Before discussing earth life, its challenges, and its dangers, we need to review why we were sent to earth in the first place. Why are we here and what are we to learn? Since the Preexistence, Earth life was designed to give us experiences, allow us to make decisions, and learn wisdom in the process.
To begin a podcast about science and religion, we need to establish the foundations of earth life. Why are we here and what are we supposed to learn? I propose that in the Preexistence, we were sent to earth to have experiences, make decisions, and thereby learn wisdom. This first podcast will discuss these goals of mortality. However, this normal process has recently been interrupted by a major world event called COVID-19. So how do we explain the existence of the coronavirus? Episode 2 will discuss the reasons for disease and other dangers in our lives.
For more information on this topic, please visit my website at scottrfrazer.com. To make comments or ask questions, please email me at scottrfrazer@gmail.com.
If interested in more detail, this topic is more fully reviewed in the book Angry with God – Understanding the Rules of Earth Life, by Scott R. Frazer.
This is the Podcast “Science and Scriptures” – Episode #1 (or Let’s Start at the Beginning).
Welcome and I hope you like the theme music I have chosen. I chose it in the hope that it encourages your expectation of learning something new…
Hello everyone. My name is Scott Frazer and I would like to welcome you to this first episode of the new podcast, “Science and Scriptures”. Thank you for giving it a try. I hope I can make these discussions both interesting and engaging for you.
My only claims to fame is that I have a wonderful wife, four great and likeable adult children, and I’ve written a couple of books.
The books I wrote are Where Science meets God - 12 Ways Science Reinforces LDS Doctrine and Angry with God – Understanding the Rules of Earth Life. They are books about how what we learn about our mortal existence must agree with what we learn about our spiritual doctrines. When that happens, our testimony is strengthened.I hope to be able to tell you about discoveries regarding earth that might be new to you. My publisher, Cedar Fort Publishing, is providing the initial platform for the podcast, but as a disclaimer, all opinions expressed here are mine alone.
So, why listen to me talk about it?
I converted to the church when I was 19 years old and went on my mission to Mexico City a year later.When I returned, I went to graduate school and received a doctorate in Chemistry. Between my conversion and my scientific education, my passion became a quest to understand how the truths of the Gospel fit with the truths of science.Since both are true, we only have to determine how to fit the puzzle pieces together to create the whole picture. My question of my quest has been, “Can we take the Gospel and discoveries in both the hard sciences (Chemistry & Medicine) and soft sciences (such as Sociology & psychology) and make sense out of our world?” Well of course we can. That is what I would like to investigate and discuss in this podcast.
*Some episodes, like this one, will consist of topics borrowed and expanded upon from my books.Some episodes will be interviews with other people who can offer a unique perspective on these topics. Lastly, some episodes will review questions or comments (sent to scottrfrazer@gmail.com) from any listener who wants to send one in. I will endeavor to keep the normal podcast to 30 minutes or less, though interviews may go longer.
The name of this podcast is Science and Scripture. I realize that many people still disbelieve many of the claims of science. Today, debates still circulate about global warming, genetically-modified foods, vaccines, etc.. There are more than a few people, especially elderly people, who claim to simply reject Science. But I find these same doubters still take the medications prescribed by their doctors.They still watch television and may even have a cell phone. Many other people believe that scientists are conspirators, working with an enemy political party to progress their agenda or bring down the world. This is not true of course and I hope you give me the chance to show how science can help us to understand the Gospel and make sense out of the universe.
Science is tasked with establishing the truth of our physical world. It encompasses medicine and geology, astronomy and agriculture.The Lord encourages us to seek for this knowledge – and tells us what we can expect to find. From Moses 6:63.
“And behold, all things have their alikeness, and all things are created and made to bbear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.”
This is a key verse for my podcast. This seeking of temporal knowledge is called Science. We seek to understand the Things which are in the heavens above through astronomy. We seek to understand the things which are on the earth and in the earth through biology, medicine, archeology, and history. Finally, we seek to understand the things which are under the earth through geology and paleontology. When we find things above, in, on, and under the earth, they will bear record of Jesus Christ. The Lord tells us to expect to make findings in our studies that will be evidence of Him.
Many believers think that the sciences – particularly astronomy, archeology, and evolutionary biology – are enemies of religion. While it is true certain scientists have taken it upon themselves to criticize religion, science is not an enemy of our faith. As a religion, we should be glad that Science uncovers truth.Some new discoveries support our understanding of the Gospel – and we should rejoice such findings. Other new discoveries may not line up with what we believe – and we may need to adjust our understandings to incorporate these new truths. In any case we should rejoice as we learn. That is what we are going to try to do in this podcast - to increase our understanding of the universe and then fit it into our understanding of the Gospel.
This leads us into a definition of the phrase “Mental Testimony”.
