Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Faith and Science

I think that it is interesting how emotional people can get about science and religion. Yet, they are quite similar in ways. A scientist must have a large amount of faith to begin with. The steps to scientific discovery often mimic the steps to gaining a religious testimony. One must start with a question, something they don't really understand. They come up with possible answers but they don't really know. Then they read what other people have come up with. They talk to other people. They do research. With what they find out they come up with experiments, ways to prove what they now have faith in. Does any of this sound familiar? Check Alma 32:26-28. After the experiment, one either proves or disproves the hypothesis. If the hypothesis is valid the faith then moves to knowledge. See Alma 32:19. Once you have proved your faith you are obliged to live it. Knowing that walking off a tall cliff can be fatal will not save you if you do it anyway. Our knowledge will not save us if we do not act on that knowledge. All of our steps--questioning, study, experimenting, proving, are wasted if we do not act on our knowledge. Our actions show what we know to be true. That is who we are.