Cars Resurrection

Dear Readers,

I was watching the Cars movies, and afterwords had some interesting thoughts while in the shower. In a way, this Pixar world that was created gives a somewhat interesting and also horrifying insight into our lives here in mortality.

Lightning McQueen being trained by Cruz Ramirez in Cars 3

It is fairly obvious that the Cars are living automobiles or machines, but what I did not realize until watching the third movie is that they cannot see inside themselves. As most of us know, vehicles have speedometers so that as a driver, we can keep track of how fast we are going, usually because of speed limits. However, there is surprising emphasis in Cars 3 of Cruz Ramirez (McQueen's trainer) having to keep up with him in-order to scan his speed. This means that Lightning McQueen was unable to see the speedometer inside of himself, much like how a human needs a pedometer to keep track of the number of steps they take.

With this realization, I began thinking that if a car from our world was moved into this Cars Pixar world, it would be dead. No life in it like the other cars. Yet, if a human were to be there as well and drive the car, it would be a dead car, able to move. Essentially, this would make humans a parasite that reanimates a car's corpse.

This got me thinking of the Chevron with Techron commercials from years ago. In this world, living cars and people get along, in a true symbiotic relationship.

Looking at things from a more spiritual perspective, it is like a human is the spirit of the car, while the car itself is the body. While in mortality, our spirits drive around our bodies, making them seem alive. One day the driver will leave, and the car will be dead. While the Chevron with Techron world could be compared more to those who are transfigured like John the Beloved (Doctrine and Covenants 7). Loosely, they are alive as immortals, but will one day be changed in the twinkling of an eye, a transition equal to death, from this state into true immortality (3 Nephi 28:8). The fully living cars in Cars 1-3 are those who have the spirit and the body inseparably connected like a resurrected car/person.

Lizzie next to a memorial of her husband Stanley from Cars

Though, in this Pixar world, it is not a true comparison, for these cars still pass away. With Lizzie missing her husband Stanley, and others succumbing to rust as a disease, it is clear that though it could be compared with the resurrection it is far from the perfect state it would actually be.

Anyway, these were my interesting thoughts about Cars and the Gospel. I hope that you enjoyed them!

Love,
Jacobugoth

Thoughts about Christ

Dear Readers,

Again, in my institute class, we had another lesson about the nature of Christ and why He had to be the way He was in order to be our Savior. Of course, this got me thinking and speculating again. To explain my thoughts, I think I will begin with referring to my Adam, Eve, and Lilith post.

In that post I talked about a quote from Brigham Young "One thing has remained a mystery in this kingdom up to this day. It is in regard to the character of the well-beloved Son of God, upon which subject the Elder of Israel have conflicting views... The question has been, and is often, asked, who it was that begat the Son of the Virgin Mary... Now, remember from this time forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost." (Journal of Discourses v1 pg 50-51). Thus we see that in the portions I quoted earlier in my other post, he was clearly comparing Adam's birth to Christ's. Also, since Jesus was not born of the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost, Jesus was literally the offspring of an immortal Father and a mortal mother, the Virgin Mary.

Now, there may be many people and members of the church that might think that this means that God the Father had sexual intercourse with the betrothed Mary. However, I will declare unequivocally and irrevocably that God will not break His own commandments. My God is not an adulterer or a fornicator. Yet clearly Mary was not His wife. Therefore, I am lead to believe that the Father's divine genetics were infused into one of Mary's ovum. The genes could have easily been in the form of sperm, thus we would call this artificial insemination. Ironically, the television show of Jane the Virgin may have some enlightenment on this subject of how Mary the mother of Jesus could be a virgin who conceived the Son of God.

Nevertheless, we must remember why this was necessary. Christ had to be half-mortal half-immortal. Without those attributes, He could not suffer the eternal pains of all of our sins and yet live, for any mortal would either perish or faint before the full measure of the price could be paid (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18).

Nor could He die and raise himself from the dead, for if He were mortal, He would die just like us and like our bodies, remain in the earth, and if He was immortal, He could not die and bring to pass the resurrection for Himself or the rest of us. These two crucial and encompassing points of the atonement required the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the child of a true Immortal and a very mortal mother.

Now, with these things in mind, I became intrigued with the realization I had concerning Ectoplasm in immortal beings. What would a demigod hybrid have flowing through His body? Just blood like a mortal? Christ bled from every pore in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) and bled as he was beaten, scourged, crucified, and notably when His side was pierced (John 19:34). So He most certainly had blood, but did He have spirit in His veins too? Spirit which is too fine or pure to be seen with our natural eyes (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7).

Though He could die, Christ could not be killed, He would have to give up His life and relinquish His body, at least for a time. If He could not be killed, it implies that His spirit was connected to His body in a stronger way, like possibly flowing through His body. Maybe within even every cell of His earthly tabernacle.

