Learning to Dance in the Rain

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Check out what the National Center for Policy Analysis has to say about one of our society’s latest fads:

Synopsis

While the earth has warmed between 0.3 and 0.6 degrees Celsius and carbon dioxide (CO₂), has increased more than 30 percent over the last 150 years, scientists still debate the extent to which human activity is the cause of global warming. NCPA scholars believe that while the causes and consequences of the earth’s current warming trend is still unknown, the cost of actions to substantially reduce CO₂ emissions would be quite high and result in economic decline, accelerated environmental destruction, and do little or nothing to prevent global warming regardless of its cause.

Read the rest at the NCPA web site: Global Warming

The traditional LDS Sunday School version of Satan’s proposed alteration to Heavenly Father’s plan (henceforth referred to as Satan’s plan for brevity) tends to be that Satan wanted to force us all to be good.  This interpretation is not based in canonical scripture, and I believe actually contradicts scripture.  There is an interpretation that (to me anyway) seems to bring everything into agreement — both scripture and personal experience.

First let us review the basis for our understanding of Satan’s plan.  This quotation is from Moses 4:1,3-4 (emphasis added)

And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.

…

Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.

Not only does "Satan wanted to force us all to be good" not appear anywhere in scripture, it actually contradicts the above passage.  Satan said "I will redeem all mankind."  But if Satan was going to force us to be good, there would be no one to redeem because no one would have sinned.

For him to redeem all mankind, all mankind would have to sin.  What is more, nothing would be required of us to be redeemed or else Satan could make no guarantee that every person would qualify.  This is a deviation from Heavenly Father’s plan, which required His children to individually accept the atonement of the Savior while we are here on this Earth.  It seems then that Satan wanted to allow everyone to do anything we wanted and still be saved.

But the Lord explained that Satan sought to destroy the agency of man.  Doesn’t that mean he will take away our choices by forcing us to be good?  Let me explain this with an analogy.  Suppose you and I walked into a hat shop of red and blue hats.  You were allowed to choose between a red and a blue hat, but regardless of your choice, you only got to walk out with a blue hat.  No matter how many times you went back into the shop and asked for your choice of a red hat, you only walked out with a blue one.  Did you really have a choice in this scenario?  Sort of.  Did you have agency?  No.  For agency to mean anything, you need freedom to choose and have those choices actually take effect.  Satan sought to destroy the agency of man by ensuring that no matter what we chose on Earth, we would end up ‘walking out’ with Eternal life.  Maybe, if the idea of doing anything you want and getting Eternal Life sounds a little more enticing than you first thought Satan’s plan was, you can begin to understand why one third part of the host of heaven thought so too. 

We are here on Earth because we understood the wisdom in Heavenly Father’s plan and accepted it.  We knew that some would choose evil, and for that we were sorry, but we knew that agency (our freedom to choose our own destiny) was too important to sacrifice.

One interesting fallout of this understanding of Satan’s scheme is that Satan’s scheme hasn’t changed.  Now that Satan is thrust out of heaven, he is lying to us by telling us that his own ideas are the correct ones.  We see Satan’s thoughts, for example, in some of the beliefs of Evangelical Christians, who believe they are saved regardless of what they choose to do… which was Satan’s platform in the pre-Earth life.  Frivolous lawsuits from plaintiffs who do not want to accept the consequences for their own stupid actions grow progressively more ridiculous — another sign that Satan is convincing people that they should not be held responsible for what they choose.

Please help curb false doctrine by teaching straight out of Church publications (the ones with the Church logo prominently printed on the cover).  Keep the doctrine pure.  You won’t hear me preaching my interpretation of Satan’s plan in Sunday School until I can find a church publication to back it up — but I won’t be teaching that Satan wanted to force us all to be good either.  Until I can find a publication directly addressing this, you can bet I’ll be teaching about Satan and the war in heaven directly out of the scriptures to avoid throwing in any "extra bits" I may have picked up while growing up.

Tuesday Luke turns 18 months, so today was Luke’s long awaited first day in the nursery at church.  We’ve learned that when we leave him with babysitters that rather than try to sneak out when he’s distracted, the best thing to do is actually wave goodbye to him until he finally waves back.  That’s his way of coming to accept our departure, and he always agrees, although sometimes it takes a minute or two.

But today in primary we did not have to do even that.  I dropped him off and he took a few steps, just wondered at the many other children and stared.  He never turned around at all to see his mom and dad leave.  And two hours later a very happy toddler was returned to us.  Luke is truly a darling.  We anticipate many more easy drop-offs at nursery in the future.

