"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
I
struggled as I wrote this. I knew what I wanted to write, and I knew
(and know) to the core of my being that it was true.
But
it’s important that we not assume that all our knowledge is
correct. If we come at anything with this assumption, we are in
danger of two things: First, of pride. Assuming that we are right is
prideful. It is leaning unto our own understanding.
Second,
we risk drifting away from truth as we base understanding after new
understanding upon some small degree of error which would lead us off
the true path.
The
solution to this is to go back to the source and double check so that
we may sift away our errors.
In
the scriptures, we’re admonished to “Put on the whole
armor of God … For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”Ephesians 6:11-12
Part
of that armor is to stand with our “loins girt about with
truth.”
The
scriptures are filled with the theme of truth. Truth protects us.
It
brings us to understanding, and that understanding leads us to Christ
and salvation. God is a God of Truth. Jesus is “the way, the
truth, and the life.” The Holy Ghost is the Light of Truth and
the Spirit of Truth. We are always warned and even begged to come to
the truth so that we may be saved; while all in the world around us
crumbles to dust, truth will still prevail.
Elder
Richard G. Scott said, “There are two ways to find truth —
both useful, provided we follow the laws upon which they are
predicated.”1 These two ways are the scientific
method and revelation. Both of these approaches could only work if
truth was absolute and the basis by which everything exists. Is it?
The
alternative is that all truth is relative, based on belief and
opinion. But can that even be a valid statement? It contradicts
itself. If it is true, then it is an absolute statement.
But
if it is true, there can be no absolute statements. So it invalidates
itself. Also, if it is true, then someone can believe that, “All
truth is absolute, and relativism is invalid,” which would,
according to the relativist statement, be true since it was someone’s
belief. Which once again, causes the statement to be false.
Even
a partial relativism is not possible, since every absolute truth
would cascade to absolute reality. If, for instance, everyone must be
bound by gravity, then the driver who swerves off the side of the
mountain road will fall, regardless of if he believes with no
questioning that he has not swerved or that his car is an airplane.
This
invalidity of partial relativism includes moral truth. The argument
against moral relativism is best explained in 2 Nephi 2:13:
And
if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin.
If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no
righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no
happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no
punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God.
And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could
have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon;
wherefore, all things must have vanished away.
In
the spectrum where something can be judged Good, is has to be judged
relative to something. And that something is Bad. If nothing is bad,
then nothing is good. It all becomes the same gray, moral homogeny.
What
is goodness? It’s that which makes us happy — but we’ve
got to take it beyond our local happiness and understand the wider
consequences. If there is a thing that makes you happy now, but
brings you pain later (understand punishment not to be a decree
handed down by God, but as a natural consequence of your actions),
then it can’t really be a good thing.
And
if it makes one person happy at the expense of the suffering of
multiple people, then it can’t really be a good thing.
Without
happiness, its opposite — pain and misery — doesn’t
exist either. Without happiness or pain, there is no God. We
shouldn’t understand from this that God made happiness and pain
for us to experience. In the scripture, there is a clear hierarchy:
our planet and ourselves exist because God exists, and God exists
because there is a spectrum of happiness and misery, which exists
because there are things righteous and things sinful.
A
couple of verses before that, Lehi says this:
…Wherefore,
all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should
be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither
death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither
sense nor insensibility.(2 Nephi 2:11)
I
add my own understanding to that: “neither order nor disorder.”
Nothing
would exist if there were not opposition in all things.
The
atheist who understands the above statement might tell us that since
morality and its consequences could exist outside of a higher being
that decreed them, then their existence doesn’t prove God
exists. But that argument misses an important factor.
It
is clear that there is also a spectrum of comprehension — we
can comprehend more than our dog, who understands more than a fish,
who knows more than the fly, which perceives more than an amoeba,
which detects more than a molecule can, which has more complexity of
interaction than a single atom.
To
imagine that we are at the pinnacle of that spectrum is as backwards
as believing that the earth is the center of the universe. The
opposite of having zero comprehension and understanding is infinite
comprehension and understanding — neither sense, nor
insensibility.
God
is that being of infinite comprehension and understanding. The glory
of God is intelligence. God is that being of infinite love.
29
And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing
thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?
30
And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea,
millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning
to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched
out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also
thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;
31
And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all
eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is
the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and
have no end; how is it thou canst weep?
32
The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the
workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them theirbknowledge,
in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man
his agency;
33
And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that
they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their
Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their
own blood;
37
…misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep
over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should
not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? (Moses 7:29-33, 37)
In all of the many things we know
that we need to teach our children, an understanding of the nature of
Truth is not usually something that comes up as a subject to be
discussed during Family Home Evening or around the dinner table.
We
might not discuss cultural assumptions and absolute morality either.
But if we don’t talk about these things, using the light of
understanding we can receive from the scriptures and teachings of our
prophets, we leave our children with a gap that will be filled by
others, whether they be formal education or media.
We
must teach our children in truth and with integrity. We must teach
our children about truth. Don’t lie to them about silly things,
or things you’re afraid of them to know. Don’t give them
more than they can bear.
Give
them the tools for honest and critical thinking. Teach them to obey
and love God and to seek revelation.
With
this armor, with their and our loins girded about in truth, we can
know that when we aren’t around to guide them, it will be truth
— the Spirit of Truth — that guides them. And that will
be all our salvation.
Ami Chopine started out her mortal existence as a single cell. That cell divided into a collection
of cells that cooperated enough to do such things as eat, crawl, walk and eventually read a lot
and do grownuppy things.
When she was seven years old, hanging upside down on the monkey bars, she decided she
wanted to be a scientist when she grew up. Even though she studied molecular biology at the
University of Utah, that didn't quite come to pass. She became a writer instead. Still, her passion
for science and honest inquiry has remained and married itself to her love of the Gospel.
Ami is married to Vladimir and together they have four amazing children -- three in college and
one in elementary school, where Ami is president of the Family School Organization. Vladimir
is the better cook, but Ami is the better baker. She also knits, gardens, stares at clouds, and sings.
She can only do three of these at the same time.
Besides two published computer graphics books and several magazine tutorials, she writes
science fiction and has a couple of short stories published. You can find her blog at
www.amichopine.com.
Ami was surprised to not be given a calling as some kind of teacher the last time she was called
into the bishop's office. She currently serves as the Young Women Secretary -- somewhat
challenging for the girl whose grandmother used to call the absentminded professor.
