Almost finished with another chapter in that time-consuming epic of my life, "Thorns of Glory." So I get to use this blog to flesh out some of my thoughts that will go into the chapter notes. But before I do that...I got a question. Has there ever been a scene in any of my Tennis Shoes books where a character was captured by a net?
I must be getting senile. The other day I actually reread all of my scenes regarding the Rainbow Room, the Galaxy Room, and the Millennium Room because the room will have some upcoming new twists. And I was shocked at reading my own words with the same suspense as anybody else reading them for the first time. It was sort of cool! Sorry if that sounds prideful. But it was almost as if I couldn't take credit for some of the intense descriptions of swirling particles of energy and optical illusions from book 5, 6, 7, and 8...because I have only a vague recollection of writing them! A sign of age? Probably. A sign that it's been too long since my last Tennis Shoes novel? Definitely.
Oh, and one other thing of a personal/selfish note. Some of the Ebay stuff I've been selling fell through with the original buyers...so I re-posted certain items. The link is:
http://shop.ebay.com/liahona10/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=
Finances are tight right now, so prices are cheap.
Has anyone ever heard the concept of the unorganized and the organized universes? These are concepts that have been in our Church doctrine since the days of Joseph Smith. I had to re-read about them recently for research purposes. The unorganized universe lies "beyond the bounds of time and space" as Brigham Young taught back in 1854 (having learned about it directly from Joseph Smith). In other words, the universe that modern science has discovered--that which we can see or detect by telescopes or radio waves--is known as the "organized universe." I believe I read that it is 16 billion light years wide. This is also known as "space" in the scriptures (i.e., D&C 88:11-13). But there is more than just this universe. Everything beyond it is known as the "unorganized" universe. And in the whole expanse of things, our 16-billion-light-year wide detectable universe is only a dust speck in the unorganized universe.
Still with me? Nobody asleep? Okay, then I'll continue.
There is reason to believe that no advance in technology will ever help us to discover or detect the unorganized universe, because, frankly, it ain't organized. It doesn't exist in physical mortality. It doesn't even exist spiritually. Remember that science is ALREADY limited because it can only detect or observe physical matter. It cannot detect or observe finer substances, i.e., spiritual matter or celestial matter. So "unorganized" stuff is one step removed (degraded?) from even spiritual matter. Anyway, it is from this vast unorganized universe that the "family of the Gods" (a term used by Brigham) scoops up the unorganized "matter" and unorganized "intelligences" that later become such things as planets and souls. Lehi put it like this: God hath created all things...both things to act and things to be acted upon (2 Ne. 2:14).
These two phenomenon--things to act and things to be acted upon--define everything about our known universe. But the unorganized universe is apparently a place where even the Spirit of God does not dwell. The "light of truth" only dwells in the organized universe. Or so Joseph Smith taught. It rather goes against our natural instinct. And it did for some of the early brethren as well. They wanted to believe the power and influence of Heavenly Father was absolutely everywhere, not understanding the core essence of what they were saying. Here's a conversation that occurred between Orson Hyde and Joseph Smith:
"Brother Hyde was upon this same theory once (the idea that God's Spirit dwelled even in the unorganized universe), and in conversation with brother Joseph Smith advanced the idea that eternity or boundless space was filled with the Spirit of God, or the Holy Ghost. After portraying his views upon that theory very carefully and minutely, he asked Brother Joseph what he thought of it? He replied that it appeared very beautiful, and that he did not know of but one serious objection to it. Says Brother Hyde, "What is that?" Joseph replied, "It is not true."(Journal of Discourses 4:266)
I've always found it fascinating that things pondered and debated today by physicists and astronomers have already been fundamentally addressed by prophets of God. For example, when is the LDS Church going to get the credit for presenting the Law of Relativity to the world a full 62 years before Einstein?
Special Relativity, as published by Einstien in 1905, is the idea that time is measured differently depending upon your point of reference, or your position in space. Yet in 1842 Joseph Smith published the same thing, without all the math, in the Book of Abraham:
It is given unto thee (Abraham) to know the times of reckoning, and the set time, yea, the set time of the earth upon which thou standest, and the set time of the greater light which is set to rule the day, and the set time of the lesser light which is set to rule the night. Now the set time of the lesser light is a longer time as to its reckoning than the reckoning of the time of the earth upon which thou standest. And where these two facts exist, there shall be another fact above them, that is, there shall be another planet whose reckoning of time shall be longer still. (Abr. 3:6-8)
That’s Special Relativity! It’s so classic it’s breathtaking. So Abraham knew all about space-time continuums thousands of years before Einstein. And without watching a single episode of Star Trek.
