1.
Brigham Young University
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Brigham Young University is a private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. Approximately 99 percent of the students are members of the LDS Church, many students either delay enrollment or take a hiatus from their studies to serve as Mormon missionaries. An education at BYU is also less expensive than at similar private universities, BYU offers a variety of academic programs, including liberal arts, engineering, agriculture, management, physical and mathematical sciences, nursing, and law. The university is organized into 11 colleges or schools at its main Provo campus, with certain colleges. The universitys primary focus is on education, but it also has 68 masters and 25 doctoral degree programs. BYUs athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the BYU Cougars. Their college football team is an NCAA Division I Independent, while their other teams compete in either the West Coast Conference or Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. BYUs sports teams have won a total of fourteen national championships, on October 16,1875, Brigham Young, then president of the LDS Church, personally purchased the Lewis Building after previously hinting that a school would be built in Draper, Utah, in 1867. Hence, October 16,1875, is held as BYUs founding date. The school broke off from the University of Deseret and became Brigham Young Academy, warren Dusenberry served as interim principal of the school for several months until April 1876 when Brigham Youngs choice for principal arrived—a German immigrant named Karl Maeser. Under Maesers direction the school educated many luminaries including future U. S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland, the school, however, did not become a university until the end of Benjamin Cluffs term at the helm of the institution. At that time, the school was still privately supported by members of the community and was not absorbed and sponsored officially by the LDS Church until July 18,1896. A series of odd managerial decisions by Cluff led to his demotion, however, in his last official act, he proposed to the Board that the Academy be named Brigham Young University. The suggestion received an amount of opposition, with many members of the Board saying that the school wasnt large enough to be a university. One opponent to the decision, Anthon H. Lund, later said, in 1903 Brigham Young Academy was dissolved, and was replaced by two institutions, Brigham Young High School, and Brigham Young University. The Board elected George H. Brimhall as the new President of BYU and he had not received a high school education until he was forty. Nevertheless, he was an excellent orator and organizer, under his tenure in 1904 the new Brigham Young University bought 17 acres of land from Provo called Temple Hill. After some controversy among locals over BYUs purchase of property, construction began in 1909 on the first building on the current campus
2.
Evolution
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Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to biodiversity at every level of organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the LUCA of all living on Earth. The fossil record includes a progression from early biogenic graphite, to microbial mat fossils, existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped both by speciation and by extinction. More than 99 percent of all species that lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates of Earths current species range from 10 to 14 million, more recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described. In the mid-19th century, Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection. This teleonomy is the quality whereby the process of natural selection creates and preserves traits that are fitted for the functional roles they perform. The processes by which the changes occur, from one generation to another, are called evolutionary processes or mechanisms, the four most widely recognized evolutionary processes are natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene migration. Natural selection and genetic drift sort variation, mutation and gene migration create variation, consequences of selection can include meiotic drive, nonrandom mating and genetic hitchhiking. In the early 20th century the modern evolutionary synthesis integrated classical genetics with Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection through the discipline of population genetics, the importance of natural selection as a cause of evolution was accepted into other branches of biology. Moreover, previously held notions about evolution, such as orthogenesis, evolutionism, evolutionary computation, a sub-field of artificial intelligence, involves the application of Darwinian principles to problems in computer science. The proposal that one type of organism could descend from another type goes back to some of the first pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, such as Anaximander, such proposals survived into Roman times. The poet and philosopher Lucretius followed Empedocles in his masterwork De rerum natura, in contrast to these materialistic views, Aristotelianism considered all natural things as actualisations of fixed natural possibilities, known as forms. This was part of a teleological understanding of nature in which all things have an intended role to play in a divine cosmic order. In the 17th century, the new method of modern science rejected the Aristotelian approach, however, this new approach was slow to take root in the biological sciences, the last bastion of the concept of fixed natural types. The biological classification introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1735 explicitly recognized the nature of species relationships. Other naturalists of this time speculated on the change of species over time according to natural laws
3.
