Faith in Truth
“It is impossible for a [hu]man to be saved in ignorance.”[1]
I believe truth to be of paramount importance. Myths, legends, religions and stories can be useful means of creating and discovering truth, but if not approached thoughtfully impractical narratives can lead to grave falsities.
Disillusionment is an important step toward a more practical and effective faith. Fundamentalists on both ends of the spectrum may contend that faith cannot be independent of superstition, supernaturalism, and literalism—that in order to remain faithful a person must obediently reject rationality, logic or new evidence. However, to reject evidence, truth, and knowledge would be counterproductive to what many Mormons refer to as, exaltation. Transhumanists might call it transcendence.
President J. Reuben Clark once said, “If we have truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not truth, it ought to be harmed.”[2]
In order for a person to find truth they must question, petition, and investigate for themselves. Our biblical narratives encourage individuals who lack wisdom to inquire and they will receive knowledge liberally.[3] When Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of knowledge in the Garden of Eden “…the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us.”[4] Our ability to increase in truth and knowledge is suggested to be essential to becoming posthuman or God. Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reinforces this theme, "Knowledge is essential to our understanding of the purpose of mortal life and of our eternal destiny as resurrected beings after mortal life.”[5]
“… Mormonism is truth, in other words the doctrine of the Latter-day Saints, is truth. … The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace all, and every item of truth, without limitation or without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men, or by the dominations of one another, when that truth is clearly demonstrated to our minds, and we have the highest degree of evidence of the same.”[6]
Even though it seems that the Mormonism described in this passage is lost in the wake of disciplinary councils and excommunicaiton, this is the Mormonism that inspires me. I still have faith in truth.
Notes and Citations
[1] Doctrine and Covenants 131:6. “It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.”
[2] D. Michael Quinn, “J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years,” (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1983), pg. 24.
[3] James 1:5 KJV. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
[4] Genesis 3:22 KJV. “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:”
[5] Dallin H. Oaks, “Apostasy and Restoration,” LDS General Conference (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 1995).
[6] Letter from Joseph Smith to Isaac Galland, Mar. 22, 1839, Liberty Jail, Liberty, Missouri, published in Times and Seasons, Feb. 1840, pp. 53–54; spelling and grammar modernized.