Why should a non-scientist Christian care about science? Because testimonies can be fragile and one should strengthen theirs whenever possible. And Science can actually help in that effort.
This podcast is built on the premise that every Christian actually has two separate and distinct testimonies. Generally, when we discuss testimony, we only think about our spiritual testimonies. These testimonies are developed and grown by receiving inspiration from the Holy Ghost. These revelations are verifications from God that what we are learning in any given Church meeting, scripture study, or prayer is true. We cherish the spiritual witnesses we receive in our lives and, with each and every prayer, seek for additional spiritual strength.
But besides having a spiritual testimony, recognizing and seeking to grow a mental testimony is important as well. To use the “heart and head” metaphor, when you have a spiritual testimony, you have faith in your heart that the gospel is true. When you have a mental testimony, you are convinced in your mind that the gospel is true. Your heart will seek for spiritual confirmations to continue to grow in your faith. Your mind, on the other hand, will demand information, evidence, and logic to continue to be strong in your mental conclusions. Science can strengthen your mental testimony by providing such information and argument.
Rarely do we differentiate between these two types of testimonies in our Church meetings or scripture study. But as we read testimonies in our scriptures, we can see that some are, indeed, mental testimonies. As an example, Joseph Smith had a very strong mental testimony. In Joseph Smith History 1:25, he very clearly bears a mental testimony. He says…
“I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me . . . I have actually seen a vision . . . Why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it. (Joseph Smith—History 1:25)
This was not a spiritual revelation given to Joseph; he is not caught up in the Spirit or having a dream.Joseph saw a light and then he saw two Personages with his physical eyes. Then he heard Their words with his ears. That experience was forever lodged in his brain and could not be denied. So, through his trials, when Joseph’s spiritual self was weakened and he might question his calling, he could lean on his strong mental testimony for support. He had seen what he had seen.
Seeing any miracle would increase your mental testimony, but let’s face it, miracles are rare. Though amazing to see, we cannot wait for miracles to occur to bolster our mental testimonies. But there is other evidence that our minds can consider. So, if the mind demands information and evidence to be convinced of a truth, how do we strengthen a mental testimony? I hope to be able to provide you evidence and insights from science to do exactly that.
COVID-19
Strangely enough, I want to start these first two podcasts talking about COVID-19. The coronavirus has changed everything about our lives – our work lives, our church lives, and the amount-of-time-we-spend-at-home lives.The disease has disrupted the existence of nearly everyone on the planet for months and there have been many repercussions. Life will take a long time to get back to normal – if that is even possible.
After so much time away from the fellowship and teachings of our normal church meetings, it seems that many people are asking themselves new questions. “Where do I find meaning in my life?” or ”With many of my past social activities postponed or cancelled, where do I find connections with other people?”“What am I supposed to do with all my time?”, “Can I ever feel spiritual at church again – especially while having to wear a facemask?”
I worry that this may be a really bad time to initiate a podcast that includes “scientific data” of any kind. You are probably sick to death of scientific data. In the past six months you have had cascades of medical information dumped on you regarding coronavirus. Obviously, we all wanted to know exactly why we couldn’t go anywhere and when those restrictions would be lifted. So our news feeds gave us endless news and statistics on the spread of the disease in every state and even foreign countries.
For months you have had more scientific data than you could ever want. But did those answers comfort you? Knowing is usually better than not knowing. But personally, I soon realized that the incessant news reports about the Coronavirus were not helping me find peace. Other reports about angry protests in cities all across the country were confusing and upsetting as well. I missed the fellowship and discussions of church meetings, mostly because I missed the opportunity to remind myself how important the Gospel is compared to the noise of the world. So if there was ever a time to reestablish our understanding of the our place in the universe and what we are supposed to be learning in our lives, it is now. Hopefully, some of our answers will bring each of us some understanding and peace. Let’s now move on to our first discussion about Science and the Gospel, beginning with the elephant in the room - COVID-19.
COVID-19
In May of this year, Cedar Fort published that second book I told you about. In it, I make the case that it is God’s responsibility to make sure that all the rules of earth life are obeyed. Many people are angry with God for the difficulties they have encountered in their earth lives. I wrote this book to answer their charges and defend the world that God has created and the challenges we find here.
In the final editing draft of that book, I was able to insert a paragraph about the coronavirus. I placed that paragraph in a chapter titled, “Rule #3: The Earth is a Dangerous Place”. I included the Coronavirus paragraph right after a review of other pandemics that have swept the earth in the past. Though tempting, I am not going to jump ahead and talk about the reasons for viruses and diseases in this podcast. I promise that I will discuss COVID-19 in the next podcast. But to understand where the coronavirus fits, we first need to build a foundation on which to build. We need to consider the reasons for earth life and then see how trials, tribulations, and disease help us achieve our goals.
