Mystery - with Greg Prince

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Inside Out.
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My name is Jim Bennett, and I am here with the inimitable Ian Wilkes.
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Ian, how are you, sir?
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I'm doing very fine today, sir.
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How are you?
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I'm doing great, and I am thrilled that Reg Prince has joined us once again.
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Greg, how are you?
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I'm I'm not inimitable.
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I may be unintelligible, but that's okay.
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Well, uh I think you are as far from unintelligible as they come, although the subject where we've come to in your roadmap uh has a little bit to do, not necessarily with unintelligibility, but about things that we don't know.
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And I think this isn't gonna be one of the most fascinating discussions in your roadmap that we've had.
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We've arrived at a section that you titled Mystery.
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And uh I'm just gonna read here this this segment here from the roadmap.
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You said, when I interviewed artist Arnold Freeberg for the is it pronounced Freeberg or Freiburg?
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Freeberg, it is Freeberg.
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Okay.
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Arnold Freeberg for the David O.
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McKay biography.
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He told of meeting with McKay and discussing the paintings of scenes from the Book of Mormon that had been commissioned by Howells, general president of the primary association.
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Oh my gosh, those were endless, endless discussions.
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They were trying to illustrate the book in 12 pictures.
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President McKay said, now whatever you do, don't paint Christ into the Book of Mormon.
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I said, and this is this is I presume Arnold Freedig speaking, I said, that's the high time of the book.
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Why not?
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Oh, he said, the finite cannot conceive of the infinite.
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I said, you use pictures of Christ as teaching eggs.
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Well, those are not done by our people.
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And he made a pronouncement that our people were not to paint Christ.
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End of the quote.
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One of the unintended consequences of Joseph Smith's theology was that in narrowing the gulf between the finite and the infinite, he opened the door to trivializing deity and robbing it of its mystery.
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Bruce McConkey's Mormon doctrine took the church farther down the same road by claiming to have answers for every imaginable question.
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It doesn't work that way.
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The response: reassure members that there is much we do not know or understand.
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Build on what we do know and leave the rest for faith.
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Mystery when it pertains to the infinite is good.
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And I read that and I was really struck by a number of things.
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First of all, uh, it's really interesting that President McKay said those paintings were done by other people, not by us.
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My understanding is particularly most of the paintings that we use, my father always just used to say they're magazine illustrations.
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It's like you go into the temple and you have all of these paintings and we decorate our temples with magazine illustrations.
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But a lot of them are done by Harry Anderson.
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Uh if you go into the church office building, there's still that huge, massive painting of the Great Commission that was done by Harry Anderson and was commissioned by the church, but Harry Anderson was a Seventh-day Adventist.
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And I I had never realized that uh there was sort of a reason for not commissioning somebody from the church to do that kind of artwork.
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Uh that hasn't endured because we have Del Parsons' portrait of Christ that is ubiquitous, that's everywhere, that makes him, in my mind, look like a BYU football player.
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But uh we have sort of broken that taboo and moved uh away from mystery even further than that.
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Uh do you have any more sort of insight on that kind of a decision for the church to not paint Christ?
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I that that's something I had never heard before.
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No, this was a McKay thing, and in my mind, it really differentiates David O.
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McKay from other church presidents since then.
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I think he had a profound sense of mystery that I haven't seen in his successors.
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And I think that's why he told Arnold what he did, and I can see the wisdom in that.
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Not only do we have pictures of Jesus every time we go around the corner in a chapel, he keeps getting fairer skinned, blonder haired, and bluer-eyed.
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Yeah.
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As if we're i it seems like we're trying to create an Aryan Jesus.
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If you think about where Jesus lived, that's not what they looked like.
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No, and there have been some wonderful portraits of Jesus, most of them not done by members of the church, that lean into what the historical Jesus would most likely have looked like, and he certainly had much darker skin, didn't have blue eyes.
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But uh I'm reminded, do you know Richard Omen?
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Does that mean mean anything to you?
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No.
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So uh my brother-in-law is Nate Omen, he's a a um professor of law at the College of William and Mary.
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Uh he's back east there with you, although he's a little further north.
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But he um his father is Richard Omen, and Richard Ollman is is an art historian and was in charge at one point of the Committee for Temple Art.
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And he pointed out that the um uh we we asked him, why do you always see the same paintings in the temple?
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Why do you always see what my father calls the magazine illustrations?
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And he said, because the process of getting any art approved goes through so many different levels that it's like being nibbled to death by ducks.
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And getting anything approved is really excruciatingly difficult, and getting any picture of Christ approved is extraordinarily difficult.
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So we always lean back on the same old stuff and 50-year-old, 60-year-old, 70-year-old paintings that have been around forever.
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Yeah, the McKay's point was not what did Jesus look like if we were to put him in a painting?
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It was look, Arnold, there is a gulf between us and deity that we should respect.
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And one of the ways that we should respect it is by not trying to humanize the deity.
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Now, granted, uh we worship Jesus as having been a human being, mortal, but the point went much deeper than that.
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What is mystery in religion?
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To me, it's the very essence of religion, it's what keeps us striving, never reaching that destination, but always enriching ourselves as we move along that journey.
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If we just think of God as daddy, um that misses a lot.
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And that's where I think, in an effort not to be like them, meaning the other churches that existed in 1830, we went far in the opposite direction and stripped away much of the mystery that is symbolized by the rituals of other Christian churches.
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Think of the Catholic Mass.
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It's laden with symbolism, and the symbolism has the goal of trying to increase the likelihood of the encounter between the human and the infinite.
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And as you read in what I had written, Bruce McConkey, I think, in a well-meaning attempt, took us farther from where we need to be by saying, Well, you can't ask me a question for which I don't have an answer.
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That's stripping the mystery, but in stripping the mystery, you're missing a lot.
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And that's what I think we should try to get back to.
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Well, citing Bruce McConkey reminds me of the passage in your seminal book, David O'Maye and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, and the reaction that President McKay had to the publication of Mormon doctrine.
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And there are a lot of stories involved in that.
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But one of the things is that President McKay absolutely thought that you couldn't define Mormon doctrine.
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I mean, what wasn't that part of President McKay's pushback?
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Yes, he was he was never into the fine points of doctrine himself.
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You read his writings, you read his sermons, it's about a living gospel, it's about pastoral issues, it's not trying to explain in 25 words or less what is justification versus what is sanctification.
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Right.
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Right.
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I think he had the church in a better position in terms of the reverence for the unknown versus the know-it-all attitude that says, we got this.
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Well, I one of the things and one of the reasons I think that this subject is very pertinent for right now is that if you listen to President Oakes' recent devotional, which was essentially his first address to the church as president of the church, you see elements of this sort of creeping back into the discussion.
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President Oaks outlined very specifically a lot of the problems the church is facing and very candidly admitted that we don't have an answer to a lot of them.
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This is in section three of it, he said the Lord has told us very little about some things.
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For example, we know very little about the spirit world that follows mortality, or even about the spirit world that preceded it.
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Hooray! That's terrific.
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It recognizes and stands in awe of things that we don't understand yet.
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Rather than trying to say we can construct our castles in the sky, we know which kingdom and how far.
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Um that falls apart pretty quickly, and yet we have a whole church full of people that assume they know it all.
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Well, I took that passage also to be sort of a back-handed slap at the Visions of Glory crowd.
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Are you familiar with Visions of Glory?
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Not by that name, no.
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Well, there was a there was a book that was written uh pseudonymously, pseudonymously, uh, by a guy who talked about his visit to the spirit world.
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And it gets very specific and tells you everything that happens in the spirit world.
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And uh this sort of fueled uh kind of a whole large movement, and the more extreme elements of that include uh Lori Daybell, Chad Daybell, um, that whole you know, terrible uh group of folks who use Latter-day Saint doctrine or theology to justify murder.
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Uh, you know, so but there have always been volunteers in the church who are more than happy to explain all the mysteries to you.
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And I I I took that passage in President Oakes' devotional to be sort of a uh thanks but no thanks, please stop doing that.
