LDS Freedom Forum

An Obituary printed in the London Times:

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
– Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
– Why the early bird gets the worm;
– Life isn’t always fair;
– And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death
-by his parents, Truth and Trust,
-by his wife, Discretion,
-by his daughter, Responsibility,
-and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers:
– I Know My Rights
– I Want It Now
– Someone Else Is To Blame
– I’m A Victim
– Pay me for Doing Nothing.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

Well written and very accurate

The more letters you have behind your name the less common sense you have is what I have heard from many different people. Phd bs and so on.

Seems that the education of "man" is what causes common sense to be thrown out the window.

The more "educated" a person is. the more "they think" they know. And less open minded to what actually is.

2 nephi 26:20

20 And the Gentiles are lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and have stumbled, because of the greatness of their stumbling block, that they have built up many churches; nevertheless, they put down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get gain and grind upon the face of the poor.

2nephi 28:14

14 They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.

"The stumbleing block" education of men in the institutions or churches of education..

Good riddance. Common sense has always held us back.

Common sense was how we knew the earth was flat and the center of the universe, that orbits must be perfectly circular, that something big like the plague could not be caused by something tiny like germs, and that time was absolute. It's only when we are willing to leave common sense behind and go where the evidence leads that we make progress.

captainfearnot wrote:Good riddance. Common sense has always held us back.

Common sense was how we knew the earth was flat and the center of the universe, that orbits must be perfectly circular, that something big like the plague could not be caused by something tiny like germs, and that time was absolute. It's only when we are willing to leave common sense behind and go where the evidence leads that we make progress.

You must have some letters behind your name.

It has always been common sense that the world is round. And where disease come from if you had any.
Don't be fooled by the dark ages thinking. Which was caused by a punishment from God for killing his son.

Did the Mayans know? Did the polynesians know? Native Americans? Egyptians? So many cultures all knew way more then the dark age Europe culture.

Common sense is knowing you don't know things. Not thinking you know it all. And there for not seeing the elephant in the room.

Black elk Oglala Lakota medicine man said

It is in the darkness of men's own eyes they become lost.

Common sense is knowing your own blindness.
None common sense is not knowing your blind but thinking you can see the beauty of the sun set anyways.

In the "common" understanding, common sense is essentially intuitive morality.
It is applying knowledge in wise ways that make "sense."

Captianfearnot, it seems you are focusing on the "common" -group thought aspect.
And while I can see where you're coming from, I consider it counterintuitive to blindly and completely accept or reject a belief or approach just because everyone's believing or doing it.

The narrow way involves taking truths wherever they're found, and prioritizing God/GOoD above pleasing or rebelling against people.

Ezra wrote:You must have some letters behind your name.

And another common sense deduction misses the mark.

Ezra wrote:Common sense is knowing you don't know things.

Then common sense is positively correlated with education, because the more educated people become, the more aware they are of their own ignorance. It's the uneducated that think they know everything. It's called the Dunning-Kruger effect.

I understand that common sense is intuition, my point is that the truth is often counterintuitive. The great scientific discoveries came when people doubted the common sense of the day. I'm not advocating blindly accepting or rejecting anything. I'm saying that the conclusions we arrive at by intuition are not necessarily better than those based on evidence.

Case in point, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." That's not common sense. That's counterintuitive. Our intuition tells is that big things have big causes. That's why it took so long for germ theory to catch on. We were resistant to the idea that tiny tiny organisms could cause such widespread destruction, and figured it had to be demons or something.

Educated does not equal learnings of men collage edu.

Educated means to have knowledge. All knowledge comes from God. Not man. If any of you lack wisdom. You know how it goes hopefully.