“All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” Alma 30:44
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines denote as:
DENOTE, verb transitive [Latin To note or mark.] 1. To mark; to signify by a visible sign; to indicate; to express.
I would like to thank a new friend of mine for an observation he made in a recent email exchange:
“I thought I understood the idea of stand ye in holy places, but now I see it as, ye stand in holy places. What’s holy and sacred in us, goes where we go if our intent is to be holy and sacred.” (Emphasis added)
5 Comments
Great post. Thank you. I think you’ve referenced them before, but John Pratt’s articles (like http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2000/mormastr2.html) beautifully uncover so much of how the planets witness of their Creator. I felt there was one sign or witness that seems to be underrepresented on the Internet, so I just finished assembling a walk-through of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOfcgRuyvkg. (buried too deep on Michael Schneider’s site) The Creator’s hand is evident all around us, just as it should be within us.
I think Michael Schneider buries things deep intentionally sometimes ;) This is a great vid, well done! I’m really glad to see other people producing things that can help express the beauty of all creation!
We see so many of these things and think they are just coincidence. I came across something the other day that was pretty profound that I believe explains why so many things in nature and the universe follow these types of ratios.
I’m still thinking about the implications of it and it might take too long for me to describe it here. Perhaps in a future post.
I, for one, really look forward to reading that post!
I came across a scientific explanation of why plants grow in certain ratios and it sounds pretty obvious on the surface. I’d have to dig a little more.
If it is true then the real explanation has to do with balance. The answer to why plants grow in certain ratios is similar to the question of why a bubble is round. All matter is drawn to some kind of equilibrium.
It seems as though these various ratios are found when equilibrium occurs. Michael Schneider wrote: “Perhaps the greatest message of the Spiral in nature is that it arises out of the reconciliation of opposites.”
He also wrote: “Everything seeks unity. The goal of many religions and mythic ordeals is to return to a lost state of Divine Oneness. But we have no need to return to a state of oneness because unity is axiomatic and we already are integrated in it.” A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art & Science (Michael S. Schneider)
What is it that causes this equilibrium? Is it all powered by the initial influence of gravity that in turn has a chain reaction effect upon all other matter?
Perhaps genes are also influenced by equilibrium. Everything is just seeking to be balanced in it’s sphere. Putting certain amino acids together in a certain environment causes movement and action. More complex sequences of genetic code lead to more complex movement and action to where a Spirit can “drive” the matter at some point.
If this is the way existence operates now, then why not always? Why is it impossible to accept that it all started that way either? What did God really mean when he said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life…Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind…”
Did animals just appear? Were they beamed down like Star Trek? Or was it a process that was like the formation of a baby. Two initial strands of dna converge and then cells begin dividing, growing, seeking balance. All life goes through rapid evolution before it is born. Why couldn’t the diversity of species have occurred similarly over a longer period of time?
At some point, the tabernacle of a baby is ready to receive a spirit. Does this happen at conception, in the womb or at birth? We do not know.
What if the same thing happens when a world is developing? At some point, tabernacles for man eventually occur and are ready for the spirits of God’s children. Or perhaps, Adam and Eve were placed on the earth parallel to what was already going on.
Joseph Smith taught that the universe was 2.5 billion years old. Does some kind of evolution fit into LDS theology after all? Perhaps the pieces still haven’t been put together by anyone as of yet.
That’s where my thinking is at as of now. I don’t know when I’ll have time to explore that complex subject more.
What is it that causes this equilibrium?
Scientifically speaking, I believe it is the Atonement. I believe that everything physical points to its spiritual equivalent, and vice versa.
We’re so used to talking about the atonement and the priesthood in spiritual terms that I think we forget that it is a real physical force in nature – a force that is with us now.
Have you ever had a broken bone? Did it heal?
The second law of thermodynamics has always fascinated me. It states that the entropy of an isolated system never decreases, because isolated systems always evolve toward thermodynamic equilibrium, a state with maximum entropy.
The paradox is that thermodynamic equilibrium is essentially a state of maximum disorder. So how do we reverse this AND preserve equilibrium? That’s the basic scientific problem that I believe the Atonement answers. The Atonement is the only force that can reverse entropy while preserving equilibrium – thus creating perfect order.