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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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:Each of us should pursue...truth by reason and by faith. And each of us should increase our ability to communicate that truth by an inspired combination of the language of scholarship and the language of faith. | :Each of us should pursue...truth by reason and by faith. And each of us should increase our ability to communicate that truth by an inspired combination of the language of scholarship and the language of faith. | ||
− | :I am confident that when we progress to the point where we know all things, we will find a harmony of all truth. Until that time, it is wise for us to admit that our understanding--in religion and in science--is incomplete and that the resolution of most seeming conflicts is best postponed. In the meantime, we do the best we can to act upon our scientific knowledge, where that is required, and always upon our religious faith, placing our ultimate reliance for the big questions and expectations of life on the eternal truths revealed by our Creator, which transcend human reason, "for with God nothing shall be impossible" ({{s||Luke|1|37}}).{{ref|oaks.55- | + | :I am confident that when we progress to the point where we know all things, we will find a harmony of all truth. Until that time, it is wise for us to admit that our understanding--in religion and in science--is incomplete and that the resolution of most seeming conflicts is best postponed. In the meantime, we do the best we can to act upon our scientific knowledge, where that is required, and always upon our religious faith, placing our ultimate reliance for the big questions and expectations of life on the eternal truths revealed by our Creator, which transcend human reason, "for with God nothing shall be impossible" ({{s||Luke|1|37}}).{{ref|oaks.55-60}} |
=={{Endnotes label}}== | =={{Endnotes label}}== | ||
− | #{{note|oaks.1}} {{Book:Oaks:Life's Lessons Learned|pages=55–60}} | + | |
+ | #{{note|oaks.1}} Dallin H. Oaks, "[http://newsroom.lds.org/article/fundamental-premises-of-our-faith-talk-given-by-elder-dallin-h-oaks-at-harvard-law-school Fundamental Premises of Our Faith]," address to Harvard Law School, ''Newsroom'' lds.org (26 February 2010). | ||
+ | #{{note|oaks.55-60}} {{Book:Oaks:Life's Lessons Learned|pages=55–60}} | ||
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Critics claim that faith and scientific knowledge are incompatible.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
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It is important to keep in mind the difference in purpose between science and the Gospel. The purpose of science is to examine the characteristics of the world around us in order to more fully understand it. A main purpose of the Gospel is to teach us to develop faith. Unfortunately, the acquisition of scientific knowledge is sometimes perceived to destroy faith. The purpose of faith is to help us understand spiritual things, just as science helps us to understand physical things.
The exercise of faith sometimes seems to require a direct contradiction of what we "know" to physically be true. C. Terry Warner, a professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University, expressed this issue well when he said:
Faith sometimes allows us to perform tasks that are beyond the scientific knowledge of our time. The very definition of faith is that it has to do with things that we cannot know in any other manner. The confirmation of this knowledge is supposed to come after we demonstrate faith.
Once we have received a confirmation of our faith, it becomes knowledge. Consider the experience of the Brother of Jared:
The problem that arises when attempting to reconcile religion and science, therefore, is that we feel that we have acquired knowledge that sometimes appears to contradict what faith would require us to believe. This knowledge "short circuits" our attempt to exercise faith. Henry Eyring explained it as follows:
In a talk entitled "Fundamental Premises of Our Faith," Elder Dallin H. Oaks told the Harvard Law School of "The three-fold sources of truth about man and the universe: science, the scriptures, and continuing revelation..."[3] Latter-day Saints respect the truths that science can reveal about our earth and universe but we also treasure God's word as found in our scriptures and modern revelations. Understanding how these sources of knowledge and truth complement each other can provide wisdom and comfort to all those that search them diligently by the Spirit.
Elder Oaks would write elsewhere:
== Notes ==
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