Note from the author: I was asked to give a sacrament meeting talk in 2024 on the subject of “If there is a conflict between reason and faith, how is it resolved?” I thought the research and insights I came up with would be of interest to the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep audience, so I’m posting it here. Enjoy!

I have been asked to speak about how to reconcile any perceived conflicts between faith and reason. Spoiler alert, I believe any perceived conflicts of that nature are just that, a perception but one that ultimately is not reality. I think ultimately, in the eternal scheme of things, any apparent conflicts between faith and reason will be reconciled. I think that reconciliation will come through a greater understanding of Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation, and a truer understanding of nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement.

If there is one thing that I hope you take away from my talk today is that it’s okay to have conflicting thoughts and feelings about your faith. You can have questions about gospel principles and practices, and even see imperfections in the church members around us, without losing faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel.

In preparing for this talk, I read dozens of church articles and thought of just as many stories and examples to address the question of how does one resolve conflicts between faith and reason. In analyzing the material I gathered, I realized my findings could be summarized in these three ways:

1. Serious Study
2. Honest Inquiry
3. Trust in Truth

Serious Study means we should delve deep into the issues that appear to conflict and take God up on His invitation to reason together. Honest Inquiry means to have an open dialogue with friends, church leaders, and your Heavenly Father about your questions and concerns. And Trust in Truth means having confidence in what you know, placing faith in God for the unknown, and believing your effort and patience will be rewarded in the end.

1. Serious Study

God Says “Let Us Reason Together.” Faith and Reason Can Coexist.

In both the Bible and modern revelation, God invites us to “reason together” with him indicating that faith and reason can coexist harmoniously. Reasoning with God is a way to deepen understanding and resolve doubts.

In D&C 45, the Lord says, “10) with him that cometh I will reason as with men in days of old, and I will show unto you my strong reasoning. 11) Wherefore, hearken ye together and let me show unto you even my wisdom.”

And in D&C 50, God says, “10) And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit, unto the elders of his church, and let us reason together, that ye may understand; 11) Let us reason even as a man reasoneth one with another face to face. 12) Now, when a man reasoneth he is understood of man, because he reasoneth as a man; even so will I, the Lord, reason with you that you may understand.”

Complex Issues Require In-Depth Study

In our world of sound bites and news clips, people’s attention spans tend to be much shorter than they were years ago. Deep understanding of gospel principles and historical issues are unlikely to be found in a Tik Tok video or social media meme. In fact, superficial investigations of complex issues can often lead to misunderstandings and drawing false conclusions. The English poet Alexander Pope mentioned this in one of his famous his poems that goes like this:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. (1)

Shallow Gospel Knowledge Combined with Worldly Philosophies Leads to Confusion

Sister Sheri Dew, a former counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, echoed that sentiment when she said, “Often the root cause of the confusion some have about the gospel comes from the combination of a steady diet of the philosophies of the world juxtaposed against a superficial understanding of the gospel. The combination is spiritually deadly.” (2)

Hugh Nibley Was A Great Example of Serious Study to Resolve Conflicts between Faith and Reason

Former BYU professor Hugh Nibley was one of the deepest thinkers and in-depth scholars of the scriptures and the restored gospel. He was a prolific author and wrote countless books and articles supporting the church and the scriptures from an archaeological, linguistic, and historical perspective. He was known as one of the greatest defenders of the faith and he was simultaneously also known as one of the greatest critics of the church. According to the LA Times obituary, Nibley was a “gadfly who defended his faith yet openly criticized what he saw as many members’ conformity and materialism.”(3)

Nibley was a great example of using serious study and in-depth knowledge of the gospel to reconcile perceived conflicts between faith and reason. He didn’t shy away from potential conflicts between faith and reason, and he was always faithful and loyal to the living prophets.

2. Honest Inquiry

Honest Questions are Part of Building Faith

In 2015, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “Addressing honest questions is an important part of building faith, and we use both our intellect and our feelings. The Lord said, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart.” (D&C 8:2) Not all answers will come immediately, but most questions can be resolved through sincere study and seeking answers from God.”(4)

It’s Natural to Have Questions but Doubt Your Doubts Before You Doubt Your Faith

In a 2013 talk, Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency spoke directly to members of the church who have doubts, like those who find conflicts between faith and reason. To those with doubts he said, “It’s natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. There are few members of the Church who, at one time or another, have not wrestled with serious or sensitive questions. One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture and cultivate the seed of faith—even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true.”

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”(5)

God is Perfect. Church Members and Leaders are Not Perfect.

