Real Life Answers

Guest Post by Zach Bunting

It’s certainly not an issue that Mormons alone have to confront. Any person of faith encounters questions to which there appear no adequate answers in religion. Some might say that to question or search is to open a Pandora ’s box since you could find startling or troubling answers. After all, maybe it is more comfortable to blindly accept something that you want to be true. Tennyson saw things differently: “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds,” he penned in his poem In Memoriam A.H.H.

For Latter-day Saints, the greatest witness we can receive is personal revelation, communicated to our minds and hearts by the Holy Ghost. It is personal experience that no one can refute but us. The very nature of our faith requires constant nourishment, and the Holy Ghost bears witness of truth, so it follows that as we investigate we can receive the same assurance that initially sprouted our faith. Perhaps that is why one of our Church’s leaders recently said, “As good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit,” (Acting on the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ).

Recently I was involved in a discussion that started with the Curiosity rover and morphed into science versus religion. Those tending toward the atheistic end of the spectrum fueled their argument with scientific evidence in contradiction with biblical accounts. Some of the Christians responded by questioning the validity of science. However, there were a couple of believers that work closely with science who described their personal journeys to reconcile science with religion and maintain their intellectual honesty while fortifying their faith. What distinguished these believers was that they had actively asked questions that they knew had caused others to extinguish the flame of their own faith, but in so doing sought Heaven’s aid. When they arrived at conclusions that were satisfactory to them, they found peace and that familiar assurance that at first had converted them to Christ’s gospel. I felt challenged to venture out and discover where I feel the two intersect. I cannot discard my faith that has been fortified by numerous unforgettable experiences, nor can I pretend that science is faulty and changes with the wind. Both evolve: one as God sees fit to endow us with additional understanding, and the other as man’s efforts and ability enable us to understand. But I can allow both to heavily influence how I see the world. For me, especially when life plays out contrary to my expectations (for better or worse), I can look back and see the scientific explanation for how something happened, but I look through the lens of faith to understand why.

This recent journey was one that I knew came with risks. I have seen friends cast away their faith when they dug below the surface of this issue or others. Why is it that I advocate the search for truth? Is it because modern scripture instructs us to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith”? Is it because I fear to appear ignorant? For me, it is because I recognize that my faith will illuminate my understanding only inasmuch as I allow it to grow, even into the mysterious darkness. In the same poem, Tennyson also wrote:

We have but faith: we cannot know
For knowledge is of things we see
And yet we trust it comes from thee
A beam in darkness: let it grow.

As an explorer hungers to discover what lies beyond the horizon, I too find satisfaction and joy in expanding my understanding. And when I get there, I am not alone. The same familiar Spirit that at first testified to me of the truth of the Book of Mormon welcomes me to a new summit.

Learning is a magnificent process. It inspires the mind and enriches the soul. I love that Church leaders and scripture exhort us to learn constantly, because instead of shattering my faith, the process has solidified mine.

During my time as a Mormon missionary, I often had the chance to share my conviction that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ on the Earth today. In response I was often asked, “How do you know?” How can we know anything of a spiritual nature?

I think a lot of intelligent people are averse to religion because they perceive a lack of proof for the existence of God or the divinity of Jesus Christ. I understand this need for proof. Every day I think about how to use data to find evidence for various economic theories, and I’m always fairly skeptical of those theories until I am presented with some sort of proof of their veracity. I am no different when it comes to religious topics.

Any researcher can tell you how the scientific method works:

1. Define the question
2. Gather information and resources
3. Form hypothesis
4. Perform experiment and collect data
5. Analyze data
6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as starting point for new hypothesis
7. Publish results
8. Retest

For hundreds of years, this has been the method we have used to develop new knowledge about the world we live in. We use it for scientific questions; could it be used for spiritual questions as well? What do you think?

In a book of scripture called the Book of Mormon, two ancient prophets argue that it can (Alma 32; Moroni 10:3-5). They use slightly different terminology, but the steps are very similar. Alma compares the process of gaining spiritual knowledge to an experiment we all probably did in elementary school: planting a seed and watching it grow. Moroni is more specific in his instructions, as he explains exactly how to gain personal knowledge of the truth of the Book of Mormon, but his instructions are applicable to any other questions as well. He first tells us to read from the book and think about what we’ve read (steps 1-2). Next he asks us to “receive these things,” meaning we need to accept the possibility of their truth (step 3). His next instruction is to “ask God if these things are not true,” implying that we already believe them to be true just as when performing an experiment, we usually believe it will work. Finally, he explains that if we do those things, if our hypothesis is correct, we will know it by the power of the Holy Ghost (steps 5-6). You are then free to “publish your results” by sharing them with friends and family, and just as with a scientific hypothesis, your confidence in your result is increased each time you retest (steps 7-8).

The only difference I can find between the scientific method, and the one described above is the implementation of step 6. In a science experiment you would use statistics to determine if your hypothesis can be rejected, something any statistician will tell you that you can never know for sure, but rather only with a certain level of confidence. Instead, when seeking answers to spiritual hypotheses, you have to receive your answer from the source of spiritual knowledge: God himself. As Moroni taught, this knowledge is received through the Holy Ghost, and from experience I can say this knowledge comes in the form of a certainty you feel or a strong feeling of happiness or peace (Galatians 5:22-23). While it may seem like knowledge received this way is not as solid as scientific knowledge, first remember that due to the nature of statistics, scientific knowledge can never be proven 100% true but can only be proven to a certain level of confidence, and second, a certainty placed in your mind by God himself will always provide you with a stronger personal proof of His existence than a paper that describes the experiences of some other researcher’s experience. I invite you to use this method and share some of your experiences here on this blog.