Talents

Dear Readers,

I would like to talk briefly about the parable of the talents. Now, I had always thought that a Roman talent was a coin. As I have come to discover, I was wrong. A Roman talent is actually a gold bar.

1 kg Canadian gold bar

However, unlike the gold bar shown above, a Roman talent was about 33 kg or 75 lbs of gold. These were large gold bars, not to be taken lightly (pun intended).

This is incredible when compared to what I thought a talent was, a gold coin, like an aureus. Yet, an aureus is much smaller. About 44 aureus coins made 1 lbs of gold. This means that 3,300 aureus weighed as much as a talent.

So, what is a talent compared to the time period. A denarius was a silver coin that was used to pay a mercenary for one day's labor. Comparatively, a talent was worth 6,000 denaril equal to nearly 17 years pay. Lets compare this to modern day. Imagine you only made $10,000 a year. 17 years pay would be $170,000. Though, it should be noted, that as of 2016 a talent's weight of gold is worth $1.25 million, which, in comparison would be equal to someone earning almost $74,000 a year. I don't know about most of you, but I do not earn nearly that much, thus I will use the $170,000 talent for the parable.

Matthew 25:14-30

"For the kingdom of heaven is a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and deliver unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents [$850,000], to another two [$340,000], and to another one [$170,000]; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents [$850,000] went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents [total of $1,700,000]. And likewise he that had received two [$340,000], he also gained other two [total of $680,000]. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

"After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents [total of $1,700,000], saying, Lord, though deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them [total of $680,000]. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usery [this is like interest in a bank which today is usually 5% which after 5 years would bring the worth to almost $217,000. Though it does not say how long the "lord" was away, if he was only gone for 5 years then he is saying that servant basically robbed him of $47,000 or almost 5 years pay]. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents [Since the guy who had $170,000 didn't do anything with it, give it to the guy that I trusted with $850,000 and doubled it to $1,700,000 and he will actually use it.].

"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.[Basically saying that those who have faith and works, they are doing their best to follow God, shall have abundance when they are in God's kingdom. However, those that have not faith and do not do righteous things will have no place in God's kingdom.] And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

For a moment, lets view this from the the traditional perspective. Usually this parable is compared to actual talents given to us from God, and from this passage of scripture is where we gained the word talent as applicable to abilities and gifts. These talents could include abilities like: athletic skill, musical proficiency, creativity, scientific inquisition, writing ability, public speaking, et cetera. These are very similar to the gifts of the Spirit, which I talked about here. All of these gifts, whether talents or gifts of the Spirit of God are given to us from birth, but can also be learned with payer and hard work on our side.

Thus the important lesson of if we don't use it we loose it. If we do not use our gifts, like a talented pianist never playing piano they bury their gift into the ground and will eventually loose that gift. While even giving it to the "money changers" or "bank" by practicing and keeping their skills ready, they at least increase the blessing upon their heads. Yet for those who are blessed with a gift and use that gift to procure more like applying their dancing skills onto the football field, they increase their abilities and make them more suitable and useful within the kingdom of God. Therefore proving that God can trust them with more strength and ability.

I hope that you enjoyed this post, I know that I learned much especially about the true nature of what a Roman talent is. Let me know some of your talents and how you plan on using them to better improve the world around you.

Love,
Jacobugoth

4th dimension

Dear Readers,

Brian Greene's depiction of 4th dimensions from the video Brian Green: The Search for Hidden Dimensions .

I first mentioned the 4th dimension in my post about Gravity, Science and the Spirit World, during which I pointed out that ghosts fit the criteria of 4th dimensional beings that pass through our three dimensional space, like a sphere passing through flatland or 2d space. Also included is my reiteration of Brian Greene's portrayal of the 4th dimension being so small that we do not see it around us, even though I am partial to the idea of it being an actual 4th dimension outward.

human bio-electric field Image Link

In my second addressing of the 4th dimension I brought it up while talking about Death. While speculating about how our spirits interact with our bodies I stated how I personally believe that there is something in the brain, either some cell or some cluster of cells that is able to interact with our spirits, allowing us to choose what to think about and when.

Thus comes this point, I have been pondering this idea because it speaks to me so strongly. With my view of the 4th dimension being an actual direction, like "up" is compared to 2 dimensions on a piece of paper, I began thinking about how various science fiction theories work.

