I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

I have been circling around God, that primordial tower.
I've been circling for thousands of years
and still I don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?

Rainer Maria Rilke

William James - The Choice & Consequence of Faith

"What do you think of yourself?  What do you think of the world?...These are questions with which all must deal as it seems good to them.  They are riddles of the Sphinx, and in some way or other we must deal with them...In all important transactions of life we have to take a leap in the dark...If we decide to leave the riddles unanswered, that is a choice; if we waver in our answer, that, too, is a choice: but whatever choice we make, we make it at our peril. If a man chooses to turn his back altogether on God and the future, no one can prevent him; no one can show beyond reasonable doubt that he is mistaken.  If a man thinks otherwise and acts as he thinks, I do not see that any one can prove that he is mistaken.  Each must act as he thinks best; and if he is wrong, so much the worse for him.  We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive.  If we stand still we shall be frozen to death.  If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces.  We do not certainly know whether there is any right one.  What must we do?  'Be strong and of a good courage."  Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes...If death end all, we cannot meet death better."

-Fitz James Stephen, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"

Quoted in William James, "The Will to Believe"

I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Neither the new believer nor the new doubter has necessarily progressed or reached enlightenment.  Nor has either one necessarily forced the evidence to fit a preconceived model of belief or doubt.  Rather, every time we turn our hearts and minds in the direction of giving meaning to our experiences, we are merely--and yet profoundly--arranging the evidence into a pattern--the pattern that makes the most sense to us at a given point on our journey.  Evidence does not construct itself into meaningful patterns.  That is our work to perform.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 9

And now, young people, thus anchored in the faith, and thus organized, we ask you to join the organizations in your wards, to heed the advice of the President of the Church, to affiliate with your quorums, with your auxiliary organizations, in your fast meetings, and there in these local groups express your thoughts, express your doubts, seek after the truth, apply measures that will appeal to those of your associates, and when you prove those measures to be effective and satisfying to the soul, then can the central organizations take those measures and adapt them to the whole as a universal benefit. In that way, and in that way only, will progress and efficiency be fostered. Don't stand out on the sidelines, and say, "This quorum is not doing its work," but get into the quorum and help it do its work. That is the way which God intends people to work in this Church, and it offers to you one of the best opportunities in the world.

-David O. McKay, Conference Report April 1934, pp. 23-24.

The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart, to attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles and values and ideals that we devoutly hope are true and which we have reasonable but not certain grounds for believing to be true.  There must be grounds for doubt as well as beleif, in order to render the choice more truly a choice, and therefore the more deliberate, and laden with personal vulnerability and investment.  And overwhelming preponderance of evidence on either side would make our choice as meaningless as would a loaded gun pointed at our heads.  The option to believe must appear on one's personal horizon like the fruit of paradise, perched precariously between sets of demands held in dynamic tension....We are acted upon, in other words, by appeals to our personal values, our yearnings our fears, our appetites, and our egos. What we choose to embrace, to be responsive to, is the purest reflection of who we are and what we love. That is why faith, the choice to believe, is, in the final analysis, an action that is positively laden with moral significance.

Terryl & Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, pg. 4