Random Thought #50

Truth and Knowledge are simply the product of discovering the unconscious by conscious effort. I'm sure some really smart guy or gal already said that or something similar to it, but if not, I call dibs. I've found that this has been the overriding theme in my studies. Most of the things that I've learned are not really that complicated or intricate. Granted, the people that wrote about them write in outlandishly complex jargon, but the concepts themselves are quite basic and elementary and many of the amazing things around us we do subconsciously. Take breathing for example (not to mention the entire human body). We don't even think about breathing. We just do it. What about any of our 5 main senses? We do all those automatically too and we don't even realize how much we're dependent on them until they are taken away from us. None of these things are overly complex to do (smell, see, hear, breathe, etc.) yet the complexity of what those systems are doing without you actually thinking about doing them is astounding. To get back to my first statement and how I defined truth and knowledge and to return to the example of breathing, if breathing is so simple, why can't we do it anywhere? Why not under water? Why not in space? To fully understand the truth about breathing and have knowledge about how it works, we must get outside of our cozy little subconscious world and consciously look for answers. I think it helps give insight into God's perspective. Let's look at fish. They can breathe under water but we can't. Why? As you start studying how fish breathe under water, you start understanding more and more how similar they are to us, just with a few tweaks to make it work for them. #1) There is oxygen in water (whew, at least we breathe the same stuff, which means their bodies and its organs must need oxygen just like ours). Its not the O in H2O, but rather oxygen mixed in amongst the water molecules. The amount of oxygen that exists in water compared to air is much smaller. In air, its like 20%. In water, its like 1%. In order to accommodate that, fish had to either push a lot more air and subsequently water over their gills or not require as much. In order to use less, 2) they are cold-blooded, instead of warm-blooded like us so their blood doesn't need as much oxygen. They are able to close their mouth so that they don't swallow the water but rather the de-oxygenated water flows out the gills. They also have the ability (at least in salt-water fish) so filter out the salt in case they do drink too much. The basic concept is the same. Oxygen is gathered and then seeps through a tiny cell membrane into nearby blood vessels waiting for their oxygen load to carry it to the organs. These differences, however, provide for the beauty and variety around us. While we're on the subject of breathing, why do we need a mouth and a nose? Besides the fact that taste and smell are different senses, it would be a bit difficult to breathe while eating. These types of things are just the tip of the iceberg, but I firmly believe that the more we learn and understand, especially about things that we're not familiar with, the better perspective and overall understanding of pure truth we'll have. I know someone famous once said, (think it was Einstien) if you can't explain it to both a child and the foremost expert in that field, you don't fully understand it. Given that statement, how many of us truly understand and know (or have knowledge of) the principles and covenants of the gospel. Have we thoroughly studied them out to be able to explain the same concept to a Nursery aged child as well as an apostle? I'd venture to say we still have a lot of learning to do, and not just of the scriptures, but things that are outside of our comfort zone as well. Those of us who have been in the church since we were born are so used to Sunday School answers, we've effectively handicapped ourselves as it pertains to gospel knowledge. We must consciously study that which our unconscious souls already know. One last note before I let this one rest. Malcolm Gladwell (a great speaker and author), wrote a book called "Blink" which explains the difference between our conscious and unconscious understanding and learning and I think its useful to reference it as it pertains to my comments here. Here is a link to his website and this book in particular.

Blink