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Show MILLARD COUNTY CHRONICLE Delta. Utah., Thurs. March 14, 1957. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor: I would like to reply to Dick Morrison concerning his article that appeared in the Chronicle of Feb. 21 My name has recently appeared in his column thru an exchange of words pertaining to the same subject sub-ject he discussed again on that date. Previously, I had some silly idea that belligerence belliger-ence might win where common reason had failed to induce Dick to approach the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints through the channels of its teach ings instead of the route he seems to prefer; but the more he discourses on the subject the more apparent his ignorance of it becomes. From the statement appearing on the cover of his book, as quoted by Mr. Morrison, Mr. G. T. Harrison Har-rison seems to have forgotten the Eleventh Article of Faith of the Church which he seems so zealous to destroy. de-stroy. For as Mr. Harrison complains, it truly is the policy of the Church to disregard any influence of the world that tends to deviate from its own teachings "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allowing all men the same privilege, let them worship wor-ship how, where or. what they may." Art. of Faith 11. Brigham Young taught that "we are not interested interest-ed in gaining or holding members who have to be shielded from the influences of other doctrines or from any of the various temptations of life."- - - , The membership of this Church of Jesus Christ is made up of peoples of the earth like you and me, gleaned from all walks of life, from many foreign nations, from high degrees and humble situation;, all subject to the same, temptations that prey upon the rest of the populace, excesses, indulgences, hypocrisies, hypoc-risies, error and immoral conduct. The thing that activates. a good church member is the knowledge that he has faced decison and has made his own choice. , This God-given Church does not teach the doctrines doc-trines of Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith did not teach the doctrines of Joseph Smith. He taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is found in the Old and New Testaments Test-aments of the King James Version of the Holy Bible, and to this day the teachings of the church he organ- Once Over ized have not strayed from that strict course he in- GIVING OUR WORLD THE sisted upon for its members, of which each understands under-stands that mere membership therein will save no man. For "He that sayeth, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.'-' (1 John'2:4) T The prevailng jest concerning "Mormons thinking think-ing they are the only ones who will get to Heaven" has everyone fooled but the so-called Mormons, for we are charged, through the principles of the Gospel, with g double indemnity of repentance which includes includ-es also restitufion, if a candidate expects to find favor in the sight of the Lord. ' That Dick cannot comprehend the manner in which this church was brought into being and continually con-tinually essays to exploit the beliefs of his friends via foul accusations of a stranger without bothering to acquaint himself with the facts, displays a disagreeable disagree-able hatred. George Bernard Shaw defines "Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated." What have your friends done to you, Dick, that you feel obligated to hurl these unseemly epithets at their beliefs? . . ' I have offered you proof that there is a God in Heaven, for what civilizaton is so naive that it hinges its time element on the memory of a liar. "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethern, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20.17) I confess,' I give up. I guess you just do not read fine print. We will have to face it. If we expect to enjoy .your usual pertinent offerings in the Chronicle we will be obligated to take also this periodic gul lible propulsion of anti-Mormon gossip. - .. ,s Emily Young Abraham, Utah "Necessity Is the mother of invention." in-vention." Farquhar. "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to Invent Him." Voltaire. "While as yet he scarce walked upright steadily, man fashioned for himself many gods of earth and of sea, of the nether world, but (most of all) gods of the sky." George R. Stewart in "Storm". Letter From Chicago Before closing our little objective, object-ive, wide-open discussion of religion, relig-ion, I want to publish the following follow-ing interesting letter from Richard Dewsnup, from Chicago. "Dick Morrison, Delta, Utah. Dear Mr. Morrison: "I suspect that your weekly column in the Millard County Chronicle often generates more provocative thinking and analysis than you realize. This is not to say that I don't enjoy your column, but, on the contrary, I find it to be highly stimulating. While I don't always agree with everything mat By Dick Morrison the distant future that will estrange est-range us from the inhabitants yet to be developed and make us loath to have our bones and mummified forms, bearing an inferior complex, resurrected into activities of this new world. All the world is confounded con-founded with the question: 'What is man?' Is he a being made up of the elements of nature by a process of absorption that has operated op-erated ' since the birth of this planet? Or is the fancy that has flickered through many generations, generat-ions, that he is a spiritual ego who passed through activities in a spirit world before our planets came into existence, a key with which to unlock the mystery? "We do know that life exists. Some call this life ,'soul', but what it is we do not know nor can we comprehend its beginning or ending. end-ing. We know, if we know anything, any-thing, that this earth is many, many