While most emotions lead to some kind of action, aesthetic experience is purely contemplative and is completely satisfying in itself.

Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 85)

Sometimes a student dedicated to the study of textbooks forgets that feeling plays an even larger role in his life than does reason.  Both the motivation to act and the satisfactions gained from action are felt.  Reason is a good guide and a needed one, but feeling is the dynamics of living.  We love and hate, fear and hope, desire happiness and hunger and thirst after truth and goodness. The feeling aspect of life cannot be gainsaid; it must be fulfilled.  and the arts beckon us to a rich source of deep emotional satisfaction.

Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 84-85)

Descriptive propositions are statements about fact, and are theoretically verifiable by any competent observer as either true, false, or having a certain degree of probability.  Normative propositions are assertions of value: their truth or falsity may therefore legitimately vary for different individuals.  Some of the most serious fallacies in eithical (and we might add scientific) reasoning arise from confusing the two types. 

Neither psychoanalysis nor anthropology is able to answer the questions of ethics.  Values and facts are independent types of meaning, and their relationship should not be oversimplified.

Philip Wheelwright, A Critical Introduction to Ethics

Quoted in Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 66)

The most science can do is to discover the most efficient way to reach a desired result; it can never judge as to the ultimate worth of the desired end.

-Max Weber, "Wissenschaft als Beruf," in Wissenschaftslehre, pg. 540

Quoted in Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 65)

The word objective is almost sacred to the scientist.  Every student should know its meaning.  The antonym for objective is subjective, which means personal.  The subjective world lies within oneself and includes one's feelings, desires, wishes, hopes, longings--one's whole private world, which is quite incommunicable to others.  On the other hand, objective means that attention is centered ont he object outside of the observing mind.  When we think objectively, our whole interest lies in the object that we wish to describe, measure, and observe as an entity in and of itself.  We try to set aside all likes and dislikes, all prejudices, all emotional coloring to behold the object "in the white light of objectivity."

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 57)

Church men realize that the authors of the Bible were not concerned with giving us a scientific view of hte heavenly bodies.  The church never should have become entangled in any particular view of astronomy...To read and interpret the Bible as a textbook in a particular science leads to conflict and confusion; to interpret it for what it was really intended and for what it is--a great record of religious aspiration and instruction--is both interested and inspired.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 48-49)

Science and religion likely are as different from one another as are science and art.  It is when one expects them both to speak the same language and to draw exactly the same conclusions about life that serious conflict arises.  If the scientist, in the name of science, talks about God, immortality, and the ultimate values of life, he is trespassing on the territory of religion and philosophy where he has no legitimate right to be.  If the student of religion, on the other hand, interprets the scriptures as textbooks in astronomy, physics, geology, and biology, he is trespassing in the field of science and is using the scriptures in a way that was not intended by their authors.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 48)

Many of the brethren chew tobacco, and I have advised them to be modest about it.  Do not take out oa whole plug of tobacco in meeting before the eyes of the congregation, and cut off a long slice and put it in your mouth, to the annoyance of everybody around.  Do not glory in this disgraceful practice.  If you must use tobacco, put a small portion in your mouth when no person sees you, and be careful that no one sees you chew it.  I do not charge you with sin.  you have the "Word of Wisdom."  Read it.  Some say, "Oh, as I do in private, so I do in public, and I am not ashamed of it."  It is, at least, disgraceful....Some men will go into a clean and beautifully-furnished parlour with tobacco in their mouths, and feel, "I ask no odds."  I would advise such men to be more modest, and not spit upon the carpets and furniture, but step to the door, and be careful not to let any person see you spit; or, what is better, omit chewing until you have an opportunity to do so without offending....We request all addicted to this paractice, to omit it while in their houses [the tabernacle].  Elders of Israel, if you must chew tobacco, omit it while in meeting, and when you leave, you can take a double portion, if you wish to.

-Brigham Young (sermon, Mar. 10, 1861 in Journal of Discourses 8:361-362; sermon of May 5th, 1870, Deseret News Weekly, May 11, 1870)

-Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (pg. 58)

It is impossible for a single human mind to comprehend all available scientific truth about man's life.  Nor can a single human mind be fully informed on even one scientific approach to the study of man.  our necessarily limited view is not too tragic if we learn to admit it, and if we are humble enough to listen to the views of other specialists.  The tragedy begins when a person with a single view tries to explain the whole of reality from such a narrow base.  It is unfortunate too when one thinks his limited view is the whole view; or when he thinks that because he is authoritative in one field, he is in all fields.  A person, in his blindness, sometimes quite innocently identifies his own view with the whole truth.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 41)

The artist experiences and interprets reality largely through the medium of feeling.  This explains why there is so much individuality in art and so little unanimity in contrast with science, which is based more on thought.  The sensitive, imaginative, creative insight of the artist, while related to thought and based on experience, seems to transcend them both in its apprehension and representation of reality.  Great artists have learned to express feeling and to trust it as a meaningful approach to truth.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 35)

Human life divided by reason leaves a remainder.

