![\"Interlaken](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/11\/Interlaken_10980.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cWhy God Placed Adam and Eve Under Paradoxical Injunctions: A View of the Garden Scene through the Optics of Communication Theory,\u201d<\/a> written by Jared Balmer<\/a><\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong> This paper investigates the pragmatic aspect of communication between God and our first parents while in the Garden of Eden\u2014the psychological impact of placing them under contradictory injunctions that result in a situation of \u201cdamned if you do and damned if you don\u2019t.\u201d God could not introduce knowledge that, by definition, also involves introducing evil, which is a prerequisite for choice. Instead he issued a paradoxical injunction that placed Adam and Eve in an influence-free decision-making environment with the implied message of \u201cmake a decision!\u201d The beguiling influence of Satan provided additional information, a way to escape the paradox. Hence, the paradoxical injunction became an instrument to influence a decision-making process without God having to introduce evil and without having to make an argument in one direction over another.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m pleased to add, by the way, that Jared Balmer is a native of my beloved Interlaken area in Switzerland\u2019s beautiful Berner Oberland region. \u00a0He was already a legend in the Interlaken Branch when I was on my mission there.<\/p>\n Also newly posted today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:\u00a0\u201cInterpreting Interpreter<\/em>: A Paradoxical Injunction,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a>:<\/p>\n This post is a summary of the article \u201cWhy Would God Place Adam and Eve Under Paradoxical Injunctions?: A View of the Garden Scene through the Optics of Communication Theory<\/a>\u201d by Jared Balmer in Volume 66 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. All of the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> articles may be seen at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/category\/summaries\/<\/a>. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter <\/em>series is available at https:\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/cM55tCEDUY8<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Takeaway: <\/strong>Balmer briefly explores the contradictory set of commandments that God presented to Adam and Eve, suggesting that this \u201cparadoxical injunction\u201d forced them to decide but did not influence them in their choice or remove their agency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n A video of my 2025 FAIR presentation on \u201cBrigham Young and Slavery\u201d is now up online at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ADEajUFCVCk<\/span><\/a>, and a rough transcript is available at https:\/\/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org\/conference\/august-2025-fair-conference\/brigham-young-and-slavery<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0I\u2019ve also written a column for Meridian Magazine<\/em> on the topic: <\/span>\u201cBrigham Young, Race, and Slavery: Reexamining Utah\u2019s 1852 Service Act\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n My remarks at FAIR and my Meridian<\/em> article were inspired by, and are heavily dependent upon, Amy Tanner Thiriot, Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History\u00a0 <\/span>of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847-1862<\/em> (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2022) and W. Paul Reeve, Christopher B. Rich Jr., and LaJean Purcell Carruth, This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle Over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah<\/em> (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2024).<\/p>\n Predictably, I\u2019m being denounced by The Usual Suspects as attempting to whitewash Brigham Young. \u00a0The claim is that I\u2019m denying that Brigham held views that would be considered racist by the standards of the twenty-first century (although I absolutely don\u2019t deny that), as saying that Brigham did not endorse chattel slavery (which is precisely what I do say, because the evidence is clear), and as declaring that Utah\u2019s Act in Relation to Service, which was signed by Governor Young on 4 February 1852, was not a slave code (which it plainly wasn\u2019t).<\/p>\n I see no value in attempting to debate people on this topic who simply regurgitate the old familiar critical talking points that they\u2019ve found online regarding Brigham Young, race, and slavery and who have clearly not read Reeve, Rich, and Carruth, This Abominable Slavery<\/em>. \u00a0(One commentator seems not even to realize that the Act for the Relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners, which became law on 7 March 1852, was entirely distinct from the Act in Relation to Service. \u00a0He conflates the two. \u00a0Which is no great sin, of course, unless you plan to pose as one who knows what he\u2019s talking about on this subject.) \u00a0I stand by my reading of the evidence (much of it newly available) that is so abundantly presented, at considerable length, in This Abominable Slavery<\/em>. \u00a0(I also interviewed Paul Reeve for a couple of hours a few weeks back.) \u00a0Finally, I think it ironically amusing to be accused of being uninformed by people who, I\u2019m quite confident, are unfamiliar with the work on this subject of Thiriot, Reeve, Rich, and Carruth.<\/p>\n As a few of my anonymous critics like to allege, my life is entirely devoted to leisure travel and fine dining. \u00a0Today, for instance, I enjoyed a sumptuous luncheon at Subway\u00a9 in exotic Scipio, Utah, en route to several hours of filming, today and tomorrow morning, at Cove Fort. \u00a0The fort is located in the vicinity of the epicurean paradise known as Kanosh, Utah, close to the intersection of I-70 and I-15. \u00a0We finished our filming tonight at roughly 7:45 PM. \u00a0(We\u2019re working on our Becoming Brigham<\/em> project.) \u00a0And we\u2019re spending tonight among the strolling street musicians, art galleries, and sidewalk cafes of Beaver, Utah. C\u2019est la belle vie!<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s something that you probably shouldn\u2019t miss: \u00a0\u201cL.A. Marzulli: The Mormon Church\u2019s Dark Tie to the Nephilim.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0And who, you might ask, is L. A. Marzulli<\/a>? \u00a0Well, says the article at the link, he\u2019s a \u201cNephilim expert.\u201d \u00a0(You\u2019re unaware of the modern academic field of Nephillim Studies?) \u00a0If you have the appetite for it, you can also read \u201cL.A. Marzulli Answers: Have the Nephilim Invaded Gaza?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n If you enjoy Mr. Marzulli\u2019s insights, I suggest that you also look into the work of David Icke<\/a>. \u00a0But there\u2019s no end to the dramatic revelations that are now opening before you, if you\u2019re only willing to open your eyes. \u00a0Consider, for example, this small sampling:<\/p>\n Posted from Beaver, Utah<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u201cWhy God Placed Adam and Eve Under Paradoxical Injunctions: A View of the Garden Scene through the Optics of Communication Theory,\u201d written by Jared Balmer Abstract: This paper investigates the pragmatic aspect of communication between God and our first parents while in the Garden of Eden\u2014the psychological impact of placing them under contradictory injunctions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":32804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39104,292,2905,788,11471,3703],"class_list":["post-112577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adam-and-eve","tag-brigham-young","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-race","tag-slavery"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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