In the year 1820, the area around Manchester, New York was caught up in “an unusual excitement on the subject of religion.” Joseph Smith noted that it “created no small stir and division amongst the people.” He further noted that: Notwithstanding the great love which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time … Read more
Recently, I started an adult Sunday School lesson on the Fall of Adam and Eve by saying “Today we are going to partake of the Tree of Knowledge.” I then took a big bite of a juicy red apple. After savoring the taste, I offered another apple to a class member sitting in the front … Read more
A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again. Alexander Pope Both the diagram and the quotation above illustrate the human tendency to think we know more than we do. They do not discourage learning, but remind … Read more
It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. Doctrine and Covenants 131:6 Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear; Doctrine and Covenants 136:32 Simply … Read more
These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had access to so much knowledge, and yet been so resistant to learning anything. Tom Nichols The Founding Fathers, while setting up a democratic republic, guaranteed a free press to serve as a watchdog on the government. They also set up public schools and universities because … Read more
The tribally inclined audience … is contemptuous of outside fact-checking, no matter how assiduous, but endlessly gullible toward information shared on the inside. Consequently, it is an easy target. David Roberts When people voluntarily choose to severely limit their sources of information they are choosing to willfully blind themselves. Because people are easily drawn to … Read more
Right-wing media and their allies in the Republican party have consciously and deliberately created the current extreme polarization in our society by completely rejecting the core institutions and norms of American democracy. They have managed to convince millions that our traditional institutions tell only lies and that reality resides only in the rhetorical universe they … Read more
Empathy is perhaps the most critical of all human emotions. It is what ties us together as partners, teams, organizations, and to our customers. It is the ability to suspend our own interests, opinions, and convictions momentarily and listen long enough to feel what someone else is feeling; to truly understand their interests, opinions, and … Read more