Science and Scriptures: Recent Episodes
Scott Frazer
Science and Scriptures discusses the overlap of our physical world of science and the spiritual world of the scriptures. With stories, histories, and interviews, we'll discuss how findings in science provide new understandings of the universe and of the Gospel. It is exciting to realize how these two worlds interface - whether you are talking about the Creation, the reasons for our mortal probation, rules of Earth life that God must enforce, or the role of COVID-19 and other dangers. Join us for discussions and interviews to better understand the larger questions of life! It’s a wonderfully complex world. Science and scriptures are provided to help us figure it all out.
Science and Scriptures
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Email – scottrfrazer@gmail.com
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The Science and Scriptures podcast is designed to help Christians to reconcile their religious faith with science and the physical world. Truth is contained in both and together form a strong testament to life's purpose and our reality.
Email - ScottRFrazer@gmail.com
Website - ScottRFrazer.com
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Email - scottrfrazer@gmail.com
Website: - https://www.scottrfrazer.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scottrfrazerauthor/
Email - scottrfrazer@gmail.com
Website - scottrfrazer.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scottrfrazerauthor/
email - ScottRFrazer@gmail.com
Website - scottrfrazer.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scottrfrazerauthor/
I have heard other church members struggle with scriptures where God or His prophets are… violent to the point of taking life. This disturbs many Christians. We need to recognize that God has two roles during Earth Life. We need to understand both those roles to understand Him.
In God’s second role, He is your loving Heavenly Father. You pray to Him, and you seek His inspiration. Hopefully you have a solid and tender relationship with Him. In church lessons and talks, we discuss the “Heavenly Father” role of God about 95% of the time that we talk about God. Our Heavenly Father is like an elderly grandfather with whom we can chat. The relationship is comfortable, like a soft blanket.
God’s first role, however, is of God the King. It is God’s responsibility that the Gospel plan proceeds as it was planned. In this role, God is the ultimate authority figure. Though his relationship with you is important – He has a planet-full of people for which He is responsible. Earth life is not fair – but eventually all will be made just. God will insist that we follow the demands of justice. He must! Because of its harsher edge, we rarely discuss the role of God as King.
Today I would like to discuss who has the authority to receive inspiration. Whereas we can all agree that we all have the authority and right to receive inspiration for ourselves. The question is, “Who has the right to receive inspiration for others?” The point of this episode on inspiration is that… we need to be wise as we evaluate our own inspiration or that of someone else. As we enter the Latter Days, such wisdom will become even more necessary. We need to constantly insure that inspiration passes the requirements of true inspiration.
You see, everyone has a different image of Satan. To some people, he is very real and to others, he is not. In either case, each of us should understand what is known about Satan. However, we should recognize that the means used by many churches and famous evangelists to warn the world about Satan has brought religions much ridicule. Many non-Christians see Satan as religion’s boogey-man and wonder how normally sane people can believe in him. The fact that many people’s image of Satan is of a large man with a forked tail, wings, and horns also encourages the popular belief that Satan is a figment of somone’s imagination. The first point that I want to make in today’s broadcast is – don’t blame Satan for your bad decisions. Secondly, don't vilify other people as Satan's followers. Throughout world history, barbarous acts have been justified by associating a particular people with Satan. In the end, Satan is real. I just don’t want us to use him as an excuse for our own actions or as an excuse to persecute others.
Absolute truth is the “harsh reality” truth. For example, an absolute truth is that… gravity exists. A Relative truth, however, involves comparison to something else. Relative truth is much less demanding that absolute truth. Think of relative truth like your professor grading on a curve. Your grade is determined by how the other students in the class did. So, you could get a 70% on your test, but still have it be an “A” grade. If you apply this definition to getting into the celestial kingdom, relative truth is also very comforting. This belief often manifests itself when doing missionary work and discussing religion with non-member friends and family. So many times I have gotten the response. “Well it doesn’t really matter how you believe, now does it? If you’re a good person, it won’t matter what religion you belong to, right?” This comment demonstrates relative-truth thinking that “as long as I’m a good person compared to all the bad people”.
There is both a scientific and a spiritual way to look at endings and beginnings. First let’s look at the scientific side of endings. Many of the endings in our lives are due to the planet Earth on which we reside. Every 24 hours, Earth’s rotation causes the sun to set and our day to end. Because of that characteristic of our planet, man has developed a “circadian rhythm”. When it gets dark, we feel sleepy. If we have a good night’s sleep, we awake refreshed. The end of the previous day was a good ending because it allowed us to sleep. We are now at our best to begin the new day. The old you becomes a new you. The planet Earth also revolves around the sun. But because the axis of the Earth is tilted, as we revolve around the sun, we have different seasons. Our calendars may tell us the end of the year is December 31, but the end of the year that plants and animals recognize is when winter arrives. Endings are programmed into our biology as well. As we enter our early teenage years, our bodies start to produce more hormones than they did before – and childhood ends. Your death is also programmed into your body. Eventually the failure of one of your bodily systems will cause your body to cease its function. In a process we call “eternal progress”, we should expect multiple endings and beginnings. We are supposed to learn to move on again and again and yet again. The numerous cycles of endings and new beginnings on earth give me hope for a new beginning after death. It seems logical that, with my death, I will simply begin a new phase of my eternal life. In summary, congratulations on reaching the end of 2020. Lets’ hope that 2021 will be a better year for everyone.
