Evidence Sixty-Two:
“Joseph Smith, Principles and Meeting the Dilemma of the “Growth of Ignorance”©
Updated: 15 February 2020
Updated: 15 February 2020
I have opined about the hubris of modern youth in the face of their pervasive ignorance. Several years ago at a family reunion I took the opportunity one afternoon to gather my grandchildren and teach (well ok, lecture them) that they really didn’t know very much. I explained that they were born totally ignorant. Yes, they could cry and suckle, but beyond that they were pretty much a blank slate. Given that, to think that a few classes in the basics in elementary and middle school, and deeper study in high school that they knew very much when compared to all the knowledge available in the world, was monumental hubris and stupidity. And it didn’t get much better after earning a bachelor’s degree. I asked them–most in middle and high school–what any of them knew about how the atom bomb works, why the world considers William Shakespear’s plays or Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, great art. I ask what any of them knew about astrophysics, the history of Europe, molecular biology, or even how their smart phones worked. My motives were pretty good, but my method was probably pretty lousy–at least my oldest son thought I could have done better, and though my sweet wife didn’t say anything, her silence made me suspect she agreed with him.
Recently I encountered an idea that builds upon this gloomy notion of how much we really know–or rather don’t know. In the last quarter of the last century a Nobel Prize winner in economics named Frederich Hayek, though talking about economics, made an interesting point in several of his writings about the subject. He argued that with a rapid, almost exponential expansion of knowledge, one person cannot know much, and in fact, the percentage of what one can know in this period of rapidly growing knowledge, is actually getting smaller.(1) This phenomena is what some have called the “growth of ignorance.” Introducing this subject in his recent book, George Will said, “Everybody knows almost nothing about almost everything.”(2)
This epistemological issue raises an interesting problem for modern man. That is, what is mankind to do in the face of this “growth of ignorance”? Hayek suggested that individual men can do little. Perhaps he may become an expert in a given slice of the total watermelon of knowledge but it is a losing battle given the rapid growth of knowledge and what appears to be mankind’s limits on learning, and even in interest. J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the team who developed the atomic bomb, agreed with Hayek in a 1954 address, "We know too much for one man to know much."(3)
The expansion of human knowledge is not an unmitigated blessing. Though one must acknowledge the near miraculous things that have been achieved from the time of World War II, that and more recent conflicts demonstrate what President Hugh B. Brown once taught: “With every gift of power that comes to us, there comes a temptation to dishonor it, abuse it.”(4) So, how does the average citizen of the world deal with this dilemma of ever increasing knowledge and his own limited interest and capacity? If one is forced to set priorities on what to learn, how does one go about doing that?
The expansion of human knowledge is not an unmitigated blessing. Though one must acknowledge the near miraculous things that have been achieved from the time of World War II, that and more recent conflicts demonstrate what President Hugh B. Brown once taught: “With every gift of power that comes to us, there comes a temptation to dishonor it, abuse it.”(4) So, how does the average citizen of the world deal with this dilemma of ever increasing knowledge and his own limited interest and capacity? If one is forced to set priorities on what to learn, how does one go about doing that?
Enter Joseph Smith, and other wise men. The Prophet Joseph Smith made many important statements about the importance of knowledge and man’s responsibility to learn. Among them are two that I believe give us a clue to the problem of the “growth of ignorance.” John Taylor, a close associate, reported that the Prophet Joseph said when asked how he governed the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo: “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.”(5) In a sermon in Nauvoo in 1842 Joseph spoke of “certain decrees” of God “which are fixed and immovable” and he was talking about the commandments of God.(6) In October of 1843, in a funeral sermon he returned to this idea. He said:
We are only capable of comprehending that certain things exist, which we may acquire by certain fixed principles. If men would acquire salvation, they have got to be subject, before they leave this world, to certain rules and principles, which were fixed by an unalterable decree before the world was.(7)
Here the prophet speaks of both rules and principles which are fixed by an “unalterable decree,” and it is necessary to know and be subject to these in order to “acquire salvation.” It is evident from these two important statements that the Prophet believed that some knowledge was more important than others. “Correct principles,” “fixed” “immovable” principles, established by an “unalterable decree” before the world was created, are essential for self-government, order in society, and salvation.
