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This is going to be somewhat incoherent because I’m tired, so I apologize. Religious institutions have long recognized that when people are learned, they have a greater possibility of abandoning the faith. So why does the Church make such a push for members to pursue higher education? Is it that the brethren are confident that anything we learn will only support the idea that the church is completely true? In my case that simply wasn’t true. In fact pretty much every thing that led me to my current faith journey I learned as a student at BYU-I. They completely threw out the traditional general education classes a few years ago and replaced them with their own specialized ‘foundations’ classes that were often inter-disciplinary and added a spiritual element. The Science 101 class there now basically goes over all the big controversial issues like evolution, origin of the universe, and the age of the earth. They take the approach of simply presenting the evidence of whyscientists believe those theories, but avoid forcing you to accept one interpretation over the other. It was a great class and resulted in my conversion to the theory of evolution. 
Do you think the church will have more and more problems with people leaving as the church membership becomes better educated?
First question — why does the Church push education when it can lead to faith issues? GBH said they like education because it improves people’s capacity to serve in the Church. That really did not sit well with me at all when I heard that. I thought it would be because it often enables people to earn more money, enlightens the mind, and often breeds higher character (although not the only means to that last end) and blesses the lives of families. To hear that it was self-interested by the Church to have its members get education really did not sit well with me.
SEcond question — does education breed faith issues?
I would say not necessarily. There is enough uncertainty about what is true beyond this life, that what really matters is the individual’s faith. I’ve heard many educated people say their education strengthened their faith. And I’ve seen lots and lots of poorly educated people lose their faith for a host of non-academic reasons.
Overall, there are multiple studies that say quite clearly that Mormons as a whole are the most educated of all Christian denominations, behind Jews and atheists, interestingly. Every study I’ve read says that members with at least a Bachelor’s Degree are more active as a group than those with only a high school education – which, again, is unique within Christianity.
Fwiw, speaking now strictly as an individual, not backed by statistics, I’d say that there are certain college majors that appeal to people who will end up having to nuance their own faith in some way and to people who are more non-conformist by nature than others. The Fine Arts, in general, fit this category, imo; Business does not.
I love Greg Prince’s quote that only truth can promote true faith. We must always recognize the possibility that our best understanding may fall short of ultimate truth, but in my mind as long as we are searching for more truth we are getting closer to God. There is a whole other discussion about the traditions of our fathers vs. expanding understanding of truth, but if we can set aside our biases and fears and simply say “wherever truth is, there is God” and have the courage to follow our noses — I say we are doing right. This is precisely why I appreciate our doctrine of continuing revelation. It says to me our understanding will change as our access to truth slowly increases. Human nature is naturally resistant to change, thus as our doctrine has been interpreted based on our fathers social framing and weakness – there have crept in some of these misunderstandings that suggest spiritual understanding can remain largely stagnant.
The problem is not truth or education, the problem is our expectation that we already had a full comprehension of truth. There are obviously other issues – such as the impression that evolution promotes atheism. There is in my mind two forms of evolution: 1) Divinely directed, and 2) Godless. In the history of our church only #2 has been denounced.
This is going to sound paradoxical at first, perhaps, but the more educated one is (speaking generally, not individually) the more experience one has with re-evaluating assumptions and beliefs – the more one is able to alter / modify / etc. That means that it’s easier to deal with a faith crisis, since an extreme, black-and-white perspective with no history of modification shatters (truly shatters and becomes un-fixable) when held by someone without the ability through educational training to make adjustments much more easily than when held by someone with that ability to alter and mold an individual outlook. Funny Ray — I’m both — not an Arts degree but a musician and a creative thinker. But I have degrees in various business and management areas. Guess what’s dominant in this man’s thinking! Could simply be a more educated member is less reliant on the church. It makes sense to get members as much training as possible so the can contribute and not be a drain. Old-Timer wrote:the more experience one has with re-evaluating assumptions and beliefs – the more one is able to alter / modify / etc. That means that it’s easier to deal with a faith crisis
I think you are on to something here Ray. One thing that comes to mind is historical issues. To take an example outside of the church, many people are shocked when they learn that Thomas Jefferson and some of the other founding Fathers owned slaves. We never learn these things in school, because in order to keep things simple for middle school and high school students, they cover history with a large brush and don’t really don’t tackle the nuances of historical characters, or explain the culture and practices of the time period. Experienced historians are able to look at historical figures, and still have a great deal of respect for their character even after knowing all their flaws. I think a big reason for that is
becausethey are more educated. They know that history is complicated and nuanced, and they know better than to judge 18th century men by 21st century standards. I think the same type of things can exist for a lot of fields of study. A good education is the best preparation for facing the reality of a complex, non-black-and-white world.
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