Upward Thought

Over the last few years, as the Lord has unfolded to me much of what will happen prior to and after his return, I have felt a tremendous urgency to share these things with others. The consequences of these events are without equal, and many of these things have not been revealed since the foundation of the world. I care about others, and I value what God tells me, and the combination of these two motivations gives me a deep desire to share what I have been told. However, the Lord has made it crystal clear to me that I need to carefully write these things into books rather than sporadically emit pieces of them on this blog or in videos. He has repeatedly given me many convincing reasons, and every time I bring it up again, he reminds me of all the reasons, and usually gives me even more. Yesterday, I was listening to this video.  [Sidenote: I try to find situations throughout my days when what I'm doing won't suffer by my listening to something, and I try to find things worth li

Two people recently mentioned that a photo of Joseph Smith had been found. One sent me this article . I find this interesting for three reasons. First, they sure have assembled a whole lot of experts and spent a whole lot of time and money "certifying" that the photo is, in fact, Joseph Smith when any uncredentialed child could look at that picture, look at the death mask or the forensic bust created from it, and say "these are obviously not the same person." Second, there was a photo found b ack around 2008  that is a dead ringer for Joseph Smith, complete with his unusually prominent cheekbones and lips, which has received no attention at all to this day. Third, truth be told, who really cares what Joseph Smith looked like. Here's what is much, much more important: If he were to come to the churches (any of them, but especially the LDS church) that claim to be founded by him, he would be  summarily  excommunicated and asked not to speak in them . If that seems

Learning from others Like-minded doesn't mean people who agree with you on everything. It means people who have the same overarching aims in life. It's not necessarily an agreement of whats, but whys. You can learn a lot from like-minded people. Life is short. With so little time, if we have any hope of learning anything of value, we will likely need the assistance of those who (probably through this same method) have learned something we do not yet know. You've heard the cliche that you are defined by the five people you spend most of your time with. Whatever the precise number, the fact is the better the people you spend your time with, the better you are likely to become. Juries As the willingness to abide by the impartial rule of law fades among the majority, you need to remember that if you ever end up in court, your jury will be composed of people who live in the county or city where you reside. If these people are predominately of the average type, you run a high ris

For many years, I have hoped that someone would publish a low-cost Book of Mormon that did not contain any footnotes or church affiliations. Someone did it before I got a chance to. If you are coming from an LDS background, you'll find the text, chapter, and versification to fit what you're used to (except the 1840 edition, as marked).  They are for sale at print cost. There is also a compilation of sermons from the book (see the last two links).  There are no editorial additions or removals from any of the books. You can check out the insides using Amazon's preview feature. Enjoy! THE BOOK OF MORMON, 8.5X11, PAPERBACK – 4.95      ASIN: B09DDYH1XJ THE BOOK OF MORMON, 8.5X11, HARDCOVER – 16.95      ASIN: B09RP6NFV7 THE BOOK OF MORMON, 6X9, PAPERBACK – 6.95      ASIN: B0B3N2GNMF THE BOOK OF MORMON, 1840 ED, 6X9, PAPERBACK – 6.99      ASIN: B0B6LJ2PNT THE BOOK OF MORMON, 1840 ED, 6X9, HARDCOVER – 14.95      ASIN: B0B6SW1K46 GREATEST SERMONS FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON, 6X9, PAPERB

Recently, I saw this video by Jordan Peterson. I thought it was one of the most important videos a person could watch today, for many reasons. I also expected that I was in the minority of people who would appreciate it, and that the primary response would be from those who have made the Russia-Ukraine conflict the latest external sacrament of their virtue signaling faith, who could be subdivided into those who have yet to care about anything Jordan Peterson has to say, and those who, until now, have latched onto his every word. I left the tab open for a few days to let the comments accumulate, and I took a quick gander this morning. I was not disappointed. I want to use this as a case study to highlight a few aspects of predictable human behavior with regard to enlightened people, or prophets, or wisemen, or noble and great ones, or whatever we want to call these folks. You'll note that almost every critical comment lacks actual reasons for disagreeing with Peterson, yet fails to

People ask children, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" When people ask children, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" children figure out quickly that what they mean is, "what do you want to do for work when you grow up?" These are not the same thing.  It would be nice if we meant the question asked. Imagine how much this world would improve if, instead of saying "a marine biologist," "an architect," or whatever other job that has far fewer openings than applicants and therefore poses no realistic possibility of providing the career they hope for, children said, "I want to be a generous person." "I want to help people." "I want to inspire others to be the best person they can be." "I want to be patient." "I want to be honorable." "I want to be brave." People ask adults, "what do you do?" They reply with a description of their profession. "I am a br

