Last week I read about Korhior and the various arguments that people make against God and people who choose to follow him. It made me mad. I know the arguments that people have against religion and religious people and those arguments haven’t changed in over two thousand years. It’s extremely frustrating. This is actually why I postponed email Sunday School and almost didn’t do it altogether.
I find it irritating that the perception is if you are “religious” you’re superstitious or stupid, just following the brainwashed “traditions of your fathers” or the unfortunate childhood teachings of your parents. It’s irritating that people today think that those who have firm values are fanatics, extreme, or inflexible. It’s really naive and close-minded that people assume those who are religious are just dumb sheep following a spiritual leader because they don’t want to think for themselves.
Seeking to be a spiritual person who has divine inspiration and guidance is hard work. If we were in it for the ease of being a lame old sheep and following someone without thinking for ourselves, we wouldn’t be doing this. It’s hard. It takes work. It takes self-reflection and self-correction (repentance) when we recognize a better way. In fact, sometimes things get harder when you try harder to be better. We do what we do because we firmly believe it is right, not because we want to control anyone else, or shame anyone else, or hate on anyone else. We are living according to our own conscience.
Why is this so hard for people to grasp? Following what you know to be right in your conscience and your heart is hard. It’s actually a lot harder than just doing what you want to do, and it’s insulting that people assume that to follow a religious or spiritual leader is somehow brainwashing or lack of intellectual exploration. The people I know who follow God do so for very rational and logical reasons.
Some of the smartest people I know are religious, and I think that the reason they’re religious is because they recognize the order of the universe and how it is extremely unlikely for so many things to fall into place randomly. Smart people recognize they don’t know everything. Smart people follow the scientific method. Smart people experiment upon things for themselves. Smart people try out the various promises placed throughout the scriptures, saying that if we do one thing, we’ll get a specific result.
Smart people experiment with Malachai 3:10, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Smart people experiment on the challenge in Moroni 10:4-5, “4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” There are many other challenges and promises placed throughout the scriptures where God asks us to try it out, try what he’s told us to do and see what happens.
At the end of Alma 30, when Korihor is killed, verse 60 says, “And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord: and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.” Ultimately, it comes down to two teams. Good and evil, right and wrong. God has said he will support his children, but the devil does not support those who follow him. It is to our benefit to learn about morality and right from wrong. It is to our benefit to learn to be able to discern what is right, and what is wrong. It is to our benefit, and to society’s benefit, for more people to do what is right because it is right and because they believe that they are accountable to God rather than just society, who only will punish them if they get caught.
I’ll end with this. “And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.” When people are frustrating, and the world is raging crazily around us, it would benefit us and society to try to help amplify the peace and stillness we are privy to in our lives. So as the world rages around us, perhaps we should follow Alma’s example and try the virtue of the word of God, even though the world has been very clear that it has no interest in truth or the “hatred” that we’re selling.
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