BOOK SAMPLES
The answer seems to be that he (God) doesn’t organize things in an ultimate sense. It is one thing to think of God as a builder, but quite something else to think of him as being responsible for the existence of the things that are used to build with. In other words, it is a question of whether existence is dependent on God or whether God is dependent on existence. Mormonism states and is the only religion to do so, that it is the latter case: God is dependent upon existence.
“That, we may be assured, is the received opinion of the people in the neighborhood,” John answers. “Yet for all its respectability it is founded not on the virtue of unselfishness, as the people may suppose, but rather upon the absence of any value worthy of attention that may be found in the people themselves. The obvious reason why people do not cultivate themselves is because they intuitively sense that there is nothing in them that is worth cultivating. Finding such to be the case, they, in defense of themselves, turn around and declare that the highest virtue is to forget oneself in favor of others. That, they say, is what will bring true happiness. All of this, of course, is but a negation of true value. Therefore, despite what they say, the vast majority of them go about, for the most part, acquiring the world’s goods, attempting to amass fortunes and, when they are successful, placing them not in their neighbor’s barns but rather in their own.”
From whence my heart of hearts and soul of souls?
from a fire burning and singeing-hot coals.
From under flesh, from under flowing blood,
from deeper comes my spark of life and love.
From relentless flame forever burning,
perpetual motion forever churning,
from an endless, inconsumable essence
comes the spark that lights me, the fire that glows,
comes my heart of hearts and my soul of souls!
“But wait,” Liz says, turning away and studying the snowy ledge above her. A moment of silence passes and then she turns back and stares at Tony still without saying anything. Then she begins to repeat Tony’s words slowly, “True only in regard to itself.” She hesitates and then says again, “in regard to itself,” She hesitates still again and then begins to repeat over and over again: “itself…itself—true only in regard to itself!” Then with a burst of enthusiasm she exclaims, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I’ve finally got it! We get so wrapped up in our work-a-day, dog-eat-dog world that it never occurs to us we could know something for the sole sake of knowing it! We never stop to think that we could perceive something for the mere sake of perceiving it! No. We’re so caught up in getting ahead that we think that whatever knowledge is, it has to be something that will get us more money, more prestige, a better future, a better job, a better house, a better car, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!”
…what then can one say that knowledge is? One can say that knowledge is experience. One can say that all one knows is experience. One doesn’t know what one experiences; one only knows that one experiences. The only knowledge one has is the knowledge of experience itself. Any conclusion that someone assumes results from or because of an experience can be set aside. No conclusion apart from the experience itself is confirmable. An experience confirms nothing apart from the experience itself. All one knows is that one experiences. All one experiences is experience itself. An experience is its own evidence. It reaches its own conclusions. Its truth need not be established or confirmed by something apart from it. It is sufficient within itself.
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