Patterns and Principles

I"ve been thinking about apples- well one apple in particular. The one that Isaac Newton observed in his orchard all those years ago and inspiration struck. How many millions, perhaps billions, of individuals had observed a falling piece of fruit before that day? What Newton observed was a common, oft repeated phenomenon. Both the question he asked and the mathematics he expressed his theory in were not original. So what made the difference? Why did he see in this oft repeated phenomenon a key to dramatically improving our understanding of the laws that govern gravity?

I think I just asked a question that is more than a little debated- and I am certainly in no position to answer it definitively, but letting Newton answer it, is, I think, permissible.

When the young Cambridge-educated clergyman Richard Bentley was called upon in 1692 to deliver the first Boyle Lectures for the defense of Christianity against in fidelity, he buttressed his natural theological arguments for the existence of God with support form Newton's Principia. While revising his lectures for the press, he wrote the author of the Principia to determine if his deployments of physics would meet the approval of the great man himself. In his first reply to Bentley Newton confirmed: "When I wrote my treatise about our Systeme I had an eye upon such Principles as might work wth considering men for the beleife of a Diety & nothing can rejoice me more then to find it usefull for that purpose." Newton went on and asserted that "ye diurnal rotations of ye Sun & Planets as they could hardly arise from any cause purely mechanical… they seem to make up that hormony in ye system wch…was the effect to choice rather than chance. (http://www.isaac-newton.org/pdf/Snobelen%20Isaac%20Newton%20Encyclopedia%20of%20science%20and%20religion%202003.pdf)

In *Optiks*, (Newton) writes that the business of science is to "deduce causes from effects, till we come to the very first cause, which certainly is not mechanical." In Newton's eyes, the major benefit of science is religious and moral. It shows us "what is the first cause, what power he has over us, and what benefits we receive from him," so that "our duty towards him, as well as that towards one another will appear to us by the light of nature." (http://faithwellgrounded.org/apologetics/isaac-newton-creationist)

These statements, among many, illustrate that according to Newton, the perspective from which he investigated the world included a certainty that there was a God, that He was the same today, yesterday and forever, and he wanted us to learn the laws and principles upon which He governs the world and space, so that it would bring us back to Him. Like most of the fathers of modern science, Newton believed that the scientific method, and studying cause and effect, would lead to understanding and truth, precisely because there was a supreme creator who governed according to consistent and unchanging laws or principles. Even now, scientists (even scientists who claims to be atheist) continue to discover more about our world and universe by assuming that there are unchanging laws at work, that the working of those laws will result in repeated patterns of cause and effect, and that those patterns help us to discover an understand those laws.

This little foray into the history of science came about because I've also been thinking about the Lord's method for teaching us about eternal laws and principles, and the great effort He puts forth so we can learn His ways. I started thinking about that because of a comment a friend made, which in turn, brought to mind other comments and my own past feelings about studying the scriptures. I haven't always enjoyed it like I do now. In fact, I thought of it, at best, as a timed duty - read my scriptures for 10 minutes today, and I won't have to feel guilty. I remember, during my teenage years, thinking that I had been taught the gospel my whole life, knew it pretty well, and being bored as talks and lessons seemed to cover the same material over and over again. There was a whole world of interesting information and truth out there that I had yet to discover! I thought I should spend my time and energy on that.

Then came that time in my life- a time that seemed dark and joyless. I don't want to take the time to share details about that now, but eventually I came to the conclusion that possibly, maybe, I "lacked wisdom." I had this sinking feeling that all my energetic pursuit of knowledge was, well kind of like what I later found illustrated in this story told by Elder Oaks:

Two men formed a partnership. They built a small shed beside a busy road. They obtained a truck and drove it to a farmer’s field, where they purchased a truckload of melons for a dollar a melon. They drove the loaded truck to their shed by the road, where they sold their melons for a dollar a melon. They drove back to the farmer’s field and bought another truckload of melons for a dollar a melon. Transporting them to the roadside, they again sold them for a dollar a melon. As they drove back toward the farmer’s field to get another load, one partner said to the other, “We’re not making much money on this business, are we?” “No, we’re not,” his partner replied. “Do you think we need a bigger truck?”

We don’t need a bigger truckload of information, either. Like the two partners in my story, our biggest need is a clearer focus on how we should value and use what we already have….

With greatly increased free time and vastly more alternatives for its use, it is prudent to review the fundamental principles that should guide us. Temporal circumstances change, but the eternal laws and principles that should guide our choices never change. (Dallin H. Oaks, “Focus and Priorities,” Liahona, Jul 2001, 99–102)

Similarly, when I went to the Lord with my admission that I knew I "lacked wisdom," I was impressed by an understanding of how little I knew the scriptures. I had the impression I was like a person who claimed a desire to understand how to fly, but who had steadfastly avoided courses in aerodynamics and the laws of physics, opting instead for courses on pottery and jumping off high objects. Despite seminary and college courses, I had never approached the scriptures with the same inquisitive intensity I approached other educational books. I determined to do it, and set a goal to work my way through the standard works, with the aid of the institute manuals. Among so much it can't be covered in a 1000 blogs, I discovered that I hadn't been wrong about there being a lot of repetition. However, my reaction to that repetition was very different.

Perhaps it helped that I was now a parent and knew a bit of what it takes to teach independent little souls. But when I reached a passage of scripture and felt it was, more or less, a repetition of something I'd seen elsewhere, I saw it as an exclamation point. As if the Lord was saying, "this is something important- pay attention!" The very passages I'd formerly tuned out, because I had felt "been there done that," began instead to "rivet (my) attention." (Henry B. Eyring, “Safety in Counsel,” Liahona, Jun 2008, 2–7) The repetition not only emphasized important things, but as I paid attention patterns began to emerge, and these patterns led to a growing understanding of the underlying eternal laws and principles. Laws and principles, that as Elder Oaks pointed out, didn't change despite the fact that the people involved in the scriptural accounts lived in widely varying "temporal circumstances." The scriptures are the key to our understanding that a host of every day, oft repeated, experiences (including those that wrench our hearts) testify of eternal principles, and when we respond by living our lives in accordance to those principles it becomes the meaningful, eternally pivotal experience it was meant to be. Elder Boyd K. Packer described it perfectly:

If (you) are acquainted with the revelations, there is no question--personal or social or political or occupational-- that need go unanswered. Therein is contained the fullness of the everlasting gospel. Therein we find principles of truth that will resolve every confusion and every problem and every dilemma that will face the human family or any individual in it. ("Teach the Scriptures," in Charge to religious educators [3rd ed,] p.89)