What are principles? An online dictionary defines principle as: “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.”(8) Another online dictionary adds these ideas: “a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived;” and “a fundamental doctrine or tenet;” “a basis of conduct or management.”(9) Elder Packer gave the following definition:
A principle is an enduring truth, a law, a rule you can adopt to help you in making decisions. Generally principles are not spelled out in detail. That leaves you free to adapt and to find your way with an enduring truth, a principle, as an anchor.(10)
Elder Richard G. Scott add these important insights:
Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances. A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and challenging circumstances. It is worth great effort to organize the truth we gather to simple statements of principle.(11)
John Silber, formerly president of Boston College agrees about the nature and importance of principles in daily life.
It is the nature of general principles that their application to particular cases differ with circumstances. Specific requirements of justice or duty may be dramatically different in different cultures, just as Newton’s general statement of the Law of gravity (still sound for objects in space neither too small nor too large) must be applied differently as variables in equations are given specific values. Although the application of fundamental ethical principles differs depending on contingencies, the principles themselves are universal.(12)
In 1956, the editor of the newsletter of the Royal Bank of Canada wrote:
Some people confuse principles with rules. A principle is something inside one; a rule is an outward restriction.To obey a principle you have to use your mental and moral powers; to obey a rule you have only to do what the rule says. Dr. Frank Crane pointed out the difference neatly: "A rule supports us by the arm-pits over life's mountain passes; a principle makes us surefooted."(13)
Some years ago, before he was president of BYU, professor Kevin Worthen related a story that gave BYU students an elevated view of principle. He told of “a rather ordinary 40-year-old Catholic priest,” who was living on an estate in Cuba in 1514. His formidable name was Bartoloméé de Las Casas. Though a prosperous university graduate, Las Casas showed little interest in academic things, but by the time of his death over fifty years later, he was “one of the greatest scholars of the Spanish empire.” He had written thousands of pages on history, law, political theory, anthropology, and theology. In 1550, Spain convened a conference to consider “the most pressing issue of the day”– how the Spanish should deal with the indigenous population in the New World–and Las Casas was one of two scholars invited to debate the matter. Clearly, he was a bright and wise man and near the end of his life he wrote something that itself exudes light and wisdom: “For forty-eight years I have studied and sought to make clear the law; I believe, if I do not deceive myself, that I have penetrated to the pure waters of principle.” Ah, “the pure waters of principle.” That is what Joseph Smith was after. Professor Worthen concluded the lesson with a question: “How many of us can say that we have worked hard enough on a subject that we have penetrated to "the pure waters of principle"? If we have not, perhaps we need to work as hard at acquiring more charity as we do at gathering more factual data.”(14)
Collector and publisher of literary wisdom, Samuel Smiles, also spoke of the importance of principles in positive terms:
Without principles, a man is like a ship without rudder or compass, left to drift hither and thither with every wind that blows.He is as one without law, or rule, or order, or government. “Moral principles,” says Hume, “are social and universal. They form, in a manner, the party of humankind against vice and disorder, its common enemy.”(15)
President Wilford Woodruff counseled the young,
Therefore neither you nor your parents can be too careful to see that your young and fruitful minds are fed and stored with good principles. You want to learn that which is true–when you learn anything about God, Jesus Christ, the angels, the Holy Ghost, the gospel, the way to be saved, your duty to your parents, brethren, sisters, or to any of your fellow men, or any history, art or science...
President Woodruff emphasized knowing “true” principles because they would have an important effect in the future of the youth he addressed:
I say when you learn any of those things you want to learn that which is true, so that when you get those things riveted in your mind and planted in your heart, and you trust to it in future life and lean upon it for support, that it may not fail you like a broken reed.(16)
William Elery Channing saw Christianity,
not [as] a system of precise legislation, marking out with literal exactness everything to be done, and everything to be avoided; but an inculcation of broad principles, which it intrusts to individuals and to society to be applied according to their best discretion. It is through this generous peculiarity, that Christianity is fitted to be a universal religion.(17)
In 2009, Elder Dallin and sister Kristen Oaks, observed in an article entitled “Learning and Latter-day Saints,” that in modern society we are “bombarded by popular talk show hosts, television psychologists, fashion magazines, and media commentators”–pundits all–“whose skewed values and questionable practices can drive our opinions and influence our behavior.” They went on to point out that this environment in which, as Ephesians 4:14 says, we are “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” can lead to confusion and discouragement and the erosion of faith. The solution?
