The Science of Faith Part 2

The Science of Faith Part 2

Faith and the Scientific Method

Often I think we see faith as vague and impossible to prove. The more I have studied my own faith and its growth I have come to understand how simple and logical faith is and can become. Really it is just as simple to come to know the truth of a spiritual principle as it is to come to a scientific one; and the process is essentially the same. In Alma 32 we learn about how faith can grow (like a seed), and when you look at it, it is nearly identical to the scientific process that I am sure many of us who have suffered through middle science are familiar with: ask a question, form a hypothesis, complete an experiment, gather results, and form a conclusion. Here is the same process related to faith:

Ask a Question(Alma 32:27): the search for any truth must begin with a desire  to know something we do not know or understand something we do not yet understand. Without that curiosity we will be unmotivated to fully go through the process that must be completed if we are to know something for ourselves. Whether it is which laundry detergent works best on my whites or is or isn't the Book of Mormon the word of God, unless we sincerely want to know we cannot ever know for ourselves for we will lack the will power we need to find out. And most importantly, we must carefully define what it is we really want to know. If our quest is vague our answer will be as well. There must be little room for gray area or we will never really know for sure (yes or no question or either something is or it isn't).

"if ye do not cast it out...(then) it will begin to swell within you" Alma 32:28

Form a Hypothesis(Alma 32:28): Once we have carefully defined what it is we want to know we must form a hypothesis; an "if then" statement based off of careful and reliable research. I may look at the active ingredients of detergent to determine which will work best and how I will know it worked best. I may read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to understand what it is I have to do to know it is true and how I will know it. If I wash a shirt with a stain of equal size once with Tide and once with Purex then the stain will be smaller after I wash it with Tide. If I read the Book of Mormon every day for a month, and pray to know it is true, then I will feel increase of joy, peace, and understanding in my life (Galatians 5:22-23)

Complete an Experiment(Alma 32:37-40): This is the tricky part. I don't know about ya'll but when I was a kid I often was kicking myself during this part of my middle school science projects. I always forget about day 3 of 10 to do the daily things I needed for an experiment. I was the kid that two days before the science fair I realized that the two plants I was testing out hadn't actually ever been watered or even looked at and thus, I speedily had to make up results... In order for us to really get solid results we have to be diligent and consistent in running our experiment. Just as it is unfair to say one detergent works better than the other if we only complete half the steps of our experiment, it is unfair to determine a spiritual idea is false if we have failed to truly go through every step it asks us to to know. We must do the "if" of our "if then" hypothesis, that is read and prayer every day and reflect on how we feel as we do so, only then will we get fair results.
Gather Results(Alma 32:42-43): After we are finished with our experiment we must look over what happened and gather all the facts. We must compare red stains for how faded and how big they are in comparison and record the differences. We must reflect on how our month went and how we felt as we prayed to decide if we feel more peaceful or not after reading the Book of Mormon. We simply gather as unbiasedly as we can the facts we see before us. Until we do that we cannot form an opinion.
Make a Conclusion(Alma 32:34): No matter how clear results may look we still have the choice within us to make a conclusion. It is up to us to "taste of the fruit" of the seed we planted in order to decide if it is good or not. It is so important to open our hearts to what we see and more importantly feel in order for us to know what is right and true. This is one of the most vital steps for it is the last step that will make or break our faith in any given principle. It is what determines what we do and don't believe. This is the step in which our "faith becomes unshaken"-as we repeatedly see the results and are able to form conclusions from the results of our actions.

Faith is simply defined and built. God is a God of order and reason and He has laid out a way for us to know for ourselves, all we have to do is diligently follow the way He has so beautifully laid out for us to follow. If we do so we will know truth for ourselves, as assuredly as we can know anything else, for there are no more powerfully witnesses than the witness of the Spirit and the tangible results he brings into our lives as we act in faith. Through Him we truly can know "the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5).

The Science of Faith Part 1

The last few months I have been studying faith and how we can build it. As I was studying I began to notice how much science and faith were alike. I have decided to do a couple three blogs on what I have found.

Part One: Precision and Accuracy

My senior year I took a statistics class and was educated in the difference between accuracy and precision. Accuracy is how close you get to somethings true value. Precision is how often you get the same results over a period of time in the same situation. Both are vital to getting valid and useful results.  I was thinking about how this relates to our faith.

