Intellectual arrogance

Listening to a radio program, I heard a college professor being dismissive about the contributions of Jesus and His teachings as well as expressing a very closed minded view about a topic in which he was not an expert and had no personal experience. He had never sought the knowledge or experience to know what he was even talking about but thought himself an expert because of completely unrelated learning. I was surprised by his arrogance. To have never tried even to experiment upon the word of God or to attempt to receive any answer to sincere and earnest prayer or to even try to learn how to feel and recognize the Holy Spirit but still think of yourself as an authority in a field of knowledge and experience which you have not even tried to understand? It goes counter to the supposed scientific method which would require experimentation before arriving at a conclusion. There are religious experts who do have personal experience to validate their beliefs. Simply coming up with a foregone conclusion, without even making a token effort to find out for yourself whether something is true, does not seem very scientific. It also displays ignorance to a basic principle. We have agency in this life. We have the right to choose. God respects our agency. He will force no man to heaven.

"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God." (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/9.28-29?lang=eng#p27)

The experiment to know God is one which can be duplicated. This experiment has been replicated billions upon billions of times from Adam until now. Even before Adam, before the creation, we lived with Heavenly Father. In coming to know God, we are not seeking knowledge of something we don't already know. We are merely seeking remembrance of truths we have temporarily forgotten as a necessary condition of our mortal probation.

"And now Korihor said unto Alma: If thou wilt show me a sign, that I may be convinced that there is a God, yea, show unto me that he hath power, and then will I be convinced of the truth of thy words. But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/30.43-44?lang=eng&clang=eng#p42)

Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee...

God does answer prayer. He also respects our agency. He will force no man to heaven. The experiment to know Him is repeatable and has been duplicated and replicated time and time and time and time and time again. We can validate the results for ourselves. The willingness to perform this experiment, however, is something we each must choose.

There is a reason that the 12 step program for addiction recovery is based on faith in Him. Once we quit wanting what we don't really want, we can choose to accept His help. God loves us and allows us to choose what it is that we truly want. He will force no man to heaven.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/3.19?lang=eng&clang=eng#p18)

If we are willing, God can change us. This is what it means to be born again.

"And it came to pass that when Ammon arose he also administered unto them, and also did all the servants of Lamoni; and they did all declare unto the people the selfsame thing—that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil." (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/19.33?lang=eng#p32)

"And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/5.14?lang=eng#p13)

"And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/5.2?lang=eng&clang=eng#p1)

"And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins. Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart. And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away. And I said: Lord, how is it done?" (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/enos/1.2-7?lang=eng#p1)

Happiness is a choice

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man..." Why does God allow certain things to happen? Why doesn't He intervene and prevent people from suffering and dying due to tragedies and conflict? In order to understand this we need to first understand that there are no surprises to God. He has a plan in place, from before the earth was created, to overcome all of the effects of anything that we might suffer. Next we need to understand that the grace of God is made available to us only if we are willing. This life is a test of our agency. God will force no man to heaven. The effects of anything we suffer need not be permanent. We can be, not only healed, but healed so completely that it will be as if what we suffered never happened. We Can Be Made Whole.

Sometimes we struggle unaided as a deliberate choice, from a prideful desire to go it alone without His help. When we choose to fight Him and His plan for us to be happy, by not allowing Him to heal and help us, He respects our decision. God will force no man to heaven. We often underestimate His power to heal us, and lack the faith to ask for help, because we may not really believe we deserve to be healed. We may want to try to save ourselves or we might think we deserve to suffer as a perverse sort of penance. When we get tired of fighting Him, and we are finally willing to let Him help us, He is there patiently waiting. He knew bad things would happen. He planned for it and He has a plan in place already to overcome it. He wants us to have lasting joy and be completely happy if we choose to allow it. He will not heal us against our will. We have to decide if true and lasting happiness and joy is what we really want.

Some people are addicted to always searching for something, that is missing from their lives, and never being completely whole. They seek it everywhere, sometimes in ignorance, sometimes in defiance, trying to fill that emptiness in ways which never satisfy that need. They are doomed to never being completely happy. Something will always be missing and they will always feel broken. Moments of temporary happiness will not last and they will keep looking to fill a need in ways which can never satisfy that need.

God is the source of all that is good. He is our loving Father and we lived with Him before we were born. He allowed us to choose whether to be born and to follow His plan. If we are here it is because we chose Him and His plan. His plan is designed for us to be happy and to maximize our blessings. We are still free to choose whether to follow His plan. Being born was not the beginning and death is not the end. Birth is just the beginning of our mortal experience to prove to Him and to ourselves that we are willing to follow Him. We get out of life whatever it is that we want. If we want to be happy, God has provided the way. If we really don't want to be happy, God allows us to make that choice. We just have to decide what it is that we truly want.