Why I Believe Wednesday: Logic

I know that there are some spiritual truths that simply can't be learned by reason alone, but I have to admit that a big part of loving this gospel that Christ restored to the earth is knowing how much sense it makes.  Sometimes it is SO CLEAR to me.  I mean no disrespect to other faiths, or to those who don't believe in God, but sometimes when I learn what others believe I come away wondering how they could settle for not knowing so many things that seem critically important to how--and why--we live our lives as we do...here are some of the things that just make sense to me--truths I literally couldn't believe in God at all without knowing.

1. God didn't create something out of nothing; we existed before this life as sentient beings called spirits, and the world was organized for our needs.  While I DO believe the Lord has knowledge of scientific truths and laws we haven't discovered yet, this whole notion of a "magical" God who just created billions of people and a planet by just speaking the words into thin air is kinda hard for me to swallow.  Equally difficult is the idea that the Big Bang happened (with no clear catalyst) and somehow single-celled beings evolved--on a planet that was coincidentally the perfect distance from the sun to sustain life--over millions of years into human beings like us with complex chemical emotions and curiosity and sometimes inexplicable desires and reason...and our brains!  I'm sorry, but the odds of that happening are waaaaaay less than it simply being by design.

2. The purpose of mortality is to prepare all who will to become like Christ, not just because he's a god and therefore we have to obey, but because it's in the Plan of Salvation that we become joint-heirs with him, as gods ourselves.  I've been pondering a lot (mostly as I drive without any music on) about what the point of commandments would be if we weren't trying to develop godly attributes.  A God who demands such perfection simply because He is God and says so isn't really a God I'd want to follow.  But knowing that there are fundamental principles and laws that the whole universe is ruled by, including foundational spiritual truths, and knowing that the commandments are built upon eternal laws that enable us to grow and develop and reach our fullest potential?  That's a God I can understand and have loyalty for.  Even if you believe God loves His children, without the understanding of what happens after mortality, it all seems more like someone who's on a power trip and wants a billion people to love Him so He feels good about Himself and isn't lonely up in His clouds in heaven forever.  I love knowing that there is SO MUCH MORE going on there, and that our purpose is to become even as He is.  I think we all feel that tug of divinity inside of us, and that desire to always better ourselves.

3.  We have a right, and a responsibility, to question things and to seek personal revelation.  This is probably one of the most important truths of the gospel--the idea that we are each responsible for learning about it and for building a personal relationship with Christ, and that asking questions about things we don't understand isn't a sin.  No one else can keep the commandments for you, and the idea of just sitting in a pew and listening to someone tell you how to live your life without ever experimenting for yourself is kind of foreign to me.  I don't believe in blind obedience, nor do I think God asks it of us.  This is not to say that we always understand everything He asks of us, of course.  But "we are not obedient because we are blind; we are obedient because we can see."  (President Boyd K. Packer).  And we see by asking for ourselves, studying out the gospel in its fullness, and experimenting on the word of Christ.  To expect otherwise of us, again, would seem like someone upstairs is just on a power trip.  Thankfully, the gospel tells us we have the right to know, and the responsibility afterwards to obey, because it will help us become the best versions of ourselves.

I have more thoughts like these, but maybe I'll save them for another Wednesday.  The point is that I don't think I could live without faith of any kind...it would be too bleak, too difficult, too lonely, and, frankly, wouldn't really make sense...there are too many holes and things left to be explained.  And I don't think I could belong to any other faith, either, because their ideas about the nature of God and the nature of man are sometimes too contradictory or just don't quite make sense if you're trying to understand the BIG PICTURE. I am grateful to be LDS, a Mormon, and to know that the gospel of Christ, in its fullness, explains everything and gives a purpose to my life.  And in those moments where maybe I can't see that, I have a thousand other moments where I *did* see, so I can comfortably exercise my faith-obedience, knowing the God in whom I have trusted--and that whatever He requires is right, for a reason.  That is why I believe.