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We really don't know.
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But I I am encouraged that it kind of opens the door to the reality of accepting and being comfortable with with not knowing.
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And and and do you see a general kind of reluctance to do that among the lay membership of the church?
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We want to know.
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We want to say we have all the answers.
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And I don't know that there are a lot of members of the church that are comfortable saying we don't.
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We do want to know, but the questions that we should be concerned about are not going to be answered by one-line answers.
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It just isn't going to happen.
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Uh that was the major disservice that Bruce McConkey and earlier his father-in-law Joseph Eilding Smith did.
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Smith had a five-volume set called Answers to Gospel Questions.
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You can't give me a question that I can't answer.
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That sidesteps the reality that the most important questions that we have are in this existence not answerable, and humility requires that we stand in awe in front of that mystery and acknowledge our ignorance of it and hope for more enlightenment as we go along.
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Well, there Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R.
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McConkey were sort of cut from the same cloth, and Bruce R.
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McConkey was his son-in-law.
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And Joseph Fielding Smith's grandson and Bruce R.
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McConkie's son was a man named Joseph Fielding McConkie, who was also my mission president.
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And he wrote a book that I read right after my mission that was just called the title of the book was Answers.
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And that was, and then the subtitle was Straightforward Answers to Gospel Questions.
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So he obviously cribbed that from his ancestors and cribbed that from his grandfather.
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But I remember reading that book, and and at the time I was just sort of sort of enamored of the authority and the gravitas of the McConkis and the Smiths.
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And so I took all of it as gospel.
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And I remember reading one section in there where he was asked, can you reconcile the theory of organic evolution with the doctrine of the fall?
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And the answer was no, period.
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And then he goes on to say, as much as we want to tug at our birthright, uh, we can't do it.
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This is completely irreconcilable, and we have to reject this.
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And I look back at that and I go, how on earth does Joseph Fielding McConkey think he has the authority or the wisdom to be able to reject all science on evolution?
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I mean, the kind of, frankly, arrogance to be able to say, we have these answers, I have the answers, and if you don't go along with these answers, um you are a heretic.
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And the best example of that that involves all of these men was the story of Eugene England.
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Ian, do you know that whole story?
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Eugene England was giving lectures about the possibility of God as a progressing God, that God continues to learn just as we continue to learn.
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And Joseph Fielding McConkie was at some kind of, I don't know if it was a seminar or what the setting was, but both um Eugene England and Joseph McConkie were there speaking.
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And Joseph McConkey laid into Eugene England about the idea of a progressing God and said, I don't worship a student God.
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I worship a perfect God, and this is a terrible thing that you're teaching, and you need to stop teaching it.
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And Eugene England felt so unsettled by this that he he ended up writing a letter to Bruce R.
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McConkie and saying, look, if I'm out of line, please let me know.
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And Bruce R.
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McConkie's reply is one of the most troubling and offensive things that I've ever read that was written by an apostle.
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Probably the most troubling and offensive thing was what Delbert Stapley wrote to George Romney about how Abraham Lincoln was killed for freeing the slaves, that God killed Abraham Lincoln for freeing the slaves.
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That's a whole other tangent.
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But what Bruce R.
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McConkie said to Eugene England was: it is my job as the apostle to state the doctrine.
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And it is your job to either echo what I say or stay silent.
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And it was, I mean, he prefaced the letter by saying, This is the most important letter you will ever receive, because you are receiving this from an apostle, and I'm telling you what's right and what's wrong, and you are absolutely wrong.
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And this in response to this, Bruce McConkey went and gave his Seven Deadly Heresies talk.
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And the first of the seven deadly heresies was a direct slam on Eugene England, and saying the idea that God is a progressing God is a heresy.
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There is not one ounce of truth to it.
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And just hammering down on all of this.
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And I am amazed that Eugene England was able to stay faithful for the rest of his life, because that was just extraordinarily embarrassing and a gut punch to somebody who actually had quite a following and was quite beloved and has written so many thoughtful and wonderful things about the church, uh, only to have it slammed down uh by this sort of we know everything doctrinaire approach.
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I mean, you probably saw some of that firsthand, Greg, did you not?
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Let me give you a little bit of historical context.
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The elephant in this room is Mormon fundamentalism.
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That's really what we're talking about.
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It's the idea that there is certitude in everything, and we got it.
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And by the way, they don't.
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If you go back to the turn of the 20th century, it hadn't taken shape yet.
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The catalyst for it was what was called either higher criticism of the Bible or a synonym, the modernist heresy.
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It was the emergence in the first decade of the 20th century within the United States of the work of German Protestant biblical scholars.
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The Catholics were on the sidelines because the Pope said, Thou shalt not go there.
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What the German Protestant scholars did was to apply the tools of scientific methodology to the study of the Bible for the first time.
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And the response of conservative religions, including the Latter-day Saints, was a wholesale freakout.
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They thought everything would be lost if we allowed these scholars to go in and pillage the sanctity of the Bible.
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They were particularly upset about challenges to the creation narratives in Genesis and how that could be, in their minds, blown up by organic evolution, not having any understanding themselves of how those got into Genesis and what they represented.
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The response of the then church president Joseph F.
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Smith was to write a treatise that first was a priesthood manual and then became a book entitled Gospel Doctrine that is still in print today after more than a century.
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He also oversaw the firing of two sets of brothers at Brigham Young University who refused to back off teaching about organic evolution.
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That was the depth of the threat.
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His baton was passed to his son, Joseph Fielding Smith, then to Bruce McConkie, and Joseph Fielding McConkie made an ill fated attempt to seize the mantle of his.
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His deceased father and become the doctrinal spokesperson for the church.
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What has happened since then?
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Number one, there is no doctrinal spokesperson for the church anymore.
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Nothing even resembling the role that Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce McConkie took upon themselves.
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Number two is there was a manual written in the early 1980s.
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I think it was called Gospel Principles.
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It was a nice manual.
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It was designed for it.
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It was designed for home branches of the church, for areas of the world in which there weren't sufficient members to have even a branch structure, much less ward.
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Well, 30, 40 years later, that was reprinted as a priesthood and relief society manual.
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But there were some changes.
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The changes were they kept quotations from Bruce McConkie, they deleted all references to his name and his books.
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That tells you that there was an intentional effort to begin blotting out the memory of that rigid fundamentalism and allow us to start charting a new direction.
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And the inability of Joseph Fielding McConkie to put on that mantle was consistent with that thrust.
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That's connecting some dots, but they're not difficult to connect.
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That is fascinating.
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I did not realize that.
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And I know that Joseph Fielding McConkey very much wanted to sort of have that mantle fall on him, and it never really did.
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He was never called as a general authority.
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He taught at BYU until the day he died.
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And a lot of professor a lot of students really just adored him, and a lot of students really just despised him.
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I knew a number of people who insisted that his approach was terrible.
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I was in the adore camp.
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One of the things about him that was so remarkable is he had this marvelous sense of humor.
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He was really funny.
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And that's not something that you would associate with the McConkey name, but uh particularly one-on-one, you know, he would stand up and he would assume.
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I used to do a very good imitation of him.
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I did it for him once.
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And he went, Do I really sound like that?
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Because he would talk, he would, no, uh, when we read the Book of Mormon, and he'd always have these long sort of things in the middle of it.
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Uh, and he had a really good-natured sense of humor about it when he did that.
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But he he he really wanted to assume that role, and he wanted that role to continue, and you're right, it hasn't continued.
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And I think that we've kind of stepped away from the idea of any of that um any of that being part of the church.
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Britt Ian, I want to bring you into this discussion here.
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Um when when you when you hear all this, um, how does this jibe with your experience in the church and your experience with mystery?
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:24.160
And do you think Greg has a point here?
00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:25.279
Thank you.
00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:36.319
The section mystery in the roadmap for improving modernism is perhaps one of the most interesting sections for me.
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:46.480
I read that and I take a different position to some extent than I think where the conversation is going here.
00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:56.079
When I was a young man investigating the church, I had many questions, some very fundamental questions about the purpose of life and who am I and why am I here.
