Doubt & Fear

One of the greatest blessings in life is that nobody, and this includes the smartest person you know, knows everything. They may have general principals that apply in a lot of situations but they don’t know everything.

What’s great about this is it allows us all the freedom to question everything. Now there will be those who are more trustworthy but this we will leave for another discussion.

I love the scientific method, it helps me understand the world. Like any tool there are those who are better using it than others. And like any other tool it has its limitations. How do you use the scientific method to find the limitations of the method? (Once again another day)

This realm, and by using this rather nice word I am speaking of everything that can be sensed by our bodies, is limited. What is is like to live outside of time? (What is time? Can I smell it? Touch it?)

The more the outer boundaries are explored the more doubt about current assumptions and conditions arises. At this juncture we can proceed with doubt and fear or with faith and hope.

This is where God comes in. I believe God, by definition, cannot be proven to be real using our ‘known’ methods. This requires us to live by faith. Let’s take a detour here - I believe God can do anything like decide, as a Gift, who knows God. Like on the road to Emmaus the disciplines didn’t know who they were walking with. And like D&C 46:13 that a Gift of the Spirit is knowing who Jesus Christ is. And the same applies for God. Therefore, we cannot on our own, know God without a gift from God. Another experience that I find interesting is when Joseph saw God and Jesus Christ. When he returned home he didn’t say “I saw God” (I think that is the first thing I would have said to my parents at that age, and another small evidence that Joseph told the truth.) he said “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” JSH 1:20. Therefore, he had already received some degree the knowledge of God because he wasn’t surprised by God’s existence.

Doubt can be crushing and limit how we move forward. It can stop you and cause you to wither. That is why “Fear Not” is often used in scripture at times of direct revelation.

What can exist in that space of fear if we are invited to fear not? That is where faith lives. And like light, it fills the nothing with something.

If we cannot know everything, like if God is real, then why worry about it and just live in faith. Because a world with a God brings meaning to hard ache, pain, suffering, and death.

It’s easy to say on paper, it’s harder to live. “Doubt not but be believing” Mormon 9:27