Replace habits

 

Harsh Patel

@JustSoHarsh

“We become what we repeatedly do.” ― Sean Covey

Compare the fruits of good and evil

Tucker Carlson spelled it out clearly in this 6 minute excerpt from his last speech.

https://twitter.com/TexasLindsay_/status/1650543460057853963

Transcript:

22:16 if you want to know what's evil and what's good, what are the characteristics of those? 

And by the way you know I think the Athenians would have agreed with this, this is not necessarily just a Christian notion, this is kind of a, let's say, widely agreed upon understanding of Good and Evil.

What are its products? 

What do these two conditions produce?

Good is characterized by 

order
calmness

tranquility

peace

whatever you want to call it lack of conflict
cleanliness (cleanliness is Next to Godliness, it's true it is).

And evil is characterized by their opposites.
violence

hate

disorder

division
disorganization

and filth

So if you are all in on the things that produce the latter basket of outcomes what you're really advocating for is evil. 

That's just true.

I'm not going for a religious war, far from it. I'm merely calling for an acknowledgment of what we're watching.

Full speech on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKUA-D209pI

transcript of excerpt:

it might be time to start to reassess
18:49
the terms we use to to describe what
18:53
we're watching so when I started
18:54
Heritage the presumption was and this is
18:56
a very anglo-american assumption that
18:58
the debates we're having are kind of
19:00
rational debates about the way to get to
19:02
mutually agreed upon outcomes
19:05
right so like we all want the country to
19:07
be more prosperous and free and people
19:09
to be less oppressed or whatever and so
19:11
we're going to argue about tax rates and
19:13
I think higher tax gets gets us there on
19:14
Keynesian and you disagree you're an
19:16
Austrian or whatever
19:17
but the objective is the same
19:20
and so we write our papers and they
19:22
write their papers and made the best
19:23
papers when
19:25
I I don't think that's what we're
19:26
watching now at all I don't think we're
19:28
watching a debate over how to get to the
19:30
best outcome
19:31
I think that's completely wrong
19:33
and I've come to this conclusion and I
19:35
should say at the outside of an
19:36
Episcopalian so don't take any
19:37
theological advice from me because I
19:39
don't have any
19:40
I grew up in the shallowest Faith
19:42
tradition that's ever been invented
19:45
it's not even a Christian religion at
19:47
this point
19:48
um I say with shame but
19:51
I'm just saying this is an observer of
19:52
what's going on there is no way to
19:55
assess say the transgenderist movement
19:58
with that mindset policy papers don't
20:01
account for it at all
20:03
if you have people who are saying I have
20:05
an idea let's castrate the Next
20:06
Generation what sexually mutilate
20:08
children sorry that's not a political
20:09
debate what there's nothing to do with
20:11
politics what's the outcome we're
20:13
Desiring here
20:15
an androgynous population is that really
20:17
what we are we arguing for that
20:19
I don't I don't think anyone could like
20:21
defend that as a positive outcome but
20:24
the weight of the government and you
20:27
know a lot of corporate interests are
20:28
behind that well what is that well it's
20:30
irrational
20:32
if you say well you know I think
20:35
abortion is always bad well I think
20:37
sometimes it's necessary that's a debate
20:39
I'm familiar with
20:40
but if you're telling me that abortion
20:42
is a positive good
20:44
what are you saying well you're arguing
20:46
for child sacrifice obviously it's not
20:49
about like oh a team you know a teen
20:50
girl gets pregnant and what do we do
20:53
about that and
20:54
victims of rape I you know I get it of
20:57
course I understand that and I have
20:59
compassion for everyone involved but
21:01
when the treasury secretary stands up
21:02
and says you know what you can do to
21:03
help the economy get an abortion
21:05
well that's like an Aztec principle
21:08
actually
21:10
there's not a society in history that
21:13
didn't practice human sacrifice not one
21:15
I checked
21:16
even the Scandinavians I'm ashamed to
21:19
say it wasn't just the mesoamericans it
21:21
was everybody
21:23
so like that's what that is
21:25
what's the point of child sacrifice well
21:26
there's no policy goal entwined with
21:29
that no that's a theological phenomenon
21:32
and that's kind of the point I'm making
21:34
none of this makes sense in conventional
21:37
political terms when people or crowds of
21:41
