Testing God

I have to start with a disclaimer.  Science is pretty cool.  It gives us a way to understand many aspects of the world.  What's more, it's proven to be very flexible.  However, it's not really the best tool for everything.  For example, while modern machine learning systems are pretty decent at determining of a book is any good, that's a kinda stupid way to measure the quality of a book.  We've got a whole field dedicated to literature that has developed far better tools.  The same goes for art.  Why would I let science tell me if a piece of art is good?  My point is this, we can use the scientific method to draw conclusions and support hypotheses about God.  It works, but it's not really the best tool for the job.

Ok, on to the point.  My wife wrote a post on Facebook recently, and in a comment that followed was the following:

How are you sure that it’s God that is leading you, and not you attributing your intuition to God?

I’ve heard some people say that learning to trust God is like a science— we can test him and learn to trust him over time. What seems to be the difference to me, is in true science, we predict an outcome, and base our assumptions based on the realization of that outcome. For trust in God, we wait for the outcome, and retroactively attribute the premise to God.

These comments were not addressed to me, but I know the author well and I'm sure he'll welcome my input as well as hers.

First, I must challenge and reverse the first and simply pose the opposite question.  How are you so sure that your intuition is the result of your own intellect, and not simply a gift from God?  In suggesting that inspiration is simply intuition, you seem to ignore the possibility that intuition is, in fact, inspiration.

Now, on to the second statement.  I think that those who say learning to trust God is like a science are fools.  As stated earlier, we can certainly measure such claims scientifically, but there are better methods.  What's more, I agree with him that the argument is often weak.  As he implies, all to often people only "measure" God retrospectively.  And, frankly, it is fair to say that it is easy to manipulate oneself into a position in these cases.  So, how do we learn to trust and hear God?  Alma tells us all about it in Alma Chapter 32.  He describes an experiment, but it is not a scientific one.  It’s all about feelings (though I would argue that is not the same emotions, though we often seem to teach that it is).  In any case, I would encourage reading his guidance.

Nonetheless, I shall indulge those who would prefer we measure God scientifically.  There is no shame in this.  It is imprecise, but reliable.  I can’t answer for why billions of people believe differently than me and are sure God agrees with them.  However, I can speak about my own personal experiences, and why I cannot dismiss the confirmations I have received from The Spirit.  Denying the reality and reliability of inspiration in my own life would require far more mental gymnastics than believing in it.

I would say 90%+ of inspiration cannot be measured.  For example, some time ago my wife and I felt strongly that we needed to move our family.  So, we prepared, left a home we had just finished remodeling after 5 long years of construction, left friends and family we loved and miss, and left a town we will never forget.  Can I ever prove scientifically it was the right thing to do?  Nope.  We have a great life here, and have had lots of experiences we wouldn’t have.  But that’s all easy to justify in retrospect. 

So, can we ever measure revelation scientifically?  You bet.  When inspiration includes an actual prediction about the future, we can measure if that prediction comes true.  The more detailed the prediction, the less open to interpretation the results.  If we do this consistently, over time, we’ll have a large number of measurements to draw a conclusion from.  Have I ever had such experiences?  Yes, I have.  Have others?  You bet.  So, let’s talk about the results.

I will share two personal experiences, and one of an ancestor.  I could share many more, but most are too personal or too sacred to be comfortable sharing in this format.

The first comes from early in my marriage.  My wife had been experiencing an aggravating health issue that kept recurring, again and again.  She’d get healthy for a time, and then it would come back.  We’d finally had enough of it, and so we decided to opportune the Lord.  We prayed to know, “is it your will to take this away”.  After gaining confidence, by inspiration, that God was indeed willing and desirous to heal her, we turned to the next challenge – a blessing.  I’d given plenty of blessings by this point, but never one where I knew going in that I intended to heal someone.  We fasted and prayed, and then I gave the blessing.  As I spoke, words I did not intend nor want to speak came to my mind.  “You will be healed of this, and it will never again beset you” – or something along those lines.  I fought it.  I didn’t want to make such a bold pronouncement and risk being wrong and thereby hurting my faith and that of my new wife.  Nonetheless, I relented and spoke the words.  She was healed within days (not that miraculous), and in 14 years of marriage, she has never again had that condition return (very miraculous).  To this day I fight with doubts that someday it will return and I’ll not know what to say.  14 years I’ve struggled with such doubts.  And for 14 years, I’ve had my faith strengthened by the continuing fulfillment of that blessing.