-Goethe

-Quoted in Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 21)

Authority is not a way of discovering truth, but is a method of transmitting knowledge gained in other ways.  And no one has the right to be authoritative in any field of knowledge--in science, philosophy, or religion--who has not earned that right by having gained knowledge and insight through reason, experience, or revelation.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 27)

Blind, submissive followers in any field, be it in government, science, or religion, lack the ability to discriminate between truth and error, good and evil, and between the weightier and lesser matters of the law.  They hardly have a soul to call their own.  This kind of discipleship is not befitting a Latter-day Saint.  He believes in giving loyalty and respect to political and religious authority; but at the same time, as a child of God endowed with free agency and the Holy Ghost, he senses his responsiblility to be a thoughtful and whole-souled disciple of Jesus Christ.  he will follow those who have earned the right to be his leaders.  And he will follow them with understanding and conviction, not with blindness or indifference.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 27)

People who accept the truth simply on the authority of others are prone to shift full responsibility to such authority for their own thought and behavior...In religion some people prefer to follow blindly their leaders, who they believe will guarantee their salvation.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 27)

One gains knowledge in four ways: (1) by accepting it on authority of someone else, (2) by thinking, (3) by experiencing, (4) and by feeling which may be called intuition, mysticism, inspiration, or revelation.*

In philosophical language, the classis ways of approaching reality are authority, rationalism, empiricism, and mysticism.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 24)

The search for knowledge is a great adventure consistent with man's need as a child of the great Creator to be creative.  The quest for knowledge, the activity of learning, is as satisfying to the mind as is the final discovery.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 21)

If one of our Elders is capable of giving us a lecture upon any of the sciences, let it be delivered in the spirit of meekness--in the spirit of the holy Gospel.  If, on the Sabbath day, when we are assembled here to worship the Lord, one of the Elders should be prompted to give us a lecture on any branch of education with which he is acquainted, is it outside the pale of our religion?  I think not...Or if an Elder shall give us a lecture upon astronomy, chemistry, or geology, our religion embraces it all.  It matters not what hte subject be, if it tends to improve the mind, exalt the feelings, and enlarge the capacity.  The truth that is in all the arts and sciences forms a part of our religion.

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses (1:334)

"Mormonism" so-called, embraces every principle pertaining to life and salvation, for time and eternity.  No matter who has it.  If the infidel has got truth it belongs to "Mormonism."  The truth and sound doctrine possessed by the sectarian world, and they have a great deal, all belongs to this Church.  As for their morality, many of them are morally, just as good as we are.  All that is good, lovely, and praiseworthy belongs to this Church and Kingdom.  "Mormonism" includes all truth. There is no truth but what belongs to the Gospel.

-Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses (11-375)

Life is a single dwelling, not a duplex nor an apartment house.  One cannot pursue academic learning six days a week and religion the seventh, keeping them neatly tucked away from each other in separate compartments.  The human mind, like the body, seeks to maintain an equilibrium, a functioning of all parts in a harmonious whole.  Man craves wholeness and calls things wholesome which contribute to this ideal.  Therefore, religion must make peace with a man's total life-experience if it is to retain a wholesome place in his living and thinking.  Religion is not something apart from life; it is an integral part of human relations, moral aspiration, and everyday life and thought.

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 8)

The years of college may be compared to a motor trip across a large continent.  While "riding" the student gets a sample of the land's extremes in temperature and elevation, the differences in its soil and vegetation; and with each mile traveled he gets an idea of its immensity; but he doesn't see and feel everything.

But even if he misses many of the details along the highway itself, hemay consider the journey a success if he has obtained an idea of the continent's worth-while features, if he knows what areas he would like to explore later, a nd perhaps the particular place where he would like to make his home.  It is not a success if he thinks, when the trip is over, that he knows the country; or if he takes a side road and spends so much time exploring that he can't finish the big trip.  Nor is it a success if he drives so fast that he meets no people, sees nothing but gray pavement and the cars he passes, and gets an over-simple picture of what the country is like. 