In that same talk, Pres. Uchtdorf said, “to be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the Church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine. I suppose the Church would be perfect only if it were run by perfect beings. God is perfect, and His doctrine is pure. But He works through us—His imperfect children—and imperfect people make mistakes.”

Pres Uchtdorf reminded us that even the ancient prophet Moroni reminded us in the title page of the Book of Mormon that the scriptures may contain imperfections. “And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.”

We Counsel Openly and Respectfully with Each Other in the Church

Elder M. Russell Ballard, formerly of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gave a general conference talk a few years ago called Counseling with Our Councils. In it, he said: “For the past eight and one-half years I have served as a member of a council of twelve men. We come from different backgrounds, and we bring to the Council of the Twelve Apostles a diverse assortment of experiences in the Church and in the world. In our meetings, we do not just sit around and wait for President Howard W. Hunter to tell us what to do. We counsel openly with each other, and we listen to each other with profound respect for the abilities and experiences our brethren bring to the council. We discuss a wide variety of issues, from Church administration to world events, and we do so frankly and openly. Sometimes we discuss issues for weeks before reaching a decision. We do not always agree during our discussions. But once a decision is made, we are always both united and determined.” (6)

I think those same principles of open and respectful communication apply to all levels of church councils and even to interactions between members and leaders. Honest Inquiry means to have an open and respectful dialogue with friends, church leaders, and your Heavenly Father about our questions and concerns.

Open and Direct Dialogue to Figure Out What’s Right

In a 2007 interview, President Henry B. Eyring made a similar comment about the open and direct dialogue in church councils when he first began to have meetings with general authorities. He said: “here are the prophets of God and they’re disagreeing in an openness that I had never seen in business. In business you’re careful when you’re with the bosses, you know.”

Pres. Eyring then spoke about the miracle of these strong willed and opinionated people coming together in unity. He said “Here are these very strong, very bright people all with different opinions. Suddenly the opinions began to just line up and I thought, ‘I’ve seen a miracle. I’ve seen unity come out of this wonderful open kind of exchange that I’d never seen in all my studies of government or business or anywhere else.’”

He concluded: “We can be open. We can be direct. We can talk about differences in a way that you can’t anywhere else because we’re all just looking for the truth. We’re not trying to win. We’re not trying to make our argument dominate. We just want to find what’s right.”(7)

And that honest pursuit of eternal truth leads to my final point.

3. Trust in Truth

Like Cleaning the House, What We Know will Always Trump What We Don’t Know

I often ask my kids to do a chore—clean the kitchen, tidy the living room, etc.—and as soon as they get to work on it, they gravitate to some obscure, out of place item. They will then come to me and say they don’t know where to away this obscure item. In such instances, I always tell the kids, “Don’t start the cleaning with the things that you don’t know where they go. Start with the things that you do know where they go. Tackle the harder to place items after putting the easy things in their place.” Often, by the time they put away the things they know, it becomes obvious where the harder to place, obscure items can be put.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared a similar principle with relation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, “what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith. So be kind regarding human frailty—your own as well as that of those who serve with you in a Church led by volunteer, mortal men and women. Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we. And when you see imperfection, remember that the limitation is not in the divinity of the work.” (8)

Believe Even When You Can’t See. Believe in God, Even When He Is Silent

There is a town in Germany called Cologne and it has been the home of a Jewish community for thousands of years. During the Holocaust of World War II, the Jews in this town went into hiding or were imprisoned and faced horrible persecution. In the aftermath of the war, there was a poem found, inscribed on a wall of a cellar in this town. The poem went, in part, like this:

I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining
And I believe in love,
even when there’s no one there.
And I believe in God,
even when he is silent. (9)

God is silent on some questions of faith and reason, but I still believe in Him and in His Son and in the plan of salvation. I don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that even when the sun is obscured by clouds or by the dark of night, that the sun is still there, and it will rise. I don’t know all the answers to the questions of faith and why God has allowed things to unfold the way they have here on earth. But I do know that God lives, and that His Son Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that God called the prophet Jospeh Smith to translate the Book of Mormon and restore the Church and the Priesthood power. And I know that as we enter into sacred priesthood ordinances and fulfill our covenants, we will be supremely blessed now and in eternity.

Patient Waiting on New Information Will Often Be Rewarded with Understanding

Trusting in God means having patience and trusting in his timing. Sometimes it is a long time, years, before knowledge surfaces to establish truth. I have found many examples where God has let some apparent conflicts between faith and reason go hundreds of years before being resolved. Here’s one example.

In 1884, an author named Clark Braden criticized the mention of Laban’s sword from the Book of Mormon being made of steel. According to him, it was “a notorious fact that the Israelites knew nothing of steel for hundreds of years after” (10) the time of Nephi and Lehi. In the 1800s, the church had no answer for this critique.

