I was talking to a friend about this yesterday when I had an epiphany. Now, normally I do not do disclaimers but seeing as how I only know most of you ladies through the blogging world and not in a face to face personal basis and I know most of you are not of the same faith I am I will do one. I am not trying to preach or convert, only explain the epiphany. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and in addition to the King James Version of the Holy Bible we have The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price as our scriptural cannon to nourish our souls with. Please bear with me my fellow Poetic Knowledge readers as I'd like to share a parable from the Book of Mormon that was a part of my epiphany. It is called Lehi's vision of the tree of life (part of the verses are Lehi talking and part are his son, Nephi, explaining the vision, any emphasis is mine)
[Lehi speaking here]
7...I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.
8And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
9And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.
10And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.
11And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.
12And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
13And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit...
26And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit...
33And great was the multitude that did enter into that strange building. And after they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not.
[Nephi speaking now to end]
34These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded them, had fallen away...
18And the large and spacious building, which thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men. And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever...
35And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
36And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Now for the epiphany: As I was talking to my friend I told her that poetic knowledge is a foundational knowledge, in fact I really think it is a spiritual intuition, knowing beyond knowing. Our society only values the scientific knowledge - then it hit me! Our society, with it's value and pride in science, is in the great and spacious building that has no firm foundation and will fall.
Be sure to check out the other Poetic Knowledge rabbit trails here:
http://www.pelennorfields.com/mystie/2011/poetic-knowledge-book-club-connatural-intentional-and-intuitive-knowledge-part-2/
Great post! I think for most people science has taken the palce of God. Like we talked about at book club the other night, if we can explain how something occurs, then it doesn't seem so miraculous.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome in our book club, Rebekah. :)
ReplyDeleteI do agree that science is the modern world's god; so, if we emphasize other ways of knowing or humanities [humanity] over science, we get in trouble because in a way we are "blaspheming" our culture's god.
How right you both are with concluding that our culture's God is science. No matter what we will always worship something, right?
ReplyDeleteHow sad it is that our society has come to this.
I like your point about secular science being the great and spacious building that fell because it had no foundation.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I read about something scientific I am always so struck by how much deeper everything goes than one would think at first. This intuition that we have, I think, saves our reasoning from becoming reductionist and thin.
I think that secular scientists think of it as credulity or magical thinking, but it is something quite different, something that they can't help relying on to some extent just like everyone else, only they don't acknowledge the foundation.
Andrew Kern talks about something very similar in one of his lectures from, I think, the 2009 CiRCE Conference. He says that science/reason/rationality/etc. is not designed to and therefore *cannot* hold the weight of the universe the way our culture expects it to. I think he'd probably agree with you that a culture that is trying to build upon sand like that is doomed to failure.
ReplyDeleteI also think that when science is out of place like that, we also never get to appreciate it in the place where it belongs, which is also a sort of loss, I think...