00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:01.440
Those are very strategic, high-level, but very important questions that I had in my life.
00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:07.839
If you remember the video uh Man's Search for Happiness, yeah, that really struck me.
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:13.759
You know, we had this time on this earth, we had agency, and we had purpose and we had meaning.
00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:15.599
That really connected with me.
00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:33.279
Fast forward to uh the I was into the seminary for two years from 16 to 18, and then uh institute, and then we then uh I then went to the MTC to prepare to serve a mission, and of course, you and I served our missions together in Scotland.
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:55.119
That whole experience, you know, seminary, institute, YSA, the MTC in particular, and then going through the entire structure and organization of a of a mission, gave me, as we discussed earlier, a sense of certainty that we had many answers to the questions.
00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:05.039
And I uh uh reveled and and cherished the the the uh time of studying and research.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:11.039
As a scientist and engineer, I like to have answers to questions.
00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:23.119
I accept that I won't get all the answers, but as science and engineering unfolds and you learn things and then new information comes to light and you build on those foundational pieces.
00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:28.720
That's what me and I'm sure many others actually enjoy and appreciate.
00:27:28.960 --> 00:27:37.119
When we were serving a missions, Jim, you and I, uh and Greg, you know this as well, you get asked many, many questions from all kinds of people.
00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:40.079
Um, often those questions are quite specific.
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:42.160
For example, where do we come from?
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:44.720
You know, the man's search for happiness uh question.
00:27:44.880 --> 00:28:13.200
And I appreciate Greg raising the point that in President Oakes' remarks earlier uh this week, where he said that we don't seem to know a lot about the pre-Earth life or what happens after we die, I received many questions on my mission and throughout my life as a bishop and serving on the state presidency in respect to uh pre-earth life and you know life here and what happens in the next life.
00:28:13.359 --> 00:28:17.279
There are these are very important questions to a lot of people for lots of reasons.
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:24.319
You know, when we our loved ones leave us, we want to know um are they in a in a good place and what are they doing?
00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:31.680
The church can get very specific or has done, at least in my experience, in regards to what we do in the next life.
00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:37.359
And we know we know some of that, at least, from the experience in the temple.
00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:48.799
You know, when we die, we we we we learn that there's a lot of work that needs to be done um in the next life in regards to all the temple work that's uh is needed.
00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:55.920
Um I am an individual who likes to have answers to questions.
00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:01.839
I I don't mind a little bit of mystery, but on those essential foundational pieces.
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:04.400
You know, Greg uses the term fundamental.
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:08.559
I I I can I see that from at least two angles.
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:21.119
I see the fundamentalism within the church, but I also I also uh see the fundamental foundational pieces of of having some degree of knowledge and certainty on those foundational pieces.
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:29.680
And for me, they give me a lot of reassurance, and I can then can respond, as I did on my mission, to the many questions that uh that would come.
00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:47.119
And so I'm comfortable with church providing specific answers to questions as long as those answers are reliable and trustworthy, uh, with good intent, and there's some degree of accuracy.
00:29:47.359 --> 00:30:12.240
I think when we're talking about uh faith and spiritual things, um, which are more phenomenological uh components of the gospel, they're difficult to um silo, they're difficult to uh give some structure to because people can have an experience like a near-death experience, uh you know, someone else could have a similar experience and then come away with a very different interpretation.
00:30:12.319 --> 00:30:17.359
I can see why the church would want to be very careful about those interpretations.
00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:32.000
But in a nutshell, for me, those foundational components of the gospel uh uh uh need to be answered with some structure and some clarity uh to give people like me a little bit of substance.
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:38.000
Uh yeah, we've got um many answers or at least some answers to some of the key questions.
00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:43.279
The other side to that is the mystery for me is the temple experience.
00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:49.599
We can't talk about the temple before we go, we can't talk about the temple after we leave the temple.
00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:54.319
Those conversations are assigned to the time that we have in the temple.
00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:58.240
You know, we go through the the different ordinances and the endowment, etc.
00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:01.920
We then go into the uh uh ultimate into the celestial room.
00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:03.680
All this could be found online, of course.
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:05.039
This is no secret.
00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:16.400
And many of the questions that I had about the temple symbols, you know, Greg references the symbols and the uh which I I think that that's the area of the church which carries mystery.
00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:18.640
And that I find intriguing.
00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:32.559
You know, the the different symbols, the different you know, signs and shapes, the different words that we use in the temple, for me carry a degree of significant um mystery, which I actually enjoy.
00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:38.079
I would go into the Cecil room and speak with people who are much wiser than me and ask them all kinds of questions.
00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:42.160
And again, I would get probably different different answers to those different questions.
00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:51.200
So uh getting those basic foundational pieces right and reliable is very important to someone like me.
00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:59.039
And then the mystery is in the uh the symbolism, you know, the the temple experience.
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:14.799
And the I I'm comfortable with that because in the sense that it's okay and it's completely appropriate to have different interpretations of the experience in the temple, you know, the mystery side of the church, because that's unique to the individual.
00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:28.960
For example, I would go through the temple experience, and and certain things would um uh pop out in my mind or impressions, and they I felt at that time that they were unique to me.
00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:38.160
That my interpretation, my spiritual experience in the temple, and my understanding of the uh the temple experience was unique to me.
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:46.000
And I thought that was good, that was special, that was important, and I would come away with a different experience perhaps than Jim Bennett and a Greg Prince.
00:32:46.160 --> 00:33:00.720
But they were unique and personal to me, and that was personal revelation, and therein lies the strength of the mystery, and that's where I got from Greg's section there, mystery in the road map, which I think is a fascinating section to uh you know to talk about.
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:11.119
And we don't often talk about that in the church, so yeah, getting the basics right, you know, having some degree of of of knowledge of of what is and what isn't.
00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:38.160
I'm surprised that to some extent that President Oaks has talked about we don't know much about the pre-earth life or or what happens in the next life, because there is at least something that we do we do know, but I also see the um the value and the importance of um having some uh not having all the answers to that and having some mystery to that, which again you I think you can find uh through personal revelation to some extent in the temple.
00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:49.200
So that's my kind of overview of Greg's section there on that mystery, which again I think is absolutely uh intriguing.
00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:52.079
Well, what's your response to that, Greg?
00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:54.000
I mean, Ian wants answers.
00:33:54.160 --> 00:33:55.200
Isn't that bad?
00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:57.119
No, I don't think it's bad at all.
00:33:57.279 --> 00:34:09.440
I think uh I've never had difficulty in my own life in blending science and religion.
00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:20.000
Because somewhere early on, without even knowing that it was going on, I gained an appreciation for boundaries.
00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:26.000
That there are some things, even about religion, that science can inform.
00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:29.840
And if so, let it inform.
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:32.800
Don't badmouth science.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:42.320
Uh this is something where President Oakes seems to differ from me because he takes a couple of shots in that speech at science.
00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:49.760
Where science can inform, you better listen to it, because data, if they are true data, will stand.
00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:54.880
And if you try to go against them, you will suffer as a result.
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:59.760
There are other parts of religion that science cannot inform.
00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:23.920
And that's where I think scientists need to take a step back and exercise their own kind of humility and say, not only do we not have those answers, we don't have the methodology or the machinery that we will ever be able to get at those answers, as far as we can tell.
00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:26.800
So I think Ian and I are saying the same thing.
00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:31.360
If there is an answer that can be had, let's go for it.
00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:46.000
Let's let's not be content with ignorance, but let's also acknowledge that there are a lot of questions about religion that we're not going to be able to answer, and those, by definition, are in the realm of mystery.
00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:59.280
When I was talking to Paul Dunn, he said that shortly after he became a general authority in 1964, he met with President McKay for over an hour.
00:35:59.519 --> 00:36:06.480
And he said, I've been an institute teacher for more than a decade, and college students ask a lot of tough questions.
00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:08.000
I don't have the answers.
00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:10.480
So I thought I'd come to the source.
