Quote:
Originally Posted by DrumNFeather
When we say, "I know the church is true" we are, in essence, saying that we believe that everything that Joseph Smith said happened happened. We are saying that the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our religion is true. President Hinckley even outlined this in a conference talk by saying (and I'm going off of my memory here) "If what Joseph Smith said happened didn't happen, then everything else is irrelevant." He goes on to testify that it did indeed happen, and that because of that, everything else (the BOM, the Priesthood etc) is relevant.
When I bear testimony of the veracity of the Book of Mormon, it is, in part, due to thoughtful prayer and consideration I gave it some years ago. I know the Joseph Smith story. I've read the testimonies of the three witnessess, I believe them to be true. As such, I have a testimony that they are true...and yet I've never held gold plates, I've never seen God or Jesus Christ, and I've never had any number of the experiences he did...yet I believe.
Modern day testimony is based on the idea that these events were facts in Joseph Smith's life. He experienced them, he showed the plates to other witnesses. As a believer, I have to trust that what he says and what they say are true. But if someone were to ask me for proof or evidence, I could not provide it...and neither could anyone else.
My point was simply that when coming to a testimony, if we base it soley on facts (i.e. proof that these people existed, a tangible item, or even DNA) then we are skipping an essential part of having a testimony in the first place; Faith.
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But "faith" and "testimony" have different meanings; they represent different degrees of knowledge and belief. I know how LDS use the word testimony, but it's engendered a culture of "fact," "knowledge," and "proof" when what religion is really about is "faith," "belief," and "hope."
I've never heard a Catholic say, "I know the Catholic church is true." It doesn't make sense. Other Christian religions don't have to go out on this limb. All they say is "I believe Jesus died for my sins" or similar, and that's good enough. Mormons think they have a monopoly on truth, and they've put their eggs into that basket with the whole "If Joseph Smith is false, the whole shebang is false" mentality. Nobody is all true or all false. It's a precarious position, to claim to "know" things that we just believe very strongly.
So, we end up with fiascos like Ferguson's digs in Mexico, or the pictures of Maya buildings at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. As SIEQ notes above, the church powers-that-be might be shifting away from these bold claims, but it's going to take awhile, and it will never go away as long as we continue to employ the rhetoric of fact in a discussion on faith.