From the beginning of my career, I was excited at the possibility of exploring all subjects of interest, unrestricted by what I considered an artificial boundary separating religious and moral understanding from secular research and writing. …[more]
Just as our eyes and ears can be saturated in physical sights and sounds, so our souls can be immersed in the pure intelligence of the Spirit. The first, for the most part, teach us of the things of the world; the second, the things of eternity. …[more]
As a teenager, in my free time, I used every free minute in reading every single LDS book I could find. My Yale degree was in Religious Studies, and shockingly, I was an active Mormon (the department had never before knowingly enrolled a Mormon). …[more]
In the early 1960s, around the time I was beginning graduate school, the question of God loomed large for me. Eventually, I found myself drawn toward philosophy and religious thought, ending up in religious studies. …[more]
The relationship between scripture and personal experience operates in both forward and backward directions: not only do the stories of scripture guide daily life but, in addition, what we have lived conditions our understanding of scriptural accounts. …[more]
Every aspect of our chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology is firmly grounded in the common chemistry of life on this planet, but our spirits, which existed before we were born into this life and which leave our bodies when we die, are divine and are what make us human. …[more]
I grew up outside of the Church, in a small town in South Texas. My father was a professor at the local university. Though I was baptized at age eight, there were no Latter-day Saints in that area, so I attended the Methodist Church until my parents divorced. …[more]
Since the days of the prophet Joseph Smith, the LDS Church has consistently held to its position that the world is filled with truth, although there is also clearly much that is not true. The responsibility of the Latter-day Saint is to “receive truth, let it come from whence it may.” …[more]
I have found the teachings of the Church to be profoundly deep, and on many levels of spiritual and intellectual thought. The great minds of the Church have opened my mind and raised me to a greater level of understanding and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. …[more]
From the beginning of my professional career, I have deeply contemplated the integration of my spiritual beliefs into my professional life. As I have matured in both, the two have merged, reinforced each other, and become somewhat indistinguishable. …[more]
I learned from the time I was a very small child to view human experience as richly meaningful and therefore sacred. I learned to place great faith in the revelatory power of words—both the words of scripture and words carefully rendered from human experience. …[more]
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of my theism. In 1990 I was an angry autodidact in semi-rural Utah, reading Sartre and announcing my agnosticism to audiences both willing and unwilling. …[more]
As I reflect on my witness of the gospel and church of Jesus Christ, I find it anchored in one of several spiritual gifts spoken of in the Book of Mormon, that of “an exceedingly great faith.” …[more]
As a scientist I am happy to conduct research on factors that contribute to violent and aggressive behavior. Hopefully my research will help make the world a more peaceful place to live. …[more]
I am always asking why I believe. I have sympathy for questioners because I am a questioner too. Settled as faith is in my own life, I understand why people doubt. I see in questioning something deeply religious as well as deeply human. …[more]
The book I have studied most intently is the Book of Mormon. I first read it as a teenager and have read its powerful passages dozens of times. As an inquisitive scientist, I have always been one who liked to study and understand the background for every subject. …[more]
How does the thirteenth child of a Chinese Buddhist mother and an Evangelical Southern Baptist father become a believing Mormon? The correct answer is “By the Grace of God.” …[more]
I was cognizant, once again, that the Lord has provided skeptical but reasonable people—if they approach the Gospel sincerely and authentically—with all of the evidence they need to develop a testimony for themselves. …[more]
Although I remained proud of my religious heritage, my certitude about being a member of God’s true church receded. But as I toyed with disbelief, the warm memory of undeniable spiritual experiences in my past pulled me back, and I rediscovered God’s tender mercies. …[more]
I worship Jesus Christ as my Savior and best example. I want to be as much like him as I can. …[more]