00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:21.440
And he said, he kept firing away all these questions, and he said to his amazement, that for probably half the questions, the answer was, I don't know.
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:23.840
Lord hasn't revealed it yet.
00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:31.760
Now he went on to say in a postscript, it's interesting that the prophet of the Lord didn't know, but all my Sunday school teachers did.
00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:50.400
But but it emphasizes that there are two categories of knowledge within any religious tradition, those that are knowable and those that are mystery.
00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:55.039
The boundary between the two of them may be a flexible boundary.
00:36:55.440 --> 00:37:04.719
As science gets better, it may be able to answer some questions that it couldn't answer 50 years ago or 100 years ago.
00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:12.880
But there still is going to remain a large domain of questions for which we do not have answers.
00:37:13.039 --> 00:37:18.320
And our response is in humility to say those are mysteries.
00:37:18.639 --> 00:37:25.440
We accept the reality of those and acknowledge that we don't have access to the answers.
00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:43.119
I think the the profound messages of the book of Job including include towards the end of that book, where Job finally shakes his fist at God because he's not getting the answers and says, I demand to speak to you face to face.
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:45.840
My words.
00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:50.960
But the response coming out of the whirlwind essentially is fine.
00:37:51.039 --> 00:37:52.880
You get a face and we'll talk.
00:37:53.760 --> 00:38:03.920
It's a colossal put down on Job, who has the audacity to think that he's even capable of discussing those.
00:38:04.079 --> 00:38:10.639
That's where the voice of God says, okay, Smarty, where were you when I created the heavens and the earth?
00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:12.880
Where were you when I did this and this?
00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:19.679
How dare you assume that I'm going to talk to you about those things, you can't even understand them.
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:24.000
I really like that, Greg.
00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:29.039
I listened uh intently there, and I really value that perspective.
00:38:29.199 --> 00:38:38.400
Uh, to add uh to what I've said and to complement what you said, uh, President Oakes organized his talk around four main themes.
00:38:38.480 --> 00:38:39.760
You can go online and look at that.
00:38:39.920 --> 00:38:42.480
One of them was humility, remember that, right?
00:38:42.960 --> 00:39:26.159
And again, as a scientist and engineer, I found and experienced uh immense humility as I as the as these uh ancient mysteries, as I understood them, uh in a very limited uh way, of course, as they were unfolded to me through my whole experience in the church, through service, but in particular in the temple experience, as they, to me at least, they unfolded uh and my knowledge and my mind was expanded spiritually, I found great humility in understanding the details or trying to understand the details behind the symbolism.
00:39:26.320 --> 00:39:44.800
Again, if you look at the temple, where I think a lot of this um mystery comes together, kind of uh all uh melts together in a very profound, mysterious way, for me at least, uh and centrally through the temple experience.
00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:56.880
When you uh looking at the creation, for example, uh the you know, as as we're learning about the relationship between God and sorry.
00:39:57.280 --> 00:39:57.840
That's okay.
00:39:57.920 --> 00:40:15.440
As we're learning about the relationship between uh God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the creation, you know, and the creation of uh humankind, as we're learning about that in the in the material that we see in the temple, I'm I'm not only seeing that from a spiritual perspective, I'm seeing it as an engineer and as a scientist.
00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:29.360
I'm looking at just the uh the the the the the the code of life, the DNA life being put together through this immense spiritual uh power and energy that God and Christ has.
00:40:29.599 --> 00:40:37.440
Uh and I'm also outside of the temple, inside of the temple, I'm seeing reference to to, and I and I love space and universe.
00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:50.239
I I I watch a lot of material on that, and I've always been fascinated with with uh as a young kid, you know, with space and the solar system and the galaxies and the the science behind it, the distances are just um unimaginable.
00:40:50.400 --> 00:41:31.280
So when I see reference to the sun, moon, and stars, the symbolism, you know, the the whole symbol, uh symbolistic structure of the temple, I'm not only seeing it through um hopefully the humility of the spirit the spiritual side, which is really uh one way, one of several ways of learning, which uh I think we all agree here that's one medium of learning through uh spiritual experiences, which um again a scientist and engineer would be uh more informed uh intellectually if that if they were open to that spiritual experience.
00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:47.840
But I'm also seeing it from the data, you know, from the science and the engineering, you know, uh like the story about Noah and the Ark and all these phenomenal, you know, the partners of the Red Sea, and you look at the Bible and the Book of Mormon and you ask yourself, could that happen physically?
00:41:48.079 --> 00:41:54.239
Uh, you know, what are the um uh the physicalities, the physiology of something like that happen?
00:41:54.639 --> 00:41:56.400
Does does nature behave like that?
00:41:56.480 --> 00:41:59.039
And if it doesn't, how does that how is that possible?
00:41:59.119 --> 00:42:00.239
That's a miracle.
00:42:00.559 --> 00:42:18.480
And so having that I think the the the gospel teaches the humble to see the entire experience in all those different mediums, spiritually and scientifically and and technically and intellectually.
00:42:18.639 --> 00:42:21.199
You know, God is very, very intelligent.
00:42:21.360 --> 00:42:24.960
You know, we we talk about you know, the Pearl Great Prize talks about that.
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:28.239
We were intelligent intelligence before the world was.
00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:36.480
You know, we're talking a little bit of knowledge about who we are and and what happened before the we came into uh the earthly existence.
00:42:36.559 --> 00:42:53.599
So we know some of that, but we were intelligences, and those intelligences are spiritual spirits, and we knew stuff, and God had the plan, and Christ had the plan, and we had some semblance of knowledge of the plan, and we come here for learning and for growth.
00:42:53.760 --> 00:43:05.440
And I think the whole experience um is understanding the gospel from a technical, intellectual, scientific perspective.
00:43:05.599 --> 00:43:06.159
Absolutely.
00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:12.159
I I think that's you know, because we are intelligent beings, we we created in uh as intelligent beings for a reason, for a purpose.
00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:13.920
It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing.
00:43:14.079 --> 00:43:20.800
But of course, that spiritual um dimension is absolutely critical to be able to seeing and understanding things from a spiritual perspective.
00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:37.760
And that was my um when I read this section, I found it so fascinating, and I saw my personal experience in the gospel and in the church through those different ways of learning and understanding and teaching.
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:54.480
And when I left the temple experience, I felt um enriched because uh many times, not all the time, I uh the questions I had and uh did it questions that were answered often, not always, uh any other technical intellectual were uh answered.
00:43:54.559 --> 00:43:59.519
And if I didn't know the answer, it was humbling to be able to go back and learn.
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:03.840
Or relearn and learn something new that I didn't know before.
00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:06.719
And that's the humbling experience for me.
00:44:08.079 --> 00:44:12.000
We keep brushing up against temple.
00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:18.320
And in my mind, that's one of the great mysteries of Mormonism.
00:44:19.280 --> 00:44:22.960
But perhaps not what you might think.
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:37.920
If I were to give one word synonym for the temple experience, and I've wrestled with this issue for fifty years, it is power.
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:49.440
The initial impetus for the church moving from New York to Ohio was expressed in section thirty-eight.
00:44:50.159 --> 00:44:58.559
Go to the Ohio and you will be endowed with not knowledge, power from on high.
00:44:59.920 --> 00:45:19.679
And it was the repeated failure of the saints, including Joseph himself, to understand and appropriate that power that kept the evolution of the temple endowment moving forward.
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:31.760
It gradually morphed so that the emphasis was not on power, which could be verified as either being there or not being there.
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:38.400
In other words, if you tried to raise someone from the dead and it didn't work, it's pretty clear you didn't have that power.
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:42.480
And initially they thought they did have that power, and they failed at it.
00:45:42.719 --> 00:45:49.199
So there was a gradual shift from power to knowledge, but even knowledge is power.
00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:57.280
So that continues, in my mind, to be the subtext of the temple endowment.
00:45:57.519 --> 00:46:06.800
It's that continual quest for the mystery of how do you tap into the divine power.
00:46:11.039 --> 00:46:11.679
Very much so.
00:46:11.840 --> 00:46:12.800
Yeah, very much so.
00:46:13.039 --> 00:46:15.599
Well, that that's where the word endowment comes from.
00:46:15.760 --> 00:46:17.679
You will be endowed with power.
00:46:17.920 --> 00:46:18.480
Yes.
00:46:18.800 --> 00:46:26.320
I mean, when you talk about an endowment in secular terms, you're talking about a financial endowment that gives you the power to be able to.
00:46:26.639 --> 00:46:34.239
So so, yeah, that subtext has is always there, but we have sort of shelved the idea.
00:46:34.559 --> 00:46:40.079
We shelved it because we failed to understand that it wasn't an automatic.
00:46:40.719 --> 00:46:50.480
If you go back and look at the first endowment, it was in June 1831, years before they even conceptualized having a building.
00:46:50.639 --> 00:46:52.480
They did it in a schoolhouse.
00:46:53.119 --> 00:47:04.320
But the whole point was the Pentecostal endowment that happened to the ancient apostles, that was promised in Luke 24 and was delivered in Acts 2.
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:08.719
It was Jesus saying, Tarry in Jerusalem.
00:47:08.960 --> 00:47:09.360
Why?
00:47:09.679 --> 00:47:15.760
Because even though I have ordained you, I have authorized you, you have not yet been empowered.
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:20.719
And you must stay here until you are endowed with power from on high.
00:47:21.199 --> 00:47:28.320
So Joseph Smith and the early church were mimicking what Luke and Acts were talking about.
00:47:28.559 --> 00:47:30.800
Same words, same idea.
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.039
But they found, much to their disappointment, that it's easier said than done.
00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:44.000
Well, that whole Pentecostal experience is consistent with what happened at the Kirtlin Temple.
00:47:44.239 --> 00:47:44.800
Yes.
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:49.920
But not consistent with what the temple endowment eventually became.
00:47:50.239 --> 00:47:51.119
Correct.
00:47:51.599 --> 00:47:52.960
Which is kind of interesting.
00:47:53.119 --> 00:48:00.480
Do you think that that was just sort of a response to the fact that they couldn't duplicate the kind of I think that had a lot to do with it.
00:48:00.639 --> 00:48:17.679
And then when you moved into the Nauvoo period, other elements came into it, and the whole temple experience became a way to enshrine plural marriage in a cloak of secrecy for their own survival.
00:48:18.400 --> 00:48:21.199
So does plural marriage become the power?
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:21.920
No.
00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:30.320
Plural marriage was their rationale for taking it undercover.
00:48:32.159 --> 00:48:50.079
It was the deep secret of Mormonism, and those who were inducted into it were put under a strict cloak of secrecy to the point that if you take the words literally, if you divulge this information, you will be killed.
00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:51.119
Yeah.
00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:56.559
But but a lot of those words also were lifted from the Masonic sort of Sure.
00:48:56.719 --> 00:48:57.360
Absolutely.
00:48:57.679 --> 00:49:08.400
Because what Joseph Smith saw in Freemasonry, he appropriated for a different reason, but using the same rationale.
00:49:08.480 --> 00:49:13.360
And he knew enough about Masonry to understand the power of those symbols.
00:49:13.760 --> 00:49:14.400
Yeah.
00:49:15.199 --> 00:49:16.400
This is fascinating.
00:49:17.199 --> 00:49:28.239
What's come to mind now, as I'm listening to you both, is this is probably where the conversation will diverge, I think, in terms of my understanding and interpretation.
00:49:28.559 --> 00:49:36.559
As I look back on those experiences in the temple, and I felt a degree of when I was acting fully into the church, a degree of certainty.
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:46.480
I had many answers to questions, and I I I hear myself say that, and I can see here why that would come across quite arrogant.
00:49:46.639 --> 00:49:54.480
You know, we have all these answers to questions, and I I agree, I think we need a level of mystery and unknown to keep us humble.
00:49:54.800 --> 00:50:43.360
I I want to say this that in hindsight, looking back, reflecting on all the good things that I experienced in the church and in the temple, and the experiences in the temple, which I still hold dear, which are very personal to me, I've now come to the conclusion that those unique, very unique, distinct symbols, the very unique uh thinking of modernism towards God and deity and theology and faith, that the only few things I can extract from it that I still value are the universal conformance from it and not the distinct uniqueness.
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:54.480
What I'm saying is that I don't no longer believe that the only path to God is through learning the mysteries of Mormonism.
00:50:54.800 --> 00:51:09.280
I've learned for myself that uh one can find God and understand or wrestle with the mysteries of God and life and the purpose of life without an organized religion.
00:51:09.519 --> 00:52:03.920
That relationship between an individual and God is personal, it's profound, it uh many answers can come from that, a lot of intellectual answers can come from that personal experience, and a lot of uh um spiritual and profound experience can come from having a direct experience with God, and I believe that one does not have to experience the entire symbolism and structure and organization of the Mormon church or any religion for that matter, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise, that those mysteries can be unfolded to the individual directly and not through some uh middle agent, so to speak, that that might claim to have some kind of exclusive knowledge or wisdom or insight on certain mysteries.
00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:11.199
And so that is probably or maybe not, we'll see where the conversation goes, where we might diverge.
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:28.719
What I'm saying uh uh in a nutshell is that one does not need an organized religion to um try to understand and unfold the mysteries of God, that they can be experienced directly through uh people's own spiritual experiences.
00:52:28.880 --> 00:52:31.119
For me, my temple is nature.
00:52:31.360 --> 00:52:35.440
You know, I I there's a lot of things in my life now which have replaced nature.
00:52:35.679 --> 00:52:38.719
I see a lot of symbolism in nature.
00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:54.639
We see symbolism uh related to nature all the time, and I'm uh humbled by the power, to use your word there, Greg, of God who created this extraordinary life for his planet, us humans, uh, nature.
00:52:54.800 --> 00:53:00.159
You know, this this is spoken about uh extensively in the in the Mormon temple experience.
00:53:00.320 --> 00:53:03.679
But I get that now uh without attending the church.
00:53:03.840 --> 00:53:12.239
I don't need walls, I don't need to go to the temple, I don't need to do the audiences because ultimately the audiences in themselves won't save you.
00:53:12.480 --> 00:53:22.800
It's it's who we are, what we do, our love, our kindness, our forgiveness, how we serve others, I believe ultimately is uh the things that will save us.
00:53:23.039 --> 00:53:38.480
And you know, all these mysteries, I think it boils down to following Christ, following his example, understanding the uh, you know, why Christ did what he did, what he was trying to do, who he was.
00:53:38.719 --> 00:53:44.719
You know, we I've heard that the discussions on uh uh at church on the mysteries of Christ.
00:53:44.960 --> 00:54:10.559
And sure there are there are mysteries and you can you can you know research uh all kinds of stuff at every level, but ultimately I think what will save us is not the specifics, the prescribed for specifics which are uh the certain process that you have to follow in the temple, you know, the things that you have to do at the veil, the words that you have to say, the things that you have to enact out when you know when we reach the veil.
00:54:10.719 --> 00:54:13.440
I no longer uh accept those things.
00:54:13.679 --> 00:54:21.039
I think we are accepted by Christ and God for all the good that we do and the kindness and love that we show and the service that we we offer.
00:54:21.119 --> 00:54:26.559
So if you strip away all those messages, I think it boils boils down uh boils down to that.
00:54:27.039 --> 00:54:28.880
Uh I agree with you, Ian.
00:54:29.039 --> 00:54:31.760
I don't disagree at all with what you're saying.
00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:45.519
Having spent as much time around the non-LDS religious world as I have, I am in awe of the sense of mystery that other religionists have.
00:54:45.920 --> 00:54:54.320
The temple and the temple endowment are Mormonism's response to mystery.
00:54:56.239 --> 00:54:58.079
But those are two separate things.
00:54:58.239 --> 00:55:01.440
The endowment is what gets focused on a lot.
00:55:01.920 --> 00:55:07.920
Consider, though, the whole issue of sacred space, which clearly is not unique to Mormonism.