As my Christmas podcast, I suggest that Christmas be a celebration of the whole Plan of Salvation, including, of course, the role of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a time to appreciate the miracle that the Plan of Salvation works at all. Simply put, humans blunder and the consequences of those blunders occur throughout history. Besides human error, we have “Murphy’s Law” which states that “If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong”. The earth life part of the Plan of Salvation is extremely complex, involving millions of people who make mistakes and centuries of time for them to make those blunders. At this time of year, I am grateful for the efforts of those who have brought the Plan of Salvation to pass, and especially for Jesus Christ, who took on the role of our Savior.
Only 30 years ago, the world still read books and newspapers for its information, as it had done for centuries. But the art of reading has changed. The most obvious change is that today we read more from computer and phone screens than we do from books. But the changes run much deeper than just a different format from which to read words.
In this episode, I interview Bryce Mortimer, President and owner of Cedar Fort Publishing and Media, based in Springville Utah. We discuss the good and bad of print books, e-books, audiobooks, email, and social media - and how the way we read shapes the way we think.
I have received requests by several listeners to explain the reasons why church history is now cited so very often as the reason that once-faithful members are leaving the church. These disenchanted members have evaluated church history and have decided the perceived failures they find there must mean the church is not true. I wish to examine the assumptions made by those who criticize church leaders - or any leaders for that matter – that we find in our history books.
Mistaken Assumption #1 – The prophets are perfect men Mistaken Assumption #2 – Leaders of the church receive revelation that keeps them from making mistakes Mistaken Assumption #3 – The Church is Hiding Something Mistaken Assumption #4 – Historical Figures in Church and Government “Should Have Known Better” Mistaken Assumption #5 – Histories are Histories and Facts are Facts Mistaken Assumption #6 – Being Offended Justifies Radical Decisions
I once thought of the state of Utah as the largest bubble ever created in this country. I wish to apologize to the state of Utah for that. It’s not that I was in error; what I said was accurate. But generally, if you accuse someone of living in a bubble, there is a negative connotation to the accusation, suggesting you are out of touch with the real world. But there is nothing wrong with living in a bubble. It is a good separation from the outside world. Having said that, there are also bad separations from neighbors and other church members – some of which are now being caused by politics. We need to keep the negativity of politics out of our relationships and out of our homes.
This episode is an interview with Tim Taylor, an Deputy County Attorney for Utah County and, when deployed, a National Guard JAG attorney. We discuss "The Rule of Law" - the principle that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to law . Especially at this difficult time, understanding the Rule of Law is critical.
This episode is a discussion about the wisdom of the body in healing itself by processes of which we are not aware. The body is a complex biological vehicle with amazing recuperative powers - a blessing from Heavenly Father for our mortal probation. An interview with medical researcher Lon Cook, who reviews the healing of the heart, skin, joint, and bones.
We are going to discuss what you might say to someone you know who has lost their faith in God or their church. Sadly enough, lower religious observance and church activity among younger adults is becoming common around the world. Depending on why the person is struggling, here are a few suggestions of what you might say.
Today, the word “Creationist” describes someone with very fundamentalist beliefs regarding the Creation. Many Creationists still believe in the 6-day creation period of Genesis and do not believe in evolution. Most still believe the earth is about 10,000 years old. Again, if you are interested in where the Evolution vs. Creationist debate stands today, listen in.
Atheists use evolution to strengthen their argument that God does not exist. So, if you get into a discussion with an atheist, you might want to be prepared with some facts. Otherwise, if you are curious as to where the Evolution vs. Creationist debate stands today, listen in.
Upon the foundation that we were sent to earth to have experiences, make decisions, and learn wisdom, we are now ready to build an understanding of COVID-19. The earth was meant to be a place that challenges us at every turn. To bring out the best in us, or the worst in us, earth life had to put us under… stress. We were given bodies that need to be sheltered and fed almost continuously. We must provide for our families and ourselves every single day - whether we are hunter-gatherers, farmers, or office workers. We must do all that in the face of droughts, famine, sickness, and layoffs.
But some challenges to our well-being cannot be overcome by the increase of our personal wisdom alone. These dangers are so severe and complicated that it takes all of mankind to address them. Disease is the best example of an earthly challenge that we had to solve in a very large and long-term group effort. Due to medical breakthroughs, we are infinitely more prepared to fight this virus than were past generations. We should be very thankful for that. The diseases of earth continue to afflict us, but, because of mankind’s success over past outbreaks, we are prepared to fight new diseases today. This is not ironic; this is the way it was meant to be.
For more information on this topic, please visit my website at scottrfrazer.com. To make comments or ask questions, please email me at scottrfrazer@gmail.com.
If interested in more detail, this topic is more fully reviewed in the book Angry with God – Understanding the Rules of Earth Life,by Scott R. Frazer.
To begin a podcast about science and religion, we need to establish the foundations of earth life. Why are we here and what are we supposed to learn? I propose that in the Preexistence, we were sent to earth to have experiences, make decisions, and thereby learn wisdom. This first podcast will discuss these goals of mortality. However, this normal process has recently been interrupted by a major world event called COVID-19. So how do we explain the existence of the coronavirus? Episode 2 will discuss the reasons for disease and other dangers in our lives.
For more information on this topic, please visit my website atscottrfrazer.com. To make comments or ask questions, please email me atscottrfrazer@gmail.com.
If interested in more detail, this topic is more fully reviewed in the book Angry with God – Understanding the Rules of Earth Life,by Scott R. Frazer.