Intelligence requires ideas to act consciously

This is a thought I had today as we were discussing the topic of temptation in church. I was thinking again along the lines of another recent post about the source of ideas.

Intelligence alone cannot progress without ideas. Ideas consist of information, something that has been assembled in a manner that can be comprehended. We understand God to be a source of ideas and when intelligences are aware of his ideas, they act and grow, and if they continue on this path they progress.

I am not sure if pure intelligence alone has the capacity to create ideas ex nihilo. It does appear that consciousness requires the ability to discern and process ideas so that it can act. Some ideas are invincibly fixed in their nature and they can be called laws.

God’s commandments prescribe actions that accord with the laws.

Temptations are those enticements that do not accord with the laws and therefore do not accord with the Mind of God.

Other ideas can and do exist and they can come from a variety of sources. Some ideas are mixtures of truth and error. God created all of the ingredients necessary to make delicious foods but poisons can be created by incorrectly mixing certain substances.

Likewise, just because an idea is created, this doesn’t mean that it is good. Ideas can nourish but they can poison, and it is up to us to use our ability to discern to acquire truth and progress.

Intelligence must have access to ideas, which is agency, then to choose, which is belief. Faith is “the principle of action in all intelligent beings.” (Lecture 1:9)

These ideas are critical because “…without these ideas being planted in the minds of men, it would be out of the power of any person or persons to exercise faith in God so as to obtain eternal life.” (Lecture 4:3)