Yearly Archives: 2025

“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return.” - Orson F. Whitney, LDS Apostle, Conference Report, Apr. 1929 | wasmormon.org
“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return.” - Orson F. Whitney, LDS Apostle, Conference Report, Apr. 1929
”Now in terms of how do our covenants help us if someone is wandering? ... Church leaders have talked about a pull — a bit of a spiritual tug, if you will. Orson F. Whitney referred to it as “the divine tentacles of providence.” It is not the case that the faithfulness of parents can save a wayward child, but the faithfulness of the parents in honoring covenants exerts a bit of a spiritual tug. Now I don’t know how that works, but it’s a part of the covenant connection.” - David A. Bednar, LDS Apostle, October 31, 2025 | wasmormon.org
”Now in terms of how do our covenants help us if someone is wandering? ... Church leaders have talked about a pull — a bit of a spiritual tug, if you will. Orson F. Whitney referred to it as “the divine tentacles of providence.” It is not the case that the faithfulness of parents can save a wayward child, but the faithfulness of the parents in honoring covenants exerts a bit of a spiritual tug. Now I don’t know how that works, but it’s a part of the covenant connection.” - David A. Bednar, LDS Apostle, October 31, 2025
”Now in terms of how do our covenants help us if someone is wandering? ... Church leaders have talked about a pull — a bit of a spiritual tug, if you will. Orson F. Whitney referred to it as “the divine tentacles of providence.” It is not the case that the faithfulness of parents can save a wayward child, but the faithfulness of the parents in honoring covenants exerts a bit of a spiritual tug. Now I don’t know how that works, but it’s a part of the covenant connection.” - David A. Bednar, LDS Apostle, October 31, 2025 | wasmormon.org
”Now in terms of how do our covenants help us if someone is wandering? ... Church leaders have talked about a pull — a bit of a spiritual tug, if you will. Orson F. Whitney referred to it as “the divine tentacles of providence.” It is not the case that the faithfulness of parents can save a wayward child, but the faithfulness of the parents in honoring covenants exerts a bit of a spiritual tug. Now I don’t know how that works, but it’s a part of the covenant connection.” - David A. Bednar, LDS Apostle, October 31, 2025
“Dissenters within the Church and opponents outside the Church brought about the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith. Their deaths added a powerful seal to their testimonies of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. A study of the life and martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith will help students consider the many blessings the Lord has given them through the ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith, through whom He restored His gospel in the latter days... Joseph Smith laid the foundation for God’s work in this gospel dispensation. The Prophet Joseph Smith was innocent at the time of his death, and he had faithfully fulfilled the mission given to him by God.” - Foundations of the Restoration Teacher Manual, Lesson 22: The Martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith | wasmormon.org
“Dissenters within the Church and opponents outside the Church brought about the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith. Their deaths added a powerful seal to their testimonies of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. A study of the life and martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith will help students consider the many blessings the Lord has given them through the ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith, through whom He restored His gospel in the latter days... Joseph Smith laid the foundation for God’s work in this gospel dispensation. The Prophet Joseph Smith was innocent at the time of his death, and he had faithfully fulfilled the mission given to him by God.” - Foundations of the Restoration Teacher Manual, Lesson 22: The Martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith
”The event that focused anti-Mormon hostilities and led directly to the Martyrdom was the action of Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council in closing a newly established opposition newspaper in Nauvoo. Mormon historians— including Elder B. H. Roberts—had conceded that this action was illegal, but as a young law professor pursuing original research, I was pleased to find a legal basis for this action in the Illinois law of 1844... We should judge the actions of our predecessors on the basis of the laws and commandments and circumstances of their day, not ours.” - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS Apostle, Joseph, the Man and the Prophet, April 1996 | wasmormon.org
”The event that focused anti-Mormon hostilities and led directly to the Martyrdom was the action of Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council in closing a newly established opposition newspaper in Nauvoo. Mormon historians— including Elder B. H. Roberts—had conceded that this action was illegal, but as a young law professor pursuing original research, I was pleased to find a legal basis for this action in the Illinois law of 1844... We should judge the actions of our predecessors on the basis of the laws and commandments and circumstances of their day, not ours.” - Dallin H. Oaks, LDS Apostle, Joseph, the Man and the Prophet, April 1996
“The Book of Abraham - Translated from the Papyrus, by Joseph Smith - A Translation of some ancient Records that have fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt. The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus.” - The Book of Abraham, Pearl of Great Price, LDS Scriptures | wasmormon.rg
“The Book of Abraham - Translated from the Papyrus, by Joseph Smith - A Translation of some ancient Records that have fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt. The writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus.” - The Book of Abraham, Pearl of Great Price, LDS Scriptures
