Greetings to all! May peace and blessing be with you as always.
I just finished reading Dan Brown's new novel called The Lost Symbol. For those who don't know who Dan Brown is, he is the author of Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. I enjoy his books because they center on historical and religious themes. Although they are fictional works, they present quite a number of historical and contemporary facts. It makes for excellent reading in my opinion.
Many Mormons had heard that Dan Brown had been poking around in the church archives doing research for this book and that he was doing a book on the Masons. Many Mormons were nervous that he was going to do an expose on the temple endowment and the connections with Masonry. This did not turn out to be the case. He only directly references the church twice. Both of the mentions are fairly neutral for someone who doesn't know much about the church.
The overall theme of the book will be of great interest to most Mormons, especially of the Millennial persuasion. One of the primary themes of the book is of apotheosis or man becoming a god. It is primarily a Masonic perspective on the issue but as most of you know, many early members of the church were Masons, including Joseph Smith. Joseph clearly saw many parallels between masonic rituals and Restoration principles and thus there are commonalities and overlap in Mormon temple ordinances and Masonry. There are differences as well of course.
In addition to early members of the Church, a large number of the founders of the United States of America were also Masons. Thus, much of the symbolism of the country is connected to Masonry. This will be difficult for many Nicodemus Mormons as well as Evangelical Christians to take because their view of the United States is consistent with it being a "Christian country". The reality is that most of the founders were Deists and have a strong Masonic background.
The novel takes place in Washington, D.C. and it is a page turner. I highly recommend it for everyone. If you are working on becoming a Millennial Mormon then I would strongly encourage you to check it out. You won't be disappointed.
Another theme of the book is the tension and hopeful reconciliation of science and religion. In many ways, the book parallels many of the topics I have discussed here on Millennial Mormonism Today.
Western civilization, over the centuries has created this separation of religion and science. The two have become like oil and water. Most atheists and agnostics cleave towards science in totality and most orthodox religious folks cleave to their religion in totality. The two appear to be at odds with each other and reconciliation between the two seems out of reach. Both sides seem to want to keep it that way. It appears that this schism has always existed. However, this isn't true. Most Eastern religions are not incompatible with science and you will not see the same fragmentation in the East as you do in the West. However, the West is in the midst of an incredible transformation.
Dan Brown has been able to tap into the pulse of the coming era. Something quite remarkable has happened as science has explored the fundamentals of physical reality. They have begun to find that things are not so tidy and neat as they once thought. The Newtonian laws of classical physics don't seem to work quite the same at the sub-atomic level. The advent of Quantum Physics has changed everything. Many of you may not know much about Quantum Physics but it is in the process of revolutionizing everything we know and everything we thought we knew about how the universe works.
As we get to the sub-atomic level, the rules seem to change and scientists are baffled by what they are seeing. Billions of dollars are being spent to try to figure out what is going on. As Quantum Physics hits the mainstream, scientists are desperately trying to interpret this strange sub-atomic world and the laws that govern it. As a result, new interpretations are developed frequently. Currently, there are 11-12 different interpretations of quantum mechanics and counting. There will likely be many more.
The bottom line with Quantum Physics is that there is a lot we don't know about our physical universe and how it is created. What this has done is "create space" for spirituality and science to begin to make tentative steps towards each other. For many, spirituality and science may be describing the same things with a difference only in terminology and semantics.
It is in this fertile ground that Dan Brown plants the seeds of his novel. His bridge between science and spirituality is the Noetic Sciences and Masonry. Noetic Sciences is the study of the mind and the role it plays in affecting matter--if any. For most classical scientists who tend to be strict materialists, there is no role for the mind to play and matter reigns supreme. For them, the Noetic Sciences are fringe or pseudoscience. For others, it is called frontier science and it challenges many of the notions of the mainstream. As Dan Brown alludes to in his novel, at one time, believing that the Sun revolved around the Earth and that the Earth was flat was considered mainstream and even scientific, based on what mankind knew at the time. Surely we are no different now. This is what Dan Brown explores in his novel and what I try to explore on this blog.
The symbolism of science and religion is consistent with many of the themes we have previously discussed. I am optimistic and hopeful that Science (physical body) and Religion (spirit) will be reconciled and unity and at-one-ment will be achieved. Science and Religion have been like two estranged siblings who are on the verge of healing their relationship and coming together again. I, like other Millennial Mormons, will look forward to that great day. In the meantime, I suggest you read the book and keep your eyes open. There are a lot of wonderful opportunities on the horizon.
Also, in the meantime, I would like to make Dan Brown an honorary Millennial Mormon. Congratulations Dan on your success and I look forward to hearing more from you.
Happy Halloween everyone! Try not to take things too literally tonight. Just because someone dresses like a witch does not mean she is involved in witchcraft. Have fun!
Peace and blessings to you my friends!
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