Is unbelief curable?

[CardiacCoug]

It is possible (maybe even essential) to believe continuously, but to believe in a different way than one did earlier in one's life. That's how it has been for me, and I think for perhaps the great majority of believers. Beliefs, and one's faith, do mature and develop.

Sure, I think most intelligent believing people move along the Fowler stages (a few are stuck in Stage 2 though ) during a lifetime of continuous belief.

I have often thought that one could view the story of Adam and Eve partaking from the Tree of Knowledge as a metaphor for loss of belief (or at least loss of simple, childlike faith) with perhaps the subsequent need to work and think harder to cultivate continued faith/belief.

[LA Ute]

Sure, I think most intelligent believing people move along the Fowler stages (a few are stuck in Stage 2 though ) during a lifetime of continuous belief.

I have often thought that one could view the story of Adam and Eve partaking from the Tree of Knowledge as a metaphor for loss of belief (or at least loss of simple, childlike faith) with perhaps the subsequent need to work and think harder to cultivate continued faith/belief.

Another way to describe the process is to say one's faith grows deeper, more mature, more multi-faceted and more compassionate with time, investment and experience.

[Ma'ake]

I think it works more like the thesis-antithesis-synthesis model.

People grow up with one set of beliefs, then go through a period where those assumptions are questioned, scrutinized, largely discarded. Then as mortality takes it's toll on their newfound freedom, and the brutal reality of life's finite nature seeps in, they reintroduce faith and meaning beyond the next weekend's party to their lives, in innumerable ways.

Like Arab students who come to the US to experience drink and women and then return to their homeland, some go back to their original flock. I have cousins who've become their parents, after a period of rebellion, and chafe at any mention of the past.

Some switch religions and start over in a new religious tradition. I know many ex-Mormons who now are Protestants, Catholics, even a few Jews. And vice versa. That's what the missionary effort in South America is all about. Reclaiming souls who strayed from their original church.

Many add measures of meaning outside of churches. Many, many have faith in a higher being but steer clear of church houses. This group is very big, and growing.

Some discard traditional western faith and find comfort in the zen-like realization we're pieces of a larger tapestry, that life is far from meaningless, but when you die, you die.

[YOhio]

Good article on this topic.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...ite-my-doubts/

[UtahDan]

Someone linked this today and it made me think of this thread. Lebowski, for your health you may not want to read any further.

http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/05/a...tions?lang=eng

Questioning vs. Asking Questions

There are basically two different ways we can approach our questions. For our purposes here, we’ll distinguish between these approaches by labeling them questioning and asking questions. When it comes to matters of faith, there can be a pretty big difference between the two. The difference has to do with how and why you’re asking the questions, what you hope to gain from them, and where they’ll eventually lead you.

Questioning, here, refers to challenging, disputing, or picking something apart. When it comes to religion, the result of this approach is often not to find answers but rather to find fault and destroy confidence.

On the other hand, in religion, just as in science or anything else worth studying, it’s absolutely essential to ask questions, even difficult ones. It’s the only way you’ll get answers. And answers mean greater knowledge and understanding—and in the case of religion, greater faith and spirituality.

What If Something Doesn’t Make Sense?

As you study and learn and pray, you may come across something that troubles you or doesn’t make sense to you no matter how much you try to understand it. What should you do then?

First, ask yourself, “How vital is this question to my overall understanding and testimony of the gospel?” If you feel it really is important, try as best you can to resolve it, and ask for help from someone you trust, such as a parent, Church leader, or seminary teacher. This process can even be beneficial, as President Howard W. Hunter (1907–1995) explained: “I have sympathy for young men and young women when honest doubts enter their minds and they engage in the great conflict of resolving doubts. These doubts can be resolved, if they have an honest desire to know the truth, by exercising moral, spiritual, and mental effort. They will emerge from the conflict into a firmer, stronger, larger faith because of the struggle. They have gone from a simple, trusting faith, through doubt and conflict, into a solid substantial faith which ripens into testimony” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1960, 108).

If you find that a question isn’t that important, set it aside in your mental “To Be Answered Later” file. Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said that as we “remain steady and patient” through our lives, “at times, the Lord’s answer will be, ‘You don’t know everything, but you know enough’—enough to keep the commandments and to do what is right” (“You Know Enough,” Ensign, Nov. 2008, 13).

Because we choose to press forward in faith even though we don’t have the answer to every question, some people may accuse us of exercising “blind obedience” or of being “anti-intellectual.” Is this a fair claim? Are there some things we aren’t allowed to study or questions we aren’t allowed to ask? Well, no, not really.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once said to a group of young people: “You will hear allegations that the Church is ‘anti-intellectual.’ … You are the greatest evidence to refute such an erroneous statement. Individually, you have been encouraged to learn and to seek knowledge from any dependable source. In the Church, we embrace all truth, whether it comes from the scientific laboratory or from the revealed word of the Lord. We accept all truth as being part of the gospel” (“Begin with the End in Mind,” Brigham Young University 1984–85 Devotional and Fireside Speeches [1985], 17).

[Jeff Lebowski]

Someone linked this today and it made me think of this thread. Lebowski, for your health you may not want to read any further.

Are you referring to this TSM quote at the end?

My faith did not come to me through science, and I will not permit so-called science to destroy it.

Yowza. I wonder what he means by "so-called science".

[BigPiney]

Yowza. I wonder what he means by "so-called science".

Engineering.

[lambdacoug]

Someone linked this today and it made me think of this thread. Lebowski, for your health you may not want to read any further.

http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/05/a...tions?lang=eng

Nothing off limits to study? Just don't question in the wrong way and be prepared to shelf the question...but no, nothing off limits.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Engineering.

Ha. Touché.