00:55:08.159 --> 00:55:11.280
We have our own flavor of sacred space.
00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:21.119
In going to the temple or any other sacred space, including nature, what is the hope, what is the quest?
00:55:21.360 --> 00:55:33.280
Is it not to try to narrow the gap between the finite and the infinite and somehow to tap into it, even if momentarily?
00:55:34.159 --> 00:55:42.719
That's where mystery can play out in a more tangible way than in our mundane everyday lives.
00:55:43.519 --> 00:56:12.079
And so when you hear about temple experiences among Latter-day Saints, very often it's not the endowment session, it's that that individual was in a place and of a frame of mind and spirit that even if only instantaneously there was some bridging of that gap, and there was contact between the finite and the infinite.
00:56:12.239 --> 00:56:15.440
And that's something that is unforgettable.
00:56:15.679 --> 00:56:16.239
Yeah.
00:56:16.559 --> 00:56:17.280
That's interesting.
00:56:17.360 --> 00:56:22.880
I want to throw this at you as well, and then uh hand some time back to Jim uh for his thoughts.
00:56:23.119 --> 00:56:34.400
Um all these conversations that I have with you, I I sometimes forget our listeners are following this, which is a very important part of these conversations.
00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:36.960
But I learn so much from you both.
00:56:37.119 --> 00:56:40.639
And as I'm listening, I'm learning from you both.
00:56:40.960 --> 00:56:48.480
And something I just realized just now, when we look at the temple experience, it's very process-driven.
00:56:48.639 --> 00:56:50.960
It's very structured, it's very organized.
00:56:51.280 --> 00:56:54.719
There's a lot of detail, it's a very prescribed process.
00:56:54.880 --> 00:57:01.119
And I remember uh there were certain parts of it that I would forget, right?
00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:06.880
Certain words said in a certain way, sometimes, not always, I would forget.
00:57:07.119 --> 00:57:23.840
And I was reminded at times in the temple, in this lesson room, that if I don't remember the exact words and follow the process, that God would not receive me into heaven, into the kingdom.
00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:26.239
And that worried me a lot.
00:57:26.639 --> 00:57:53.920
And I would do my very best to remember the entire process and remember what I had to do and how I had to do it, and the sequence and order of things, and exact words, and um uh the physical things that you have to do in the temple in a certain way, which, if we do it in a certain way, would only be accepted by God.
00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:55.199
That worried me.
00:57:55.440 --> 00:58:05.280
What I'm saying is that when we get too prescribed, too detailed, we lose the the very essence of what we're trying to do.
00:58:05.440 --> 00:58:11.840
I I no longer believe I have to get into heaven by repeating certain words in a certain way.
00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:13.840
I just don't believe that.
00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:20.719
Uh the people on the planet who are just wonderful people um who do extraordinarily good each day, they don't know about this.
00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:30.400
You we can argue, well, hey, you know, when they die, uh some morning will end up doing the work for them and do the proxy work and we'll say those words on behalf of that individual.
00:58:30.559 --> 00:58:33.360
Um, I guess there is that there is that response.
00:58:33.519 --> 00:58:44.079
But when we get too prescripted, too detailed, and I think this is one of the points I think you were speaking about earlier, if I understood it correctly, then we do lose the mystery.
00:58:44.239 --> 00:58:52.079
You know, when we when we get so detailed, we lose the mystery and the meaning of the of the whole experience.
00:58:52.239 --> 00:59:02.639
So in the one part of my conversation, I've talked about the need for intellectual answers, science, engineering, which someone like me, I I really value.
00:59:02.800 --> 00:59:08.239
And yes, not that's not complete without the spiritual experience, and I hope I've highlighted that.
00:59:08.480 --> 00:59:41.920
On the other side, I'm now saying that if it gets too much, too process-driven, too prescriptive, it it dilutes the whole experience because you're being told what to do, and you're not free to think and feel and explore intellectually and spiritually the different um aspects of the temple experience and what that means specifically for each individual uniquely, because each experience is is unique.
00:59:42.159 --> 00:59:44.480
Does that does that make sense?
00:59:44.800 --> 00:59:45.519
Oh yes.
00:59:45.760 --> 00:59:52.400
I attended a temple wedding in the Salt Lake Temple many years ago.
00:59:52.639 --> 00:59:54.400
It was for a friend.
00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:03.119
The officiator was a formal former president of the Salt Lake Temple, so very serious man.
01:00:05.119 --> 01:00:15.280
He begins by addressing the bride and the groom and says, Now I will be saying some words to perform this ceremony.
01:00:17.199 --> 01:00:27.679
And if you don't pay attention to everything I say and respond exactly as I tell you to, and then he paused.
01:00:28.079 --> 01:00:31.119
He said, It won't make a bit of difference.
01:00:31.920 --> 01:00:35.679
And all the tension immediately dissipated from the room.
01:00:35.920 --> 01:00:36.719
That's awesome.
01:00:36.960 --> 01:00:38.960
And and he got it absolutely right.
01:00:39.119 --> 01:00:46.960
Ian, it's exactly what you're talking about that we let the form get in the way of the essence.
01:00:47.199 --> 01:00:50.559
And sometimes we allow it to destroy the essence.
01:00:51.039 --> 01:00:55.360
Give mystery space, and it will work its magic.
01:00:56.000 --> 01:01:00.960
Don't chase it by getting too hung up on ceremony.
01:01:02.559 --> 01:01:09.440
The ceremony exists to try to gain access to that intangible reality.
01:01:11.519 --> 01:01:18.400
Which circles back to what we started with on this whole thing is let's make room for mystery within Mormonism.
01:01:19.840 --> 01:01:24.159
Well, it's gonna become scroll and what we write about an hour.
01:01:24.320 --> 01:01:29.280
I think we can uh we're we're we're kind of close to the end here.
01:01:29.599 --> 01:01:34.960
Uh you're talking about this guy, I remind again of you writing it out, President McKay.
01:01:35.440 --> 01:01:44.320
Uh one of the things that President McKay said about Temple is how disappointed he was the first time he went through.
01:01:44.480 --> 01:01:45.760
Do you recall that?
01:01:47.440 --> 01:01:48.960
Am I breaking it up?
01:01:51.440 --> 01:01:54.079
Jim, you were breaking up in what I just heard.
01:01:54.559 --> 01:01:55.519
Oh, I'm sorry.
01:01:55.760 --> 01:02:07.440
Uh I I I seem to recall that President McKay expressed disappointment in his first experience with the temple.
01:02:07.679 --> 01:02:08.320
Yes.
01:02:08.800 --> 01:02:14.559
Uh can and that that can you s expand on that a little bit?
01:02:15.280 --> 01:02:20.800
It was because, as he later said, I got too hung up on the mechanics.
01:02:21.119 --> 01:02:23.119
Exactly what we've been talking about.
01:02:23.679 --> 01:02:34.960
Well, Howard Anderson said to me at one point that he had a conversation with uh President McKay uh nearly grandfather-in-law.
01:02:35.599 --> 01:02:41.199
His grandfather-in-law, my uncle, uh, and I think one of the sources for your book.
01:02:41.599 --> 01:02:42.000
Yes.
01:02:42.559 --> 01:02:44.079
Very important source for the book.
01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:54.719
Uh, but he I remember talking to him about the temple, and he said that President McKay, and the family name for President McKay, and when we talk about him the family is Papa Dade.
01:02:55.119 --> 01:02:55.519
Yes.
01:02:55.760 --> 01:03:08.320
Uh when Papa Dade uh was talking to him, he said, the older I get, the more natural the temple experience becomes.
01:03:09.440 --> 01:03:21.519
And uh Howard was very struck by that because for most people, and certainly for me, there's nothing natural about the temple experience.
01:03:21.599 --> 01:03:40.000
It's it's an entirely unnatural, sort of artificial, strange, unusual thing, and that near the end of his life, uh Papa Dade kind of came into his own with that, and that it became sort of second nature to him.
01:03:40.480 --> 01:03:43.039
He transcended the mechanics.