In my Light of Christ post, I speculated about why Christ's resurrected "perfect" body still had scars. Maybe His scars were from parts of His spirit He had given us so that we could have the light of Christ in us. Though, what has satisfied my in query was the notion that Christ's atonement made Him suffer body and spirit, thus when He was nailed on the cross, the nails pierced His body and His spirit, scaring both.

The idea that maybe He had this spiritual connection to His body all along now makes me wonder if this was the reason why the scripture was written that angels would bear Christ up least He dash His foot against a stone (Psalms 91:11-12, Matthew 4:6), because maybe any damage His body received during mortality would forever scar His spiritual body and therefore resurrected immortal body as well.

This would also mean that the tokens, which we are taught about in the temple, were the signs of Christ that needed to be upon His body, His immortal body. Literally, like a lamb to the slaughter, He could have been spared from physical pain, or at least scaring incisions, until the end of His life. This would also explain why none of His bones would be permitted to be broken, because those breaks would forever disfigure His bones.

Alas, this is all fun to speculate, but when all is said and done, all that has been revealed about Christ's upbringing is that he grew from grace to grace (Luke 2:52, John 1:16, Doctrine and Covenants 93:12-14), and that His childhood is not talked about because of sacred reverence much like how we treat our Mother in Heaven.

Because of the silence and the holding of peace that is given to this subject, a friend gave me a different view. When I expressed these ideas I was having to him, he asked whether or not I thought that Jesus got splinters, or accidentally cut Himself while He was a carpenter working with His father Joseph. I don't know, it could go either way with the fallen world of mortality, or the subtle protection from harm that Joseph and Mary might have taken for granted, much like David Dunn (Bruce Willis' character in Unbreakable) who never realized his impervious powers until the Glassman blew up a train and David survived without a scratch. It is very likely that we can take health for granted, and Joseph and Mary could have taken Christ's the same way.

However, to compensate for the possibility for a normal childhood, what if His spirit was not merged with His body until He was at the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:2)? What if Christ's transfiguration was a activation of some of His Father's dormant genes inside of Him, preparing Him to suffer body and spirit during the atonement. Using a rough estimation, the transfiguration took place about halfway through Christ's three year mission (Harmony of the Gospels) which would mean that Christ would have been in this semi-immortal, yet vulnerable state for about a year and a half.

Ultimately, in either case, acknowledging both could be wrong, I consign that these are simply cool ideas and thoughts that I was having about Christ. Thoughts that I figured were worth sharing. I hope that they get you thinking, and might even inspire you in some new terrains of thought. Feel free to leave any comments, concerns, or ideas that you have below.

Love,
Jacobugoth

Gender

Dear Readers,

Because of the ways of the world, and current trends in society, I have decided to share my views and beliefs on gender as an eternal characteristic. "Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World).

I believe that not only is gender an essential characteristic of our premortal lives as spirits, but also as intelligences. Intelligences were not created or made, nor can be (Doctrine and Covenants 93:29), like matter itself (Doctrine and Covenants 93:33). Not only are our spirits and bodies male or female, but the core of who we are, our little "I am" inside. For more information on intelligences you can read my Glory of God is Intelligence post.

What if intelligence, or the light of truth had gender, male and female? Or rather, masculine and feminine. Polarized attractions towards opposites, and repelling force towards those similar. That is right, I believe that positive and negative attraction are routed in genders.

From the scientific standpoint, the smallest particle, that I am aware of, is quarks. Each quark has a positive or negative charge, or technically a +2/3 for Up quarks and a -1/3 for Down quarks, and group up in threes. Two positives and a negative  make a proton, two negatives and a positive make a neutron. If I understand correctly, electrons are unknown, but mathematically they are likely comprised of three Down quarks.

There are other types of quarks, including: Charm, Top, Strange, Bottom. Yet these types are not found in the world around us and are only created from high energy collisions and then they decay quickly back into Up or Down quarks. Thus they are irrelevant to this discussion.

These three particles (three quarks) make up atoms with protons and neutrons in a nucleus, and the electrons orbiting the shells. Protons having a +1 charge, neutrons charge of 0, and electrons with a -1 charge. Thus, though the neutron appears to have what could be considered "non gender" polarity, it is still made up of particles that do have polarity.

I am going to skip over how and why atoms and molecules interact because of these polarities and move on to body comparisons.

1 Corinthians 15:44 "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." Doctrine and Covenants 77:2 A clarifies "...that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal;" or physical "and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual; the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created."

So, if the physical manifestation includes cells, molecules, atoms, and quarks, then why not our spirit bodies as well. "All spirit is matter..." (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7). Thus it is likely built after the same manner. If spirit and element are both matter then when Brigham Young said, "And matter is capacitated to receive intelligence." (Journal of Discourses 7:2), it means that not only are our little "I am"s intelligences that inhabits matter, but potentially every single particle that comprises our physical and spiritual bodies likely has an intelligence attached.