Biblical criticism
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Biblical criticism is the scholarly study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings. It will vary depending on whether the focus is on the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. It also plays an important role in the quest for a historical Jesus and it also addresses the physical text, including the meaning of the words and the way in which they are used, its preservation, history and integrity. Biblical criticism draws upon a range of scholarly disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, Oral Tradition studies. Biblical criticism, defined as the treatment of biblical texts as natural rather than supernatural artifacts, a division is still sometimes made between historical criticism and literary criticism. Literary criticism asks what audience the authors wrote for, their purpose. In the 18th century Jean Astruc, a French physician, set out to refute these critics, borrowing methods of textual criticism already in use to investigate Greek and Roman texts, he discovered what he believed were two distinct documents within Genesis. These, he felt, were the original written by Moses, much as the four Gospel writers had produced four separate but complementary accounts of the life. Later generations, he believed, had conflated these original documents to produce the book of Genesis, producing the inconsistencies and contradictions noted by Hobbes. The implications of higher criticism were not welcomed by many religious scholars, quite rightly employed in the case of the Sacred Books. For the fact is that truth is presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts. Reimaruss conclusions appealed to the rationalism of 18th century intellectuals, but were deeply troubling to contemporary believers, baron dHolbach - Ecce Homo -The History of Jesus of Nazareth, a Critical Inquiry, the first Life of Jesus described as a mere historical man, published anonymously in Amsterdam. George Houston translated the work into English—published in Edinburgh,1799, London,1813, the questions they addressed were, What was Jesus’s key message. How was that message related to Judaism, does that message speak to our reality today. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948 revitalised interest in the possible contribution archaeology could make to the understanding of the New Testament, contemporary New Testament criticism continues to follow the synthesising trend set during the latter half of the 20th century. The critical methods and perspectives now to be found are numerous, Textual criticism refers to the examination of the text itself to identify its provenance or to trace its history. It takes as its basis the fact that errors crept into texts as generations of scribes reproduced each others manuscripts. For example, Josephus employed scribes to copy his Antiquities of the Jews, as the scribes copied the Antiquities, they made mistakes
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Christian theology
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Christian theology is the study of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament, Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Systematic theology as a discipline of Christian theology formulates an orderly, rational and coherent account of the Christian faith, inherent to a system of theological thought is that a method is developed, one which can be applied both broadly and particularly. Christian theology has permeated much of Western culture, especially in pre-modern Europe, Revelation is the revealing or disclosing, or making something obvious through active or passive communication with God, and can originate directly from God, or through an agent, such as an angel. One who has experienced such contact is called a prophet. Christianity considers the Bible as divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired, such revelation does not always require the presence of God or an angel. For instance, in the concept called of interior locution by Roman Catholics, thomas Aquinas first described in two types of revelation in Christianity as general revelation and special revelation. General revelation occurs through observation of the created order, such observations can logically lead to important conclusions, such as the existence of God and some of Gods attributes. General revelation is also an element of Christian apologetics, certain specifics, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are revealed in the teachings in the Scriptures and can not otherwise be deduced except by special revelation. Christianity regards varied collections of books known as the Bible as authoritative, Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches about itself. Different groups understand the meaning and details of inspiration in different ways, in many passages of the Bible it claims divine inspiration of itself. In the New Testament, Jesus treats the Old Testament as authoritative and says it cannot be broken in John 10,2 Peter 2 Pet 1, 20–21 says that no prophecy of Scripture. Christians who receive the Bible as authoritative generally think that the Bible is breathed out by God, in English,2 Timothy 3. 16–17 reads, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correction and training in righteousness. Some argue that Biblical inspiration can be corroborated by examining the weight of the Bibles moral teaching and its prophecies about the future, corroboration of this sort is a form of Christian apologetics. Others maintain that the authority of the Church and its counsels should carry more or less weight in formulating the doctrine of inspiration, Christianity regards the collections of books known as the Bible as authoritative and written by human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Some Christians believe that the Bible is inerrant or infallible, in addition, for some Christians, it may be inferred that the Bible cannot both refer to itself as being divinely inspired and also be errant or fallible. For if the Bible were divinely inspired, then the source of inspiration being divine, for them, the doctrines of the divine inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy, are inseparably tied together. Historians note, or claim, that the doctrine of the Bibles infallibility was adopted hundreds of years after those books were written, the Protestant Old Testament is synonymous with the Hebrew Scriptures included in the Jewish canon, but not the Catholic Old Testament, which contains additional texts
5.
Stake (Latter Day Saints)
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A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in certain denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. The name stake derives from the Book of Isaiah, enlarge the place of thy tent, stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation, spare not, lengthen thy cords, a stake is sometimes referred to as a stake of Zion. The first Latter Day Saint stake was organized at church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio on February 17,1834, the second stake was organized in Clay County, Missouri, later that year on July 3, with David Whitmer as president. The Missouri stake was relocated to Far West, Missouri, in 1836, a stake was organized at Adam-ondi-Ahman in 1838 and abandoned later that year due to the events of the Mormon War. In 1839, the churchs central stake was established at Nauvoo, Illinois, additional stakes were established in the area around Nauvoo in 1840. Immediately after the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, there was a schism in the Latter Day Saint movement. In 1846, all of the stakes, including the Nauvoo Stake, were discontinued as a result of the exodus of the majority of the Latter Day Saints to the Salt Lake Valley. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, after the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young assumed the leadership of the church and led its members to the Salt Lake Valley. The first stake established there was the Salt Lake Stake, established October 3,1847, at the time of Youngs death in 1877, there were 20 stakes in operation with a total of approximately 250 wards. New stakes are created when the congregations in existing stakes or districts have grown sufficiently to support a stake, districts may be elevated to stakes and are then no longer presided over by a mission president. New stakes are also formed by dividing an existing stake. In addition to the size and number of congregations, the creation of a new stake also requires sufficient Melchizedek priesthood holders to fill the required leadership positions. At times the absence of available leadership constrains the creation of new stakes, the geographical area encompassed by a stake varies between countries and regions based on membership density. In Utah, a stake might encompass a few miles in area. In contrast, a stake in another part of the world might require thousands of miles to comprise a sufficient number of members. In December 2012, Jeffrey R. Holland organized the 3, 000th stake in Freetown, at the end of 2015, there were 3,174 stakes in the LDS Church. The stake is a level in the organizational hierarchy of the LDS Church. The lowest level, consisting of a congregation, is known as a ward or branch
6.
