How do you know truth?

I'm preparing for my final this week. Taking this class on ancient Greek and Roman literature has been very interesting. Over the past three months, I've read The Iliad and The Odyssey both by Homer, The Aeneid by, Virgil, and The Nature of the Universe by, Lucretius. We also had to read some more modern articles published in the last decade by Philosophers.

 In order for my professor to get his doctorate, he did almost ten years of study and research in Philosophy. It's the same field of study Joseph's best friend, Ryan, entrenched himself in. My opinion is that it's best to tread cautiously in that area of study - it's a broad wide road, easy to get lost in. I feel like too much Philosophy is why Joseph's friend ended up leaving the church.

With some of the things my professor has said to our class, I can't help wonder if his faith is fading too. We all have trials of our faith and go through the seemingly "dark moments of our life" where we feel as if no Divine ear is listening.  My professor is a great guy, anyone can tell. And he has openly expressed that he doesn't know anymore if there really is a God. He'd like to believe there is but wonders how can anyone really know. He questions, maybe there is something after death, maybe there isn't? Maybe we just die and sleep an endless sleep?

I honestly can't say for certain if my professor was asking these questions just to stir up discussion or if his faith really has been rattled from all his secular learning? I can't say but if this is what he truly believes then it's heartbreaking for me to hear... especially at BYU.

We just finished reading Lucretius in our class. Lucretius believes that when we die, that's the end of it, no heaven - no hell, just a disbursement of all our physical atoms back into the earth and air. Anything that we can truly know must be felt through our physical senses somehow, otherwise it doesn't exist.  At the end of this book, our professor asked the class what the students thought of it. There was a long drawn-out silence. No one knew what to say.

Finally, I raised my hand in front of our 130+ class of students and said,
"I appreciate very much the things Lucretius taught concerning kindness, humanity, community, and his big push to abolish human arrogance and pride. However, one question I'd like to raise with ancient Lucretius and many modern Philosophers is this: They all talk about knowing through the five physical senses, that this is the way to understanding and truth. But I want to tell them that our souls are made up of the Spirit too, that part of us that has lived longer than our physical bodies, we can and must know things through the sixth sense, through our Spirit, through prophesy and revelation. Lucretius and others may question the existence of God because they have not personally seen Him, But what about those through time who have seen God, who have seen the Savior, who have spoken with Him face to face. Are we to say that it never happened because we weren't there to experience it for ourselves?"

My professor was respectful to my question, he didn't discredit it or argue, he just let it be there. He's always been good about letting everyone share no matter how different their opinion might be. But there wasn't much further discussion after my comment and he wrapped up the class pretty quickly.

All of this happened only yesterday in class so, it has been pretty fresh on my mind this morning.

In my Book of Mormon study today I've been reading through the first few chapters of Helaman. I noticed these lines in verses 11, 12, and 23 of Chapter 4: "[11]Now this great loss of the Nephites...would not have happened had it not been for their wickedness and abomination which was among them; yea and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God... [12]it was because of their... making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation...[23]the church had begun to dwindle: and they began to disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation."

The timing for reading this could not have been more perfect! I don't think it's a coincidence. I cannot emphasize enough what a blessing it is to open the scriptures and receive truth, to have this affirmed to my mind the importance of seeking the Spirit, no matter how strange that may seem to some. I'm grateful for the privilege it is to have this Gospel in my life!

On that same note, I'm so proud of my husband for being able to stay strong, even though his best friend has been trying to do everything he can to "enlighten" Joseph and "save him" from our "foolish traditions". I know it's because Joseph makes an effort every single day to study the scriptures, to pray and seek the spirit, to write his impressions as he studies, that Joseph has been able to not only withstand these attacks from his old friend, but remain civil, treating his old friend with genuine respect - all the while remaining steadfast and unshakable in his own personal testimony.