Not influenced by popular opinion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches principles. The difference is profound. Trends, fashion, and pop ideology are fleeting and ephemeral. Principles serve as anchors of security, direction, and truth. If we fix our ideals and direction on doctrine and principles, such as faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and following the prophet, we will have a totally reliable, unchanging guide for our life’s decisions.(18)
Much earlier, Apostle John A. Widtsoe, gave the young some very sage advice about understanding the difference between principles and their varying and possibly changing applications over time and in various circumstances.
...two principles ... are fundamental in Mormon thinking. First, that there are certain changeless principles upon which the whole structure of Mormonism is built and second, that the application of these principles in human life change as human needs change. That is, the Gospel, as understood by the Church, is an unchanging system of truths ever changing in its application to the ever changing conditions of life.
Young college students frequently fail to make the discrimination between foundation principles and their application; between primary principles and derivative functions.
You draw some illustrations from the field of science. There we have the same distinction: facts of observation, correct as far as human powers go and inferences or the explanation of these facts changing with the increasing knowledge.(19)
Elder Scott gave further counsel about the importance and the challenge of inculcating true principles into one’s life..
Principles are anchors of safety. They are like the steel anchors a mountaineer uses to conquer otherwise impossible cliffs. They help you have confidence in new and unfamiliar circumstances. They will provide you protection in life’s storms of adversity.
... While easy to find, true principles are not easy to live until they become an established pattern of life. They will require you to dislodge false ideas. They can cause you wrenching battles within the secret chambers of your heart and decisive encounters to overcome temptation, peer pressure, and false allure of the “easy way out.” Yet, as you resolutely follow correct principles, you will forge strength of character available to you in time of urgent need. Your consistent adherence to principle overcomes the alluring yet false lifestyles that surround you.(20)
Elder Scott’s counsel is similar to that given by the editor of the newsletter of the Royal Bank of Canada cited earlier. He noted “that there are three great questions in life which [one] must answer over and over again: is it right or wrong? is it true or false? is it beautiful or ugly?” He continued:
In answering these questions a man will find principles of far more value to him than a library of books, or a den decorated with diplomas. The principles contribute to his maturity by enlarging his thinking, by helping him to avoid confusion, by rescuing him from prolonged debate. They give him a base for decision and action. They are like the north star, the compass and the lighthouse to a sailor: they keep him on his course despite winds and current and weather.(21)
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, taught that there is an important distinction between choices governed by principles and those by personal preference.
In our personal choices we should be conscious of the important difference between choices that should be governed by principles (including the commandments of the Lord) and choices that can be based on personal preferences. How to recognize and apply this difference is something we learn by experience. The result of this learning is wisdom, which the scriptures teach us to learn and seek (Alma 32:12; D&C 6:7).
He went on to provide several interesting examples such as, 1) the distinction between family rules based on principle and those on personal preference; 2) dressing and grooming for the temple based on principle rather than personal preference; and 3) that if the same distinctions are considered when a young couple marries and melds two different family life-styles it will save them difficulty and heartache.(22) Author Tom Morris reminds us that “Aristotle once said that it is advantageous to anyone to come to know the most universal principles, because this puts us in the best position for specific applications anywhere.”(23)
Thus, a wise young person will place a high priority in discerning, learning and applying principles because they will guide how he lives, and become the superstructure upon which all other knowledge may be placed in building one’s physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual life.
One-time General Relief Society General President, Barbara Smith, counseled the students at BYU about living by principle.