In two dimensional space, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Yet, if you fold the paper over you greatly shorten that distance. However, this requires the use of the third dimension to warp the 2D space. Similarly, for us to be able to teleport from one place to another by bending space in this manner, we would need to use the fourth dimension to warp that 3D space. 

What really happens when we fold a piece of paper? We can do it because of air. The 3D space is filled with air which moves out of the way when we fold the paper. This is the medium required for the "portal" to be formed. If the medium was a liquid, assuming that it is a water proof sheet of paper like wax paper or magazine sheets, it would be much more difficult to fold the paper, but still possible. What if the medium around the paper was solids? Like trying to fold over one sheet of paper in a stack of papers.

If our 3D plane of existence, our universe, is equivalent to a sheet of paper in a stack of papers, then it would be nearly impossible to fold the paper over and perform teleportation by bending space.

BBC's Invasion Earth 1998 4th Dimension

That being said, there is the possibility for these other layers of 3D space in the 4th dimension to be simply other universes. Not alternate just simply different. In the 1998 BBC's television show Invasion Earth there were creatures living in the 4th dimensin that used biological machines and would "harvest" biological life from planets in our 3D space to fuel these machines.

Invasion Earth nD structure

 In "harvest" process, a large biological force would form and devour all biological life from an area, slowly growing. The protagonists found a way to blow up the "nD" structure from the inside. However, to their horror, a new one sort of fell down from the 3rd dimension above it and they realized that there could be infinite layers of these structures. 

On another note, what would multiple paper layers mean? It would mean that there are multiple universes essentially stacked one upon another, creating a multiverse. However, the general idea of a multiverse is more like bubbles of universe matter floating around 3 dimensionally, occasionally colliding and "popping" each other.

Walter watching Walternate find the cure for his son Peter through an alternate universe window in Fringe.

To me, this general idea of a multiverse of universes is still within the confines of 3D space. So what would be another layer up in 4D space? It seems more like an alternate universe. A universe with all of the same dimensions and matter as our universe, but slightly off set outside the universe we currently occupy. In the television show Fringe, this idea of alternate universes play an essential key in the excellent series. Though Dr. Walter Bishop, the main scientist in Fringe, states that there are likely infinite alternate universes out there, they only seem to have interaction with one other.

Rick and Morty season 1 episode 10 Evil Rick displaying his rankings of the different Ricks

This is quite contrary to Rick and Morty where Rick encounters several other Ricks from alternate universes. However, even Rick admits to a "Central Finite Curve" of alternate universes.

So, if there are the possibility of infinite alternate universes, why do these shows have such limitations? It is merely because of our finite minds can only comprehend so much? or is it because there are indeed "air layers" separating the sheets of paper?

For the Fringe world, imagine you have two sheets of paper, each is able to bend out in opposite directions  or they can be bent together. However, if someone from the bottom sheet moves "up" into the dimension above, they enter a world much like their own, but different. Likewise if someone from the top sheet moves "down". Nonetheless, Fringe addresses the possible side effects of such travel. Like a staple holding two pieces of paper together, the connection damages both sheets, leaving a hole or tear, especially if that staple is then removed improperly.

Also, because of the pulling of the universes closer together, they begin to interact with each other more, like writing on a top sheet and leaving an imprint in the bottom one and done one purpose with carbon paper.

Even though there are potential risks, there is also the possibility of melding the two properly, using the natural laws. If our spirits are 4th dimensional and only interact with our 3 dimensional bodies through our brains, then there is the possibility of our spirits interacting through more than one dimension.

stock image link

Like a nail holding a bunch of papers together, a single spirit could interact with countless versions of itself on different worlds. This would mean that a character like Olivia Dunham from Fringe and Altlivia could have the same spirit, just different life experiences to draw from. Which would explain why good people are generally still good people and vice versa, just having made extremely different choices. What is more messed up about this idea would be that every Rick and every Morty all share the same spirit.

However, this concept is not entirely new. In the movie, The One starring Jet Lee, Gabriel Yulaw (Jet lee) is being hunted by a version of himself from an alternate universe. This alternate Gabriel is seeking to kill off all of the other versions of himself, so that the unnamed energy that was spread out between the several versions of himself in a sort of "Central Finite Curve" could all be concentrated in one host or The One. Now this unnamed energy could be that energy or power of the spirit. 