Science has yet to explain why quarks have polarities, thus my hypothesis is that a masculine or a feminine intelligence is bonded with that particle giving it polarity. Thus, our entire bodies are comprised of masculine and feminine particles. My diagram above could look more like this.

Now, that same quote from Brigham Young said that matter can "receive intelligence". This could mean that not all matter has intelligence, and would likely be matter unorganized. Yet it also could mean that there are intelligences out there that do not inhabit matter. Doctrine and Covenants 130:19 says that we can grow in intelligence. Thus we might be able to receive more of these intelligences, the ones that are not bonded to matter.

If each of these new intelligences have "gender" then our own personal "I am" being "male" or "female" could potentially be surrounded by influences of the other intelligences within us. Thus possibly explaining why some people might fell like they are a woman trapped in a man's body, or a man trapped in a woman's body. This is not the case, for God would not permit a mistake of that eternal magnitude or significance, yet it would explain those feelings.

I have a friend who explained to me that he felt like he was born homosexual because he was born more feminine. As far as I know, it has been proven that some children are born more feminine or masculine than others. This brings up the main "hiccup" of being born in mortality. This is a fallen world, thus elements, chemicals, and our bodies are subject to decay, mutation, and sickness. Someone might be born more feminine or masculine due to abnormal amounts of testosterone or estrogen. That can come to pass for a variety of reasons, but does that necessarily have a bearing on sexual orientation?

It might actually, not saying it does, but it is a valid possibility. If masculine is attracted to feminine and vise versa, then someone with abnormal hormones could find themselves more attracted to someone of the same gender. Now, both men and women naturally have both hormones within them. Thus everyone could potentially be tempted with a homosexual relationship. 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:..." We all have temptations that beset us because of the "natural man" (Mosiah 3:19). Some of these temptations might be more powerful because of genetics and our bodies, like those who have a genetic disposition towards alcohol or depression. I suffer from depression myself, and I am a firm believer of not judging someone , like the bumper sticker says, because they "sin differently than [me]". Yet, in myself and in others, giving in does not mean that it is not a sin, just it is an understandable sin.

What I mean by "understandable sin" is that it makes logical sense why someone would give in to that sin. Understanding a sin does not excuse giving in to temptation but does help someone resist it. Corinthians adds "...but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." We might be more tempted in particular areas than other people, but because we are more tempted, we can understand why and then "escape" it and "bear it" better. To the point that we can help others be strong in the face of temptation.

Feminine and masculine tenancies can also be taught or nurtured, like growing in intelligence. Environment has some valid bearing upon how masculine or feminine we are. Like a girl that is a "Tom Boy" raised on a farm, she has masculine attributes that were taught her from her family and life experiences, as well as characteristics that she nurtured within herself because they helped her "survive". Does this make her any less of a woman? No. Does being more feminine make a man any less of a man? No.

Now, here comes a mystery of God that has not yet been completely revealed to me. Because of this fallen world and genetic reproduction abnormalities, there are people who are hermaphrodites, having both male and female genitals. Though their physical bodies are what some might consider "neutral" like neutrons in atoms are considered, their spirit and "I am" have a distinctive male or female gender.

I have tried to find a way to determine which attributes would reveal which gender they truly are, yet I am left confounded from my attempts. In my biology class, I learned that as a scientific determination, the presence of the Y chromosome means that they are considered male. This seemed a fairly satisfactory answer to me. Yet, God has given the procreative powers of pregnancy to human women. There are hermaphrodites who have the Y chromosome, have sterile sperm, and are able to become pregnant.

As I said, I do not believe that God would permit such mistakes as placing a man in a woman's body, or a woman in a man's body. This leads me to think that reproduction is the key. If the eggs are viable, then the individual is female. If the sperm is viable, the individual is male. Otherwise, a male human spirit inside of a body that can give birth would be the equivalent of a man being born in a woman's body. Thus, if reproduction is the determining factor, it would be a case by case basis rather than something plain and straight forward. As far as I know, there has never been a human born that has both viable sperm and eggs.

What does that mean for other organisms that reproduce asexually? or what does it mean for seahorses which have males giving birth? I "haven't the foggiest" answer. Alas, I can speculate all I want about hermaphrodites, but I really have no definitive answer.

Arthur Weasley: "Haven't the foggiest."

Ultimately, I know that male or female is a determined eternal characteristic, and that God will sort things out in the end. We can change our physical, mortal bodies in countless ways with hormone treatments, prosthesis and cosmetic surgery, but none of that changes who and what we really are. It saddens me that this world has blinded people to these truths so much that they begin fighting against the very essence of who they are. You are not your body, but your body has insights to who you are. You are made in the image of God and are one of His children. You are spiritually begotten of Him, perfectly. A perfect God does not make mistakes. Trust in this knowledge.

If you have insights or information that I might not have concerning this matter, please comment or contact me. I am not afraid to learn new knowledge or gain a new perspective on this matter. I do hope that this post has been insightful.

Love,
Jacobugoth