people or the largest crowd of people at
21:44
all which is the federal government
21:46
the largest human organization in human
21:48
history
21:49
decide that the goal is to destroy
21:52
things Destruction for its own sake hey
21:54
let's tear it down
21:56
what you're watching is not a political
21:58
movement
21:59
it's evil
22:01
so if you want to assess and I'll put it
22:04
in on and I'll stop with this I'll put
22:06
it in on
22:07
pull it I'll put it in non-political or
22:09
non-roth or non
22:11
-specific theological terms and just say
22:14
if you want to know what's evil and
22:16
what's good what are the characteristics
22:17
of those and by the way you know I think
22:20
the Athenians would have agreed with
22:21
this this is not necessarily just a
22:23
Christian notion this is kind of a let's
22:24
say widely agreed upon understanding of
22:28
Good and Evil what are its
22:30
products what are these two conditions
22:33
produce
22:34
well I mean good is characterized by
22:39
order
22:41
calmness Tranquility peace whatever you
22:43
want to call it lack of conflict
22:46
cleanliness
22:48
cleanliness is Next to Godliness
22:51
it's true it is
22:53
and evil is characterized by their
22:56
opposites
22:57
violence hate disorder division
23:01
disorganization and filth
23:04
so if you are all in on the things that
23:08
produce the latter basket of outcomes
23:11
what you're really advocating for is
23:13
evil that's just true I'm not going for
23:16
a religious War far from it I'm merely
23:19
calling for an acknowledgment of what
23:21
we're watching which is not one and I'm
23:23
not certainly not backing the Republican
23:24
party I mean look
23:27
I'm not making a partisan point at all
23:31
I'm I'm just noting what's super obvious
23:34
like those of us who were in our mid 50s
23:36
are caught in the past in the way that
23:38
we think about this one side's like no
23:40
you know I've got this idea
23:43
and we've got this idea and let's have a
23:45
debate about our ideas they don't want a
23:47
debate
23:47
those ideas won't produce outcomes that
23:51
any rational person would want under any
23:53
circumstances
23:54
those are manifestations of some larger
23:58
force acting upon us
24:00
it's just so obvious
24:02
it's completely obvious
24:05
and I think two things one
24:08
we should say that
24:10
and stop engaging in these totally
24:13
fraudulent debates
24:15
where we are using the terms that we
24:18
used in 1991 when I started at Heritage
24:20
as if maybe you know I could just win
24:22
the debate if I marshaled more facts
24:23
I've tried that doesn't work
24:26
and two maybe we should all take just
24:29
like 10 minutes a day to say a prayer
24:31
about it
24:33
I'm serious like why not
24:35
and I'm saying that to you not as some
24:38
kind of evangelist I'm literally saying
24:41
that to you as an Episcopalian the
24:43
Samaritans of our time
24:45
I'm coming to you from the most humble
24:49
and lowly theological position you can
24:51
I'm literally an Episcopalian okay
24:55
and even I have concluded it might be
24:58
worth taking just 10 minutes out of your
25:00
busy schedule to say a prayer for the
25:02
future and I hope you will

Outstanding video on unity in the Gospel

This is a powerful message for everyone, Latter-day Saint, Evangelical, or anyone else.

David Alexander's Message to Future Latter Day Saint Missionaries!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rY7yFuiSnQ

5:59 it is a very sad story actually but it has a happy ending okay because of you and because of Joseph Smith because of Brigham Young and because of the restoration that you are part of and might not even know how precious it is because you've been born and raised in it.

_____

8:03 the sad truth is evangelical Christianity is filled with an accusatory fog.

In the Book of Mormon they call it a Mist Of Darkness but it's an accusatory fog, a fog of accusation against the most beautiful thing on earth--against a restoration--against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There's an accusatory fog that dismisses the Latter-Day Saints as just not even being Christians, having a different Jesus a different God. You've all heard this kind of thing and and it's the unquestioned monolithic conversation of Evangelical Christianity to the point that I heard or participated in conversations of this sort hundreds of times over almost half a century.

And never once did I hear one voice raised in opposition to that fog of accusation... 

Going around in circles, dying of thirst in the desert for what you have and I never even thought of visiting a Mormon a Latter-Day Saint Church.

