Whatever, Reader

A few years ago, the study of English changed my life. During the 19th century, Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss instructor of linguistics (commonly known as the father of modern linguistics), taught a pivotal course in clarifying the general operations of human language and, consequently, a general course in existentialism. In brief (if at all possible), Saussure detailed the arbitrary nature of language. Take a look at the following word: run. Run is a combination of a vowel and two consonants, three letters from the Latin alphabet, possessing a single syllable. This small word also contains many, many different meanings. In fact, according to New York Times author Simon Winchester, in his article, “‘Run,’ a Verb for Our Frantic Times,” the word run contains no fewer than 645 meanings, making it #1 of words with the most meanings. Of what did you think upon first seeing this word? Did you think of going for a run? A running computer? A test run? Running out of ideas? Running a ris

Today, I watched this video. Please take a minute and view it yourself. Oh man. What a tear jerker, huh? Here's this husband and father, Troy, who just can't help but want to see attractive, naked people in the act of sex. This is because, "...the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord..." (The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:19). Let's recap here: the reason Troy is such a fallen man is because his natural self is God's enemy, and that natural self is what desires the viewing of acts of sex by others. Letting alone the various other "natural man" tendencies which God must hate (the desire to eat, sleep, have companionship, etc.), let's examine what constitutes an addiction to pornography. In this talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of t