People And The Truths Of Religion
Written in 2001, this discussion is somewhat philosophical in nature. This is a good companion paper for The End From the Beginning, Some Thoughts On Progression as well as Detecting the Philosophies of Men. This paper discusses such topics as the obligations and responsibilities of government and religion as it pertains to moral truths, the definition of truth as knowledge, the ways in which people learn truth, and how we should teach truth to each other. It covers areas of thought, feeling, personal experience, and the testimonies of others as they pertain to teaching and learning spiritual truths. Emphasizes the importance of learning spiritual or moral truths and explains how some people, for whatever reason, seem to be more able and/or desirous to do so than others.
To order "People and the Truths of Religion" for $1.00
The following is an excerpt from this manuscript:
Introduction
There may be nothing more significant in the entire universe than the combination of truth and people. However, when separated from each other, truth and people are relatively worthless entities. Truth is of no value unless it is perceived by some intelligent being. Likewise, intelligent beings apparently cannot become anything more than “native element” without some ability to internalize truth. In fact, it can be argued from a certain point of view that there is no existence at all until truth is placed within an intelligent being. (See D&C 93:30.) Yet, when combined, intelligent life is created, joy and happiness can be experienced, problems are overcome, and progress is made. Only through this combination of truth and people can any portion of human experience exist. It is what makes life worth living. Indeed, it makes life exist in the first place.
From an LDS perspective, it could be said that the entire plan of salvation is nothing more or less than a method or process intended to combine truth and people. Based on scriptures and the words of the prophets, the fact that people must learn and conform to truth in order to be exalted can hardly be disputed. For example,
It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance. (D&C 131:6)
The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. (D&C 93:36)
Knowledge saves a man, and in the world of spirits a man cannot be exalted but by knowledge. (TPJS, p. 357)
Yet, in spite of these plain and simple teachings, for some reason spiritual truth and people don’t seem to blend well. In general, they seem to be like oil and water. Throughout the recorded history of the earth, God’s efforts to combine the two have been met with a great deal of frustration. Perhaps the oldest and longest-lasting arguments known to man deal with such topics as who God is, what He expects from us, and why He expects it. Religious or moral truths, in all their varieties, have been debated since man had a beginning. For some reason, we can’t seem to get a very solid handle on these types of truths. We could even go as far as to say that the gospel of Jesus Christ has actually been offensive to almost every group of people to whom it has ever been introduced. So much so that people have been more willing to kill the gospel messengers than they have been to merely disagree with them and let them go about their business like unwanted salesmen.
Joseph Smith described this problem all too well when he said,
But there has been a great difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation. It has been like splitting hemlock knots with a corn?dodger for a wedge, and a pumpkin for a beetle. Even the Saints are slow to understand. I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions: they cannot stand the fire at all. (DHC 6:183?185, Jan. 20, 1844.)
Notice in this quote that it is not suffering or persecution that makes the saints “fly to pieces like glass.” Rather, it is simply the “things of God” that make them fall. It is the spiritual or moral truths revealed by God that make people apostatize and flee the church. This seems to have been the case in literally every dispensation of the gospel.
In connection with how difficult it seems to be to get “anything into the heads of” people, it is somewhat amazing how little the Lord has actually revealed to us contrasted with how little attention we tend to pay to that small amount of information. From a doctrinal standpoint, it is really not very difficult to become a gospel scholar, especially in these days of the Internet and information technology. The total number of revealed doctrines of the gospel could probably be summarized within the pages of one modestly sized book. Yet, for the most part people are generally ignorant of those principles. What’s worse, people generally have little or no desire to learn them in the first place, especially those that are contrary to our cultural norms or require some sort of sacrifice.
In general, I believe that the problem of combining spiritual truth and people is not so much the result of a lack of information regarding spiritual truth as it is the nature of spiritual truth, combined with the nature of most people. To some extent, spiritual truth and people are like scales with truth on one side and people on the other – the more spiritual truths you introduce the fewer people will accept it. Likewise, the more people you introduce, the less truth will be accepted. It seems to be a delicate balance that the Lord is always trying to weigh and measure with as much “net positive outcome” as possible. For the most part, to appease or convert the masses generally means to preach the “milk.” To preach the “meat” generally means mass rejection by the majority of the people. There is almost a direct relationship between the two. It is a difficult problem indeed – one with which every prophet has struggled tremendously, including Christ himself.
This paper deals with the process of how truth is learned, what tools we use in our efforts to learn truth, and why it is so hard for people to teach spiritual truths to others. We’ll start by exploring what religious or spiritual truth is and is not as well as some of the fundamental issues surrounding our efforts to combine truth and people. Then we’ll discuss how people learn truth and why this understanding is important when trying to teach others or learn new spiritual truths ourselves.