01:03:43.679 --> 01:03:44.320
Yes.
01:03:45.199 --> 01:03:49.280
And you know, I I and I still have a ways to go to get there.
01:03:49.440 --> 01:03:56.239
I I find the temple experience uh not to be a natural experience.
01:03:56.320 --> 01:03:57.280
I'll just leave it at that.
01:03:57.360 --> 01:04:11.440
I don't want to dive too deeply into that, but other than to say that I think part of that comes from his willingness to accept ambiguity, accept mystery as part of the experience.
01:04:11.599 --> 01:04:22.079
That that the the older, certainly the older I get, the paradox is that uh the more cognizant I am of what I don't know.
01:04:22.559 --> 01:04:26.400
You know, the kind of certainty, Ian, that you were talking about that we had on our missions.
01:04:26.480 --> 01:04:29.360
We knew everything when we were 20 years old.
01:04:29.599 --> 01:04:36.320
Um now that we're much older, uh I'm just well aware that I of how much I don't know.
01:04:36.480 --> 01:04:46.400
And I see that in President Oaks with this devotional, is that President Oaks is somebody who projects a certain aura of certainty when he gets at a pulpit.
01:04:46.639 --> 01:04:50.559
And that has shifted dramatically since he's become president of the church.
01:04:50.719 --> 01:04:52.400
There is a humility there.
01:04:52.800 --> 01:05:04.000
There is uh a sort of understanding of the overwhelming responsibility with which he's been tasked that I think embraces, Greg, the very mystery that you're talking about.
01:05:04.159 --> 01:05:06.800
Do you see that in President Oakes' demeanor now?
01:05:06.960 --> 01:05:08.000
Do you see a shift?
01:05:08.320 --> 01:05:08.880
Yes.
01:05:09.039 --> 01:05:20.880
Uh my father was in several bishoprics and later became a bishop, and he said, I've learned there's a big difference between a bishop and a Rick.
01:05:25.280 --> 01:05:26.239
That's true.
01:05:26.800 --> 01:05:32.320
And you can sit next to the president's chair for 40 years.
01:05:33.440 --> 01:05:35.360
This is viewing it from a distance.
01:05:35.440 --> 01:05:37.760
I've never sat near or in it.
01:05:38.159 --> 01:05:45.039
But when you sit in it, the world can change, and it can change radically and it can change rapidly.
01:05:45.119 --> 01:05:49.440
And we have seen that in some presidents in our lifetime.
01:05:49.679 --> 01:05:55.360
Jim, you've talked before about some of the changes that President Lee went through, as have I.
01:05:57.440 --> 01:05:59.760
Changes that President Kimball went through.
01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:05.119
And according to his son, those changes took place within hours.
01:06:05.440 --> 01:06:08.159
Like he woke up the next morning after Harold B.
01:06:08.320 --> 01:06:11.760
Lee died and realized it was a different world.
01:06:12.320 --> 01:06:34.079
So, yes, uh, and I think one of the major triggers for that kind of change, for that kind of humility, is sitting in the president chair, having that mantle suddenly placed upon your shoulders and realizing, yikes, this is not easy.
01:06:34.239 --> 01:06:39.280
This is going to require even more humility than I thought I already had.
01:06:41.360 --> 01:06:42.480
Absolutely.
01:06:42.719 --> 01:06:50.880
I this has been, I think, one of my favorite episodes because this is something that I don't think we talk about nearly enough.
01:06:51.280 --> 01:06:57.119
Uh, this is something that I think is a frightening subject for church members.
01:06:57.519 --> 01:07:20.400
Uh we we just sort of pride ourselves, we have the restoration of the gospel, and so all of the answers have come back to us and accepting and embracing the reality that there is so much we don't know, and that what we don't know dwarfs the minuscule amount that we do know.
01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:24.800
Uh, that's that's kind of a terrifying place for people to be.
01:07:24.880 --> 01:07:41.199
And I think it takes a great deal of spiritual confidence to be able to walk into that place and and live with it and and just accept it and embrace it and stop trying to fight it.
01:07:41.440 --> 01:07:48.400
Because I think I think it's important to differentiate mystery from fear.
01:07:49.119 --> 01:08:08.400
We're not talking about fear, we're talking about awe, we're talking about humility, we're talking about acceptance of a power not only above ourselves, but for the most part incomprehensible, and that's okay.
01:08:08.639 --> 01:08:10.880
It's not something to fear.
01:08:12.000 --> 01:08:25.840
That is an excellent, excellent point, because I think so many people confuse the two that the mystery is a source of fear, and that awe and fear are in some ways polar opposites.
01:08:26.239 --> 01:08:26.800
Yes.
01:08:27.760 --> 01:08:40.640
The next time the uh sky is clear and the stars are so close you could pick them from the sky and go somewhere where there's no light pollution.
01:08:41.199 --> 01:08:57.279
You go you go to the clearest uh moment in experience of seeing uh the stars just marvel at the experience, the feeling that God is the great engineer, God is the great scientist.
01:08:57.439 --> 01:09:00.720
Look at the engineering of the universe, it's extraordinary.
01:09:00.880 --> 01:09:11.359
Look at the science, look at the gas giants, you know, Jupiter, Saturn, look how it's all formed, look at how it's all uh seemingly organized in one sense and then chaos in another way.
01:09:11.439 --> 01:09:23.680
There's certainly a power, use your word, behind this great, extraordinary, mysterious, wonderful, awe-inspiring universe.
01:09:23.920 --> 01:09:45.199
The spirituality that comes from that is just extraordinary to see uh that immense uh experience with the limitations that we have, uh, you know, through the the physical and the emotional and the spiritual limitations that we have.
01:09:45.359 --> 01:09:50.239
The knowledge I can accept that because you live in Canada.
01:09:51.520 --> 01:09:56.560
Right, Britain and clear skies don't coincide.
01:09:56.800 --> 01:10:03.119
So if you had said that while still living in the UK, I would not have understood what you meant.
01:10:03.439 --> 01:10:03.760
Yeah.
01:10:04.079 --> 01:10:08.880
UK is is just decimated with with light everywhere.
01:10:08.960 --> 01:10:11.840
But here in Canada, where you and overcast.
01:10:12.560 --> 01:10:13.439
Yeah, overcast.
01:10:13.520 --> 01:10:15.920
You can't see, yeah, you can't see anything out of the UK.
01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:25.439
But you know, when you when you have, and you've you've had this experience, and you've you've you've felt so close to heaven, and it's so clear, and it's just extraordinary.
01:10:25.520 --> 01:10:26.720
And you have some answers.
01:10:26.880 --> 01:10:28.479
You know, we can see Jupiter and Saturn.
01:10:28.560 --> 01:10:31.119
We know we we know a little bit about these places, very little.
01:10:31.279 --> 01:10:32.239
We know something.
01:10:32.560 --> 01:10:35.439
We we know very little, you know, in regards to the rest of the universe.
01:10:35.680 --> 01:10:37.920
That is completely humbling.
01:10:38.079 --> 01:10:45.119
I just do I know we're out of time here, but I want to say this thing about President Oaks, and I I do this with respect, but I want to be blunt.
01:10:45.279 --> 01:10:48.239
I think President Oaks is trying to have his cake and eat it.
01:10:48.479 --> 01:10:55.520
On the one sense, he talks about humility, and you know, we know we know uh some things that we don't know about.
01:10:55.680 --> 01:11:04.079
Uh on the other sense, again, it's my interpretation from his talk, um uh there's a limitation on science and engineering, and be careful where you go.
01:11:04.239 --> 01:11:08.239
Uh, don't go listen to podcasts, you know, don't listen to this podcast, right?
01:11:08.560 --> 01:11:18.239
Only go to those reliable sources, as presumably within the church, you know, close friends, family who are presumably active, who will give you faithful answers.
01:11:18.479 --> 01:11:25.680
I I think that is contradictory and it is a mistake in President Oakes' talk.
01:11:25.920 --> 01:11:27.359
At least this is my interpretation.