millions of years old and that various kinds of animals lived upon it millions of years before man was developed. In various forms, man has lived through ages, you say, I find that your articles . adapting himself -to conditions- Mrs. Deonna Black was a Salt Lake visitor over the weekend with her daughter and hushand, Dorothy and John Teichert, and children. Jessie Lynn Cook spent the week end in Delta with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Cook, and returned Sunday to Salt Lake City, where she is completing classes this Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Creed, who have made their home in Provo since moving from Delta last fall, were Delta visitors Sunday. Miss Florence Church, from Dixie college at St. George, spent the weekend in Delta with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ned Church. Mr. and Mrs. June Black were In Salt Lake City Friday and Sat- nionth at the U. of U. for a tea-,urday, to take their mother. Mrs. cher's certificate. Artemisia Black. In for medical treatment. I f! (J u are consistently well-written, logi cal and practical. I am quite ser ious in saying that, to my way of thinking, your column shows a keener insight into many problems and is more worth while than many columns which are syndicat ed nationally. ' "And now to get to the purpose of my letter. The tenor of some of the recent columns reminded me of an interesting summary of the Dhllosoohv of life of Edmund T. Olson. Perhaps you are acquainted with it. Olson speaks through character which he created in one of his books, 'Utah'. The speaker is an agnostic who was reared in the Mormon faith; the listener is his brother, who has remained vprv devout and active in the Mormon Church. I submit this ex cerpt from his book with the thought that vou might find it interesting and not too far afield from your philosophy. I do not give my opinion as to the merits of this excerpt, except to say that many honest, intelligent people embrace this type of philosophy. "Extending the kindest of re gards, I remain, "Very Sincerely, . "Richard L. Dewsnup" Following is the though-provoking excerpt Richard Dewsnup enclosed en-closed with his letter. It is from "Utah", by Olson, pages 321-323, published 1931: "The social system toward which man is moving cannot be determined deter-mined by analysis or foreseen by scientist or theologian. Governments Govern-ments are growing institutions, with no finality in sight, ever being modified to conform to ideals; evolving, budding, blossoming, blossom-ing, dying, to rise again as the seeds that have been sown take root in succeeding generations. There can be no fixed Utopia, such a circumscription leads to despair. Complex phases of life will present pre-sent themselves as the millions of years roll on or as long as the earth is fitted for habitation. A nisus may be passed some time in struggling, changing and Jevelop- ing until he took possession of the world by virtue of his superior mentality. He stands upright, an educated animal coming out of a past, the only record of which is the fossiliferous things preserved in nature's, rocky: tombs. Many forms died out leaving their bones to tell the tale. That mysterious thing we call life manifests itself in the simple jellyfish, seeking substance -and trying to escape enemies, and . evolves into a complex com-plex bram that rules the world. Our bodies are atoms of electric energy that,, spends itself and disappears. dis-appears. Life continues in the seed. i Therein is a resurrection that we , i--'erstnnd. It goes on forever. We all try to do our best to pre-serve pre-serve life and make It useful. We have the life that has been bequeathed be-queathed by our ancestors and we likewise bequeath what we have to posterity. Life bespeaks a duty, though it be a mystery, a tragedy, a something that will be contemplated contem-plated with appalling wonderment by those who live after us. What ever we think, we will always feel that we owe a duty to nature, devotion to which brings us comfort. com-fort. I merely offer these suggestions suggest-ions to give you the trend of my mind, not to criticise your conception concep-tion of religion. When devotees of creeds 'and cults gain comfort from the ideals their religion has set up, let them rest in peaceful possession possess-ion of their thoughts. As long as 'religious) organizations.... bring forth wholesome fruits, they will net be persecuted; they will be iccorded due praise from intellectuals intellect-uals who possess an urge for the betterment of the world. When 'ndividuals or communities have 'ived in an endeavor to do good they have not lived in vain". Thanks to Richard Dewsnup for his letter and a most appealing quotation along philosophical lines. There isn't much I can add, or need to add, to that. It bears out my earlier statement that people seem to find what they need in their respective faiths, whether it be pure abstraction or concrete realism, as in the idea that Joseph Smith (for instance) actually saw and translated messages from some golden plates of divine origin. ori-gin. Personally, I find such speculation specu-lation as Olson indulged in vastly more stimulating than reading the general run of religious books which, to me, are hopelessly dull. I once tried to sum up all my observations on the subject in the sentence,. "Life is nature's' aware-iess aware-iess of itself". So far, I have never been able to improve on that. The Continued on next page Buy Nitrogen Fertilizers at Agri - Chemical Co. DELTA DERRAL CHRISTENSEN Phone 382J5 - - - - UTAH O.GEM 3 7T) vmir " 2ER A new source of farm profit has come to Utah - new United States Steel nitrogen fertilizers. All this week, fertilizer dealers in this area will be featuring USS Nitrogen fertilizers. fertil-izers. 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