Want to make a quick update: still listening to the Book of Mormon everyday, but I don't have much time to update this blog. sadly...

I find it interesting that Ammon makes the distinction that (Alma 18:34) "in the beginning" man was formed in God's image. It makes me wonder if that doesn't imply something about the form of man now, and if it has at all devolved, changed, or implies a corruption of flesh, implying the physical creation, making distinction between a spiritual and physical creation. Yeah... it's space doctrine, but it is the way I think about things.

The same chapter is interesting because I find it amusing that Ammon is seen as 'exemplary' because he does a good job at his work. Says something about the Lamanite-Work-Ethic. I suppose the commentators don't lie whey they're described as idle. I think the same can be applied today. If you are excellent at what you do, people notice and are often mystified by it.

The second part I like from Chapter 18 of Alma is how the king marvels that Ammon can perceive his thoughts. This makes me wonder just how savage the lamanites were at that time. When I read the account, I think it's pretty obvious why the king would be alarmed. I am not entirely sure that Ammon's gift of perception wasn't something more common today, known as common sense or empathy. What would it be like to live in a society so brutal that it had no empathy for the suffering of others? What might it be like to live by the sword, kill or be killed, like so many did back then? You get a sense of the brutal nature of the lamanites from the Nephites who defected over to them. How they became savage and hell-bent on war. It makes me grateful of the society in I currently live, a place where differences are settled by discussion, rather than brutality.

--Ray