The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints And Science: BOOK I – EPISTEMOLOGY

By Joseph Mark Holmes

No About the Book information at this time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669875017

Joseph Mark Holmes

The motivation to wright a book seeking to reconcile the author’s faith in God and his church with his love of learning, began with a fear that the sciences were showing that his faith was foolish. This led to a life of study in many areas of science, philosophy and religion Books in the author’s library which contributed to this effort are included in the bibliography. The author graduated with high honors with an MBA in Finance from California State University, Los Angeles. After extensive training in credit analysis he had management positions in International Banking, Credit Administration, and Financial Institutions, at the same bank but with a variety of bank owners and bank names.. He developed several complicated computer systems to keep track of foreign country exposure, to automate the credit analysis of domestic and foreign banks, and to automate foreign country risk analysis.

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Copyright © 2023 by Joseph Mark Holmes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 08/04/2023

Xlibris

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Contents

For whom the Trilogy was written.

Introduction to Epistemology: the first book of the Trilogy.

Book I – Epistemology

The purposes of Book I - Epistemology are identified:

The LDS Path to Find the Truth

The Articles of Faith of Science

The Scientific Methods

The Weaknesses of the Scientific Method

A Mechanical Theory of How Personal Revelation is Received

The Steps to Receiving Personal Revelation

A Complicated Path to Ascertain the Truth – Step I Fine the Facts

The Correspondence Test of Truth

The Coherence Test of Truth

The Pragmatic Test of Truth

A Short Cut Path to Learn the Truth

The Value of Using all the Tests of Truth

How we can be Mislead in our Search for the Truth

Religion Relies of a Pragmatic Standard of Truth

The LDS God Must be able to Travel Faster than the Speed of Light

Instantaneous Communication and Travel May be Possible

The Relativity of Time is Important in Interpreting LDS Scriptures

The Most Likely Location of Kolob is the Central Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way named Sagittarius A.

Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity is needed to Understand Time’s Perspectives in LDS Scriptures

The motivation for writing the Trilogy plus a summary of the three different books of the Trilogy

Book II – Ontology - The nature of reality based on seven metaphysical assumptions which are essential to the LDS Faith.

Meta 1 - all things in the universe were created out of two substances called Light and Truth

Meta 2 - There exists a spirit matter universe, earth, and life forms, and an interrelated physical matter universe, earth and life forms

Meta 3 - There exist hierarchies of organized life from very simple forms of life to the highest which is a society of Gods.

Meta 4 - Irreversible processes create an arrow of time and a need for final judgements

Meta 5 - Meaningful existence requires freedom of agency within the limits established by Deity

Meta 6 - Ultimately times cycles are under the control of Deity

Meta 7 - What is highest in humanity is deepest in nature

Book III – Creation

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Science’s Story of the coming forth of life on earth

Bibliography

FOR WHOM THE TRILOGY WAS WRITTEN.

J OSEPH MARK HOLMES wrote most of the content in the three books of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS hereinafter) and Science trilogy more than 20 years ago. It was written in an effort to solidify the author’s deepest beliefs about God, science and the purpose of life. When he started sharing his ideas with other members of his faith, he soon learned that many of them were not receptive to his ideas, so he stopped discussing them.

After nearly 20 years of retirement, Mr. Holmes received a very strong prompting from the spirit, that he needed to finish The Trilogy and publish his ideas. He then spent a lot of time editing his prior efforts and investigating, on the internet, whether the ideas that he had previously written about were still applicable.

While the Trilogy was primarily written for members of the LDS faith that could benefit from it, it is also written for any others who could benefit from the ideas contained in the book. These include:

Atheists, agnostics, and skeptics:

Originally, the writer was like you. He changed when he learned about a God with limited powers but unlimited potential. The LDS God is a family man, whose spiritual children we are. He truly loves each of us and wants to give everyone the best reward possible. This is the reason for Christ’s atonement for the sins of all mankind. Since God, like everything else in the universe, was created out of intelligence or light and truth, he must follow the laws that govern all things in the universe.

This includes allowing all forms of life a great deal of free agency. For this reason, God is not responsible for the evil that exists on earth. While this limits God power, he still has sufficient power to meet all his goals, which include the creation of new worlds and universes! That God can create new universes is easier to believe than the alternative. This is the cosmological anthropic principle, that although it is extremely unlikely that a universe like ours was created by chance alone, if it had not happened, we would not be here to know about it.

The approach discussed herein gives God unlimited potential to grow in knowledge, power, and glory forever. The unrestricted creativity of all life forms allows God to grow in knowledge forever as this will continually teach him new things; God’s ability to create new worlds and universes, allows him to grow in power forever, and God’s ability to facilitate his spiritual children and all other forms of life having the chance to fulfill the measure for their creation, allows him to grow in glory forever.

To Christians of all types.

God the Father loves and honors anyone who honors and loves his son Jesus Christ, and is willing to forgive their sins and give them the best reward in eternity that they qualify for. Many times, a heaven similar to the one in which they already probably believe.

While God, because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, is a God of mercy, he is also a God of Justice. If God ceases to be the upholder of justice in the universe, he would cease to be God. This means that there is no cheap grace. To reach our highest potential, and eventually be exalted to Godhood, each of us needs to make certain covenants with God, designed to help us change our natures and become like God.

This includes being married for time and all eternity by one having authority received from God to do so. Having spiritual children, is absolutely essential to being exalted in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. To become like God, a man and a woman must be married and get and stay on the covenant path. We are exalted as families not as individuals. Adoption or marriage into an exalted family is possible. Women also may become Goddesses, equal in power and authority to their eternal spouses.

To non-Christians of all types:

The Christain God loves you because in a prior spirit world you were his spiritual offspring. He wants to give you as good a reward in eternity as possible, which probably consists of the best reward contemplated in your belief system. Nevertheless, there is a possibility of receiving an even greater reward, which is exaltation in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom.

The spiritual leaders of your belief system were probably inspired by God, and their teachings have been of value to you. There is no desire to take away from you anything of value, the only aim is to present an alternative worthy of your consideration.

To anyone who is in need of love and God’s support.

God still loves you and will strive to give you the best reward possible, consistent with your behavior. Repentance is always available. In fact, the LDS Gods are Gods (both male and female) of fair play and in either this life, or the next life, they desire that all their spiritual offspring be given the opportunity to receive all the blessing and opportunities they did not receive in this life. You can even make covenants, in this life or the next, that could lead to exaltation, if you are willing to live the law upon which this highest