The Gospel as A Working Model

Hello everyone, just thought I would share a few thoughts I’ve had recently as I’ve been trying to work through things.

It has started to occur to me that in the end being right is not the most important thing. In a book I read recently, the author mentioned the atom and how the models we create of it are not accurate. Whatever we visualize in our heads about the appearance of an atom is probably wrong. So why do scientists use models at all if they fall short? Even though the picture in your high school textbook of the atom that looks like a solar system is “wrong”, it serves an important purpose. It gives you something concrete you can wrap your mind around and it helps you understand several properties of the atom in a simple way. I’ve seen alternate models of the atom where it is portrayed as being more of a cloud. This is still not accurate, but helps to portray certain other properties. These models are not to be confused with the real thing. As you learn more about the nature of the atom, you will develop a more nuanced view, but the model is still useful.

I think the doctrines of the church are the same way. They are a working model. They probably do not fully represent reality. But from a practical standpoint, they are incredibly helpful. I know I kind of flip back and forth every few days on my feelings about staying in the church, but as I’m starting to thing about things from this perspective, I really think I can make things work. I keep thinking about a lot of sayings of Jesus, that we must humble ourselves and become as a little child, etc. I think this experience is my Abrahamic moment, to see if I’ll lay the thing most precious to me on the alter. In this case my intellectual pride. This isn’t a matter of ignoring reason and following blindly again. It is a matter of choosing to be humble and choosing to follow the gospel, recognizing every step of the way that we see through a glass darkly, that our knowledge isn’t perfect, and that church leaders make mistakes. I just feel like the benefits that will come from stripping myself of pride will far outweigh those that will come from “being right”.