Worlds without end

I loved reading Pico Della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man. The reason being, I just returned from my mission and therefore I see connections to the Restored Gospel and almost everything else in the world. But Mirandola's oration made it too easy. but the ease with with his philosophy and my religious theology meshed really put my soul in a comfortable place.

The whole time i was reading lines from modern day scripture would pop out at me. In the oration Mirandola states that despite the great 'Artisan' God the Father's vast creations, "man is the most fortunate of all creatures and as a result worthy of the highest admiration and earning his rank on the chain of being". When moses sees God and His creations in Moses 1 he states "I know that man is nothing" referring to the sheer vastness of God's creation. Satan then tempts Moses and his knowledge of the true divine nature of man is showed when Moses responds to his temptation: "For behold I am a son of God".
Mirandola further states the "we can become what we choose to become". I immediately thought of the words in the Book of Mormon "[he that] putteth off the natural man...and becometh as a child"(Mosiah 3:19) will come close to god. I choose to become as a Christ taught to become.
In connection with the idea that we can become what we want Mirandola shares with us a most delightful image: "If you see a person totally subject to his appetites, crawling miserably on the ground, you are looking at a plant, not a man". The scripture in Alma came quickly to mind. "See that ye bridle all your passions" (Alma 38:12).
So I guess my point is really that i am glad to see the truths that I hold dear be so eloquently shared by a mid renaissance "humanist" and that said religious movement shares the same purpose with my faith: to bring man closer to God.