To some degree Lehi offers us a tight, little workable answer to one form of the problem of evil (Why would God create a universe that contained death/pain/suffering/wickedness?). That answer is simple, try to imagine a universe without them. For example, Lehi has us try to imagine a world where Adam and Eve never fell into mortality, but remained forever in the Garden of Eden, “in a state of innocence.” At first glance it sounds perfect, right? Think of all of the songs and stories that mourn the loss of the innocence of our childhood, that look back with longing and nostalgia for it. Lehi quickly punctures the balloon, pointing out that in such a hypothetical state Adam and Eve would be “having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin” (v.23).
The fourth book I have been reading is Bill McKibben’s The Age of Missing Information, a critique of our age of saturation by electronic media – the age of information we like to call it (though McKibben tries to call our attention to the types of information that the very nature of the medium suppresses). Anyway, at one point, McKibben makes some observations that help illustrate Lehi’s point here—
“…if you walk out of the bitter cold into a 70-degree room, it will feel marvelous, toasty, cheerful, a haven, a nest. But if you spend all your time in a room where the temperature is 70 degrees it will simply feel neutral. I can remember my father talking about taking a long hiking trip around Mount Rainier. At the end of the trek, after days of water and the kind of food you carry with you on a trail, he emerged, went to a restaurant, and ordered a milk shake. And I think he can taste that milk shake still—whereas, of course, if you have a milk shake every day you hardly notice it. This is the most obvious thing on earth, and yet it is the easiest to forget. When you are sitting inside on a cold and windy night it is nearly impossible to make yourself get up and walk the dog, even though when you do, the fresh air feels bracing, and the home you return to is a magic place.”
Mormonism recognizes a God who is not above the contradictions of the visible universe but lives with us within them. Lehi’s digression here suggests that even the God in whose image we are created has a “fullness of joy” (D&C 93:33) not DESPITE the existence of evil but, at least in part, BECAUSE he lives in a universe that includes both demons and gods, both the triumph of good and the bafflement of his desires by the choices of the free agents he has created and to whom he has given the irrevocable gift of choice. Divine existence for the resurrected Jesus included BOTH being troubled by the wickedness of the House of Israel (3 Ne. 17:14) and the experience of a joy that was full (3 Ne. 17:20) over the righteousness of one branch of it. God the father has given us a glimpse of the satisfactions of his existence (D&C 88:40-41)—
40 For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things.
41 He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever.
But he has also given us glimpses of a Father who weeps upon his throne over the loss of a gifted, promising Son of the Morning who betrayed trust and led a third of his children to a condition so extreme we can see no end to it (D&C 76:25-27) and for the misery of a world full of children who have reached another (but thankfully less hopeless) point of no return (Moses 7:28-40). I believe Lehi’s teachings imply that the joy and the sorrow are not unconnected.
One of Satan’s desires is to lessen our joy. One of the ways he can do that is by deadening the contrasts. McKibben makes an interesting point that hinges on the fact that in our mortal condition we face various kinds of addictions. One very dangerous type is the addiction of pleasure. Some drugs (Cocaine for example), sexual addictions, pornography, and gluttony fall into this category. Other addictions, however, are just relaxers. Alcohol, watching TV, surfing the internet and many computer games (my own problems with solitaire for example) often fit into this category. McKibben cites a study by Kubey and Cziksentmihalyi that indicates TV works much like a tranquilizer, allowing us to “even things out, to blot out unpleasantness, to dilute confusion, distress, unhappiness, loneliness…This tranquilization has its advantages—anyone who has ever checked into a hotel room knows that TV masks the loneliness….That’s why TV makes us feel so guilty sometimes. It’s a time-out from life. Which is okay if you are really winded—TV as white noise therapy has its occasional value. But the time-outs soon lasts longer than the game, which at some level you realize is passing you by. TV makes it so easy to postpone living for another half hour.”
I’ll close my thoughts here with a direct quote from Kubey and Cziksentmihalyi—
“That television viewing helps us feel more relaxed than usual but generally does not help us feel substantially happier says something about human nature and what makes for happiness. Happiness is a more complex state than relaxation. It requires a more elusive set of conditions, and is therefore more difficult to obtain. Others can successfully attract and hold our attention and help us relax, but perhaps only we can provide for ourselves the psychological rewards and meaning that make for happiness.”
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