We rarely succumb to temptation in one overpowering moment. The strength of living by a principle is built line upon line, time upon time, of facing a moment of challenge and responding appropriately. Every important choice is the inevitable result of a hundred earlier choices.(24)
A very recent example of the Church’s ongoing emphasis on governing one’s life by the Lord’s commandments and true principles, may be found in the most recent edition of the Missionary Handbook issued to mission leaders in June 2019, and announced to the Church in the 17 November 2019 Church News. The Church News, general authorities, and authors of the book all mention the principle based nature of the handbook. The Church News characterized it as a “move from a rules-base manual to a principles-base one.” When mission leaders reviewed it in June, some were concerned about the nature of the change. The response, according to the Church News was “That’s what a disciple has to figure out,” said Elder Brent H. Nielson, executive director of the Missionary Department, “That will be a big change for us. But I think everyone loves the overall principle-based concept.” The goal is to assist young missionaries to become life-long disciples of Christ by inculcating true principles into their lives. Elder Nielson said this change is one with other recent changes instituted such as the “ministering” concept, and home-centered Church-supported emphasis on worship and gospel study.(25)
Finally, I note that President David O. Mckay once gave a simple outline of four principles which he said will guide one to the realization of a higher life:
The guiding principles to the realization of the higher life are not many or complex. Indeed, they are few and simple, and can be applied by everyone in any phase of life:
1. Recognition of the Reality of Spiritual Values
2. Sense of Obligation to the Social Group
3. Resultant Self-Mastery
4. A Consciousness that the ultimate purpose of life is the perfecting of the individual(26)
That Joseph Smith stressed the importance of fundamental principles is not unusual among the wise men of the world and of itself only sets him apart from others because such understanding is rare. Nevertheless, from the numerous quotations cited above it is evident that he established the Restored Church of Jesus Christ upon fundamental principles and he instructed his leaders to do so. They took him seriously. That the present leaders continue to do so goes a long way in strengthening one’s view of him as an inspired prophet. And for this author, even more inspiring is the fact that Joseph Smith excelled in seeing and in elucidating fundamental religious principles, including important principles about principles! These concepts contribute greatly to my faith and conviction that the was a Prophet of God.
Let’s think together again, soon.
Notes:
1. See for example, Frederich Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” The American Economic Review, 34, no. 4 (4 September1945): 519-30; “The Pretence [sic] of Knowledge,” remarks when he received the Nobel Prize, 11 December 1974, available online at: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economics/1974/hayek/lecture; and The Constitution of Liberty: The Definitive Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011, 78.
2. George F. Will, The Conservative Sensibility. New York: Hachette Books, 2019, 244. Will provides a good discussion of this issue on pp. 242-47 and this quotation offers a suitable one-line summary.
3. J. Robert Oppenheimer, address, 1954, in in Rebecca Davis and Susan Mesner, eds., The Treasury of Religious & Spiritual Quotations: Words to Live By, Pleasantville, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association, 1994, 288.
3. J. Robert Oppenheimer, address, 1954, in in Rebecca Davis and Susan Mesner, eds., The Treasury of Religious & Spiritual Quotations: Words to Live By, Pleasantville, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association, 1994, 288.
4. Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965, 126.
5. John Taylor and George Q. Cannon, “An Epistle of the First Presidency to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in General Conference Assembled,” published 17 May 1886. See, James R. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency. 6 vols. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, Inc., 1965, 3: 54.
6. Joseph Fielding Smith, comp., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1967, 197.
7. Ibid, 324.
8. https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=E211US550G0&p=principle+definition
9. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/principle
10. Boyd K. Packer, "The Unwritten Order of Things," BYU devotional address, 15 October 1996, unpaged Internet version. Available in several locations on the Internet.
11. Richard G. Scott, 21 Principles: Divine Truths to Help You Live by the Spirit. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013, 1-2.
12. John R. Silber, Seeking the North Star: Selected Speeches. Boston: David R. Godine, 2014, 137.
13. “On Being a Mature Person,” Royal Bank Letter, 37, no. 12 (December 1956): 3.
14. Kevin J. Worthen, “On Knowing and Caring,” Brigham Young University 1997-98 Speeches. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1998, 316-317, emphasis added.
15. Samuel Smiles, Happy Homes and the Hearts that Made Them. Chicago: U. S. Publishing House, 1889, 65.
16. Wilford Woodruff, in G. Homer Durham, ed., The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1946, 266. Regarding the “truth” of principles, Elder Richard L. Evans offers the following scriptural test: “...one proof of any principle is what it does for people in their search for the ultimate objective of happiness. Significantly was it said by our Savior: ‘...by their fruits ye shall know them.’ After this is the demonstration of all truth–in science, in business, in education, in religious conviction, in political philosophies, in life– ‘by their fruits ye shall know them.’ And of everything that is offered, we should know what it does for human happiness, what it does for personal peace and progress–what it does, not only what it promises or what it purports; not theories that won’t work or convictions that crumble at the first obstacle, or philosophies that fall with the weight of reality, or beliefs that won’t stand the test of life, or weak resolution that straddles every issue. If a man thinks he has a superior faith or philosophy, a superior theory, a superior plan or process or program or purpose, let it be asked what it does, where and when has it worked? Let the fruits of the formula be judged by what it has done for people in terms of personal peace or real progress or enduring happiness. [Richard L. Evans, “The Triumph of Principles,” Improvement Era ,(September 1952): 693.]
