We Need No Proof

It's fun when your classes come together to create a higher, sythesized education. I'm taking the 2nd half the Book of Mormon from a Professor Charles Swift, who in my opinion, is a great man and a great teacher. He is unafraid to take on the more intellectual issues that arise in our minds and hearts as we read the Book of Mormon. He brought up an interesting point a couple of class periods ago that relates in a way to the article by Bushman we read for Professor Holzapfel's class. He said something to the effect that there was physical proof in the world to prove the validity of the Book of Mormon, but Church members and leaders alike don't like to highlight this evidence. When he said this, I immediately thought of the studies and discoveries I'd heard about. I had noticed that physical proof played a sort of back role.

Of course there are several scholars, some mainly nicknamed apologists by non-Mormons, that have studied, researched, and published on physical proofs they have found. Bushman joins this number with his writing on the government of the Nephites and the dissimlarities between it and the American government, using this as a sort of proof that the Book of Mormon is no creation of Joseph Smith or another man's imagination and bias. I, myself, find he brings up several good points, but I continually find myself going back to my thoughts from Swift's class.

The fact of the matter is that we need no proof. At least not physical proof. The proof we need is personal and non-sensory. It's a proof that does not come to our senses but to our spirits through the Holy Ghost. It isn't some kind of supernatural occurence either. Actually, quite the opposite is true, I believe our spirits yearn for the feelings and whisperings of the Spirit that remind us so much of our pre-Earth home--the place we long to return to. It is natural, peaceful, quiet, and real. Discernible. Light.

Yet, in a material world, we cannot help the desire to find proof with our eyes or with our hands. I have sought such proof before. I have never as yet found peace or solitude when seeking for such proof, I always feel more lost or confused until I realize again that I have had proof, regardless of if I had seen an angel or the hand of God. It is then that I like to read Alma's words to Korihor:

"Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." (Alma 30:44)

These peer-reviewed studies have their place, but compared with the faith and the understanding we gain from the Spirit, their place is rather low. I sometimes wonder if others believe that we Mormons( or any other religion for that matter) believe that we rely on this sort of physical proof to keep our minds at ease. I think I could see where they get their arguments from. I think the best advice I have for myself and other Latter-day Saints is to fear God more than man, for while man may have the right to judge you by the law in this life, no one but God has the right to judge you by the law after this life.