant and Mormon circles the Garden Tomb is more popular)

This Sunday while sitting in Priesthood one person brought up the idea of following the pioneer trail.  I know there are other mentions of the sense of pilgrimage for Mormon sites.  The way this person described the ideal of touring the pioneer trail, it reminded me of this need for pilgrimage.  I am not ridiculing anyone who wants to visit these sites or find meaning in them but I recognized within them the beginnings of a similar process created by other faiths.

In Kathleen Flake’s book there was an active discussion about the concept that the First Presidency in early 1900s began this process of focusing on the places of early Mormon history as sites for holy places.  In a way they became modern versions of these other places, though my example of the Great Buddha was put up in the 1980s apparently.

I think of Carthage jail and see similarities to the visiting of the St. Thomas Becket’s shrine and relics by medieval pilgrims in England as having a similar sense of relation.  The idea of visiting the sites of martyrs is a ancient tradition.  In this people find a sense of meaning and purpose which transcends the death of the martyr, it builds of sense of unity with that martyr to visit the place.  Certainly as a youngster I still remember the visit I made to the Carthage Jail and to the hill Cumorah.  They left indelible impressions on me in how I feel towards Joseph Smith.

So if one was to project this forward will these significant sites develop within the church that it becomes critical site for pilgrimage in the same way that the more ancient sites have been for other faiths?   Will it be seen as a test of faith to go see the grave of the prophet?

In North America the repeating of the pioneer trek has been something of modern pilgrimage given for youth to experience.  We talk often of the times we have gone to the early church sites, in Britain this is also been developed with the Preston site.   For me this confirms the argument that the dedication of the monument in 1905 to mark Joseph Smith’s birth 100 years previous brought the church out of its beginnings and into the a different more establishment phase.  With it created a series of marking points of pilgrimage which Mormons across the world could develop a sense of unity.

In the end is that very different that the establishment of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Constantine in 325.  It too was used to mark the place of Christ’s death and create a point for Christian pilgrims to travel to from across the Roman world.  I see in these parallels a sense of unity, and a sense of purpose for the faithful.

Nauvoo temple commitment

Just reading the latest John Whitmer Association journal.  In it is an excellent article on the Cutlerites.

For the second time in the last few months I came across the idea that the church wanted to get the Nauvoo temple finished before they left because if it did not it would be under condemnation.

the specific verses are in Doctrine and Covenants section 124:

Doing the right thing seems so unusual

Last week my wife and I were out doing some shopping.  When we came home there was a box on the door step.

It became obvious that the box, which neither of us expected, was not for us.  It had been delivered to our address by mistake by a shipping company.  So we examined the address and we realized quickly that the address was meant for someone on the other side of our neighbourhood.

So my wife tried to look them up to find the person in the phone book so she could call and let her know we had her package.   We failed to find the person so we then did the next best thing we contacted the company.

After letting them know we had the package and we were looking to get to the right address the company said they would be right over.  It had turned out that the box had been tucked into the wrong delivery area and the person just read the number (which is the same as ours) and dropped it at our door.

So when they got the package back we were surprised at how happy they were.  The delivery person kept repeating how wonderful it was that we were so honest.

Now, this is not to say we are perfect, but I felt a little surprised by this, it seemed like we were being complemented for doing the right thing.   For me this was not a question, at no time did we think we should keep whatever was in the box.  So it just made sense to at least try to do the right thing.

The fact that it caught them so off guard that we would do the right thing I was left wondering why this would be that unusual.  It was sad to realize that we are now the exception instead of the rule.  I think about how the person who ordered the item would feel having invested money in something only to have it go missing.  Yes they would probably get it replaced but speaking from experience it is a bit of a nuisance.

So while I shake my head that we are unusual I am grateful that what we did was natural and not some morality question.   Hopefully it will rub off onto my children when they are in the same position.