Though this idea of our spirits inhabiting more than one body at a time is intriguing, it is not one that I subscribe to. Yet, I can also comprehend the idea of a 4th dimensional being wanting several 3 dimensional lives. For, why do we create so many characters in a 2D plane? Either Anime or screens of movies, video games, or even the written word?

Brian Greene explaining gravitational waves as produced by two stars revolving around a black hole. video

Alas, though these things are fun to speculate on, there is some science we need to look at. Because of gravitational waves and how they warp and bend space, we know that our 3D space can indeed expand, contract and bend, which leans towards the likelihood of "air layers" in at least one direction 4th dimensionally.
 

Galaxies hurdled through space, the dark matter represented by why clouds. From the TED talk video.

Indeed, as I learned while watching Brian Greene's TED talk about Why is our universe fine-tuned for life? that it has been documented that our universe is not only expanding, but speeding up. The pull of gravity from other galaxies should be slowing everything down, but this is not the case. Likely due to the repellent force or "gravity" of dark energy, which makes up a tiny portion of space, these galaxies hurtling away are now being pushed ever faster.

the percentage of dark energy.

Now, though the percentage or portion of dark energy found in space is so low, it allows for the formation of the galaxies and for the speeding up of the universe's expansion.

dark energy nebula universe

However, as Greene continues he explains how multiple universes might have different fundamental structures rooted in string theory. For those structures that incorporate more dark energy, the repulsive nature keeps matter from clumping up together, which prevents molecules, planets and galaxies from ever forming. Essentially those universes would be expanding clouds of matter like nebulae.

On the other side, universes with too little portions of dark energy collapse back on themselves, again keeping galaxies from forming. Though this allows for the idea that maybe there is range, or variability, like there could be enough dark energy to allow the galaxy to expand, but in small enough portions that the gravity of different galaxies will still slow it down and then collapse again.

In the extremely hard to follow, yet mentally stimulating movie Mr. Nobody, in Craft's longest timeline he passed away right as the universe began retracting and condensing again, and they depicted this as time reversing. Interesting thought about how time and space coincide.

Thus, these universes would forever be expanding and then contracting, each time creating a new "big bang" and having a different result.

I will compare these different types of universe to our basic forms of matter. The nebula universes could be considered "air" or "gas" layers from the 4th dimension perspective. Then we would have the ones constantly shifting from bigger to smaller much like how water molecules shift as they interact. Thus they are comparable to "liquid layers". Now, our universe which continually expands means that there is continual force and resistance, like a "solid" layer.

For example, a piece of paper sitting on water. The "air" above allows your to remove the paper, pulling it up with relative ease because everything contained in it moves out of the way. However, pushing the paper down there is more resistance, sometimes pushing against an expanding universe or giving way to a collapsing one. Yet the constant change still allows the paper to sink into the water.

This would allow for my theory of how the Holy Ghost can dwell in us, and so many people at the same time, allowing space to bend through the 4th dimension all to the point of where He is. I talk a little more about this in my post about the Holy Ghost.

As with Brian Greene's comparison to this theory of why dark energy is only so much of space, he used why the earth is only so far away from the sun. If it is farther away it would be too cool, closer and it would be too hot. Thus our earth is in the golden zone for life. However, that does not mean that other planets or other slightly varying increments closer or father cannot also exist and support life. Therefore, why could that not be the same with universes and their dark energy? Even though most universes out there might be "air" or "water" layers in the 4D scale, that does not mean that there are not other "solid" universes like our own. Whether alternate or multiverses, they could exist.

Which ever the case, and whatever the reality, this is the most important thing to remember, that there is more to science and more to God and His universe than we now know. Yet, we must not forget what we do know. I testify that there is a God and He is our Father. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins so that we can return back to Him. Where ever He is, is called heaven, if that be another universe, or another expansive dimension that string theory allows, so be it. However, He does have a physical body like us, members of the human race. These things I know to be true, in Christ's name, Amen.

I hope that you have enjoyed this post and that it has got you thinking about the majesty of not only the universe we know, but the potential expanse of all of God's creations and domain.

Love,
Jacobugoth

Global Warming

Dear Readers,

I realize this is a delicate post. In the course of my life I have seen the media go into a panic over global warming. Living in Arizona, I never really noticed an increase of heat. However, I did notice some years of snow, which inspired many a "dad joke" from my father about seeing global warming in action. This might be why in this current great push from the media, they have changed it to climate change.

