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Andrew DeWitt

BYU Devotional: The Most Important Three Things in the World - Brett G. Scharffs - 0 views

speeches.byu.edu/...reader.php

mormon lds faith byu devotional

shared by Andrew DeWitt on 03 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Dr. Haught introduced theologian Paul Ricoeur’s concept of the three stages of religious faith
  • The first stage, childlike faith, may be likened to the clear, unimpeded view that one enjoys standing atop a tall mountain.7 As children, our faith is simple and uncritical, and we can see clearly in every direction.
  • The second stage Ricoeur calls the desert of criticism. At some point, often during adolescence, we descend from the mountain of childlike faith and enter the critical world. We might label this world “high school” or, better yet, “college.” Here we find that others do not share our faith. In fact, some openly disparage what we hold dear. We learn that the very idea of faith is thought by many to be childish or delusional. We may become skeptical, perhaps even cynical.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The desert of criticism is akin to being in the midst of a blinding sandstorm, where you are forced to lean into the wind and take one step at a time without a clear view of where you are going. Walking by faith becomes difficult. Some of our former beliefs cannot survive the desert of criticism.
  • Ricoeur did not malign the desert of criticism, for some childish beliefs are incorrect and should be abandoned
  • Furthermore, it is only in coming down from the mountain that we are able to enter into the world and engage others who are different from us. To a great extent this is where life is lived and where we can make a difference in the world. Some people never leave the desert of criticism, and in time the memory of their childlike faith may dim. After prolonged exposure to the desert of criticism, some even lose their faith altogether. Ricoeur maintained that once one has entered the desert of criticism, it is not possible to return to the mountain of childlike faith. It is a little like leaving Eden. Something has been lost; life and faith can never be quite so simple again
  • But he held out the possibility of a third stage of religious faith. On the other side of the desert of criticism lies another mountain, not as tall as the mountain of childlike faith, with views that are not quite as clear and unobstructed. But we can, as Dr. Haught explained it, remove ourselves periodically from the desert of criticism and ascend this somewhat less majestic mountain. Ricoeur calls this possibility of a second faith “postcritical” naveté or a “second naveté.”
  • Here the truths and realities of our childlike faith can be reaffirmed or revised
  • Our faith will not be as simple as it once was, but it need not be lost. In fact, I believe our faith may become more powerful than before, for it will have weathered and survived the assaults of the desert of criticism.
  • Andrew DeWitt on 03 Nov 10
     
    My favorite part of this talk is his description of the three stages of faith which I have highlighted.
Andrew DeWitt

Learning in the Light of Faith - 0 views

magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=2626

byu devotional learning light faith ross spencer future shock physics research science

shared by Andrew DeWitt on 19 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • When I was just out of graduate school, I attended my first meeting of the American Physical Society in New York City. A highlight was a special event arranged by the conference organizers: the great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov had been invited to speak to us.
  • Hour after hour he wrote down the stories he found in books in the university library about people protesting the invention of things like machines to spin thread and to weave cloth, steam-powered trains, automobiles, airplanes, etc. All of these advances were perceived by the general public either to be physically dangerous or to be a threat to the livelihoods of workers in trades that were about to be destroyed by these advances.
  • when he started to write science fiction, he remembered all of this work he had done. So while his fellow writers were all rhapsodizing about the thrill of rockets and space travel (long before such things were possible), he wrote a story about how the local populace showed up at the launch site with torches and pitchforks in opposition to space travel. Years later, when rockets and travel outside of the earth’s atmosphere became possible, there were protests, and many of Mr. Asimov’s colleagues were astounded that he had predicted so far in advance that this would occur.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “Why,” Mr. Asimov then asked us, “among all of these talented and visionary writers, was I the only one who was able to predict that this resistance to change would occur?” He let us think about the question for an uncomfortably silent minute, then leaned into the microphone and said in an intense voice that I still vividly remember: “It’s because people are stupid!”
  • The lesson I take from my memory of this experience is that the proper attitude to have when confronted with the vast complexity both of the universe and of the ideas and activities of the people who live on this small planet orbiting an ordinary star far away from the center of things in our galaxy is profound humility.
    • Andrew DeWitt
      Andrew DeWitt on 19 Oct 10
       
      This is how we ought to deal with future shock: "humility"
  • Andrew DeWitt on 19 Oct 10
     
    Great Devotional Talk by Ross Spencer.  Includes a great reference to "Future Shock".
Braquel Burnett

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111dar.html - 1 views

history.hanover.edu/...111dar.html

shared by Braquel Burnett on 18 Oct 10 - No Cached
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Selective breeding 
  • There is no obvious reason why the principles which have acted so efficiently under domestication should not have acted under nature.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Logical Conclusion
  • With animals having separated sexes there will in most cases be a struggle between the males for possession of the females.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      One type of competition
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • No one can draw any clear distinction between individual differences and slight varieties; or between more plainly marked varieties and subspecies, and species.
  • why should we doubt that variations in any way useful to beings, under their excessively complex relations of life, would be preserved, accumulated, and inherited?
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Progression, in species rather than individual people.
  • The theory of natural selection, even if we looked no further than this, seems to me to be in itself probable. I have already recapitulated, as fairly as I could, the opposed difficulties and objections: now let us turn to the special facts and arguments in favour of the theory.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      It seems perfectly logical.
  • On the view that species are only strongly marked and permanent varieties, and that each species first existed as a variety, we can see why it is that no line of demarcation can be drawn between species, commonly supposed to have been produced by special acts of creation, and varieties which are acknowledged to have been produced by secondary laws. On this same view we can understand how it is that in each region where many species of a genus have been produced, and where they now flourish, these same species should present many varieties; for where the manufactory of species has been active, we might expect, as a general rule, to find it still in action; and this is the case if varieties be incipient species.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Starting with the premise that species came from one, ie "first existed as a variety", if they were each distinctly created, then this logic is false, because the premise is false. 
  • preserve the most divergent offspring
  • Hence during a long-continued course of modification, the slight differences, characteristic of varieties of the same species, tend to be augmented into the greater differences characteristic of species of the same genus.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      How species come about.
  • New and improved varieties will inevitably supplant and exterminate the older, less improved and intermediate varieties; and thus species are rendered to a large extent defined and distinct objects.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Extinction
  • This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings seems to me utterly inexplicable on the theory of creation.
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      The fact that there are relations among different species. 
  • But why this should be a law of nature if each species has been independently created, no man can explain.
  • As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short and slow steps
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Where is the evidence for these short steps? 
  • The wonder indeed is, on the theory of natural selection, that more cases of the want of absolute perfection have not been observed.
  • As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates;
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      Imperfection of Nature
  • we believ
    • Erin Hamson
      Erin Hamson on 18 Oct 10
       
      STILL NEEDS FAITH?
  • Natura non facit saltum
    • Braquel Burnett
      Braquel Burnett on 19 Oct 10
       
      It means "nature does not make jumps." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natura_non_facit_saltus)
Katherine Chipman

Newsroom - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 0 views

beta-newsroom.lds.org/...the-mormon-ethic-of-civility

lds civility

shared by Katherine Chipman on 21 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Speaking of civility on a personal level, Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught Latter-day Saints how to respond to criticism: “Some people mistakenly think responses such as silence, meekness, forgiveness, and bearing humble testimony are passive or weak. But, to ‘love [our] enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]’ (Matthew 5:44) takes faith, strength, and, most of all, Christian courage.”
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