-Lowell L. Bennion, Religion and the Pursuit of Truth (pg. 6)

My religious tenets operate at two distinct levels: that of literal truth and that of metaphorical truth.  I believe that God, Christ, and the Church are literally "true," yet I do not have direct access to these things in the ordinary sense of the term.  Rather, I experience them intuitively, spiritually, "through a glass darkly."  I know, however, that they are true metaphorically, for they function sucessfully in my everyday life.  This combination of believing ad knowing (both of which are relative terms) amounts to a trust that I call my faith.  I readily acknowledge that my faith is a faith; it is not a perfect knowledge.  Indeed, I am content that it is so.  The informed trust that comes with faith can, if it is genuine and well placed, produce a strength and a goodness that could not grow from literal, absolute knowledge.  An earthly example is the power and peace that is a byproduct of a friendship or marriage based on love and trust (faith) rather than on a constant, empiricle, and absolute knowledge that theoretically would verify that the friend or spouse is being "true."  Although there are in fact such things as unworthy friends or disloyal spouces, it is nevertheless impossible to build a healthy friendship or marriage without a deep and lively faith.
-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 257) A Thoughtful Faith

I do not believe the crucial issue is finally, "Will I be sitting in the correct pew when the archangel sounds his trump?"  Rather, I believe God sent me to earth to respond freely, with faith, to the conditions of a sometimes dark and difficult world.  My choices here can either promote ("save") or inhibit ("damn") my progress and well-being.  I believe my highest response to these conditions is to learn something about myself, to learn to love blindly, to serve my fellow beings, to acquire a kind of wisdom that is apparently best communicated through human experience.  I feel as though I am invited by a spirit above me to follow what light I am given, to live productively and authentically, with honor and vigor.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 256) A Thoughtful Faith

I have known people who have rejected the Church because they have overestimated its nature and purpose, and have grown disappointed when the Church did not satisfy the functions that they have privately imposed on it.  Is it possible to overestimate the Church if it truly derives from God?  In my judgement, yes.  Some have misunderstood the Church as an end to be served for its own sake, which is in essence a kind of idolatry.  The Church exists, instead as an instrument through which together we may serve God and His children.  I have heard others express their disappointment by making the unremarkable ovservation that, "I don't get anything out of it anymore."  Though it is certain that most Latter-day Saints could strive more earnestly to reach for the profundities that are accessible through the gospel, it seems to me that such comments as "I don't get anything out of it anymore" in part reflect a loss of vision on the part of the speaker.  When Church members assemble, the idea is at least as much to give as to "get," to contribute as to be spoon fed.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 252) A Thoughtful Faith

None of this, of course, is a threat to the unique role and stature of The Church of Jesus Christ.  It simply reinforces the obvious notion that God loves all people and influences them through many channels.  I have come to see that as a Latter-day Saint I can allow the term "chosen people" to have no room for an elitest tinge.  The deepest meaning of this difficult term is revealed for me in the image of the Christ who washed the feet of His deciples.  Perhpas we are a people chosen to serve people.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 250) A Thoughtful Faith

Given my faith in Christ, I nevertheless could live more or less authentically with or without an organized church.  This, I think, is self-evident.  Joseph Smith's own family for long periods chose to remain nondenominational Christians.  Yet I have come to believe that for most of the people most of th time (perhaps all of the people most of the time) it is better to belong than not to belong to an organized (Christian) church.

I recognize that this is a large assertion, for the institutionalization of anything brings with it certain potential liabilities, because of the very nature of institutions.  In any organized chruch, for example, (just as in any secular organization) there may develop unseemly pressures to conform to a misconceived "orthodoxy."  There may develop an unspoken etiquette, implying that one may rarely talk in public about what he actually feels or thinks, but only about what he ought to feel or think--therby straining "authenticity."  as in any organization, unecessary and unhelpfull restrictions of autonomy may accrue.  Ther may be complacency or exasperating bureaucratic entanglements.  Morover, formal, institutionalized religion may sometimes function as an ironic, distracting buffer between God and His worshippers; the focus may unconciously shift from "servicng god and man" to "doing things correctly."  One will inevitably witness occasional instances of pettiness, unfairness, distateful personalities--"people problems."  Since such difficulties will exist in any large organization that involves human beings, one may therefore be tempted at times to live one's religion apart from other persons, int he peace of solitude.