Now I am not denying that true climate is changing or anything like that. I do remember that with Global Warming I saw a documentary expressing how the earth was just coming out of an little ice age. There was a documentary in 2004 called "Little Ice Age: Big Chill" from The History Channel that illustrates just how harsh that little ice age was. This was followed by the documentary I watched many years ago that came out in 2007 called "The Great Global Warming Swindle". With the scientific evidence supplied in this documentary, they address the ideas of Glob Warming, in particular, the CO2 emissions. Some of their charts and stats are shown here: http://seawapa.org/climate/.

Though the CO2 myth appeared to be adequately debunked by this documentary, they did point out that generally, temperatures rise with the number of sun spots, and thus the sunlight and energy hitting the earth. By their own admission, the increased sunlight should warm up the greenhouse gasses which trap that form of heat. However, they found that the troposphere, where the greenhouse gasses of the ozone are located, it was surprisingly cool. This helped them disprove that ti was increasing CO2 because those gasses would collect more heat, however, it did not explain why the surface of the earth is so much hotter.

Deforestation and all of the dark pavement and concrete buildings that come with the grown industrial world can account for that. Less light is being reflected up into the greenhouse gasses, letting them be cooler, because the heat is staying in the ground, soil, and cities. Alas, this is merely my theory as to why there was this discrepancy, and it would lead to humans still being a contributor to the growing heat. However, both the increasing in sunspots and the evidence of our planet coming out of an ice age impact it as well.

It is also important to note that more CO2 would hold in more heat in our atmosphere, though the amount appears to be mostly negligible. However, that is based upon those 2007 studies.  As of 2014 NASA claims that the troposphere is heating up, but give no numbers as to how much (climatechange).Thus comes the biggest plot hole to the freaking out about Climate Change is how much of the changes are natural, and how much is man made. I have found no statistics or any studies that exhibit accurately these numbers.

Skeptical Scientist Global Warming Contributors graph

NASA claims that the rising of temperatures coming out of the Little Ice Age are not enough to account for the speed and temperature difference we are experiencing. Yet, even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges it as a factor (IPCC). Alas, though I have the inherent bias and skepticism towards this fear tactic the media is using, I have to admit that Skeptical Scientist appears to have some stats to back up their claims, and proper references... Yet their graphing as seen above clearly appears inaccurate, claiming that one study alone showed human's interference as being more than 150 percent of the contribution to Global Warming which is mathematically and rationally impossible given how little negative there is shown coming from other causes including natural.

Alas, I digress and allow for the clear statement that the earth is warming and the climate is changing. Now here comes a great question, is it necessarily a bad thing?

Bradley's presentation graph

Raymond S. Bradley's 2003 presentation "Climate of the Last Millennium" clearly illustrates that we are at the same temperature and even higher than during the Medieval Climate Optimum which, as expressed in "The Great Global Warming Swindle" was a period of great abundance and improvement for the human, and even animal, species. Crops flourished, people multiplied, and the world was looking up, though it was devastated when the Little Ice Age hit.

This further hints at the question, is more heating really that catastrophic? Dr. Patrick Moore, PHD in Ecology and founder of Greenpeace talked about this very issue on a talk show called Louder with Crowder. Though most of us think of intense heat, especially myself living in Arizona, that heat equals desert and terror. Thus none of us really wanting things to become warmer. However, Dr. Moore pointed out that at a point of regional heat, deserts transform into rain forests, like strolling down Mexico into Central America.

As the earth heats up, more water evaporates into the atmosphere, creating humidity, and more rainfall. Though I am not much of a fan for mugginess either, it was pointed out that humans might actually be tropical beings, meant to live in sweltering temperatures and regions.

This fascinating bit of information made me ponder about the earth during Adam and Eve's time in the Garden of Eden. It was a paradise. Indeed, it has been compared to a terrestrial world, "Edenic earth. Following its physical creation, the earth was pronounced good. It was a terrestrial or paradisiacal state. There was no death either for man or for any form of life, and 'all the vast creation of animated beings breathed naught but health, and peace, and joy.'" (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manuel section 38).