The second is much different.  In 2016 (I think) my wife and I were asked to join the 4^th year young women on a backpacking trip.  One day to the base camp, one to scale the peak, and one to return home.  One of the girls that joined us was lagging far behind the others, so Heather and I (and one other girl) held back with her.  This hike is notorious for terrible thunderstorms that roll in like clockwork about 1-2 every afternoon.  As the day hike is almost all above the tree line, these storms are life threatening.  Thus, you head out early, and do all in your power to be off the mountain before the storms move in.  Well, we got out late, and we had a straggler.  About half way to the top it became clear that we wouldn’t make the summit at our current pace, so we split up.  About ¾ of the way to the top it became very clear this girl wasn’t going to make it, and the three of us with her would miss out too.  I wanted, badly, for her to have this victory, and I believed God wanted it too.  So, I prayed as I walked.  “God, I want her to make it, and I believe it is your will.  Will you confirm this to me?”  With time, such confirmation came.  Then my prayers changed.  “God, I’ve been entrusted with the safety of these girls.  I can already see the storm moving in.  We don’t have time.  If we put our faith in you, will you hold the rain?”  This prayer, too, was repeated as we hiked on.  Eventually, I felt strongly that I had my answer.  It wasn’t a voice, it was simply an assurance.  “If you, all of you, will unite in your faith, I will hold the rain until you all return to camp.”  And so, needing the added faith of the whole group, I set out ahead to enlist the prayers of the girls who had, by this point, reached the top.  Then, I set back down again to join the Heather and this one girl.  Slowly, we got her to the top.  By this point it was already almost 1:00, the clouds were fully formed, and short the assurances of God, I would have been terribly worried.  At this point I had told 4 other adults and all the girls (8? Maybe) that God had promised to hold the rain for us.  Talk about intimidating.  And, to be honest, I was worried. There was plenty of doubt.  What will these girls think if it starts to rain on us?  Worse, what if someone gets hurt because I trusted a “voice” that wasn’t real.  So, yes, even in some of my strongest moments, I’m full of doubt.

Ok, so let’s pause for a moment.  First, can we measure this prompting?  Yes.  Second, is the prediction unlikely?  You bet.  If you’ve ever lived in the Rockies, you know how these “monsoons” work.  That rain was coming, and coming fast.  Finally, is there ambiguity in the measurement?  A little.  What if it started raining, but no lightening?  What if it was just raining softly?

Ok, so what happened?  Well, the main group took off down the mountain as quickly as possible.  Heather, myself, and this one girl took a slower steadier pace down.  And the rain kept threatening.  Being totally straight, I think I felt at least two or three drops on the way down.  Who knows, maybe it was a few dozen.  Again, and again, I reassured my two companions, “God will hold the rain, but when we hit that camp, it’s going to unleash.”  Well, guess what?  We made it down.  Within 30 seconds of reaching camp and our shelters, that storm let loose.  Torrential rain, lightening, wind, it was amazing.  No where near the worst storm I’ve ever seen, but certainly nothing I’d have wanted to be out in, much less above the tree line.  This was probably 3:00 or so, maybe later.  In any case, much later than normal for the afternoon storms, and much later than the storm moved in the day before or the day after.

Looking back, I’m still amazed that God loved this one girl enough to hold the storm so she could learn that she could do hard things.

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must say there has been one exception to this pattern in my life.  One time when I was confident God had spoken to me, and the message did not turn out as I expected.  I once gave a blessing in which I made a proclamation that appears to have been false.  I felt very strongly about this proclamation, and it persisted even after I initially dismissed it.  I struggled, and continue to struggle with this.  I cannot explain it.  I have some theories, and they will be proven out with time.  But, in the meantime, I choose to wait patiently for the understanding to come.  The preponderance of evidence requires that I not dismiss the vast majority of experiences for the one exception.

Final story, and I’ll keep this one short.  My 6^th (I think) great grandmother’s aunt is Marie Madeline Cardon.  At 6 or 7 years old she saw a vision of three men.  She felt, at the time of the vision, that she must look at them as she would see them again some day and might remember them.  One of them spoke and told her he was a messenger from God sent to share a message with her.  They then taught her a great deal, and vanished.  Years later her father was visiting a nearby town and heard three missionaries preaching the same concepts she had been taught.  He hurriedly fetched her and upon seeing the men she confirmed they were the men from her vision.  The family soon converted to this new faith and eventually sailed to join the saints in America.

Here again, the vision was easily testable.  The claims were far from vague, and precisely measurable.  Not only did she recognize the men, but they taught the very message she heard in hear dream.  Either she is lying in her memoir (why?), experiencing significant false memories (perhaps the details, but surely not the overall story), or she indeed saw what she claims, almost a decade before it happened.

So, herein lies my faith.  I’ve learned to recognize a source of knowledge in my life.  It is different than my emotions, and different than my “gut”.  Over the years, I’ve learned to distinguish between the three relatively well, though plenty of ambiguity remains.  With that one exception, in each measurable case where my confidence was high that I was hearing from God, the results have been conclusive.  Thus, I have determined that I can trust this source of knowledge.  Or rather, I have now enough confidence in it that I choose to trust it, or rather Him.  And there you have it, my scientific support for the voice of The Sprit.

How, I wonder, do the doubters explain such things?  Plecebo effect?  Some mysterious capability to subconciusly detect barometric pressure and predict weather?  Perhaps pure coicidence?  Or do they, like the believers, choose to focus on the narratives that support their position, and dismiss those that don't as mysteries yet to be understood?  I welcome your comments from either side of the discussion.