01:11:27.520 --> 01:11:30.560
I can't be the only one that's come away with that interpretation at all.
01:11:30.800 --> 01:11:35.279
And so, in the one sense that we know some things, some things we don't know.
01:11:35.520 --> 01:11:38.880
And if you do want to know, just go to these sources.
01:11:39.039 --> 01:11:43.600
Uh, you know, science and engineering got severely it respects science and engineering.
01:11:43.760 --> 01:11:46.640
Okay, it talks about science and engineering and respects it.
01:11:46.720 --> 01:11:51.039
However, you know, you can only go to these sources to uh, you know, to trust it.
01:11:51.119 --> 01:11:53.039
What about a science engineering podcast?
01:11:53.279 --> 01:11:54.159
Can you go to those?
01:11:54.319 --> 01:11:56.079
Well, probably not.
01:11:56.239 --> 01:11:59.520
So you've got to be very careful, you've got to be consistent, I think.
01:11:59.760 --> 01:12:08.960
And and here's the thing: we shouldn't be afraid to go seek out intellectual answers from science and engineering and and uh and technology.
01:12:09.119 --> 01:12:11.199
It you know, the data will speak to it.
01:12:11.359 --> 01:12:22.319
And I've I I hopefully have articulated this as well as I could on this uh conversation, which has become, by the way, my favorite conversation of all the conversations that I've had.
01:12:23.119 --> 01:12:26.399
Let me just read two sentences from what he said.
01:12:28.079 --> 01:12:36.000
An abundance of speculation and false information in podcasts and on social media surrounds us.
01:12:37.119 --> 01:12:40.479
It's not a direct shot at podcasts.
01:12:40.880 --> 01:12:43.600
He's careful, he's brushing up against it.
01:12:43.680 --> 01:12:48.000
What he's saying is speculation and false information.
01:12:48.399 --> 01:12:55.279
In other words, it's content, not the conduit, that can be the problem.
01:12:55.520 --> 01:13:00.159
And then he said, don't be persuaded by false or inaccurate information.
01:13:00.479 --> 01:13:01.279
Right on.
01:13:02.560 --> 01:13:10.319
And the purpose of this podcast is not to give false or inaccurate information.
01:13:10.800 --> 01:13:19.199
So, yeah, I know that he's got an anti-science bias, and that bothers me.
01:13:19.520 --> 01:13:38.079
But at least when he's coming out and talking directly about podcasts and other sources of information, I can see that his concern matches my concern more than it differs, and that is beware of false and misleading information.
01:13:38.640 --> 01:13:44.159
And it's even more imperative now in an age of artificial intelligence.
01:13:44.479 --> 01:13:52.399
The ability to distinguish between truth and error is much more fraught than it used to be.
01:13:52.800 --> 01:13:55.039
I I absolutely acknowledge that.
01:13:55.600 --> 01:14:02.000
At the same time, uh we must go beyond friends and family in the church.
01:14:02.239 --> 01:14:02.560
Yes.
01:14:02.800 --> 01:14:04.159
Right, for faithful ancestors.
01:14:04.399 --> 01:14:26.399
What I'm saying, and I try to be clear about this on the conversation, that there is a very significant, uh, inseparable relationship between science, engineering, spirituality, intellectualism, technology, and together you get the complete experience.
01:14:26.960 --> 01:14:36.079
And yes, only go and seek out sources of reliable information because we said at the very beginning, there's a lot of misinformation out there.
01:14:36.239 --> 01:14:40.479
I mean, it we're just inundated by false information.
01:14:40.640 --> 01:14:41.920
There's no question about that.
01:14:42.079 --> 01:14:50.560
So it becomes a skill, uh, a technique to be able to seek out and trust sources that we can rely on.
01:14:50.880 --> 01:15:12.560
And so the data, you know, the the positivistic, the physical world, and the phenomenological, the the the spiritual world, understanding those methodologies, the thinking, and bringing them together to get a fuller, more complete experience, which makes us a more complete individual and a better individual, I think that's the way to go.
01:15:12.720 --> 01:15:23.680
That doesn't come through, uh honestly, in my view at least, um, very clearly or consistently uh with in President Oakes' talks.
01:15:24.000 --> 01:15:31.359
I get us then kind of feel in certain parts of his talk, not all of his sport, in certain parts of his talk.
01:15:31.439 --> 01:15:40.880
I'm saying bring this whole medium together and you will be much more informed and a much more complete and whole person if we do that.
01:15:41.119 --> 01:15:42.479
Yes, I agree.
01:15:42.720 --> 01:15:44.399
Come and sit next to me on the bench.
01:15:44.479 --> 01:15:50.319
We're scientists talking to scientists, and I will reiterate my mantra, which I've talked about before.
01:15:50.479 --> 01:15:51.920
Follow the data.
01:15:53.680 --> 01:15:57.359
I I think that's a great uh great way to leave this.
01:15:57.680 --> 01:16:06.720
Uh, very much appreciate both of your contributions here, and I I I have a lot to think about as a result of this.
01:16:06.880 --> 01:16:11.359
This has been really thought-provoking in a way that I very much appreciate.
01:16:11.680 --> 01:16:17.439
Uh, do uh Ian, do you have any parting thoughts before we before we sign off?
01:16:17.920 --> 01:16:31.520
God is the great engineer, God is the great scientist, God is the great intellectual intellectualist, uh, God is this great spiritual being that brings all this together and makes all this possible.
01:16:31.680 --> 01:16:33.520
Can you find it in the Mormon Church?
01:16:33.760 --> 01:16:34.319
Absolutely.
01:16:34.479 --> 01:16:41.760
I still retain a lot of uh very personal spiritual experiences, Jim Gregg, from the temple experience, which are very precious to me.
01:16:41.840 --> 01:16:45.119
And I know that they were profound and very personal for me.
01:16:45.279 --> 01:17:03.439
Um, but you can also find uh these answers and and and uh just have this awesome experience of mysteries of God and the universe and and life uh without following a organized, prescribed uh religion.
01:17:03.600 --> 01:17:08.640
There are different paths up the mountain and uh each uh each to their own.
01:17:08.800 --> 01:17:14.640
What was that famous quote by um I remember the poet, Robert Frost?
01:17:14.960 --> 01:17:21.600
Two roads diverged in a walk in a wood, and I I chose the one less travel by, and that made all the difference.
01:17:21.760 --> 01:17:38.960
We walk different paths, and as long as we are uh following the fundamental uh principles of of goodness and love and kindness and the example of Christ, there are different ways uh to uh to heaven.
01:17:39.039 --> 01:17:41.680
That's uh that's been my experience.
01:17:42.880 --> 01:17:43.520
Greg?
01:17:45.199 --> 01:17:52.960
My parting comment is I will join you in next week's live podcast from the true Zion St.
01:17:53.199 --> 01:17:53.840
George.
01:17:54.319 --> 01:17:55.520
Sounds good.
01:17:56.079 --> 01:18:04.000
Uh and just so if in case anyone's forgotten, we're going to be discussing a healthy philosophy of sex.
01:18:04.720 --> 01:18:06.560
So you're not going to want to miss that one.
01:18:06.640 --> 01:18:08.239
That's going to be a lot of fun.
01:18:08.800 --> 01:18:10.159
Uh, thank you both.
01:18:10.319 --> 01:18:11.840
Very much appreciate it.
01:18:12.000 --> 01:18:15.119
And thank you all to all of you who are listening.
01:18:15.359 --> 01:18:17.119
We we couldn't do this without you.
01:18:17.279 --> 01:18:20.640
We are so grateful that you are all part of this conversation.
01:18:20.880 --> 01:18:23.840
And it's a conversation that we look forward to continuing.
01:18:24.000 --> 01:18:29.119
And we thank you all very much for participating here with us here at Inside Out.
01:18:29.359 --> 01:18:31.039
Thanks again to you both.
01:18:31.520 --> 01:18:32.319
Thank you, Jim.
01:18:32.399 --> 01:18:33.279
Thank you, Greg.