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<\/a>You\u2019re probably aware of this: \u00a0\u201cThe Prophet Announces Salt Lake Temple Open House Celebration Dates:\u00a0This landmark house of the Lord will reopen for tours from April 2027 to October 2027\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Wonderful news. \u00a0The open house is still more than two years away, of course, and the rededication will follow it. \u00a0But it\u2019s nice to have a definite date, to see light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n More than a few people \u2014 myself among them \u2014 are hoping that President Nelson will somehow still be with us to rededicate the temple. \u00a0That would be astounding. \u00a0But he\u2019s almost halfway into his hundred and first year, so we\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n In the meantime, it\u2019s always good to think about the temple, and there is no more thoughtful guide to the subject than the late Hugh Nibley, who only made it to 94.5 years of age. \u00a0Here are a few passages from him that are worth pondering:<\/p>\n \u201cThe three motifs that confront us wherever we turn in temple and tomb are eternity, family, and cosmos. As to family, the gods themselves do not appear in solitary splendor in the great temples, but always have the rest of the family along, as the individual in his tomb wants to be seen in the intimate and loving company of his wife and children; whether gods, kings, or commoners, they hold hands and embrace in an easy and affectionate manner.\u201d (\u201cThe Greatness of Egypt,\u201d 14)<\/p>\n \u201cAn important feature of Egyptian architecture of temple, tomb, and even palace is a door, sometimes shown as a curtain or lattice, through which a spirit can pass, a means of communication between two worlds; and the literature is full of ceremonial and mythical doors and gates and instructions on how to pass them.\u201d \u00a0(\u201cThe Greatness of Egypt,\u201d 18)<\/p>\n \u201cThe archives were known in Egypt as the House of Life, housing the writings upon which the life of all things ultimately depended. It was a powerhouse humming with vital electricity, transmitting cosmic forces from heaven to earth, a place of deadly peril to any mortal not holding the necessary priestly credentials. . . .<\/p>\n \u201cThe House of Life where the books were copied and studied had from the earliest times the aspect of a university, a super graduate school. There it was that all questions relating to learned matters were settled. The place was always part of the temple, and the books contain the earliest\u00a0poetry<\/i>, for\u00a0poiema<\/i>\u00a0means \u201ccreation\u201d and the business of the Muses at the temple was to sing the creation song with morning stars.<\/p>\n \u201cNaturally the hymn was sung to\u00a0music<\/i>, and some scholars would derive the first writing from musical notation. It was performed in a sacred circle or\u00a0chorus<\/i>, so that poetry, music, and the\u00a0dance<\/i>\u00a0go out to the world from the temple, called by the Greeks the Museon, or shrine of the Muses.<\/p>\n \u201cThe creation hymn was part of the great dramatic presentation that took place yearly at the temple, dealing with the fall and redemption of man, represented by various forms of combat, making the place the scene of the ritual\u00a0athletic<\/i>\u00a0contests sanctified throughout the world. The victor in the contest was the father of the race, the priest-king himself, whose triumphant procession, coronation, and marriage took place on the occasion, making this the seat and source of\u00a0government<\/i>\u00a0(the king was always crowned in the temple rather than the palace).<\/p>\n \u201cSince the entire race was expected to be present for the event, a busy exchange of goods from various distant regions took place, the booths of pilgrims serving as the market booths for great fairs, while the necessity of converting various and bizarre forms of wealth into acceptable offerings for the temple led to an active banking and exchange in the temple courts; the earliest \u201cmoney\u201d from the shrine of Juno Moneta at Rome is temple money. Since the place began as an observatory and all things were tied to the calendar and the stars,\u00a0mathematics<\/i>\u00a0flourished and\u00a0astronomy<\/i>\u00a0was a Muse.<\/p>\n \u201cHistory<\/i>\u00a0was another Muse, for the rites were meant for the dead as well as the living, and memorials to former great ones (believed to be in attendance) encouraged the production of a marvelous art of portraiture, of\u00a0sculpture<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0painting<\/i>, which would have flourished anyway as architectural adornments, since the design and measurements (the\u00a0middot<\/i>) of the temple structure itself as a sort of scale model of the universe and cosmic computer were all-important; the\u00a0architecture<\/i>\u00a0of the hierocentric structure was of primary concern.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd since from that central point all the earth was measured and all the lands distributed,\u00a0geometry<\/i>\u00a0was essential: \u201cIn the Beginning the One God promised Horus that he should inherit the land of Egypt, which was written in the Books by order of the Lord of All. . . . At the Division of the Lands it was decreed in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe writings produced and copied in the House of Life were also discussed there, giving rise to\u00a0philosophy<\/i>\u00a0but concerned largely with cosmology and natural science. In short, there is no aspect of our civilization that does not have its rise in the temple, thanks to the power of the written word. In the all-embracing relationships of the Divine Book everything is relevant. Nothing is really dead or forgotten; every detail belongs in the picture, which would be incomplete without it. Lacking such a synthesizing principle, our present-day knowledge becomes ever more fragmented, and our universities and libraries crumble and disintegrate as they expand. Where the temple that gave it birth is missing, civilization itself becomes a hollow shell.\u201d \u00a0(\u201cGenesis of the Written Word,\u201d\u00a0CWHN<\/i>\u00a012:469, 472-73)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The crimes and horrors that are collected in the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122 are quite simply unending. \u00a0Here\u2019s another: \u00a0\u201cClean water, seedling nurseries and school improvements bless lives in the Pacific Area:\u00a0Villagers in Vanuatu receive water, students in Samoa and Papua New Guinea see school improvements, and people in Tonga have new seedling nurseries\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>