The Stripling Warriors-Alma 57:21

In order for our faith to bring us true results we must be both accurate and precise. We must make sure our actions match up perfectly with what we are asked to do; we must be exactly obedient or accurate. We must also place our faith IN Christ and not anything else. Only when we are accurate in our faith can we expect and have an assurance that God will do His part. Like a function or machine what we put into it directly correlates with what we get out of it and thus the more accurate our actions or Faith in Christ become the more we are able to receive the blessings of the Lord (1 Nephi 1:20, Ether 12:6) and feel confident in His presence (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45)

In addition to accuracy we must make our faith precise or in other words consistent. Over time our actions must continue to fall close to the mark or we will never be able to enjoy the long term blessings of faith. When our actions are consistent we reap the results of these actions shaping us to be not just act more like our Savior. In short, when our faith is precise we become precisely what we came here to be-more like our Heavenly Father.

I know that though faith takes self-discipline, hard work, and diligence that if we treat it with the same deliberateness, dedication, and carefulness as scientists do than we will receive powerful life-altering results. Faith really can change our lives if we pay attention to the small details (Alma 37:6-7) that allow us to be both precise and accurate. True faith will always bring us blessings-for we have the greatest scientist telling us so: God.

Additional Scriptures:

Accuracy: Alma 57:21
Precision: 2 Nephi 31:20, Mosiah 2:41
 

Perfectly Comforted and Comfortably Perfect

We have all had people come into our lives at the seemingly perfect time, whether it was to comfort, guide, stop us, push us forward, teach us, and even correct us. For lack of a better phrase I suppose we would call them our "angels" sent here to help us along our way. I had one of these in my life during my stay at college a few years back, and this person would always tell me something that I never understood, "remember I am not the one who is comforting you". Well, I am happy to say, that two or so years later I get it, due to an account in the Book of Mormon.

Alma and Amulek were two missionaries who taught the people of Ammonihah. The people of Ammonihah did not recieve them well, in fact, their scriptures were burned, as were those of their faith, and they were forced to watch. Then they were imprisoned. On top of all this, because of Amulek's decision to serve with Alma, his family and friends rejected him (Alma 15:16). He also forsook his fortune. In essence, he had lost nearly everything one can have in life; position, friends, money, and most of all, family. Personally, I don't know if I could make it through all of that. But at that critical time in Amulek's life there is a verse that I love, it says:

"Now as I said, Alma having seen all these things, therefore he took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla, and took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord." (Alma 15:18)
I love the phrase, "strengthened IN the Lord". Alma didn't neccessarily comfort/strengthen Amulek, the Lord did through Alma. When we are asked to "comfort those that stand in need of comfort" (Mosiah 18:9) we should be doing this through Christ, for He is the one that can perfectly comfort us. Otherwise, we will only provide a certain level of comfort and for only so long. But, if we allow ourselves to be a tool in the Lord's hand to "bind up the broken hearted" (Isaiah 61:1), then we, through Him, can provide perfect comfort, for He has already suffered all that he may "succor" (run to) us in our time of need. (Alma 7:11-12)

Wax Strong

The scriptures are full of the term "wax". It can be used in a good way, as in Alma 17:2 speaking of a group of young men that "waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth".  It can also be used in a bad way, as in Alma 8:28, "the people did wax more gross in their iniquities." A good example of both is found in the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 3:1 "but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker.".
I love the term "to wax". I think of Elementary School when we learned about the Pilgrims. For a fun activity our teacher had us dip candles. She handed us a long string and set us up in a line and had us dip that string in the wax and then go to the back of line. Eagerly we began and rushed up to make our first dip and then get back in line, visions of our very own hand made candle dancing in our minds. By the third dip we all began to realize that candles aren't made in seconds. Each dip added a nearly undetectable layer to our candle and soon I began to care less if my candle was too thin to even stand on its own; I was BORED. But, I reminded myself how much I would love to have my own candle and so, I continued to wait my turn in line over and over and over again.
And that is how it works in life. None of us become candles over night; it takes a lot of time and patience. Every action we take either adds a layer of good or bad wax to us. In many cases what may seem to be an overwhelming task is just a task meant to be done over time. When we look at the candle making process dip by dip it is far less overwhelming than thinking about trying to make it a candle all at once. Similarly, when we begin to slack off just a "dip" we know we must be careful where each dip might take us. The Book of Mormon tells us:
"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

-Alma 37:6-7

Mosiah tells us to "watch ourselves" that we "perish not" (Mosiah 4:30). It is the little things that matter-nothing is too little to make a big difference. As we watch each "dip" we make we will begin to see just how much the little things shape our lives-that it isn't "foolishness" to believe they do. We will also see that through very small steps God can help us achieve great things and to become great-nothing is too big for Him. Through Him and through careful diligence to His word, we can all "wax strong".