In high school, I joined the wrestling team. The coach took one look at me and said, "you need to drop twenty pounds." I had no experience with weight loss. Having no knowledge on how to do it effectively, and no examples in my life of people who had, I interpreted his blunt invitation as being as absurd as saying, "you need to fly to the moon." That's nice, but impossible. Having learned a lot about the way bodies work since then, and having gained a lot of experience in my own, I have not only dropped 20 pounds many times in my life, but could do so again, right now, without a problem. This is, I fear, far too similar to the experience of all people when it comes to most kinds of improvement--including the integral, consummate improvement known as "repentance" of "sin." I put these two words in quotes to highlight that I am not using these words in the common modern sense, where they are strictly limited to overtly religious ideas. What I a

I came across a news article that discussed a new policy of a particular university I've never heard of. In it, administrators are quoted as saying:  "While the University recognizes the aspect of intent versus impact, we must recognize that regardless of the intent, if an individual is impacted in a harmful way, action could be taken if a complaint is filed..." It seems that this language (intent vs. harm) has come into vogue in universities other than just the one referred to. I suspect that this language is also being used increasingly in the corporate world. I think that consideration of harm and intent are important when weighing the worth of ideas and actions. I agree completely that the actual outcome of ideas and actions matter far more than intent. I wonder, though, if there is ever a case when those who use these phrases are being inconsistent in when they apply them, or dishonest in the words they are using. I also wonder if it wouldn't be wiser to be more

On a recent night, I read "The Braveheart Life" by Randall Wallace. I enjoyed Randall's vignette-style storytelling. He spun together his own life and the story of the movie Braveheart, whose screenplay he wrote. One thing I notice about exceptional people is that they rarely realize they are exceptional, and often make the mistake of assuming the exceptional things about themselves are normal. This tends to lead to tremendous disappointment and pain in interactions with others. Randall is clearly an exceptional person. Like all such people, the clues of being different are strewn about his whole life in a way that is abundantly evident from speaking with him for just a few minutes. (I have never met Randall Wallace, but I would very much like to. I bought the book after watching this interview ). One portion of his book that struck me was a story about his father, who faced certain hardships in life. Paraphrasing, Randall felt that his father would have gladly taken upo

I have said and written various things over the years about the idea of gathering. The Lord has taught me a lot about this topic. He has also shown me how, like most valuable things he teaches me, trying to say a little about it will cause more harm than good, and that I have to wait until I can appropriate lay out everything before I say much of anything about it. It's one of many topics that requires one to understand other prerequisite ideas in order to avoid doing things that would lead to greater harm than good or enabling nefarious or simply ignorant people to cause great harm by misusing the ideas. However, I will say that for some time now there have been people who have been getting snippets of the information I'm referring to. God is inspiring many people on many topics that are vital to his plan for the winding up of this world. This is just one of them. While time will tell how many of these people yield to more (or more accurate) information on these topics when th

"Optimize" is a word I use a lot in my profession, but it's not part of the common vocabulary. It means to make something the best. Optimization is a way of framing a situation as a puzzle. It requires you specify a few things, including how you determine what is best, how much time you have to solve the problem, and how long and under what circumstances the solution has to hold. I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago with my wife, who is now in her 40s. I asked her at what age would she want me to appear to her if I were a one-wish genie. She said, "probably right about now." I said, "why?" She said if she had chosen earlier, she would have picked something that she now realizes is less than the best thing to ask for. [1] I appreciated that response. As I contemplate the present population, I wonder how many individual and societal problems would vanish if people were honest enough to optimize their choices for the best life from 40-80. As

There are two related but distinct applications of these phrase. Their commonality is the sense of losing something that cannot be recovered. Their differences: The first unpardonable sin--willful disobedience to God--is almost ubiquitous. Almost no one has committed the second unpardonable sin, because almost no one has achieved the state of union with God required to commit it. The first unpardonable sin causes you to permanently lose what can only be gained in life--the highest degree of glory with God after life. The second unpardonable sin causes you to permanently lose all glory with God here and hereafter. The first unpardonable sin can be ceased by your repentance during mortal life. In this sense, it is not unpardonable in the sense that it cannot be repented of, but in the sense that while you are in it, you cannot be forgiven for it. The blood of Jesus can wash you from this sin if you forsake it. The second unpardonable sin cannot be repented of. Once committed, you are con