Post
by jmb275 » 10 Jul 2009, 16:52
I have no idea.
Having said that, let me explain. Personally, I feel like my view of faith is so burdened with the baggage from being a TBM, I can't even reason properly about faith in any other context other than the Mormon one. I'm trying to overcome this, but it's difficult when I insist on continuing to read church history books.
Here are some really random thoughts.
1. According to TBM thought, JS probably would have been the closest to "knowing" in the literal, scientific sense. Did that alleviate the need for faith for JS? I doubt it, and I doubt any TBM would admit to that. To me, this says knowledge does not replace faith, nor vice versa.
2. A lot of people try to argue about faith in scientific endeavors and compare it to faith in religious endeavors. While there is some truth in this at the extreme level, we all make decisions based on probabilities at the end of the day. You cross a bridge because you see people/cars on it, and it hasn't collapsed in 50 years. Do you "know" that it won't collapse? No, so does this take faith? Well, this is where Ray comes in. I think it takes a specific definition of faith and knowledge to have this debate at all. To me, crossing a bridge is different than faith in God. Why? Because to me, my eyes, scientific measurement equipment etc. has a VERY reliable track record so much so that I fully claim "knowledge" when using them. It seems possible to me that some people have this same ability with discerning their "spiritual witnesses" and I suppose this could constitute knowledge. But for me, I don't have this ability, and see too much psychology and mind work to buy into it a lot. Nonetheless, I think it possible, and recognize it constitutes "evidence" for some people.
3. There is a lovely saying in academia it goes something like this: When you get your BS you know everything there is to know about your major. At the MS level you realize you know nothing about your major. At the PhD level you realize neither does anyone else.
4. For me, faith and knowledge boil down to probabilities and the various definitions assigned to each word. On a colloquial level however, the term knowledge is overly used in Mormondom I think.
I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priestcraft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women--all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there.
- Joseph Smith, (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 304)