My second post I put on this blog was about a class I took about Heatstroke. In that post, I remarked about how Adam and Eve, being celestial beings (Journal of Discourses Volume 1 page 50), had no need for clothes, like they did not sweat. Yet, when they fell, they were given coats of skins (Genesis 3:21). As with ancient Jewish and Arabic cultures, they wear many layers because the sweat enters the inner layers of clothing holding in moisture and allowing air to be cooled.

I bring this up because also in the Doctrine and Covenants institute manual, it compares the Edenic earth to the earth during Christ's second coming. "Terrestrial earth. 'We believe... that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory' (Tenth Article of Faith.) Thus, the earth is to go back to the primeval, paradisiacal, or terrestrial state that prevailed in the days of the Garden of Eden. Accompanying this transition to its millennial status the earth is to be burned, that is, receive its baptism of fire. It will then be a new heaven and a new earth, and again health, peace, and joy will prevail upon its face."

Frederic Edwin Church - Morning in the Tropics

Which makes me wonder if the earth is just slowly preparing for Christ's second coming. As the earth heats up, the areas of humidity that cause rain forests would expand. Colder places where it is hard to grow food, like Canada, Northern England, and so forth, could be made more rich and sustainable. Yes the change would be uncomfortable for us in our mortal state, but the heat and humidity could benefit the earth more than it hurts it. Indeed, maybe our involvement with Global Warming is actually our terraforming it more into the ideal world for us to live on.

This would make Global Warming as part of God's Plan to help welcome Christ upon the earth again, which Satan definitely does not want. Interestingly, one of Satan's greatest weapons is fear because it is the opposite of faith. Maybe he just wants us to fear these changes, fear the unknown, fear the new.

Alas, we do know that in the last days, there are things that we should keep in mind. With the changing of the earth, more and more natural disasters will occur. "and great earthquakes shall be in diverse places..." (Luke 21: 7-13). Much like the strange earthquake in May of 2015 in Michigan. Or the earthquake in Montana July of this year.  Tornadoes, fires, and especially earthquakes are happening more frequently and in more locations. There is the possibility that with the expanse of media and information connectivity, that we are just learning more about natural events that were happening all along, however, unsubstantiated, I have my doubts about that. It really seems like the world is in turmoil and something is changing.

I leave you with this message, if these changes are of God, and are meant to happen, then there is nothing we can do about it anyway. If these changes are terrible, are something catastrophic, then why are those pushing the agenda using fear instead of logic and reason to figure out a solution. Again, realizing I am biased, I hope that at least someone became more open to new ideas concerning this matter.

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

Language

Dear Readers,

Language is an interesting subject. Countless theories and speculation have come about this subject. Whether or not animals actually have a language from the calls of whales, to the chirps of birds. How much of it is an actual language and how much of it is instinct based upon sensory cues?

As I mentioned in my blog post about The Creation, I do believe that in the beginning, before the fall of Adam and Eve, that animals could speak. This would explain Eve's lack of shock as the serpent that Satan possessed spoke to her (Genesis 3:4, Moses 4:6-7). With the ancient understanding of this principle, we can also see why Balaam a prophet from Pethor was not surprised either when his ass (donkey) began to speak (Numbers 22:22-35) when the Lord opened its mouth.

Thus, it is not unreasonable to say that animals might have their own languages for they might simply be confounded with the fall like human language was with the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:4-9, Ether 1:33-37). With the confounding of tongues or languages at the tower of Babel, we have countless languages. I am not a linguist, though I do understand that many of the languages today have evolved from other languages. Like Portuguese from Spanish. English itself is a giant mix of Latin and Greek roots with some entire words stolen from other languages.

Then there are the non verbal behavioral communication between animals such as mating dances and the like. We too have non verbal languages like sign language. There are those, like the character Patrick Jane portrayed in The Mentalist who focus on body language. Facial expressions help to accent these languages, and with those have come the new evolution of emoji's.

Yet, as I talked about in my blog post about Light of Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost, I recounted an experience I had with feeling the Holy Ghost when someone bore their testimony (witness of Christ) in American Sign Language. It was from that experience that I gained my own testimony of the universal language of the Spirit. The Spirit of God can communicate meanings, thoughts, and feelings directly from one individual to another.