George H. Brimhall
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George Henry Brimhall was President of Brigham Young University. In April 1904, Brimhall became president of the school, which had become Brigham Young University in October 1903, Brimhall was born to George W. Brimhall and his wife the former Rachel Ann Meyer in Salt Lake City. When Brimhall was about one year old the family moved to Ogden, as a boy, Brimhall was taught to love learning by his mother, his first teacher. He studied under Wilson Dusenberry at the Provo Timpanogos Academy, where, as valedictorian and my ruling passion has been to move mens minds, said Brimhall, and his administration was marked by an emphasis on teacher training. Brimhall was involved with the investigation of Ralph Vary Chamberlin, Joseph Peterson and Henry Peterson, all three were forced to resign in 1911 over this controversy. Suffering from chest and abdominal pain, Brimhall resigned the presidency of BYU in July 1921, although he remained head of the Department of Theology, Brimhall committed suicide on July 29,1932. One of Brimhalls daughters was Jennie B, among Brimhalls descendants are John H. Groberg, a general authority in the LDS Church. Creation–evolution controversy Mormon views on evolution Woodger, Mary Jane and Joseph H. Groberg, George H. Brimhalls Legacy of Service to Brigham Young University, newspapers. com- http, //basic. newspapers. com/clip/9897501/about_brimhalls_first_experience_as/ Media related to George H. Brimhall at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Joseph Peterson (psychologist)
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Joseph Peterson was an American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association. Joseph Peterson was born on September 8,1878 in Huntsville and his parents, Hans Jordon Peterson and Inger Mary Christensen, were Mormon Danish immigrants to the United States. Peterson attended Brigham Young University, the University of Utah and the University of California, before earning a B. S. in 1905 and Ph. D. in 1907 from the University of Chicago. Peterson was the principal of a school in Kanab, Utah from 1899 to 1901, followed by Cassia Academy in Oakley and he was a Fellow at the University of Chicago from 1905 to 1907. He taught psychology at Brigham Young University from 1907 to 1911 and he was Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah from 1911 to 1915. Peterson taught psychology at University of Minnesota from 1915 to 1918, from 1918 to 1935, he was Professor of Psychology at Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. During his time at Peabody, Peterson conducted research into race and intelligence, with his former student, Lyle H. Lanier, who by then taught at Vanderbilt University, he co-authored Studies in the comparative abilities of whites and Negroes in 1929. They concluded that the whites were superior due to hereditary differences, moreover, they added that whites finished their tests more quickly, they concluded this was due to cultural factors. A review published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1930 suggested, however, in a review for the American Journal of Psychology, Otto Klineberg argued that based on their evidence, he came to a totally different interpretation. He stressed the role of environment in mental abilities, as New York City blacks tested higher than Southern blacks, nevertheless, he added that the study offered a number of other interesting results which would merit serious discussion. Peterson was a member of Sigma Xi, the National Research Council and he served as the President of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology in 1922. A decade later, he served as the President of the American Psychological Association in 1934 and he was also the editor of Psychological Monographs. Peterson died of pneumonia on September 20,1935 in Berkeley, California
8.
