Indeterminacy Principle and the Mainstream
I was thrilled yesterday when Clark's only real remaining critique of my post on God's non-foreknowledge was "if you can reconcile that to your understanding of the gospel that's fine. I suspect many people can not." WhooHoo! I'm not mainstream! I can call on Heisenberg again to explain why that is such a good thing.
If you'll remember, in my last post I applied the indeterminacy principle to mankind as a whole. That is, you can predict the behavior of the group with incredible accuracy but you can never predict the behavior of the one with much accuracy. In the course of the earth the most rebellious against the group have always been the prophets of God and their followers. While the mainstream of Jerusalem was barreling toward destruction, the one, Lehi, pulled up stakes and left. Nibley call it the Rekhabite (sp?) principle – named after contemporary of Lehi that researchers discovered records of in recent decades.
Many are called, few are chosen... Broad is the way that leads to destruction... The natural man is an enemy to God...
The scriptures are full of admonitions for us not to be mainstream.
But you say: Not so fast, my friend! There are definite limits to this principle. Being a faithful Latter Day Saint already takes us out of the mainstream. Following the counsel of a modern day prophet takes us out of that destructive mainstream.
And of course you are right. But in cases like my theories below when the prophets have said nothing, I am not too worried. My proposal might very well be right. And since it mostly flies in the face of NeoPlatonic assumptions I think it has a pretty good chance of being more correct than the mainstream take on the subject.
Of course there is danger in obsessing over being “alternative”. Mainstream or not mainstream, all I really want to believe... Is truth.
If you'll remember, in my last post I applied the indeterminacy principle to mankind as a whole. That is, you can predict the behavior of the group with incredible accuracy but you can never predict the behavior of the one with much accuracy. In the course of the earth the most rebellious against the group have always been the prophets of God and their followers. While the mainstream of Jerusalem was barreling toward destruction, the one, Lehi, pulled up stakes and left. Nibley call it the Rekhabite (sp?) principle – named after contemporary of Lehi that researchers discovered records of in recent decades.
Many are called, few are chosen... Broad is the way that leads to destruction... The natural man is an enemy to God...
The scriptures are full of admonitions for us not to be mainstream.
But you say: Not so fast, my friend! There are definite limits to this principle. Being a faithful Latter Day Saint already takes us out of the mainstream. Following the counsel of a modern day prophet takes us out of that destructive mainstream.
And of course you are right. But in cases like my theories below when the prophets have said nothing, I am not too worried. My proposal might very well be right. And since it mostly flies in the face of NeoPlatonic assumptions I think it has a pretty good chance of being more correct than the mainstream take on the subject.
Of course there is danger in obsessing over being “alternative”. Mainstream or not mainstream, all I really want to believe... Is truth.
posted by Geoff J at 1/27/2005 05:07:00 PM
0 Comments: