Sixteen (1821)pursuit, or before sufficient knowledge or experience is gained to reason otherwise.
Adult mortals are influenced by these foundationalized prejudices throughout their
lives. The adult brain is literally dying, and its ability to learn new concepts decreases as
natural neural entropy progresses (i.e., as the nerves and the connections between them
in the brain, naturally deteriorate).
Because most of the adult brain is trapped in the mundane mortal routine of work,
relationships, and dealing with the prejudices they hold on to out of respect for their
heritage and culture, their brains are limited in how they continue to develop. In other
words, adults have the same experiences over and over again throughout their lives; they
get up, go to work, do the same work they’ve been trained to do (usually since their teenage
years), and think the same thoughts day in and day out. And in Joseph’s day in particular,
they attended church to hear the same things Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.
From his first interaction with an advanced human, however, Joseph walked away
knowing that there was no person on earth who really knew anything of real truth. He
realized from his meeting with Christ that everything mortals valued, such as their wisdom,
their learning, or their riches, was foolishness when compared to the way that advanced
humans live in and relate to the Universe. In ironic reversal from the mortal sense of the
word, which is most commonly associated with ignorance, the young Joseph’s mind became
prejudiced—based on pure knowledge, real truth, and experience with advanced beings—
against all the wisdom, learning, and riches of the world.
A few years after this interaction, the translation of a Book of Mormon passage
reiterated Joseph’s newly foundationalized prejudice:
And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and
they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their
wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save
they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God,
and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. But
the things of the wise and the prudent shall be hid from them forever—yea,
that happiness which is prepared for the saints.^4Becoming as a Little Child to Inherit the Kingdom of God
The Book of Mormon also presents the contrast between the mind of an adult and that
of a child in the way that each is capable of learning:
For the natural man (adult) is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of
Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy
Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the
atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek,
humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth
fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. ***And again I
say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in
my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things. And again I say unto you, ye
must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye
can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.^5