By HILARY ROSS
Learning to follow rules opens a door to freedom, said K. Codell Carter, philosophy department chair, at the Honor’s morning devotional Wednesday.
The whole object of our being on Earth is to see if we’ll be obedient to all the things we are commanded to do, Carter said, quoting Abraham 3:25.
He mentioned a report card he found which dated to the time when Karl G. Maeser was principle at BY Academy. The report card had 10 areas in which students were graded. The top three areas were order, conduct and punctuality. Carter said these areas are still important in a student’s education.
“Knowledge is not just strongly held beliefs,” Carter said. “To know is to be correct and have good reasons for what we believe.”
People can only know things because they met certain criteria necessary to obtain that knowledge, Carter said.
“Learning, knowing, remembering and seeing are all at the forefront of education and all require rules,” he said.
Carter listed several examples of how rules are essential in life. Without rules there could not be instructions, explanations, questions, answers, discussions or agreements. There could be noises but no music; sounds but no language; desire but no freedom.
Unlike animals, who have no freedom because they are completely driven by instinct, people have rules, commandments and laws to govern what they ought to do, Carter said.
“Without law it’s not possible for there to be choice. Without choice there is no freedom. It’s the law that makes us free,” Carter said.
While peoples’ desires drive them in one direction, Carter said rules and conventions may pull them in a different direction. This opens a window of choices and, hence, the freedom to make those choices.
“Learning to submit to rules, commandments and laws is the essence of what life is all about,” Carter said.
He compared making choices to playing an improvised musical piece on the piano. To improvise music, people need to conform to the conventions of producing that music. They need to know how to play the piano, and they need to understand the rules that govern the way the music is produced. Much more is involved in improvising music than many people may think.
“As we go through life, we have systems of rules. We can make choices so our life is an improvised musical piece.”
The purpose of mortality and education is to master rules, Carter said. When people are able to master the rules, they will have gained self-mastery.
Throughout life, people learn more systems of rules. As they learn to conform to rules, people are able to do more — they gain the self-control that goes with this conformity, Carter said.
Self-mastery can only be measured by adherence to standards, our ability to keep order, our conduct and our punctuality, Carter said.
“It’s by conformity to rules that we find joy, especially conformity to those rules which God has given us.”