Read the entire article, it’s great.  Choice snippets below.

"…If Global Warming didn’t exist, the left would have to invent it. In fact, they did. … A February 18, 2008, story in the London Daily Express notes that Arctic ice levels, which had shrunk from 13 million to 4 million sq. km., between January and October 2007, are now almost back to their original levels. In the meantime, according to the paper, "Figures show that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than is usual for the time of year."

"Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society," Walters writes. The left is incapable of viewing individuals as anything other than polluters, never as producers or innovators — let alone seeing them in spiritual terms, as manifestations of God’s goodness. "

So I finally broke down after 19 years and bought myself a radio-controlled (RC) airplane.  I wanted to get something in the intermediate skill level so I could learn on it with help, and not grow out of it so quickly.  But the HobbyTownUSA man I talked to assured me that I would crash it, and the newer ones are a bit gentler to learn on.  So I bought the "for newbies" model.  It’s an electric motor whose battery has an expected flight time of 12-15 minutes between recharges.

It turns out it was a good thing to buy the one for flyers with no experience.  My first flight lasted less than ten seconds and ended in a nose dive crash.  My second flight lasted several minutes and was much more exciting–it even ended with a proper glide landing.  My third flight lasted only a couple minutes and ended with another dive-bomb crash.  By now I still had a bit of battery left, but the front-end of my plane was so mashed up that I was afraid another crash would damage the motor.  So we packed up and went home.

Monday I will have to buy a few parts to replace those that I broke.  I’ll leave my plane at Microsoft so I can fly it at lunch times. 

Well, we’re finally over our jet-lag, we’ve unpacked all our goodies and now it’s time for a look back on the adventure of a lifetime!  We took lots of pictures, which Andrew has categorized and included in this post below.  But first, check out our 3D fly-by movie of the major places we visited.

We spent lots of time with extended family and enjoyed a landscape and culture that although is in a developed country, is quite different to the United States.  We went to visit Cheryl’s grandparents and Aunt Sheilagh and Uncle James.  But while there we also went to the game reserve and the beach.  We spent just over two weeks there.  Below we’ll tell stories with photos depicting each activity.

Beautiful vistas

There is an energy and rhythm in Africa that is alive in the people, the art, and the sunrises.  We went from Johannesburg’s busy market places through the plains and farmland of the Orange Free State to the gorgeous beaches of KwaZulu Natal.   

Cheryl hasn’t seen her Aunt, Uncle or Grandparents since she was 11 – if you’re smart you’ll work out that that’s 15 years!!!  It was wonderful to catch up and introduce them to Andrew and Luke – both of whom were an instant hit!

Game reserve

We spent a few days in a game reserve to see the animals.  We had a lot of fun.  We saw giraffe, antelope, lots of cheeky warthogs and rhinos and yet, it seemed as though 433 elephants were successfully hiding…until on the way out of the reserve, Cheryl spotted several in a row at a great distance.  We went on an early morning walk in the bush with an armed guide and a night safari drive too.  One night we even heard hyenas outside our chalet while we lay in bed! It was amazing!

Andrew’s beach accident

There were several days that we spent near the beach and I got to boogie board every day — until I had an accident.  A storm was on its way, and the waves were much larger than they had been the previous few days.  No one else was swimming.  Still, the waves were only about as big as a good day in California, so I decided to go for it.  Although Cheryl was napping, her dad, aunt and uncle were with me at the beach to watch.  It took a long time to even get out into deeper water because the waves kept pushing me back.  When I finally got out there, a side current swept me quickly away from the safe beach so that when I caught the next wave, I was smashed into some underwater rocks.  Ouch!

Luke moments

Luke had a blast.  He ate sand, tried some local delicacies like biltong and rusks, and dance any chance he got.  Even though we are well stocked with great pictures of this kid, we captured several shots of Luke being really cute.  Here are a few:

Stunt show

We saw a very impressive show while at a flea market:

Cultural differences

South Africa is a developed country, but there are issues.  Theft and violent crime are much more common there than it is in the US.  Luckily we weren’t personally affected by either of those.  Mostly what we noticed were just unexpected subtle (and not so subtle) differences.  Here are some of the pictures we took that captured unexpected things:

I’m published in MSDN Magazine!  I wrote an article on writing a .NET Compact Framework application that uses WCF (the Windows Communication Foundation).  Yes, this magazine comes in a print edition as well.  Awesome.

Last Friday a blog post I wrote was featured on MSDN’s This Week on Channel 9.