God's work--the work of abiding by and teaching truth--is one eternal round. In other words, all truth can be circumscribed into one great whole (in essence: it is finite, comprehensible, the same throughout space and time, and without contradiction). This is a principle which God has spoken both anciently and in the modern era through the mouth of His prophets in God's characteristically succinct manner:
"Listen
to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, whose course is one eternal round, the same today as yesterday, and
forever." (Doctrine and Covenants 35:1)
"And
it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a wise purpose, which
purpose is known unto God; for he doth counsel in wisdom over all his works,
and his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round." (Alma 37:12)
“For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the
mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in
times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.” (1
Nephi 10:19)
In 1994, President Howard W. Hunter expressed this principle particularly plainly:
"God our Father is the author, custodian, and advocate of all
truth - truth that is apprehended through intellectual inquiry; truth that
is understood feelingly through religious experience, and truth that is
distilled upon the soul as wisdom from all of life's encounters. Each of
these encounters has an educational function in the preparation of each
soul to understand God's truth. With God our Heavenly Father, all truth,
wherever found or however apprehended, is circumscribed into one great
whole. Ultimately, there are no contradictions, no quarrels, no inscrutable
paradoxes, no mysteries. In the meantime, we are commanded in scriptures
(note, commanded) to learn by study and by faith, one not being more
important the the other in this context" ("President's formal charge of responsibility" BYU-Hawaii, Nov. 26, 1994).
It is remarkable to note that the fundamental tenets of modern science,
arrived at after millennia of slow improvement on the shoulders of the
greatest secular truth-seekers, are not in actuality contradictory (as
most scientists would contend due to their current bias) to the truths
given to mankind by God through our great spiritual truth-seekers (the
likes of Abraham, Nephi, Alma, Joseph Smith, etc.). These tenets are:
comprehensibility (the great contribution of the Greek philosophers:
that all processes can indeed be understood), uniformitarianism (natural
laws are true throughout space and time), naturalism (every phenomenon
can be described with a mechanism and is acted upon by natural laws),
empiricism (truth must be obtained via natural observation and can be
described mathematically), and finally, the simpler the description of a
law the better.
Why would a traditional scientist contend that these the fundamental
tenets of modern science are contradictory to religion? One must
understand that these scientists' view of religion is more comparable to
our view of a religion that is in a state of apostasy. For example,
during the dark ages critical thinkers such as Copernicus (just to name a
single example) were heavily persecuted. Sometime after the turn of the
first millennia, the leaders of Islam felt threatened by their scholars
(who were likely the greatest in the world at that point, contributing
very significant advancements to the fields of mathematics, astronomy,
medicine, etc.) and began to restrict art and science heavily. The
effects of this change are still being felt in the middle east and
abroad today. Even ISIS recently decided to ban social studies and math
in the schools under their control.
On the other hand, many scientists are religious themselves and see no
conflict between spiritual and scientific methods of gaining truth. For
example, Francis Collins, the leader of the recent Human Genome Project
is a defender of religious belief in science. However, the majority of
religious scientists would describe spiritual explanations of the world
as "supernatural" and beyond the scope of science.
From the prophets we know that because of our limited mortal faculties and the character-building an purpose of the earth life, we must necessarily walk by faith and not by sight alone.
As Paul put it: "For now we see through a glass, darkly..." (1 Cor. 13:12).
As Plato put it in his allegory of the cave, what we see is as shadows
on the wall of a cave. Until we exit the cave to see what has been
creating these shadows, we do not truly see things as they really are.
The true fact of the matter is until we gain the capacity to observe all
matter as God does we will not be able to exit the cave. As God
revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith:
"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; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are
purified we shall see that it is all matter." (Doctrine and Covenants
131:7-8)
Beyond this scripture's important implications for our understanding of
spirits [that they are in fact composed of matter (which is in turn
created by energy according to E=mc^2), perhaps on a subatomic level
interacting with
any or every atom of our bodies] is the implication that we will not
gain the capacity to see reality in its fullness with our bodies in
their current state and must gain a fully exalted body as God has in
order to comprehend truth fully. This also allows us to speculate that
the definition of an exalted body is one that is composed of such
advanced form that it gives its user the ability to observe all forms of
matter and thus comprehend all laws and truth.
