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| Butterfly theory |
It’s interesting to look back at history and see inflection points, tipping points, butterfly wings flapping, and the fragility of goodness.
What made me think of this was yesterday, the Utah Jazz of the NBA (National Basketball Association) lost the seventh game in a best-of-seven playoff series by 2 points. A last-second shot by Mike Conley would have won the game but the ball rimmed out.
A terrific article by Andy Larsen discussed the game with a philosophical bent:
One inch, maybe two, determines whether that Mike Conley 3-point shot goes down.
If it does fall through the net: it’s ecstasy…. Since it didn’t: The Jazz blew a 3-1 series lead.
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Of course, it’s not just Conley’s shot. If the Jazz shoot more than 23% from deep in Game 7, after absolutely setting the nets on fire for the rest of the series, they win. If they get one more foul on a Mitchell drive, the game likely goes to overtime. If Juwan Morgan, of all people, makes his free-throws they win. If Jokic misses one more moonbeam of a shot. If a foul is called on the shot pictured above. If the Jazz lose their focus defensively on one fewer possession in the first half. You can do this kind of thing all night. Quin Snyder will.
But we’re all living small margins away from disaster….
There’s a phrase that I like for this idea in modern philosophy: The Fragility of Goodness. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last six months, as our world has become unfamiliar and difficult due to small things ballooning into big things. What happens if one random bat’s coronavirus doesn’t jump to one human? It wasn’t inevitable.
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The concept of the Fragility of Goodness seems related to the Butterfly Effect, described this way:
In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.
Think about what initial conditions–what butterfly wings flapping–have led to the larger, difference today when we have LDS scholars who directly and openly repudiate the teachings of the prophets about such basics as the New York Cumorah and the translation of the plates with the Urim and Thummim.
1. One was Joseph’s decision to not record a history until 1832, and then only an abbreviated history. Joseph’s contemporaries who heard him speak and who succeeded him in the leadership of the Church all believed and taught the basics about the New York Cumorah and the Urim and Thummim, but by not making it explicit enough, Joseph and Oliver and the others left the door open just enough that these teachings have now been de-correlated and replaced by the theories of intellectuals (M2C and SITH).
2. Another butterfly was the decision to publish speculative articles in the 1842 Times and Seasons about Book of Mormon geography anonymously. Had William Smith and/or W.W. Phelps identified the author instead of merely writing “Ed” at the end of the article, we would know whether it was Joseph Smith or Benjamin Winchester (or someone else) who wrote these articles that led believers to look to Mayan ruins in Central America for evidence of the Book of Mormon. Instead, we’re left with assumptions, comparisons, phony wordprint analysis, and similar speculations.
3. Another butterfly wing flapping was Joseph Smith’s decision to omit “New York” and “ancient” from the letter he wrote, first published in the 1842 Times and Seasons and later canonized as D&C 128:20.
20 And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from [ancient] Cumorah [in New York]! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets—the book to be revealed. A voice of the Lord in the wilderness of Fayette, Seneca county, declaring the three witnesses to bear record of the book! The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light! The voice of Peter, James, and John in the wilderness between Harmony, Susquehanna county, and Colesville, Broome county, on the Susquehanna river, declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fulness of times!
(Doctrine and Covenants 128:20)
All of his readers knew the Cumorah he referred to was the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 near Palmyra, NY. Letter VII had been republished in the 1841 Times and Seasons (as well as the Millennial Star, Gospel Reflector, and Messenger and Advocate). But because Joseph did not reiterate the common knowledge, modern-day intellectuals rationalize away what he wrote as either a reference to a false tradition that Joseph embraced or a reference to an unknown hill in Southern Mexico.
4. In 1834, Joseph and Oliver published a declaration that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon with the Urim and Thummim, a refutation of the claim that Joseph used a peep stone. But because of the butterfly wing that they did not specifically also say he did not use the peep stone, they left open the door for modern LDS scholars to teach that Joseph didn’t actually use the Urim and Thummim after all, but instead used a peep stone.
Source: About Central America
One thought on “Fragility of Goodness, Church history, and M2C”
As a Jazz fan I feel your pain.
“Constrained” is found 9 times in the Book of Mormon. It seems to have a variety of definitions and synonyms (coerce, compel, force, and oblige). In addition to referring to unnatural or uncharacteristic behavior, being constrained can also mean being held back or forced to do something you don’t want to do.
Nephi was constrained by the Spirit to kill Laban. Seems like prophets sometimes wanted to say more but were constrained not to say more while teaching the people. I can’t find the reference, but Mormon sometimes struggled to include more information or withhold information during the abridgement.
Websters 1828 Dictionary states, “CONSTRAINED, participle passive Urged irresistibly or powerfully; compelled; forced; restrained; confined; bound; imprisoned; necessitated.”
We all want to know what is in the sealed portion and the 116 pages. Will that additional knowledge tip the scales from faith to knowledge.
The Donner-Reed party was a day late getting over the Sierra Nevada. Elections are sometimes won or lost on a coin toss. Many athletic contests are won or lost by 1 point in a last second shot/touchdown/field goal/goal that either results in a win or loss. Races are often a photo finish with a fraction of a second separating 1st and 2nd place. It took about 184 years to get the name of the church right. How long will it take to get Book of Mormon Geography and the Urim and Thummim translation process right? In the mean time, we are being tested to see if we will be deceived or not.
Ezra Taft Benson said,
“There are some regrettable things being said and done by some people in the Church today. As President Clark so well warned, “The ravening wolves are amongst us, from our own membership and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood…. We should be careful of them.
Sometimes from behind the pulpit, in our classrooms, in our Council meetings and in our church publications we hear, read or witness things that do not square with the truth. This is especially true where freedom is involved. Now do not let this serve as an excuse for your own wrong-doing. The Lord is letting the wheat and the tares mature before he fully purges the Church. He is also testing you to see if you will be misled. The devil is trying to deceive the very elect.” – Ezra Taft Benson https://www.latterdayconservative.com/ezra-taft-benson/our-immediate-responsibility/
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