The Thang turned 3 years old this week. Happy birthday to us.<\/p>\n
As our regular readers know, a focus of the posts here at New Cool Thang has always been trying to more deeply understand Mormon doctrine, theology, and scriptures. We have spent a lot of time trying to better understand things like the atonement of Jesus Christ, free will\/agency, foreknowledge, personal revelation, eternal progression, and all sorts of other intriguing but difficult theological and philosophical subjects. Along the way there have been many wonderful comments and discussions. My life has been greatly enriched by these discussions and I feel simultaneously more knowledgeable about the things of God and more acutely aware of how much I\/we really don’t know about God and the eternities. <\/p>\n
But along with the wonderful comment and discussions, another type of comment has regularly been left here in these discussions. I’m talking about the “stop talking about that subject — you are wasting your time” comments. <\/p>\n
I loathe those knuckleheaded comments. <\/p>\n
In the middle of us trying to better understand the atonement of Jesus Christ some numbskull will come along and tell us to stop wasting our time on that subject. No, I’m not kidding. As if we would be much better off only talking about sports or something. These types of comments irritate me to no end.<\/p>\n
Since I’m irritated as I write this I’ll fire back with my uncharitable guess about a potential reason for that kind of comment: A severe lack of faith in the restored gospel. Yup — people with weak faith are afraid that pulling back the curtain will reveal that it is a sham or something (to put it in Wizard of Oz<\/em> terms). Being willing to look closely at gospel topics takes faith that the restored gospel holds up when scrutinized and my guess is that some people are deathly afraid that looking closely at things will reveal awful results.<\/p>\n Bah!<\/p>\n Truth is truth and looking closely in order to understand more light and truth is a good thing. The restored gospel can easily withstand any scrutiny in my opinion. Sure some non-essential assumptions often end up being shed but that is also a good thing. Our scriptures certainly are not against us studying the gospel deeply:<\/p>\n 18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. \n36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. 6 It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. Look, people can wallow in ignorance all they want. We are all free to choose. But here at the Thang we are all about trying to better understand the important things in life. Those who don’t like that are free to step off. (Of course I mean that in the nicest possible way…)<\/p>\n Oh and Happy New Year all! <\/p>\n [Associated Radio Thang song: Noisepie — The Anger Song<\/em>]<\/p>\n
\n 19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
\n(D&C 130: 18-19<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n(D&C 93: 36<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n(D&C 131: 6<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n