So, for today’s podcast, I would like to discuss why we are here on earth – and then consider for a moment what kind of world would God need to create to achieve those goals. To begin this story, we need to begin our discussion with the Preexistence.
Preexistence
Most Christians believe in a Pre-existence. There are several scriptures in the Old Testament in which prophets are told that they were chosen before they were born on earth. Jeremiah 1:5 is probably the best-known verse.
“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations”
Revelations 12:7-9 describes the War in Heaven that occurred in the Preexistence. 2 Timothy 1:9 talks about our purpose on earth, given to us before the world began.
We don’t know a lot about the Preexistence. That’s actually an understatement – better said, we know very, very little about the Preexistence. As spirits, did we sleep in the Preexistence? Did we eat there? My answer to those questions is “I hope so” and “I hope so”, but I have no idea.
We know we were in the Preexistence as Spirits and, it is believed, that we learned while there.We may have learned about the Universe and our place in it. We almost certainly learned about our spiritual natures. We reached the point of needing to move to the earth, so plans for the move were made.
Once the creation was accomplished, it was time to present the moving plan to all of God’s children who would be born on earth. One can only imagine that it would have been a large gathering indeed. Millions of spirits might have attended, all anxious to learn about their future. Any big change in one’s life can be scary, and this would be one of the biggest changes of our eternal lives. We needed information and a grand conference was called to give it to us. Again, we have little explanation of how the plan was presented at this gathering. We do know that, as summarized in the “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,
”In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.”
To better understand why God made us leave the premortal existence, we do not have to change our perception of God as a loving Heavenly Father. He is our Eternal Father, who wants the best for us. You may, however, need to change your perception of your own spiritual self. At the end of your Preexistence stay, don’t think of yourself as a wide-eyed, eight-year-old spirit getting kicked out of the house. You were not a mere child. Think of yourself rather as a twentysomething, unemployed, single-adult spirit, living in your parent’s basement and playing video games for most of the day. You have finished your schooling and seen all the sights of the premortal existence. You are bored and aimless. So, what does a loving Heavenly Father do? He sends you to the next phase of your existence.
IN SUMMARY, IT WAS TIME FOR US TO LEAVE
Earth Life
To start the discussion of earth life, I would like you to consider two time points in your eternal progression. First, though you have no memories of it, think back to the day you were born on earth.You were a small, helpless infant.You have a few instincts that will serve you well. But otherwise you don’t remember the Preexistence, your brain is still developing, and you are helpless.
Secondly, think about your future death date. Your spirit has just fled your lifeless body. According to near-death experience accounts, you may have just gotten to see your corpse and your family surrounding it.
NOW, “What is the difference between who you were on your birthdate and who you have become on the day of your death?”
The simple answer to that question is, “You will have had experiences, you will have learned wisdom, and you will have made choices.”
I am not pulling this conclusion from any scripture – I think it is pretty obvious. From the time you awake in the morning to the time you close your eyes at night, you have experiences throughout the day. Often those experiences will force you to make choices. You just woke up – do you get out of bed or ignore the alarm?Would it be okay if you are late for work or skip a class?
Then you will learn wisdom from those experiences and choices. If you chose to stay in bed and you are fired from work or fail a class, you have gained wisdom at a rather steep price.
Let’s examine each of these aspects of earth life one at a time.
Experiences
By the way, in this podcast I will read only a few scriptures. I believe those that I read communicate so elegantly that it is much better to read them. When he wrote Doctrine & Covenants, Section 122, Joseph Smith and his companions had been in Liberty Jail for months. They were understandably miserable. In the previous section taken from the same epistle, Joseph had prayed asking the Lord to come out of his hiding place and avenge the church for the wrongs done to its membership. In D&C 121: 24-25, the Lord refuses to do that. It was not the right time. Here in Section 122, verse 7, the Lord gives a revelation that sheds some light as to our purpose while on earth.
D&C 122:7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
Now Joseph Smith had been through a number of remarkable experiences – both extremely good and extremely bad. Maybe he had advanced to the point of needing the very jaws of hell to open after him to progress further. I don’t know that I would be up to the task of enduring what the Lord describes here.But the Lord makes the point that even being cast into a pit, sentenced to death, or being cast into the deep – will give you experiences. And however bad the experiences are, they shall be for thy good! This is a strange conclusion when you think about it. Some people take this concept a bit too far, saying how very grateful they are for the worst experiences of their lives. I understand the sentiment, but that attitude can lead you to a masochistic view of life. Bad experiences must be tolerated and, if possible, understood. You don’t have to be grateful for bad experience – but you shouldn’t be surprised by them either. Any time you leave your home, you have a greater chance of finding experiences.Good for you by the way. May you find experiences that will teach you much.
