In chapter 2 Nephi 28:3, Nephi prophesies about the things he writes coming forth in a day in which there would be "churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord" (emphasis added). These churches would spread "false and vain and foolish doctrines" (2 Nephi 28:9). A few chapters after this, Nephi laments, "I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given to them in plainness, even as plain as word can be" (2 Nephi 32:7).
I feel Nephi's pain. I look around at a world that has built up churches "not unto the Lord" everywhere; churches to science; churches that champion the natural man rather than the humble disciple, where personal responsibility and consequences are shirked; and even churches that worship celebrities, sports, and other hobbies or schools of thought. I've found that even those who claim to be agnostic or atheist are, for the most part, still religious about other ideas or things.
No, there is nothing wrong with most hobbies and sports. There's nothing bad about science in and of itself, either. It was by far my least-favorite subject in school, but I got no beef with medicine that cures illnesses of both the body and the mind, or a trip to the planetarium to look up at the stars, and learning about other wonders scientific minds have discovered. The problem, I believe, is when we, like Billy Joel once said, "go to extremes."
I cringe, for example, when I see so-called "science" (cough gender is now supposedly "fluid" and is determined not by chromosomes but is on an ever-evolving spectrum on, didn't you know? cough) making new "discoveries" that surpass basic common sense and that, worst of all, confuse and befuddle the children of God about what their true identities and possibilities are.
As G. K. Chesterton taught: "Unfortunately science is only splendid when it is science. When science becomes religion it becomes superstition."
I did a little fact-checking on Twitter to provide an example of celebrity worship, and I learned that the ever-fascinating mind of Kim Kardashian, to name one of our (sarcasm alert) most fascinating modern thinkers, is followed by more than 52 million people. By contrast, only two million people follow the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles combined.
It's a strange, bewildering time we live in. Yes, we have a lot of work to do, collectively, to spread the hopeful, wonderful message that the gospel carries with it. Nevertheless, the Lord has shown us the way so that we may see the truth through the lies and learn to discern "things as they really are" (Jacob 4:13).
Through my latest elders quorum teaching assignment a couple of weeks ago, I came across these powerful words from President Gordon B. Hinckley:
"Of course we believe in the cultivation of the mind, but the intellect is not the only source of knowledge. There is a promise, given under the inspiration from the Almighty, set forth in these beautiful words: 'God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost." (D&C 121:26.)
"The humanists who criticize the Lord's work, the so-called intellectualists who demean, speak only from ignorance of spiritual manifestation. They have not heard the voice of the Spirit. They have not heard it because they have not sought after it and prepared themselves to be worthy of it. Then, supposing that knowledge comes only of reasoning and of the workings of the mind, they deny that which comes by the power of the Holy Ghost.
"The things of God are understood by the Spirit of God. That Spirit is real. To those who have experienced its workings, the knowledge so gained is as real as that which is acquired through the operation of the five senses. I testify of this. . . .
"Let us not be trapped by the sophistry of the world, which for the most part is negative and which so often bears sour fruit."
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