You're not Getting Fatter

I was always taught in Sunday School that feeling the Spirit of God is like a "burning in the bosom" or, less frequently, a "swelling". Bosom is a funny word for at least two reasons, and one of those is the way that it's spelled.

Anyway, here is how Alma explained it:

behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul;
Alma 32:28



Well, the wikipedia entry for "Positive Psychology" has something similar to say:

Elevation

After several years of researching disgust, University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidt and others studied its opposite, and the term "elevation" was coined. Elevation is a moral emotion and is pleasant. It involves a desire to act morally and do "good"; as an emotion it has a basis in biology, and can sometimes be characterized by a feeling of expansion in the chest or a tingling feeling on the skin.

Despite a regular barrage of compelling scientific evidence that refutes things like the Book of Genesis, as a Mormon, I am taught to expect science to eventually come into further and further harmony with the scriptures and the things the Church teaches. So why is it so unsettling (although thrilling) when this actually happens?

Regis

If you had any sense, you would quit reading this blog and read this much funnier one.

Think of every time you've cringed in a church meeting. It's a lot like that. Oh, and it looks like a new apostle cat has been called.