The search for truth

There are many forms of religious enquiry. Some people care little about the intellectual search for truth: they want the emotional experience of somehow being 'in touch' with whatever they perceive to be 'god'. Perhaps they have figured out that arguments about truth have too easily led to division and bloodshed in the past. So while looking for a connection with God they do not wish to be party to sectarian divide. As a temporary expedient they may affilate with some particular church or denomination but they freely admit that the teachings of this body are in no sense a final and definitive encapsulation of truth. I will have much more to say about this later.

My own pathway of spiritual inquiry was more focused in an attempt to find truth. Should I capitalize the word and call it Truth? I mean only to say I was looking for clear answers to the Big Questions of life and eternity: Where did the world come from? Why am I here? Does life have any ultimate meaning? Is there a god and if so what is he like? Is there a life after death and what is it like? Who qualifies for it? Are good and evil simply convenient social devices to keep good order or are they grounded in some absolute morality?

Now vast millions of people do, in fact, care very much about these questions. They are not absorbed with them all the time, but the questions and their answers form a basic bedrock of internal stability for their own lives. They are content that they have a credible set of answers to fundamental questions and can now get on with the rest of life.

It is not difficult to find people who know that they have got to the bottom of truth. These people are often very adept at pointing out that the answers of the other guys are wrong and that we should not be misled by them. I became aware of this when I was quite young. Although I couldn't have identified this at the time I was in fact a teenage philosopher. I had few friends with which I ever discussed what was going on in my head but the thoughts tossed around every which way as I emerged from the security of childhood beliefs and tested everything with the critical cynicism that comes with puberty and growing independence.

Many years later I would come to formulate the search like this: How do I know that what I believe is true? Or let me pose this to you; How do you know that what you believe is true? If you don't care, then you might be better reading another book - anything in the Something for Dummies series would be just fine. I don't mean to derogate that great series of books that has made so many aspects of information accessible to people who otherwise would never get a handle on the subject. But I do mean that we are going to think very hard about fundamental questions in this book and come at them in a new way that may have disturbing consequences. If you want to come for the ride please be prepared to think, to argue, to find new answers, and even to get irritated. Stay with it. No search for good answers ever pleased everyone.

Here is the question again. How do you know that what you believe is true?

In my own spiritual journey I spent many years believing I had an answer to this. This was not a matter of sudden insight, but a slow piecing together of a coherent world view that was sufficiently grounded in biblical scripture, history and experience for me to make it my life's work to share this with others as a pastor and preacher. If you could draw a graph of my growing convictions against time it would look like a bell; at first a gradual climb, then getting steeper until in the top portion of the graph there was a long, flattened out, period of confidence. But the curve descends again to the right of the bell as the certainties of faith were either dismantled or shattered. This descent was, at times, devastating. The perils of descending a mountain are often worse than the perils of ascent. For this reason the mountaineer might well leave warning signs for others who will yet pass this way lest others make the same mistakes.

Before I return to how my teenage philosopher mind worked let's spend a few moments pointing up the relevance of the issue - how to know what we believe is true. I will do so by disparaging some beliefs - but just for the sake of argument. Please understand that. I am not some cowboy sharp-shooter who plans to demolish most of the opposition before the real fight begins.

Take the Mormons, for instance. I have very dear friends who are Mormons. And we seldom discuss truth because, for one thing, neither of us are going to convince the other of anything. So we'll just be friends and let the issues go. I'll admit that when I was a fully fledged preacher I would see Mormons as a kind of sport for an hour of (rather pointless) argument. Here they came on a Sunday afternoon, or even Christmas Day, immaculately suited, carrying smart brief cases, visiting the homes of the neighborhood: missionaries, elders all, no matter how youthful in appearance. Boy, if anyone was totally sure they were right these were the guys. Except, perhaps the Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's another story. You see I have always thought that what Mormons believe is quite potty and that any sensible, thinking person could see that!

However, even before we discuss anything Mormons believe, I cannot lightly dismiss the epic journeys these people made to find a land where they could grow and prosper free of persecution. I cannot fail to be impressed with the architecture and culture of Salt Lake City, and cannot ignore the fact that the Church of Latter Day Saints has reached the place of widespread acceptance in American society: it is just there as a part of the multi-faceted social and religious landscape of America. Put aside the tabloid headlines about red-neck polygamy and you'll find good, stable families earning honest livings almost anywhere you go in our society.

But I still say that what they believe is quite potty! Right now I don't even need to vindicate this, only to show that I respect the people but think they are wrong. Of course it is essential to add they also think I am wrong - which is why their missionaries graciously come around to convert me. We have a stand-off.