How does one base their ethics on science and logic?

A friend of mine asked, "How does one base their ethics on science and logic?"

I answered,

I haven't read any of the comments yet. I am attending trainings at Landmark. I have been surprised by the transformation or in LDS terms the mighty changes of heart I have witnessed from people of other faiths and of no faith.

We are humans which means we assign right and wrong meanings to things. The agreements we have as groups, and communities are ethics. It is what we agree is right or wrong to do in general.

That is how I think science, logic and the human condition creates ethics in or outside religion.

Mormons and Landmark

I took the Landmark Forum course in May 2015. I am still doing the 10 seminar follow up sessions they offer to help retain it. I took the advanced course in July 2015. What I offer here is from my perspective and how I have gotten my training from Landmark and in context with my understanding of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Landmark does not advocate or belittle religion or faith. They do not address it at all except when brought up by a participant. I will say that there certainly were a few things that challenged my perspective. I feel mostly resolved with that. One of the best things I heard was from my forum leader. At the end of the 3 days, she said that anything she had said that did not work for us, she takes it back.

I have felt free from shame I have felt for years. Shame is different from guilt. Guilt is "I did something wrong". Shame is "I am something wrong". I have learned that I have been bringing along my past and basing my future on it. I have not been allowing the atonement to free me from the bonds of sin. I accept the sacrifice of Jesus and seek to continue to remember him according to the covenants I take every week at my ward.

What I discovered is that the shame I feel is what I have told myself. It is possible that there are temptations from other sources as well, I just am not confident that I can tell what comes from my own mind and what might be coming from below. Either way, many of the things I have heard from the conversation from my head are not real.

The past is not real. I cannot touch it. The only way that it affects my now is if I remember it and believe it. I can choose to keep things from my past that work well for me. Among the best is my testimony of Jesus Christ that was fed from my study of the scriptures in seminary. This includes the many other distinct teachings of the LDS church, the benefit of the fall, the several degrees of glory, bonds of love in family made effective by sealing. All administered by the actual authority from God given to men on earth from actual, physical angelic visits to earth.

The things I can let go are those that do not work for me. Do not help me live a healthy life unfettered to do the good I feel inspired to do. I do not have to believe what I told myself as a 6 year old boy that keeps me from being open emotionally to those closest to me. I do not have to believe what I told myself as a 12 year old boy that in order to compensate for not fitting in, I can be smart. I can be any number of things that include being smart. I could go on.

In my advanced course, I learned that I was working against our marriage. I had not been willing to be open with my wife. I took the courage to break through that. I said I was for a united marriage and I went ahead with plans I had not discussed with my sweet wife. I am shifting in this. I am committed to creating the marriage that the sealer created in word when we were sealed.

I am for removing the barriers between my Mormon and Landmark communities. I am not sure what will happen as they drop. I am confident that as I continue in this work, that my trusted friends and family and the whisperings of the Spirit will open my eyes to any blind spots out of sight. I have asked them to do so. I ask you to as well.

Four Pillars of Staying in the World of Faith

In my Landmark training seminar on Tues I learned about 4 principles of being that keep me in a world of possibility. That is in comparison of the world of the ordinary or the way humans usually operate (including me).

In another context, they are principles that keep me in the world of faith where there  are no limits to doing what God wants me to.

Integrity - A chair has integrity when it has four legs that are solid. If it does not, it really is not working as a chair. When I do not keep my word, if I do not do what I say I will do when I will do it. I am out of integrity. I cannot trust myself as a human and others cannot either. The good news is that the past does not exist in the present and I can create a new reality as often as I choose to. To clean up the messes I have made and get back into integrity.

Relationship - There is a huge difference between seeing other people as obstacles, or pawns in my aim to have what I want. Once I can see them as a human and am willing to relate to them as a person and not an object. My world transforms.

Existence - means my intention, my stand is in reality. It is not just my words that evaporate after they are said, or a mere thought or wish. It is on a calendar, etc

Enrollment - Communication with another that leaves the two (or more) "moved, touched, and inspired."

We Are that We Are

When Moses was talking with God, he asked him who should I say sends me? God answered I Am that I Am.

I postulate that we are who we declare we are. As our word accords with our declaration the reality becomes more solid.

A declaration of independence created a freedom of all men. It first was created in the hearts of those who heard it and were moved and inspired by it. It became real in our physical world when abolition entered into the heart of someone. That human took a stand and inspired others to the vision. A war started and / or ended with the idea. The emancipation proclamation declared it again in a new form.

The civil rights movement declared specific rights of voting and employment and accommodation. Today those rights do not exist only in word or law but in the hearts of our societies.

I declare that the only barriers between humans and societies of humans are created in our language and the world it creates.

I invite you to try on the idea that you are not separate from your spouse, family, friends or community. That you have connections seen and unseen. That if you abandon the barriers between us that do not work, you will realize a unity a harmony and a beauty before unknown to us.

I was promised that we would become unmessable. Unmessable is that nothing messes with the vision of health, strength, sanity and power we want. The creation of we creates an unmessable power.

I invite you to be one with those near you. I invite you to join the we that includes me. I invite all of us to consider that we can create unity between all merely by declaring and agreeing that it is so. We are because we say we are.

