Review of the July 2006 Ensign

I had a look through the July Ensign last night and saw a few things I thought I would comment on.

President Hinckley
I noticed much usage of "I believe" in Pres. Hinckley's article. Its launching point is the first Article of Faith, so it makes sense. It just struck me that here I was reading what the prophet has to say about God and he's saying "I believe." In my view the debate over whether a testimony constitutes knowledge or belief is largely one of symantics--the line between knowledge and belief is fuzzy and fluid, IMO. It's not a big deal to me, but for some it might be. If you ever have to defend yourself about only saying that you believe (rather than "know"), President Hinckley's article might help you.

Pioneers
I didn't read the whole article but I did notice the little chart summarizing the handcart companies and how many people died in each one. The Willie and Martin companies lost a good number of people (~14% and 25%, respectively), but most of the rest lost 5% or fewer (even zero). I wonder how a comparable group not crossing the plains would fare. Anyway, the trek out west was certainly tough and a large undertaking that required sacrifice, but perhaps we distort it a little by emphasizing the death and misery in our stories.

The Natural Man
This article is part of a "continuing series examining doctrines unique" to the Church. There is no authorship attached, so I guess you can assume that it is fully endorsed by the Church--or not--depending on what argument you are trying to make, but I digress.

I really liked the this quote from David O. McKay:

[Man has a dual nature...] "One, related to the earthly or animal life; the other, akin to the Divine. Whether a man remains satisfied within what we designate the animal world, satisfied with what the animal world will give him, yielding without effort to the whims of his appetites and passions and slipping farther and farther into the realm of indulgence, or whether, through self-mastery, he rises toward intellectual, moral, and spiritual enjoyments depends upon the kind of choice he makes every day, nay, every hour of his life".

This statement captures part of why I think that evolution can (and ultimately will) fit into the Plan of Salvation. Evolution goes a long way toward explaining how the natural man came to be, or in Pres. McKay's words, why we have a nature "related to...animal life."

Check the Boys
A woman tells her story of waking in the middle of the night and hearing a voice tell her to check on her boys. After the third prompting (it's always three) she does so and discovers one of her sons in a life threatening situation. I like these kinds of stories because they serve to remind us that simple miracles happen.