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"And if ye shall say there is no law,
ye shall also say there is no sin.
If ye shall say there is no sin, he shall also say there is no
righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness.
And if there be no righetousness nor happiness there be no punishment
nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God.
And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there
could have been no creation of things,
neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things
must have vanished away."
II Nephi 2:13
Chapter 3 - The Actors
Those of us with faith can not conceive of existence without an architect, without a creator, or in other words without God - the primary actor. It is inconceivable to me to have things like DNA, eyeballs, pine trees, amoebas, mosquitoes, red cardinals, human bodies, life, the hydrology cycle, sedimentation processes, global tectonics, or the unbelievably complex interactions between all of these wonders without having a prime organizing force. For all of recorded history this force has been named some variation of God, or Heavenly Father, and this is how I will refer to the first actor, or the creator.
It is a fact that in all of the layers of sandstone (silica) which have been deposited on earth, there has not been a single computer chip nor a single calculator which has been identified as having spontaneously nor otherwise evolved, without an architect. There are, however, millions of computer chips and calculators which have been created by computer architects, the creators known as mankind. Man, woman, children, mankind, or the family of Adam are how I will refer to the second actor, or class of actors.
There is a not-so-subtle difference between the actors called mankind and other life on planet earth. This difference is summarized by the twin abilities of awareness and choice. Mankind is self-aware, which is unique in the animal world. It is true scientists have demonstrated an elephant can recognize itself in a mirror. Can an elephant or a gorilla write Shakespearian plays? Of course not! And, of course, mankind makes choices. These choices provide the key difference between the second and the third actor or classes of actors. The third class of actors comprises all life other than mankind - things which grow and replicate biologically. These actors include microbes, plants, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, except for mankind.
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paradoxes