We are not deterred from our vision. Our vision is to be unrelenting in our commitment to each other. That we are committed to getting each other what we want even though our individual stories may seem in contradiction to each other.

We are unstoppable.

I am committed to God above all else. I become one with God as Jesus becomes one with the Father. I become one with what I name "We".

Next comes my covenant with my wife to join with her outside of anyone else. I create my primary human relationship. I say that in words. That my word is realized in what I do. That I honor my word to her. I become one with her. She agrees. Our words together become a sacred agreement I call "We". The we of our marriage joins the we of heaven.

Next is my family. Our 10 children. I invite and declare my family to be part of our we.

Next is our job as part of my covenant to provide for my family. "Our Job" means the job we have as a couple. I am open to accepting contribution from my community and to contributing back.

We are unstoppable.

Next is my extended family. My parents and parents in law. My siblings and their families. My wife's siblings. I invite and declare all to be part of our we.

Next are my friends. I invite and declare all to be part of our we.

Next are my communities. My community of my local congregation at church we call a Mormon ward. My community of my Landmark Advanced Course we call Transformers. I include all my communities. I invite and declare all to be part of our we.

Next organizations.
Next societies.
Next the world.
I invite and declare all to be part of our we.
We are one because we say so.

We are unstoppable.

Is life meaningless?

"Life is empty and meaningless and it is empty and meaningless that it is empty and meaningless." "Meaning" here refers to invented meaning, this is not an ultimate philosophical or religious declaration but a "distinction," a tool. (Landmark Education/Abd/Glossary)

This is the shortest explanation I have read about the phrase that is a major punch line of the Landmark Forum. I don't think that they are trying to knock organized religion or philosophy. The point is that humans are made to find meaning in everything, sometimes to our detriment.

Here is a pretty good explanation from what seems like a Landmark Forum leader, Jane Wright. What is lacking in her explanation is a concrete example.

I have four brothers, two older and two younger. They all wrestled in high school. The summer after my 7th or 8th grade, I went to a couple of weeks of a wrestling camp. We did exercises in a heated room in the gym. Going for 2-3 minutes wrestling is about the hardest physical thing I have ever done. It is incredibly intense, painful and exhausting. At some point in the camp, I remember deciding that I did not want to wrestle.

Now there are many things I could have made that mean for me. That I was (or am) weak. That I am not a man. To me, the camp reminded me of the many times my older brother practiced wrestling on me. I did not enjoy it. He was always bigger than me and would always win. It is fun to win. It makes sense that he would want to practice what he learned. It didn't make sense to practice on our oldest brother, since he would always win. So, I became his guinea pig. Often I became a possum so he would stop. Later I learned to be a wolverine and cause pain or threaten pain by any means available to me.

There are two parts of my story, what happened and what I took from what happened. I could have created many other variations of meaning for me, both healthy and unhealthy. This is what I think Landmark is trying to help its participants to get. Now, the irony of me trying to assign meaning to this distinction blares in my face.

It was a hard discovery for me. Rationally, I could see this pattern in my own history and of others. On the other hand, I have dear spiritual beliefs that are very satisfying to me. They have helped me create meaning in my life. I believe them to be independent of my experience. That they exists whether or not I believe them.

Again, the irony that I believe that my meanings are the true ones is not lost on me. I have learned some humility in my beliefs. There are fewer things that I know for sure. And, to be honest, even the things I hold onto dearly I am not as sure of as I used to be. That is OK with me, because I believe that I will eventually know all that actually is.

I believe that life is supposed to be uncertain. That it allows us the chance to live according to the morals (or ethics) we have learned to be good and true. That we are able to choose our own set of values to live by. And that this choice is part of what we create for ourselves not only in this life but later and forever. Again the irony of the meaning I have created for myself is not lost on me.

What was taught to me after the "life is meaningless and empty" was soothing to me. It is how I can create anything I want in that emptiness. I choose to believe because I choose to believe. I see good from my beliefs. I choose to believe them because I see positive results from having them in my life and my family and friends.

So you can assign whatever meaning you want to from the Landmark assertion, "Life is empty and meaningless and it is empty and meaningless that it is empty and meaningless." Humans cannot help giving meaning. This is what it means for me, today.

The Instant of Turning

I have had the most transforming experiences of my life. I attended Landmark Forum these last three days. I have eliminated my fear through expressing myself vulnerably.

I am leaving my past in the past. I am not creating a future based on my fear. I am powerful and free to do whatever I want.

I invite you to come to my last session in Scottsdale Tues night at 7:00 pm to 10:15 pm Phoenix time. You will taste a bit of what I have experienced these last 3 days. You will have an opportunity to register for it yourself.

No one needs the Landmark Forum. You will continue to have the life you create. You will likely still live, have wonderful relationships (or not) and be successful (or not).

I request that you consider the possibility that your life can be transformed, it is the instant you turn from the life you have to the life you want.

16100 North Greenway/Hayden Loop
Building G - Suite 108
Scottsdale, Arizona, 85260

https://www.landmarkworldwide.com/the-landmark-forum