Learning Through All Methods

"And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." (D&C 88:118) (The italics are mine.) God wants us to learn, and there are many ways to learn. Not everyone is going to have the faith alone to accept something as divine or not. We have our minds, and as with anything God has given us, we are expected to use and take care of them. There are things that are true that aren't readily understood (but most people I've met anyway) to be part of the restored gospel. The gospel has the ultimate answers for how we are to live live, but for some useful answers about the nature of existence itself, ther are some other sources. Of course, once understanding is had, one can find where the specific truth is in the context of the restored gospel. By having, and continuing to develop, gospel knowledge, one can more readily recognize truth when found in the world.

 I took physics and chemistry in both high school and college. I find science fascinating and something that deserves to be encouraged and understood. The goal of science (as I understand it) is to find out how a certain phenomenon (like a physical event or chemical reaction) works. There's a law in science, the law of conservation of matter. This law states that matter can be neither created or destroyed, it can only change form. The same principle in science applies to energy. That is why, when you understand all factors, a formula can be devised. In chemical reactions, nothing is either created or destroyed. Things change form, and sometimes that form change involves the giving off of heat. In physics, the before and after states of an event are equal, since nothing is truly lost (assuming you have all the variables accounted for and the event is isolated from outside interference). At the start of my mission, I discovered these three short passages in the Doctrine and Covenants:

1) "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes" (D&C 131:7)
My thought: All things, including spiritual things, have some sort of physical existence. The tricky thing with spirit is that it's not  readily definable or measurable by the means of external, physical obeservation.

2) "For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ." (D&C 84:45)
My thought: Everything that is truth is called light, because all truths brighten our understanding, removing the darkness of ignorance.

3) "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." (D&C 93:29)
My thought: Everything about a person that's not their body is their spirit or "intelligence." Such cannot be either created or destroyed.

My conclusion: Things can only be created out of pre-existing material. The creation of man did not occur from nothing. The same with the Earth (see Abraham 3:24). The creation involved material that was already there. One of the living apostles, Russell M Nelson, once said: "I testify that the earth and all life upon it are of divine origin. The Creation did not happen by chance. It did not come ex nihilo (out of nothing)." (The Creation, given in April 2000 general conference). Bruce R McConkie, a member of The Quorum of Twelve Apostles, who in now deceased, once said: "all truth is in agreement, that true religion and true science bear the same witness, and that in the true and full sense, true science is part of true religion." (The Seven Deadly Heresies, given in June 1980 BYU fireside). Truth is truth, no matter it's initial source to us.   Of course, we must have an understanding and a testimony, which are related but not necessarily the same thing. Once we have some sort of testimony and the resultant intellectual understanding, then we can build upon those with further truth.

A big idea that is stressed in the church is receving your answers to prayer. It's my experience that our prayers are answered, but those answers don't often come immediately. Instead, I have often been left to think about what I'm praying about for a while, and then I'll receive my answer. A revelation received early in the history of the church reads: "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.  But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong" (D&C 9:7-9). We are to do what we can to figure out the answer, and ask God if our conclusion is right. In my experience, having this type of attitude in my prayers generally brings answers a little quicker, but of course it requires more time and effort.

Now, in any field of learning, does understanding, let alone knowledge, come all at once? NO. Our understanding comes gradually, and if we don't something, it's unlikely that we're going to understand the next step. For instance, algebra is not taught in early elementary school math classes. Instead, the basics of addition and subtraction are taught first,then comes multiplication and division, and it is only after those very basic things are understood (ideally) that basic principles of algebra (isolating variables, order of operations, etc.) are taught. With the gospel, we learn "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little" (2 Nephi 28:30, see also Isaiah 28:9-10). One is not going to understand everything about the gospel when they consider it from an outside perspective. Gospel knowledge, for me anyway, has come through practical experience.

As I make an effort to apply the gospel in my life, I gradually understand more and more. When I'm not so diligent in living the gospel, my understanding decreases. If at any point I get prideful and think "I know enough, I don't need to have or learn more," that's when I start to have problems with my gospel understanding. Pride gets in the way of all learning, especially of spiritual things. Now of course this approach to gospel knowledge requires faith. Faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1 see also Alma 32:21) It gets very difficult at times, but I can honestly say that it has been worth the struggle. I do not come anywhere near a perfect knowledge, and if fact, the more I learn, the more I understand just how much there is still to learn. Furthermore, the more I learn, both by study and by faith, the stronger my testimony becomes. Are there days where I don't intellectually understand what I receive spiritually? Yes. But, that intellectual understanding has come for me through practical experience (especially the application of a principle), and it comes gradually, over time. Such can come to ANYONE who seeks it with "sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ" (Moroni 10:4), regardless of their current economic status, academic achievment, family past, or anything else. God truly loves all of us, His children. Because of that love, He provides guidance and knowledge in a way that comforts us and encourages us to grow further.