Close your eyes for a moment with me. Imagine a world without rhetoric; a world that doesn’t use logos, pathos or ethos. Can you imagine what our church would be like without the prompting of the Spirit? For starters, I doubt it would exist. If the verse James 1:5 hadn’t convince Joseph Smith he needed to pray, would he have knelt down and received the First Vision? I don’t think so. On the plus side, Satan would be powerless. His whole power relies on his ability to use rhetoric to convince others to choose him. Rhetoric is amoral; whether or not we use it for good or ill, it is an essential part of any organization, especially religious ones.
Satan has no power unless we give it to him. That is why rhetoric is so essential to him. He needs it so he can appeal to our logic and emotions. While one might think it would be a good thing if Satan didn’t have power to convince people, it would mess up the Plan of Salvation. By allowing rhetoric, we are given free agency to choice between Satan and his tempting ways, or the Lord, who uses a quieter but more powerful type of rhetoric.
The most powerful rhetoric in religion is the Holy Ghost. Any scripture that testifies of Jesus Christ, albeit the Holy Bible or the Book of Mormon, has the power of the Holy Ghost to prove to the reader the contents are true. How else does an ancient text, such as the Old Testament, last for thousands of years and still have believers? How does the Bible not only survive the Apostasy, but spread throughout nations? It is because the rhetoric of the scriptures are so powerful they have managed to convince a third of world’s population today of their truthfulness. No matter what age, race, gender or language we might be or speak, the Holy Ghost has managed to touch all of us.
That is why rhetoric to religion is so essential. One: rhetoric help gives us free agency Two: rhetoric helps strengthen our testimonies of the scriptures, of the Church, and of Jesus Christ. So in my opinion, we should be grateful for rhetoric. As D&C 90:24 says, “...All things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly.”
It's very interesting how Satan and the Holy Ghost, two opposing sides, both use rhetoric; it's always up to us whether we heed to what they have to say or not.
ReplyDeleteThis essay reminds me of Joshua 24:15
ReplyDeleteGreat argument! That was a lot of questions, maybe I want to know why without the questions. I still think it was enjoyable read.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, great job sticking out from the other essays, but the font is a little bit small.
It's interesting how you've equated agency, power, and rhetoric...that definitely helps me think about it in a different way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian--the font is a little small. This may have happened if you pasted from word. When you paste it in, then look above the text box. At the top right (just to the left of the spellcheck button) is a picture with a T and a red X--if you click on it you can erase any weird formatting that's been brought in from pasting, and change the formatting from scratch.
Huh, that's odd. It looks just fine on my computer. I'll be sure to do that formatting thing next time.
ReplyDelete