By 1957, the situation hadn’t gotten any better for people of faith. In that year, another critic named Thomas O’Dea stated, “Every commentator on the Book of Mormon has pointed out the many cultural and historical anachronisms, such as the steel sword of Laban in 600 B.C.” (10)

Faithful church members still had no answer to these critics, but as often is the case, new discoveries shed light on the subject. By 1977, archeological evidence of steel in the middle east before the time of Lehi and Nephi began to come forth. In 1987, archeologists unearthed a long steel sword near Jericho dating back to the late seventh century B.C., long before the time of Lehi and Nephi.

“For a hundred years historians considered the Book of Mormon’s reference to steel (1 Nephi 4:9) as anachronistic. Today however it is apparent that blacksmiths were steeling iron hundreds of years before Nephi’s mention of it.” (11)

Elder D. Todd Christofferson, commenting on this new information about steel and the Book of Mormon, counseled members struggling with similar doubts. “Where answers are incomplete or lacking altogether, patient study and patient waiting for new information and discoveries to unfold will often be rewarded with understanding.” (1)

Time Vindicates the Book of Mormon

Matthew Roper, a Research Scholar at Brigham Young University, has documented over 200 unique accusations of anachronisms or supposed historical inaccuracies in the Book of Mormon since it was first printed in 1830. Again, these are items that, at one time, the church had no answer for, on issues ranging from weapons that were thought to be out of place, to things like plants and animals native to the Americas.

However, as Elder Christofferson said, patient wait for new information and discoveries has paid off. By the time of his research in 2019, Brother Roper found that 70% of those so-called problems with the Book of Mormon have been confirmed to actually be true, 10% are like to be true, and only 20% are still unconfirmed. (11)

Said Brother Roper “There are still issues, questions, and criticisms of the Book of Mormon which have not been verified. But new information and discoveries show that many critics have grossly underestimated the Book of Mormon. … Many things in the Book of Mormon account once considered wrong or absurd can be verified and shown to be accurate or trending toward verification in the future. Because of this, there is reason to believe that further faith, and patience, and diligent attention to the Book of Mormon will continue to be rewarded by those who are willing to invest the time and effort to do so.” (11)

Testimony Will Always Remain in the Realm of Faith

Still, there are inevitably aspects of the scriptures, church history, or doctrine which will not be explainable or understandable to the rational mind. And I believe that is intentional on God’s part. I believe that part of the purpose of this life is to learn to walk by faith.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, formerly of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, “All of the Scriptures including the Book of Mormon will remain in the realm of faith. Science will not be able to prove or disprove holy writ. However, enough plausible evidence will come forth to prevent scoffers from having a field day, but not enough to remove the requirement of faith. Believers must be patient during such unfolding.” (11)

When Knowledge is Perfect, Faith is Dormant. Until then, Faith is Required.

A couple of week ago, in our family and church scripture study for Come Follow Me, we read the famous sermon of the prophet Alma about faith. He compares the word of God unto a seed and encourages us to try an experiment, plant the seed, nourish it and see how it grows into a tree of everlasting life. Then he says something interesting—he points out that if we had a perfect knowledge, we wouldn’t need faith.

Alma 32 says “33) And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good. 34) And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant; and this because you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand.”

I have experimented on the word of God and found it to be good. That is what I mean by trust in the truth you know. I certainly don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that God lives, He loves us, and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior and Redeemer. I know the scriptures are true, that Joseph Smith was God’s prophet of the restoration, and that we have living prophets of God on the earth today.

Conflicts between faith and reason are inevitable, but as we apply these principles of serious study, honest inquiry, and trust in truth, I know resolution and reconciliation will come. Ultimately, it is Jesus Christ, through His infinite atonement, who will reconcile us unto God and bring us home to the celestial kingdom of Heaven. And I leave that testimony with you.

Sources
(1) Brigham Young University – Idaho (BYUI) Devotional Speech by Elder D. Todd Christofferson
(2) Dew, Women and the Priesthood, 158.
(3) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-mar-02-me-nibley2-story.html
(4) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/10/faith-is-not-by-chance-but-by-choice?lang=eng
(5) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng
(6) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1994/04/counseling-with-our-councils?lang=eng
(7) https://www.arisefromthedust.com/henry-eyrings-eye-opening-experience/
(8) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng
(9) https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9812347-i-believe-in-the-sun-even-when-it-is-not
(10) https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/blog/2013/06/17/labans-sword-of-most-precious-steel-howlers-5-2
(11) https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/conference/august-2019/time-vindicates-the-prophet