However, this scripture also serves to answer the initial question as to
how spiritual and scientific truth coalesce. If spirit is indeed matter
and it is indeed observable within with "purer" instruments, than it is
not at all outside of the realm of science. Rather, it is only outside
of the realm of science from the perspective of a mortal being. In
addition, the calling religion supernatural is an arrogant assumption.
Who is man to say that the miracles of Jesus Christ and his disciples,
the workings of the Holy Spirit, and the makeup of our spirits are not
governed by natural laws?
It is for this reason that the fundamental tenets of science do not
contradict religion. On the other hand, the revealed truths unique to
the restored gospel are in perfect harmony with the essential
assumptions of science. I repeat the statement of Nephi on the issue of
the comprehensibility of the universe:
“For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the
mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in
times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.” (1
Nephi 10:19)
In regards to uniformitarianism (natural
laws are true throughout space and time) and naturalism (every phenomenon
can be described with a mechanism and is acted upon by natural laws) I repeat the statement of President Hunter:
"God our Father is the author, custodian, and advocate of all
truth - truth that is apprehended through intellectual inquiry; truth that
is understood feelingly through religious experience, and truth that is
distilled upon the soul as wisdom from all of life's encounters. Each of
these encounters has an educational function in the preparation of each
soul to understand God's truth. With God our Heavenly Father, all truth,
wherever found or however apprehended, is circumscribed into one great
whole. Ultimately, there are no contradictions, no quarrels, no inscrutable
paradoxes, no mysteries. In the meantime, we are commanded in scriptures
(note, commanded) to learn by study and by faith, one not being more
important the the other in this context" ("President's formal charge of responsibility" BYU-Hawaii, Nov. 26, 1994).
In addition I quote the Doctrine and Covenants section 130 verses 20-21:
"There
is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this
world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any
blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is
predicated."
With empiricism (the contention that truth is be gained via natural
observation) we must recognize that just because our spirits are
composed of finer matter not visible to the mortal eye doesn't mean the
effects of spiritual laws are not observable. This is what makes Alma's
analogy of faith so powerful (being like a little seed which can grow
into a great tree which grants eternal life). The effects of the gospel
of Jesus Christ are readily apparent in mortality. Anyone who
whole-heartedly "experiments upon the word" witnesses the flow of
blessings into their life. With regards to mathematical description of
spiritual laws I refer back to Doctrine and Covenants 130: 20-21 in
arguing that God works in harmony with natural law and allows natural
law to determine the outcomes of peoples decisions (allowing us to truly
be free agents able to act for ourselves and choose either to advance
as God has and to accept His help or to not accept His help and perish).
In addition, where there are laws there can also be quantitative
analysis. While this isn't typically seen as useful in relation to
spiritual laws, in theory it should be. For example, if one wanted to
quantify and compare the average life span of individuals following the
word of wisdom to those not following the word of wisdom this could be
used to provide evidence for laws governing as science uses the same
tools to provide evidence for physical laws.
Finally, the scientific tenet that "the simpler the description of a
law the better" is also just as true with regards to spirit matter and
the more crude form of matter our mortal bodies are composed of. For
this reason, God provides us with very concise statements of truth. Just
take the Savior's sermon on the mount for example. At first read
through it may seem as difficult to glean from as Newton's laws.
However, those who "have eyes to see" and "ears to hear" recognize the
power contained within those succinct words of life. Just as Newton's
laws had the power to send men to the moon, so too do the laws described
by Jesus have the power to send men to dwell in everlasting glory with
the Father.
Thus, the separation between science and religion is man made. In reality, there is only truth and it is one eternal round. Just as the concept of species in biology is a reductionist view of reality so is anything that attempts to separate science and religion. They are not separate.They are inextricably connected and blend together. In conclusion, let us remember that truth is meant to be applied for the accomplishment of good and is vain unless we are successful in doing so. Therefore I quote the Savior's words from Doctrine and Covenants section 88:77-83:
"And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom.
Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed
more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the
gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are
expedient for you to understand; Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you. Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads. He that seeketh me early shall find me, and shall not be forsaken."
In this spirit, we explore and reaffirm the
empirical and logical soundness of the doctrinal claims of restoration
of the
gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness through the prophet Joseph Smith
and seek to warn our neighbors that there is in fact a great work being
performed by God in our day in every nation on earth and that the time
is soon coming when the test of mortality will be over for each man and
woman individually as well as for the entire human race.
No comments:
Post a Comment