Conference Talk

 Oct 2020--Sustainable Societies--D. Todd Christofferson

"I think we would all agree that those who profess no religious belief can be, and often are, good, moral people. We would not agree, however, that this happens without divine influence."

"Reliance on culture and tradition alone will not be sufficient to sustain virtue in society. When one has no higher god than himself and seeks no greater good than satisfying his own appetites and preferences, the effects will be manifest in due course."

This is what my brother did. It's like we were traveling through a swamp and there was only one path on dry ground. We were following a guide. Then, Pete found out that the guide lied to him about something unrelated. Maybe a little related like the guide had been saying, "You must wear these shoes I made myself in order to get through the swamp." Then Pete found out that people had made it through with lots of different kind of shoes. So he said, "He lied to me! I can't follow this guide. He is probably lying about EVERYTHING." I say to him, "But look around. There's mud everywhere and he's kept us out. Maybe we can't trust him about shoes but we've tried him as a guide and the results have been undeniable. We've stayed out of the swamp and this path has been so nice." "No," says Pete. "I won't follow that guide anymore." So he plunges off the path. He doesn't even look for the path because there must not be one at all--The guide can't be wrong about some things and still right about others. If Pete is going to follow a guide, the guide must have everything right and he must have never, ever done anything that could even be construed as being wrong, and there can't be anything that he knows but hasn't told him, yet, because in the strictest sense, that's being dishonest. And the guide's told us that we must all be strict in order to get through AND HE'S NOT! There probably isn't even anything on the other side of the swamp, he thinks. First he squashes through mud to his ankles, then he finds himself in mud to his knees following a bit of the path to the parallel. "What am I doing?" he wonders. "I can still see the path!" He plunges further away--running, then swimming, then swallowing and choking on the grime-filled muck. Will we ever see him again? Does he really prefer that to what he had before? Why, why, why did he judge the means and the messenger about the path and not the path itself??