Unfortunately, in today’s world the notion of truth, especially absolute truths, is under attack among intellectuals on college campuses and elsewhere. The concept of relative truth has filtered in to many areas of our social, cultural, and political philosophy. These ideas have been around a long time. In 1998,Marianne Jennings, reports, “Another survey conducted by the Lutheran Brotherhood asked, “Are there absolute standards for morals and ethics, or does everything depend on the situation?” Seventy-nine percent of the respondents in the 18-34 age group said that standards did not exist and that the situation should always dictate behavior. Three percent said they were not sure.” [Marianne M. Jennings, “The Real Generation Gap,” Clark Memorandum, (Winter 1998): 20.]
17. William Elery Channing, in Ella Dann Moore, Life Illumined By Some of the Leading Lights of Literature. Washington, D.C.: Ella Dann Moore, 1908, 290. Channing’s remarks echo those of President John Quincy Adams to his son: “It is essential, my son, in order that you may go through life with comfort to yourself, and usefulness to your fellow-creatures, that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own conduct and temper. Unless you have such rules and principles, there will be numberless occasions on which you will have no guide for your government but your passions. ... you must soon come to the age when you must govern yourself. You have already come to that age in many respects; you know the difference between right and wrong, and you know some of your duties, and the obligations you are under, to become acquainted with them all. It is in the Bible, you must learn them, and from the Bible how to practise [sic] them. Those duties are to God, to your fellow-creatures, and to yourself.” [John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings. Auburn, NY: Derby, Miller, & Co., 1849, 17-18.] In a later letter Adams returned to this subject, this time contrasting the effect of Biblical principles on ancient Israelite society and those of the larger society around them. He said his motive for doing so was “to present to your reflections as a proof–and to my mind a very strong proof-of the reality of their divine origin....” [Pages 66-67.] Likewise, Elder Marion G. Romney of the First Presidency, taught, “the scriptures have been written to preserve principles for our benefit.” [“The Message of the Old Testament,” The Third Annual Church Educational System Religious Educators’ Symposium: A Symposium on the Old Testament. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979, 3.]
18. Dallin H. and Kristen M. Oaks, “Learning and Latter-day Saints,” Ensign (April 2009): 24.
19. John A. Widtsoe, in Alan K. Parrish, John A. Widtsoe, A Biography. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003, 573-574. Elder Widtsoe was responding to a letter, and his subsequent remarks are reminiscent of things that are often said today about some academicians: “Mormonism invites examination, but it knows quite well that if friend or foe really wants to understand the restored Gospel he must look for its truths and not for its weaknesses in proclaiming or using that truth. The men within my acquaintance who, with academic training have drifted away from full practice of Church principles, have seldom thought the matter through. They have splashed about on the surface until the beauty of the depths have become obscure. As for myself, once having been established within my own mind the certainty of the fundamental principles of Mormonism I prefer to follow the Church.”
20. Richard G. Scott, 21 Principles: Divine Truths to Help You Live by the Spirit. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013, 1-2.
21. “On Being a Mature Person,” Royal Bank Letter, 37, no. 12 (December 1956): 3.
22. Dallin H. Oaks, Life’s Lessons Learned. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011, 133.
23. Tom Morris, True Success: A New Philosophy of Excellence. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994, 25-26
24. Barbara B. Smith, “‘...For Such a Time as This,’” devotional address, 16 February 1982, in Brigham Young University Fireside and Devotional Speeches. Provo, UT: University Publications, 1982, 92.
25. See two separate articles by the same author: Scott Taylor, “New Missionary Handbook Focuses On Joy, Discipleship,” and “How the New Handbook Differs from the Former,” both in the Church News, (17 November 2019): 4-6.
26. David O. McKay, Pathways to Happiness. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft Inc., 1957, 89-90. Note, the four principles listed are highlighted by President McKay and discussion follows each one. I have only listed them for brevity sake. The reader is encouraged to study his teachings on these points.
