What is truth?

Elder Bednar recently gave a talk titled "Sweep the earth as with a flood." In this talk he invited us members to use the internet to clear up any misconceptions about the church, spread the truth and to testify boldy of Christ. I am gladly accepting Elder Bednar's invitation. I consider myself a seeker of truth, and I hope you are too. I have an order of how I determine truth.

1) Personal experience

My Mission President always said our experiences create our beliefs. I couldn't agree more, because no one can take away something you've experienced.

2) Prayer

I feel god can help you feel truth as you pray, but first you must study it out. D&C 8:2

3) Scriptures

I believe that the ancient prophets saw our day and they've given warnings to those who will search the scriptures.  " Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing." - Mormon 8:35

4) Others experiences

In the scriptures the prophets boldly testify of seeing Christ and or angels. If one makes the same claims, but I'm not positive they had that experience, I would rate them maybe a 3.5. It's definitely worth listening to what they have to say. It doesn't hurt if they can make a lot of sense of what is going on today and use scripture. We shouldn't be so quick to write off anyone's experiences that doesn't fit with our belief system. I ask that you don't write off mine. We do this sometimes due to something called Confirmation bias. This is where we search only for information that supports our preconceptions, but ignore contradictory evidence.

In this blog I will try to avoid absolutes. I acknowledge there's a possibility my conclusions are wrong, but at the same time there's the possibility that they are right.Truth should always be able to back itself up. We have to look at multiple points of view to find real truth.

.   "I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken."  -2 Nephi 9:40

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32

"And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie."  -Ether 3:12

With that being said I invite you to study with me and we'll see if we can find truth together. I'll be sharing some of my experiences and insights with you to see if it can help you in your search for truth.