Richard Feynman stated somewhere, and I have lost the reference,
that the most difficult person to teach science to is a religious person. In his philosophy of science, the most powerful
tool is to learn to disbelieve.
It is hard for a religious person to disbelieve. We have the “I know narrative in our church.” We teach our children from a very young age
that “I know” and that it is important to know. It gets ingrained and the truly
faithful person always knows. The most
faithful then become bishops and stake presidents. The strongest “I know’s” then become the Seventies,
Apostle, and Prophets. When you know you fail to investigate your truth.
Along come people who are comfortable with not knowing but
have sufficient belief. They first
investigate their disbelief and then they begin to investigate their errors. This
happened to faithful church scholars in the 1960s. They then discover that
Joseph Smith did indeed allow Negro priesthood ordination. This knowledge then filters up to the “I Knows”
and then one dares to pray about it, to discover if his belief was correct and
then, to find a method to confirm his errors to the remainders of the “I knows”.
You see this same narrative in Richard Bushman's work when
he begins to reteach the “I Knows” about seer stones. It has taken some time but the, “I knows” are beginning to teach about the seer stones again.
It takes time to learn to be a faithful disbeliever. It is hard and time-consuming and there are
no rewards, there is only rejection. Most take the path of least resistance and
leave the church. It is hard to be a faithful disbeliever.
I hope you have the courage to stay and to be a faithful disbeliever.
This church really needs you if the
restoration is to continue.
Richard Feynman On religion
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