Comments on: “Stop thinking about and talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ!”

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:08:55 +0000

Thanks Robert.

By: Robert C.

Robert C. — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:27:39 +0000

Amen to your post, Geoff. I haven’t read the comments, but one other reason I think some people complain about “theologizing” too much is that they take a very works-oriented view of the gospel—we should spend out time doing what we know rather than nit-picking about what we know. I’m more sympathetic to this view, but I think it’s ultimately more dangerous in it’s subtle, sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing view. That is, I think there is a deep-seated intellectual arrogance that pretends or thinks all the answers are clearly given. This denies the very notion of mysteries in scripture, and many other expressions of the importance of searching and seeking for truth. This might be putting the counter case too strongly, but I think we would do much better to think of building Zion as more of an intellectual and mental endeavor rather than a purely physical undertaking. Ultimately I think both aspects must be integrated, but I think there is far too many unthinking attempts to try and build Zion, and that these attempts ultimately fail b/c they don’t take God’s word—or the implicit call in God’s word to study and think—seriously enough. Kudos to your blog for being so consecrated to studying and pondering the mysteries of God, and happy birthday!

By: annegb

annegb — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:52:45 +0000

enough…for me to enjoy church that day. Not that I’m going to have fun, but I’m working on the worship part.

By: annegb

annegb — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:51:40 +0000

I’m starting to pay close attention to all my meetings for references to Christ as opposed to the list of things you should do and the warnings that if you don’t do them, you’re screwed.

And you know, I hear the good stuff every once in awhile and the last two meetings I’ve been to have been spiritual for me because I’ve been listening for peoples testimony of Jesus.

I’ve heard one guys testimony of the Savior and one lady in Relief Society. It was enough.

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:41:28 +0000

Thanks for the kind words C Jones and Thomas. It dawns on me that this post is directly connected to my Dolores Umbridge post. Showing up at my blog and telling me to stop wasting time investigating the gospel is a very Dolores Umbridge thing to do I think.

By: Thomas Parkin

Thomas Parkin — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:52:25 +0000

There are 10 billion atoms in a brain cell, and ten billion brain cells in a brain, and when the population of Planet Earth reaches ten billion we will become one great GLOBAL BRAIN!!

Until then, congrats on 3 years of an interesting and entertaining blog. On thing is for sure: if you’re not asking the questions, you’re sure to not get the answers.

By: C Jones

C Jones — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:11:23 +0000

Geoff- I’ve always thought you had Joseph in your corner:

“the things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternityâ€”thou must commune with God.”

So here’s to (at least) 3 more great years at NCT!

By: Howard

Howard — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:31:28 +0000

Jeff G,
Your point is well taken. My point was more along the lines of minimizing the thinking maximizes the message.

By: Jacob J

Jacob J — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:11:28 +0000

I agree with almost everything Jeff G is saying here, except that I don’t think the knuckleheads Geoff refers to in the post are usually motivated by such reasonable and defensible positions as the ones Jeff G is pointing to.

I do think there is inherent danger in questioning and rationally deconstructing things as we sometimes do here. On the other hand, I think there is danger in not doing this as well (as Geoff rightly points out). Ultimately, attempts to seal things off (like revelation) from reasoned analysis are doomed to fail. Rather than trying to do that, I acknowledge that revelation has its problems just as every other “way of knowing” has its problems and attempt to construct an epistemology (sorry Kristen!) which takes that into account.

Maybe these people arenâ€™t convinced that fire should never by played with, but rather that we should tread a little more carefully than we sometimes do. (#2)

This is a fair point. I forget sometimes that some people are on shakier ground than I feel like I am on myself and it is a good reminder to tread as carefully as possible when talking about issues that could create cognitive dissonance (and the associated risk involved in tamping down the dissonance) for people reading along. This post is a masterpiece of run-on sentences.

By: Jeff G

Jeff G — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:01:04 +0000

Howard,

My point is that whether you are actively trying to think or not, you cannot avoid the process of interpretation. The very process of receiving communication of any kind, indeed of actually seeing anything as a communication as opposed to just noise, involves interpretation. Thus, the question of thinking more or less is entirely moot.