Ralph Vary Chamberlin
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Ralph Vary Chamberlin was an American biologist, ethnographer, and historian from Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a faculty member of the University of Utah for over 25 years, where he helped establish the School of Medicine and served as its first dean, Chamberlin was a prolific taxonomist who named over 4,000 new animal species in over 400 scientific publications. He specialized in arachnids and myriapods, ranking among the most prolific arachnologists and myriapodologists in history and he also did pioneering ethnobiological studies with the Goshute and other indigenous people of the Great Basin, cataloging indigenous names and cultural uses of plants and animals. Chamberlin was honored by his colleagues at the University of Utah, however, he was disliked and even considered mean by some arachnologists, after retirement he continued to write, publishing on the history of education in his home state, especially that of the University of Utah. Chamberlin was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ralph Vary Chamberlin was born on January 3,1879, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to parents William Henry Chamberlin, a prominent builder and contractor, and Eliza Frances Chamberlin. Chamberlin traced his lineage to an English immigrant settling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. Born to Mormon parents, the young Chamberlin attended Latter-day Saints High School and his brother William, the eldest of 12 children, also shared Ralphs scientific interests and would later teach alongside him. Ralph attended the University of Utah, graduating with a B. S, by 1900 he had authored nine scientific publications. He studied under entomologist John Henry Comstock and earned his doctorate in 1905, montgomery regarded Chamberlins monograph as one of decided importance in using the structure of pedipalps to help define genera, and in its detailed descriptions of species. It is to Professor Chamberlin that credit should be given for starting medical training in the University of Utah, after returning from Cornell, Chamberlin was hired by the University of Utah, where he worked from 1904 to 1908, as an assistant professor then full professor. He soon began improving biology courses, which at the time were only of high grade, to collegiate standards. He was the first dean of University of Utah School of Medicine, in 1907, University officials decided to merge the medical school into an existing department, which made Chamberlins deanship obsolete. He resigned as dean in May,1907, although remained a faculty member, the medical students strongly objected, crediting the schools gains over the past few years largely to his efforts. In late 1907 and early 1908, Chamberlin became involved in a lawsuit with fellow Utah professor Ira D. Cardiff that would cost them both their jobs. Cardiff filed suit for $350, which a court initially decided Chamberlin must pay, the two became estranged and uncommunicative. In March 1908 the university regents fired both Chamberlin and Cardiff, appointing a new professor to head the departments of zoology. In July, upon appeal, the suit was overturned and Cardiff ordered to pay costs, Chamberlin had by then secured a job at Brigham Young University. Brimhall sought to increase its academic standing, LDS College professor J. H. Paul, in a letter to Brimhall, had written Chamberlin was one of the worlds foremost naturalists, though, I think, he is only about 28 years of age
9.
William Henry Chamberlin (philosopher)
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William Henry Chamberlin, Jr. was an American Mormon philosopher, theologian, and educator. His teachings and writings worked to reconcile Mormonism with the theory of evolution and he taught philosophy and ancient languages as well as science and math at several Latter-day Saints institutions including Brigham Young University in the early 20th century. Chamberlin has been called Mormonisms first professionally trained philosopher and theologian, William Chamberlin was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 12,1870 to parents William Henry Chamberlin and Eliza Frances Brown Chamberlin. William Jr. was the oldest of 12 children and he showed early interest in botany, geology, and mathematics. His brother Ralph Vary Chamberlin would go on to become a noted biologist, on September 28,1892, Chamberlin married Amelia Telle Cannon, a daughter of President George Q. Cannon, First Counselor in the First Presidency, William and Amelia had six children, Max Cannon, Hester, Martha, Paul, Frances, and Luke. Chamberlins early career was divided between teaching, studying, and working to support his family and he taught in public schools from 1889-1891, and from 1891 to 1897 he taught math, geology, and astronomy at Latter-day Saint College. He finally completed a Bachelor of Arts in science with the University of Utah in 1896, around the turn of the century he donated a large collection of ferns from Utah and the South Pacific to the University of Utahs natural history museum. From 1900 to 1904 he taught science and theology at Brigham Young College, in 1901, Chamberlin began studying philosophy at the University of Chicago. Over several years he studied philosophy with several prominent thinkers, including George Howison at U. C, berkeley and Josiah Royce at Harvard. He earned an M. A. from the University of Chicago in 1906, in 1909, William Chamberlin was recruited to Brigham Young University by president George H. Brimhall, as part of an effort to increase the academic quality of his university. Two years earlier, Brimhall had recruited brothers Joseph and Henry Peterson, professors of psychology and education, as well as Chamberlins own brother Ralph, William Chamberlin taught philosophy and ancient languages. This ignited a great deal of controversy in the school and surrounding community, the Petersons and Ralph Chamberlin left the university in 1911, while William remained for another 5 years, resigning in 1916. In 1917 Chamberlin began a PhD with Harvard philosopher Ralph Barton Perry and he taught philosophy at the University of Utah from 1917 to 1920, and later at Utah State Agricultural College until his death. Chamberlin died in Logan, Utah following a flu infection on May 9,1921, Chamberlin’s philosophical views have been termed “spiritual realism”, and are rooted in the philosophical tradition of personalism. Mormon scholar James M. McLaughlin consolidated Chamberlin’s philosophical views into five major statements, Persons are eternal and this personalism is tied to a pragmatic theory of knowledge in which truth is determined in relation to its outcome and the interests and purposes of persons. Community and sociality is a feature of the being of persons. The moral meaning of the world out of the relation of eternal co-dependence of persons in community
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