However, if this powerful connection using the language of the Spirit were all that is necessary, why would we also have the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues? Even from the beginning God gave Adam a language, a pure, unaltered, perfect language. "In the beginning God gave Adam a language that was pure, perfect, and undefiled. This Adamic language, now unknown, was far superior to any tongue which is presently extant... This first language spoken by mortals was either the celestial tongue of the Gods or such adaptation of it as was necessary to meet the limitations of mortality; and Adam and his posterity had power to speak, read, and write it." (Mormon Doctrine pg 15 Adamic Language)

"Deja Vu" scene from The Matrix

At very least this shows how important language and literacy is. Indeed, there is the theory that learning a new language changes the way an individual thinks. As with the word "deja vu" it is a purely French word that has no equal in the English language. The concept of deja vu is feeling like your are experiencing again, or reliving a moment. Creating and having a word for such a phenomena changes the way in which we are able to express that idea and that feeling. We are able to break it down and define it more and simply. This is why it is important to learn multiple languages, because often times, a word in one language will have slightly different connotations than another making it uniquely qualified to properly represent the message that someone is trying to get across.

Like with Spanish, all nouns are either male or female, even those for objects. This makes it more difficulty for native Spanish speakers to understand the concept of gender-less English words like "they", "them", or "it".

Now, briefly, I would like to point out that usually learning a language takes repetition, immersion, hard work and dedication. However, there are some exceptions, including the spiritual gift of tongues, and fictionally the Tamaranean kiss. I bring up the Tamaranean kiss simply because it was a fascinating concept from the DC comic book universe. When the Tamaranean Koriand'r (Starfire) came to earth, she kissed Robin (Batman's sidekick) and learned English, allowing her to communicate with the earthlings. Though pure, abstract magic exists within the DC universe, in my mind magic has always been a more spiritual science.

With the notion that maybe this could actually be possible, I have thought about how. I would imagine that some sort of electrical current could pass through the lips and map out the circuits from the brain to the mouth correlating thoughts and ideas to speech. This could be similar to a bio-electrical reading like the sensors that sharks have in their snouts helping them sense movement and animals nearby.

Though Starfire learned English in this manner, there were yet many cultural and understanding complications. Thus suggesting that with the speedy manner of learning some fundamentals of the language remained to be learned more manually.

A movie that created an interesting concept of spoken words was Pontypool. Pontypool is a Canadian "zombie" movie that I have found quite unique. It is a viral outbreak that makes people homicidal, however the dialogue pushes the notions that words themselves are infected, and only words from the English language. Though I like the outside-the-box thinking of the movie as a brain exercise, it inspired me to, like Starfire's language learning ability, think about how it could really happen.

In my mind, it would be an actual viral infection, however, everyone is infected already. The virus is simply dormant within the brain, likely nestled along a neural pathway associated with a word. From the movie, it seemed as though they were different words for different people, and they did not "infect" or rather activate with the use for everyone. With my manner of thinking, this would imply that the way in which the English language shapes the brain is the only corridors of neural activity that the virus attaches to.

The main word that we learn for sure is an infected word was "kill". The doctor talks about how it is only when the word is heard and understood that it activates, implying further that the neural connection expands to the auditory receptors as well. "Kill" itself as a spoken word, the vibrations of those sounds, cannot activate the virus without the continuing connection of the meaning behind the word.

Similarly, the individual who begins to activate begins repeating the word over and over. The doctor compared this to an auto-immune response. Saying the word allows the individual to hear it and comprehend it again, re-triggering the virus almost like they are trying to overheat that location with electrical energy. Much like a normal auto-immune response of swelling and heat.

Alas, and as further evidence of my hypothesis, the woman repeating the word "kill" did not infect the man with her using that word. This implies that any or certain words, certain mappings of neural connections, allow the virus to attach and it may not attach in the same location for each individual.

The cure was the cincher for my idea. With the woman repeating the word "kill" the man redirected the immune response. By disassociating the word slightly, it changed the neural pathway, allowing the virus to go dormant again before it fully activated. Grant Mazzy, the main character, tells Sydney Briar, the infected woman, that "kill means kiss". "K" being a strong, definitive sound, it triggered the same electrical pathway, but then derailed or detoured to a completely opposite meaning with "kiss".

Surprisingly, the notion of electrical pathways determining language and thought have been around for quite a while. With computers and their binary code coupled with Morse code for telegrams and emergency signals we see that circuits and space have a correlations with information.

Spoiler Alert!