I love this Gospel. It never fails to stretch the mind and elevate the soul to loftier heights. I'm so grateful to be a part of it. And I hope you are too.
(c) Copyright 2009, Chris Heimerdinger
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
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Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI have been racking my brain and reviewing all of the Tenis Shoe books and the scenes where people are caught or taken captive. I can´t think of any that happened through the use of a net. As far as the comment on unorganized and orgainzed universes, yes I have heard of the concept and I think you are right on track. I think what happens is that people get stuck in the spiritual creation and physical creation, but forget that before we were spirits we were intelligences and before we were intelligences we always exsisted but as Joseph Smith taught, unorganized. Last year, there was a science presentation on the fact that they have found that gravity is an example of an impossible law, because it can keep a table on the ground, but we can pick up a glass that is on it. And if you look at the numbers it appears that it exists on a very thin plane like a "veil" between realities or universes or types of existence. Their words. I love how these things like the non existence of time - Eternity, creation and how it works and other things that the gospel makes so much clearer are part of those things that we can ponder and appreciate on a level that someone who does not have the perpective of the gosple can.
Erik Skousen had a really interesting diagram for this very subject in his book Earth: In the Beginning. I can't recommend the book as a whole, as it goes into a whole bunch of stuff that nothing's been revealed on (and personally I felt he got wrong). But the diagram showed the organized universe as this little bubble inside a much larger unorganized universe, and the organized is forever expanding outward, organizing as it goes, but going on forever as there is no end to unorganized matter. It's pretty mind-boggling to think about.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of this before. Thanks for enlightening me. It makes tons of sense when one thinks about it.
ReplyDeleteI just happen to be the number 2 expert on the Tennis Shoes books, Chris being the 1st. there is no scene with a net, though there is a capture with a fake handicapped man, a ball and chain around the legs, an ambush at some ruins, an ambush in the foothills near Gerizim, and a kidnapping in a grocery store parking lot, to name but a few. lol
ReplyDeleteYou might be the number one expert, Dustin. Don't sell yourself short. :) Thanks for the info. I was just "guessing" that I had never done such a scene before. But darn. Now you will not be surprised when it happens. :)
ReplyDeleteChris: The unorganized universe is apparently a place where even the Spirit of God does not dwell.
ReplyDeleteThis makes sense when you think about it. If spiritual death is to be separated from the presence of God, and spiritual rebirth is to be brought back into the presence of God, then our initial spirit birth must be when we were first brought into the presence of God. That implies that before such time, we were in an "Outside," a Nowhere where the Spirit of God has not yet begun to organize. Kinda cool. I'd love to see some of the quotes you've looked up.
It is from this vast unorganized universe that [God] ... scoops up the ... unorganized "intelligences" that later become such things as ... souls.
I learned something really neat about this doctrine—there's a specific reason Heavenly Father revealed it and wants us to know it. He explains it in D&C 93:21 when he says, "Behold, here is the agency of man." I don't know that I can summarize it in a paragraph, but I'll try.
People have wondered for years how something that is created ex nihilo can have free will. If I write a computer program, it does what I tell it to; it can't do anything except act out the set of conditions I started it with. If God creates a soul and gives it certain characteristics, inclinations, and personality, then it can only act out the set of conditions it started with. So that would make God responsible for all the subsequent actions of each of his creations, including their evil actions, and unjust for condemning them. Traditional Christianity has struggled to resolve this philosophical problem for literally centuries.
But Joseph Smith taught something different about creation—that the core of our soul, intelligence, has existed forever. If, when forming a soul, God uses one ingredient that has always existed independently, then it explains how that soul has free will. It also explains why God is not responsible for what his creations do, since a part of them has existed forever. So that's why we're fully accountable.
If that didn't make sense, see this longer explanation. It's a neat doctrine, because we can't fully understand agency without it.
I own all of your books and i am your #1 fan can you put me in your next book as me Toby you can put me as Jim Hawkins son in law i would like to be married to steff thank you.
ReplyDeletesincearly Toby