The profound error in this course of action is demonstrated by the Savior's example.  Jesus did not choose to remain above and apart from human beings.  Instead, He condescended to our condition in order to heal, teach, and serve us.  Indeed, it was precisely in the midst of our imperfections that He found opportunity to accomplish His redeeming work.

With modest effort, after all, one can largely avoid letting a church become a buffer between oneself and God.  And with a little stregnth of character one need only believe what he or she believes.  Moreover, some of the "problems" of religious organizations are themselves ultimately a part of the answer to my central question--"How do I live with meaning and authenticity?"  Indeed, "people problems," not sanitized isolation, are precisely what genuine disciples of Jesus are invited to engage.  Anyone (including a robot) and unthinkingly conform, and anone (including a dog) can rebel and withdraw. The more difficult and worthy accomplishment lies in the Way of Jesus--in meek, but courageous service, in constructive interaction with God's children.

In extended isolation from the worshipping community one is especially susceptible to conceit, to forgetting how much one may learn from other human beings, whatever their station.  Apart from the congregation, one has radically fewer opportunities to serve.  One's ability to love becomes abstract, remote from the life-giving power constricted, academic, emasculated.  In this isolation one is in danger of losing a sharp awareness of collective sin, of group power, and of the resources of community ritual.  It is clear that love, service, and the acquisition of knowledge are better worked out in regular contact with a community to which one feels responsible than in comfortable, unadulterated solitude.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 247-249) A Thoughtful Faith

Among the religious philosophies of the world, I can discover no completely universal answer to my question, "How am I to live with meaning and authenticity?"  However, the three responses that seem to come nearest are these: human beings are invited to love, to render service to their fellows, and to pursue the acquisition of knowledge...These three answers to my question resonate within; they "feel" true instinctively, like worthy answers.  Numerous prophetic figures have given varying emphases to these goals and have themselves pursued them with varying degrees of success.

Now through all of the conflicting claims and bewildering confusion on the planet earth, one knwn thing completely captures my soul and imagination as an actual, historical incarnation of "meaningful and authentic existence"--and that "thing" is Christ.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 244-245) A Thoughtful Faith

At least officially, science is an empirical method.  Its empricism, though essential in its place, restricts itself by definition to ways of knowing that are infinitely too crude to adequately address the question, "How do I live with meaning and authenticity?"  The findings of science must inform but can never give or be the final answer.  For me, as for the Modernist leader Harry Fosdick earlier in thei century, it is something of an embarrassment that our society has "sometimes gotten so low that we talked as though thte highest compliment that could be paid to God was that a few scientists believed in Him."

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 244) A Thoughtful Faith

Whatever I am to make of this life, all human beings are in it together.  other persons and toher cultures must be valued by God; surely they matter no less than I.  Yet their beliefs and values in some ways conflict with mine.  I must deal with this.  I have a great bias toward my own local culture, but I become increasingly suspicious of it as I make contact with the wider world.  I grow wary of such terms as "chosen people."  I begin to understand that genuine truth may have many vantages.  My home town is less unique in God's eyes than I had assumed.  I learn and assimilate relativism.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 243) A Thoughtful Faith

My confession is to acknowledge my awareness of the many linguistic, historical, and theological difficulties that arise as one attempts to analyze such documents as the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon, and also as one tries to take account of the Mormon (or any faith's) past.  Both my professional study and my continuing attempts to conform my private life to the requirements of the scriptures have led me to this awareness.  I have reconciled many of these difficulties, not reconciled others, and have suspended judgment on certain of them.  Most are explicable if one approaches them not from the perpective that the church is essentially divine, marred only by the weakness of human administrators, but rather that the Church on earth consists entirely of human beings (with all their limitations) who are trying to respond to the divine with which they have been touched.  The distinction is crucial, for the second conception is an inversion of the first.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 239) A Thoughtful Faith

I think it is a mistake to attempt to elevate religion by disparaging reason.  I believe my mind to be more a friend than a foe to my spirit, and that God gave me my intellect in the same sense that He gave me my soul.  I believe that "spirit" and "faith" and "revelation" and "reason" can be related, compatible terms.  Joseph Smith implied as much when he said that his revelatory experiences often consisted of receiving "sudden strokes of ideas" from the Spirit and that the "Holy Ghost has no other effect than pure intelligence."  Although it is of course possible to err by intellectual arrogance or to misunderstand rationality as the only important kind of itelligence, I do not believe that it is possible to think too well.  Even if one feels himself to have recieved inspiration, a mature faith ought to be a thoughtful faith.

-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 239) A Thoughtful Faith