As with the concept of languages being in different parts of the brain, Arrival took a turn with how learning languages changes the way one thinks.

In Arrival, the aliens brought their language, a very interestingly language, in which they need to know exactly what they were going to say before and after. They compare this to writing a sentence with both of your hands, one from the beginning of the sentence and the other from the end, and then meeting in the middle. The main suspense of the movie is caused with the communication of the idea of "weapon". For them, their language was the only weapon worth sharing because understanding it, being fluent in it, expands the human brain to be able to see through time. Similar to how Dr. Manhattan from the DC universe Watchmen timeline could only see his own direct future, this change only affects the individual, but they can then see their life as the sentence. From the beginning and the end, meeting in the present.

Remarkably, it is interesting how that language, that way of thinking allowed the aliens to anticipate a problem that would require the help of humans, and the humans must have this ability themselves in order to help. Like a continuing cycle for the betterment of life itself.

Yet, we must remember how important it was for God to teach Adam both a spoken language, and how to read and write. With the emphasis in Arrival with the written word, we have to acknowledge the remark-ability of symbols standing for words, sounds, and sentences. In Egyptian, the hieroglyphics represented sounds and yet the pictographs portrayed entire stories. Even in English, though we borrowed Roman lettering we also have braille, dots choreographed to stand for another symbol (a letter). Still, in Chinese, Japanese, and other oriental languages a symbol can represent an entire word, or part of a word.

Often times, cultures associate words with power and meaning. Like in the Chinese mythology Jiangshi (Chinese vampires) could be stopped with talismans. These talismans were originally based and predicated on sealed orders from a shogun or emperor (Chinese Talisman Demystified). Official documents like these became symbols in themselves of power and authority, like the wax seals of European kings on their important messages to troops or for diplomacy.

Episode 6 of a show called FreakyLinks took the idea of words having power one step further. In this episode entitled Subject: The Harbingers, there were inter-dimensional beings seeping through a barrier that we could call a veil. These beings were the Harbingers, and they would possess people, latching onto their backs and encouraging them to be angry and commit violence. However, the book about these creatures itself had power over them, to drive them out of this plane of existence. Much like the concept of a bible burning a vampire who touches it, the premise is that the words simply existing with their meaning has power.

In the church we learn that the scriptures have power and can recharge and even rejuvenate us and our spirits. Allowing us to truly "feast" upon the words of Christ (2 Nephi 32:3). There is even a certain power or special influence that comes from studying the scriptures from a physical book as opposed to simply reading them through electronics. This connection church leaders have acknowledge and is a part of the reason why they still push for people to have and study from an actual book.

Another movie that made an interesting metaphysical correlation between words and power was the 2001 remake of Thirteen Ghosts (Thir13en Ghosts). This movie used Latin words as seals or power to bind and prevent ghosts from passing through walls or floor.

Like irrefutable commandments that the spirits must obey. Even the summoning of the spirits to the center room was done with recorded spoken words commanding and demanding that the ghosts yield and obey.

In reality, the reason why I think that written word has so much more power than digital word is because of how elements and the light of truth work together. With words on a page, you have elements with their own spirits attached, all dedicated to being a substance that will either absorb light (the letters) or reflect light (the paper or material the words are printed on). That light, or lack thereof, portrays a message, the very word of God. Contrary, electronics emit light. Whatever source of florescence, whether light-bulbs or more high tech means, are only temporary. They lack that dedication, that solidarity of always testifying and revealing the truth written upon it. The same bulb that illuminates the name of Christ could deny Him the very next second.

Though that is simply speculation, there is another, less metaphysical theory that people have as to why it is better to study from an actual book. Our minds are designed to experience, not simply observe, and our eyes pick up the sides, the margins, and the location of the words on the page. With these other factors, studying from scriptures we can more easily find a scripture we liked because we vaguely remember where it was on a page. By limiting our field of view to a small screen, we are limiting the level of cementing a scripture or passage can have in our minds.

Summing up, language is fundamental in whatever form it takes, and does indeed have power. For it was by the power of God, His authority and honor (Doctrine and Covenants 29:36), that He was able to speak and the universe was created and organized (Genesis 1:3, John 1:1-3). What we say matters. How we think and what we think about matters. It is important that we gain as much education as we can, and ever reach towards truth, and God, and Christ.

Love,
Jacobugoth