“It
is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
accepting it.”
-Aristotle
I’m a member of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (I’m a Mormon.) Years before I went to college,
people much older and wiser than I in my church circles would often warn me
that once I head to a University, I’d better be careful and stay true to my
beliefs. They’d warn me to live my standards even when I wasn’t living with my
parents anymore, saying things like “remember who you are” and “remember what
you stand for.” They’d also often (kind of humorously) monologue about how
“blasted liberal” professors would be, and how hard it would be to maintain any
sort of conservative, Christian values during “those crucial college years” and
such. I didn’t think much of these comments, seeing as college was quite far
off for me. But as it turns out, nothing is ever as quite far off as you think.
So here we are at the all too soon now.
I’m an undergraduate student, studying English Literature and Philosophy. I
still get the same “remember who you are” comments that I’ve received for
years, but due to my choice of study, they are accompanied by more specific
comments. Often, when I tell church friends what I’m studying, they immediately
say something along the lines of “Oh, be careful with that stuff!” or “Don’t
leave the church!” or “Well, just make sure you’re studying those scriptures
too,” as though the fact that I study Liberal Arts (or whatever) automatically
implies that I must also be struggling with my testimony of the gospel I’ve
grown up with, or that I will soon start to re-evaluate that gospel entirely and
turn to completely contrary theories. When I first began to be on the receiving
end of such comments (so basically when I declared my major), I was a little
bothered. It’s one thing to tell a fourteen-year-old girl that when she goes to
college in forever and day she’d better live her standards and stay true to her
religion, but it’s another thing all together to tell a nineteen-year-old girl
that the subjects of which she is passionate about could presumably lead her to
not just confusion about her religion, but anti-religion entirely.
Now, we can make fun of the uber
strict, religious person that would be wary of ever studying anything even
slightly contrary to religion all day. We can also be critical of religious
people that may be far too quick to judgmentally assume the spiritual down fall
of a church going girl simply due to her choice of college major. But let’s
not. Instead, let’s consider where people are actually coming from (a sadly
uncommon activity) because really, these comments come from the most loving
kind of well-intention. They are meant to be warnings and advice rather than
judgmental assumptions. I’ve also come understand that such advice is entirely
legitimate—it seems to be in fact trendy for a college student to abandon their
“restricting” and “simple-minded” religious belief system once they learn of the
hard facts of life on a university level, perhaps particularly through a
Liberal Arts education. But I’d like to point out to both the advice giver and
the student that such abandonment of religion needn’t be assumed and needn’t be
done. Specifically, and bluntly, the advice giver needn’t assume that all
Liberal Art studies are immoral and degrading, and the Christian student
needn’t abandon Christianity to study philosophies contrary to it. In fact, if
anything, studies of various ideals reconfirm the truth in the beliefs of the
faithful.
I feel that
sometimes people have this idea that Liberal Arts, specifically Literature and
Philosophy, are full of immoral messages. It is as though they read of the
immorality in The Great Gatsby and
think that Fitzgerald was promoting such vulgar and obsessive behavior, when he
was obviously telling a story that honestly portrays the consequences of good
and evil, as well as by-standing in between. Such people may hear any word,
phrase, or argument against their beliefs and immediately feel as though they
are being attacked. I hope to in no way discount the idea that this is a better
way to live than entertaining ideas contrary to one’s beliefs for many people,
but I do hope to point out that studying ideas contrary to one’s beliefs in no
way ought to diminish them. In fact, in 2 Nephi 2:11 of the Book of Mormon, it
says that there must needs be
opposition in all things. With that in mind, according to basic philosophical
logic, considering the opposite of a belief if anything reconfirms the
truthfulness of a belief—if all things must have opposition, and this thing
does, it must be a true thing. To make this perhaps clearer, doesn’t it often
seem like every true, good thing in life is challenged by some sort of
opposition? It’s a universal law, it’s nature—there must be opposition.
You’d think that universal laws
wouldn’t be so difficult to accept, but this concept can be hard to grasp,
specifically when sitting in classes that teach everything contrary to what
you’ve always believed in a way that, at least logically, makes perfect sense.
I sometimes feel as though I am forced to question and then reconfirm everything
I believe so often that I should be wondering if I even really believe it. I
worry that all the pieces of advice and all the warnings I receive from worried
unsolicited advice givers are more like prophesies, as though I am doomed to
lose faith because of what I study (dramatic, I know, but thoughtful or
something). I promise that this needn’t be the case. Questioning is not the
equivalent of doubting. On the contrary, questioning is a way of showing more
interest and greater desire to learn. I am very encouraged by Jesus’ words in
the Sermon on the Mount “ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find” (Matt 7:7), the key word being ask.
We must question; we must ask. I would even say that religion is all about having
questions to find answers to. In fact, the entire restoration of Jesus Christ’s
gospel started with a boy asking a question! Questions are the basis of
religion because, as we went over earlier, you must have questions to be able
to find the opposite—truthful answers.
Funny enough, questions are the basis
of Liberal Arts as well, such as, for example, Philosophy. Without questions,
philosophy couldn’t exist, let alone be at all relevant. Philosophers crave
answers because they have questions. Jesus Christ Himself, among many things,
was a philosopher—and quite a radical one at that. Think about it—a King will be born in a Stable, a virgin shall give birth,
the meek shall inherit the earth, etc. It all seems so contradicting and
implausible (just the type of thing a philosopher would love to think about,
yet so many seem to deny before giving it one true thought). “True thought,” in
its purest religious form, can’t be attained without faith. How unfortunate it
is to be limited to philosophical arguments to prove everything you believe
when faith is the source of ultimate proof. One simply can’t prove the existence
of God or a Savior with an argument—They and Their gospel are beyond the
limiting structure of an argument for truth; They are truth itself. And from
upper division philosophy classes to Sunday school, Their truth is manifest in
all things. I’d urge everyone to live as a true artists, true philosophers, and
true children of God, and find it.
“He
who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer.”
-Socrates