If you look at the earth, it makes sense that we were put on this earth to have good and bad experiences. We live on a planet of extremes. We have sunny days and then we have hurricanes. We have healthy days and days of painful sickness. The good earth will give us food, but it will also give us weeds that will choke out our harvests. We have bees to make us honey – and mosquitoes to annoy is or make us sick.We will get into this subject more the next podcast, when we will review the place of coronavirus is our earthly experience. For now, please consider that earth was put here to give us experiences.
Learn Wisdom and Choose Righteousness
So, what are we to do with those experiences…? We will do two things for all of our lives. Every day we will be encouraged to Learn Wisdom and Choose Righteousness. I cannot separate those two concepts, because they are joined at the hip. Let me give you two examples of why I believe we are on earth to gain wisdom and make good choices.
My first example is the Human body.
Your body is a temporary vehicle – you will lose it after your sojourn on earth. But your body is designed to teach you, every day and all day long.The body is a 24/7 teacher. We know that learning comes by way of positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. You have millions of pain receptors spread throughout your body.
As I am talking to you right now, let’s say I decide to stop and go get lunch.
I arise from my desk – no problem.
But I do not step carefully, and I stub my toe against the desk leg. Bad decision. I have done this more than a few times over the years, and you know what – it hurts every time. The pain is immediate and intense. If I really jammed my toe, the pain will continue throughout the day, reminding me again and again how careless I had been. Bad decisions often bring pain, and pain is a great negative reinforcer. As I told my teenage daughters as they left to get their ears pierced, “Remember, pain is your body telling you “STOP DOING THAT!”.
Pain teaches me a lot. If I go without eating, I have stomach pains.If I don’t get enough sleep, my body aches. If I expose my skin to intense cold or too much sun, I will feel the pain for doing so.If I neglect to visit the bathroom, I have pain in the areas you would expect for such neglect.
Good decisions bring good feelings. If you are hungry and then you eat, you feel content. If you have a good night’s sleep, you feel great in the morning.Your brain has a set of hormones called serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins to reward you when you do something that makes your life better and your survival more likely. Thus, your body gives you knowledge through negative and positive reinforcement. That knowledge can give you wisdom if you actually incorporate the learning it into your life.
My second example is that we learn from our social interactions. Our first social interactions are with our parents and siblings. As babies and toddlers, we learn what makes our family either happy or angry. For example, your sister has forty-three muscles in her face, which give her the ability of making literally hundreds of expressions of delight and approval at your kindness and thoughtfulness. She can use those same facial muscles to communicate to you emotions ranging from annoyance to unfettered rage at your selfish and rude behavior. We learn the meaning of facial expressions very early in life.
As we get older, we learn what actions and statements make friends angry with us. That anger – a rather severe negative reinforcement – teaches us to avoid those actions and words. On the other hand, we also learn what we can say or do to make friends and influence others. We learn through other’s responses how to best interact with them. The world was established to teach us wisdom. Besides, COVID-19, we are experiencing a massive amount of turmoil in learning about social interactions as a society.
Wisdom comes with new experiences.For example, when you travel abroad, you witness the living conditions of peoples in other countries. You come to better understand those people and their cultures. You can better sympathize with their issues. When an untraveled friend makes a negative comment about one of those countries, you have the wisdom to realize your friend has no idea what he is talking about. Experiences such as volunteering at a soup kitchen or visiting a nursing home will give you other insights into aspects of life that you may never see otherwise.
We were sent to Earth to have experiences, make choices and learn. When we are born, we are each given a body, a social environment, and opportunities for experiences. We are asked to learn about this world, the people in it, and how to successfully live here. It is hoped that the decisions we make are righteous and charitable. Experiences – Choices – and Wisdom. Over time, we should learn to fine-tune our decisions, so they are even better. The learning process repeats itself over and over again.
If we are alert, throughout this process we will recognize that choosing righteousness makes a happier life.The process breaks down if a person cannot come to that realization. You may have a son that does not recognize that opiates are destroying his life. You may have a daughter who does not realize her peers are taking her down a road that will be miserable for her. You may have good friends who do not realize the benefits of church activity and are leaving it behind.
We will be returning to this concept of Learning Wisdom and Choosing Righteousness often in this podcast.After all, an understanding of why we are on earth is really needed to make sense of what we find here.
So, that is all we have for today. I hope you enjoyed this first, maiden episode of the podcast “Science and Scriptures” and I hope I have given you something to think about in the coming week. With this foundation in place, next week we are ready to consider the reasons for the Coronavirus and other dangers on the earth. In future podcasts, we will be discussing the severe requirements of maintaining our world of faith, what you might say to an evolutionist, and what you might tell a creationist.
Please tell your friends and family about the podcast so you have someone to discuss your thoughts with. Thanks again for listening. I hope you can join us next week. Take care.