“As Church members we will not grow spiritually if we let artificial intelligence write our sacrament talks or do our seminary homework. AI cannot replace our individual effort and spiritual preparation as we prepare lessons, prayers or blessings.” - Gerrit W. Gong, LDS Apostle, BYU Education Week Devotional, August 19, 2025 | wasmormon.org
“As Church members we will not grow spiritually if we let artificial intelligence write our sacrament talks or do our seminary homework. AI cannot replace our individual effort and spiritual preparation as we prepare lessons, prayers or blessings.” - Gerrit W. Gong, LDS Apostle, BYU Education Week Devotional, August 19, 2025
“For the vast majority of human history, we lived in small groups of around 50 people. Everyone knew everybody. If you told a lie, stole someone's dinner or didn't defend the group against its enemies, there was no way to disappear into the crowd. Everyone knew you, and you would get punished. But in the last 12,000 years or so, human groups began to expand from a few dozen to more than a thousand. And now it wasn't so easy to punish the cheaters and the free riders. So we needed something big, vast, an epic force that could see what everyone was doing and enforce the rules. Since individual people could no longer police gigantic groups, the policing had to be done by a force that was superhuman. That force, according to psychologist Azim Shariff, was the modern idea of a punitive God, the kind that many preachers warn can send you to hell.” - Shankar Vedantam, Creating God, Hidden Brain Podcast Episode NPR, 2018 | wasmormon.org
“For the vast majority of human history, we lived in small groups of around 50 people. Everyone knew everybody. If you told a lie, stole someone's dinner or didn't defend the group against its enemies, there was no way to disappear into the crowd. Everyone knew you, and you would get punished. But in the last 12,000 years or so, human groups began to expand from a few dozen to more than a thousand. And now it wasn't so easy to punish the cheaters and the free riders. So we needed something big, vast, an epic force that could see what everyone was doing and enforce the rules. Since individual people could no longer police gigantic groups, the policing had to be done by a force that was superhuman. That force, according to psychologist Azim Shariff, was the modern idea of a punitive God, the kind that many preachers warn can send you to hell.” - Shankar Vedantam, Creating God, Hidden Brain Podcast Episode NPR, 2018
"You could have dualistic intuitions, you could have agency detection, you could see purpose in the world where none exists, but you may not necessarily develop the elaborate belief in something like a god without the proper cultural input. So these things like lock and key, they fit each other and complement each other." - Dr. Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Author | wasmormon.org
"You could have dualistic intuitions, you could have agency detection, you could see purpose in the world where none exists, but you may not necessarily develop the elaborate belief in something like a god without the proper cultural input. So these things like lock and key, they fit each other and complement each other." - Dr. Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Author
“The many religions we see around us today emerged in different societies at different times as mechanisms to solve problems of trust and cooperation... The application of evolutionary theory has really revolutionized our understanding of the origins and functions of religion.” - Azim Shariff, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia | wasmormon.org
“The many religions we see around us today emerged in different societies at different times as mechanisms to solve problems of trust and cooperation... The application of evolutionary theory has really revolutionized our understanding of the origins and functions of religion.” - Azim Shariff, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia
“A good example of this is fire. That's a cultural idea. If we didn't have that, we would not be able to survive because our bodies have now adapted to needing fire to predigest - that is, cook our food. And so the idea is that religion is one of these cultural ideas that similarly serves these functional roles in our lives and has done for at least 10,000 years. So what that means is that you can understand religions as they are today - today's major religions - as bearing the legacy of thousands of years of trial and error and selection so that what current religions are made up of, they're made up of those things because those served social functions in the past.” - Azim Shariff, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia | wasmormon.org
“A good example of this is fire. That's a cultural idea. If we didn't have that, we would not be able to survive because our bodies have now adapted to needing fire to predigest - that is, cook our food. And so the idea is that religion is one of these cultural ideas that similarly serves these functional roles in our lives and has done for at least 10,000 years. So what that means is that you can understand religions as they are today - today's major religions - as bearing the legacy of thousands of years of trial and error and selection so that what current religions are made up of, they're made up of those things because those served social functions in the past.” - Azim Shariff, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia
“Humans come into the world with not just a genetic inheritance from their parents but an entire line of cultural ideas that get passed down to them, as well. And, for about a hundred thousand years, we have been a necessarily cultural species. We have not been able to survive without the cultural knowledge that we inherit.” - Azim Shariff, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia | wasmormon.org
“Humans come into the world with not just a genetic inheritance from their parents but an entire line of cultural ideas that get passed down to them, as well. And, for about a hundred thousand years, we have been a necessarily cultural species. We have not been able to survive without the cultural knowledge that we inherit.” - Azim Shariff, Social Psychologist, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia
“Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the nterposition of a great deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.” - Charles Darwin, Notebooks 1837 | wasmormon.org
“Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a great deity. “Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the nterposition of a great deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.” - Charles Darwin, Notebooks 1837
"Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. They thrive on servility and shrink before independence. They feed upon worship as kings do upon flattery. That is why the cry of gods at all times is “Worship us or we perish.” A dethroned monarch may retain some of his human dignity while driving a taxi for a living. But a god without his thunderbolt is a poor object." - Chapman Cohen, English freethinker, Atheist, Author, The Devil (1930s) | wasmormon.org
"Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. They thrive on servility and shrink before independence. They feed upon worship as kings do upon flattery. That is why the cry of gods at all times is “Worship us or we perish.” A dethroned monarch may retain some of his human dignity while driving a taxi for a living. But a god without his thunderbolt is a poor object." - Chapman Cohen, English freethinker, Atheist, Author, The Devil (1930s)
“Our mental architecture plays a really big role in the way that we entertain religious beliefs and practices around the world in predictable ways... You imbue the world, the natural world, with these kinds of spirits. Mountains have spirits, and rivers can have these agentic qualities. Natural events like hurricanes or earthquakes evoke also these kinds of agentic understanding of the world. And then from there, it's a small step to then understand or conceptualize gods or spirits as being separate, but controlling these events.” - Dr. Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Author | wasmormon.org
“Our mental architecture plays a really big role in the way that we entertain religious beliefs and practices around the world in predictable ways... You imbue the world, the natural world, with these kinds of spirits. Mountains have spirits, and rivers can have these agentic qualities. Natural events like hurricanes or earthquakes evoke also these kinds of agentic understanding of the world. And then from there, it's a small step to then understand or conceptualize gods or spirits as being separate, but controlling these events.” - Dr. Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Author
“One thing that seems to be quite common around the world and throughout history is that these gods and spirits have human-like qualities. In some cultures and traditions, it could even be physical human-like qualities... But also, even if they don't have physical qualities, they surely have mental qualities that are human-like. And that is even more common around the world, which again, verifies this idea that our anthropomorphic tendencies feature prominently in the way that our religious mind operates.” - Dr. Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Author | wasmormon.org
“One thing that seems to be quite common around the world and throughout history is that these gods and spirits have human-like qualities. In some cultures and traditions, it could even be physical human-like qualities... But also, even if they don't have physical qualities, they surely have mental qualities that are human-like. And that is even more common around the world, which again, verifies this idea that our anthropomorphic tendencies feature prominently in the way that our religious mind operates.” - Dr. Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia and Author
“To come to know Joseph Smith [we must] be loyal to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We cannot know the Savior or Joseph Smith without being one hundred percent loyal to this Church, and to the priesthood keys held by the prophets who now preside over it.” - Jayson Kunzler, Business Management Faculty Member, BYU Idaho, 2015 | wasmormon.org
“To come to know Joseph Smith [we must] be loyal to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We cannot know the Savior or Joseph Smith without being one hundred percent loyal to this Church, and to the priesthood keys held by the prophets who now preside over it.” - Jayson Kunzler, Business Management Faculty Member, BYU Idaho, 2015
“As we humbly search the scriptures, we will come to know both Jesus Christ and his servant, Joseph Smith. In this connection, may I offer a suggestion to all of us? If we truly desire to know the Prophet, we must go to the right source—and that is not a Google search.” - Jayson Kunzler, Business Management Faculty Member, BYU Idaho, 2015 | wasmormon.org
“As we humbly search the scriptures, we will come to know both Jesus Christ and his servant, Joseph Smith. In this connection, may I offer a suggestion to all of us? If we truly desire to know the Prophet, we must go to the right source—and that is not a Google search.” - Jayson Kunzler, Business Management Faculty Member, BYU Idaho, 2015
“Beware of the many voices—whether out of the Church or inside it—that humanize Joseph Smith by calling into question any aspect of his character. These voices come from those who ‘lift up the heel against [the Lord’s] anointed, and cry that [he has] sinned when [he has] not sinned before me, saith the Lord, but [has] done that… which I commanded [him].’ As the Lord warned, they ‘cry transgression… because they are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves.’” - Jayson Kunzler, Business Management Faculty Member, BYU Idaho, 2015 | wasmormon.org
“Beware of the many voices—whether out of the Church or inside it—that humanize Joseph Smith by calling into question any aspect of his character. These voices come from those who ‘lift up the heel against [the Lord’s] anointed, and cry that [he has] sinned when [he has] not sinned before me, saith the Lord, but [has] done that… which I commanded [him].’ As the Lord warned, they ‘cry transgression… because they are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves.’” - Jayson Kunzler, Business Management Faculty Member, BYU Idaho, 2015