I had all sorts of encounters with Latter-day Saints and they were uniformly, you all were like really nice but that was just proof of how really evil you were! Because if you're so evil you can appear nice, boy, that's really dangerous you know. 

I mean this is, it's bizarre, it's absolutely bizarre but I'm dying of thirst in the desert and you know the Earth is being flooded with darkness and the Ark of God is right in front of me hiding in plain sight and I can't even see it 

Welcoming dialogue about disagreements

Jacob Hess wrote an important article titled "Perspective: Scholarship that takes the sacred seriously: My 4 take-aways from a BYU conference exploring how it would change academic disciplines to draw upon gospel teachings as foundational"

It is well worth reading.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2023/4/20/23688354/byu-conference-highlights-scholarship

The excerpt below pertains to the subject of this blog; i.e., welcoming dialogue about disagreements:

_____

3. Welcoming dialogue about disagreements

Students in various academic contexts are increasingly worried about raising religious or other views that might be perceived as controversial. Some fear that standing up for increasingly countercultural religious ideas necessarily means “driving wedges.” Professor Stephen Yanchar noted how even raising honest questions a la critical thinking “has a reputation of being an attack.” 

But he insisted this work of grappling over truth on college campuses, religious or not, can all be “loving, kind and gentle — a part of relationship building.” ...

The fact that profound disagreements have become so scary at universities — the very place dedicated to hashing out different perspectives in a search for truth — highlights the unique opportunity to model a different way, perhaps especially at a place like BYU with a greater political balance than many other college campuses.

“Yes, people will disagree … and we can talk. But at least we’ll be having the discussions,” said Williams, who has spent his career encouraging a deeper conversation about unquestioned assumptions in psychology. “What could be more important than having these conversations with fellow believers in a spirit of respect and love?” 

...

“Those who fear” this kind of searching dialogue, Yanchar suggested, “have overstated its dangers.”

the right to differ from other men

 

Brigham Young, "SAINTS SUBJECT TO TEMPTATION".

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 17, 1853.

_____

We talk about true riches—about the eternal attributes of the Deity—and about that which He has given to the children of men. I also heard something said the other day about sanctification. This doctrine I heard taught many years ago, and I perceive that men do not fully understand these  principles; even the best of the Latter-day Saints have but a faint idea of the attributes of the Deity.

Were the former and Latter-day Saints, with their Apostles, Prophets, Seers, and Revelators collected together to discuss this matter, I am led to think there would be found a great variety in their views and feelings upon this subject without direct revelation from the Lord. It is as much my right to differ from other men, as it is theirs to differ from me, in points of doctrine and principle, when our minds cannot at once arrive at the same conclusion. I feel it sometimes very difficult indeed to word my thoughts as they exist in my own mind, which, I presume, is the grand cause of many apparent differences in sentiment which may exist among the Saints.

What I consider to be virtue, and the only principle of virtue there is, is to do the will of our Father in heaven. That is the only virtue I wish to know. I do not recognize any other virtue than to do what the Lord Almighty requires of me from day to day. In this sense virtue embraces all good; it branches out into every avenue of mortal life, passes through the ranks of the sanctified in heaven, and makes its throne in the breast of the Deity. When the Lord commands the people, let them obey. That is virtue.

The same principle will embrace what is called sanctification. When the will, passions, and feelings of a person are perfectly submissive to God and His requirements, that person is sanctified. It is for my will to be swallowed up in the will of God, that will lead me into all good, and crown me ultimately with immortality and eternal lives.

(1850s1853, Brigham Young, Saints ¶13–16 • JD 2:122–JD 2:123)

Have fun

Prof. Feynman

@ProfFeynman

·

11h

Life is too short to worry about stupid things. Have fun. Regret nothing, and don't let people bring you down. Study, think, create, and grow. Teach yourself and teach others.

Signs of intelligence

Prof. Feynman

@ProfFeynman

·

7h

One of the signs of intelligence is to be able to accept the facts without being offended.

Germ theory

Alec Stapp

@AlecStapp

·

Apr 15

·

Scientist who discovered that hand washing dramatically reduces mortality during child birth was ridiculed by his colleagues and then committed to an insane asylum, where he was beaten and then died 14 days later.