Chapter 3: Faith and Reason

Reason is a process of logically examining beliefs and supporting evidence in order to reveal information in the form of relationships of cause and effect between actions and outcomes.

In briefest terms, reason asks: Given what you want, are you doing the best you know to achieve it? What are you doing? Is it the best way you know to obtain what you say you want? Honestly asking these questions yields a more accurate understanding of possible outcomes, effective paths to them, and honest accountability of one’s behavior, thoughts, and desires.

If you are honest, you are probably noticing that the process of reason is far more involved than your typical approach to life. In fact, what is described here may overwhelm you.

Most beliefs held in this world were not intentionally or logically formed. They never graduated out of the desire phase. They were formed without sufficient reason and maintained beyond the point where sufficient reasons to disbelieve them were given.

Normal people take a passive approach to belief—one that applies only the lightest reason, or perhaps none at all. Normal people do not pay attention to what they do, could not give good reasons for why they do it, would likely lie if they did, have not honestly evaluated other approaches to the outcomes they seek, and actively resist superior positions when made available to them.

A master painter can create awe-inspiring works of art that are more colorful than most people can even imagine. One does not become a master painter by simply picking up a brush and mindlessly slapping paint onto a canvas. Life is significantly more complicated than painting, and yet most people assume that, somehow, we can create masterpiece lives by simply bumbling through the vast space of possibilities before us.

Overwhelming or not, your ability to extract value from the abundant possibilities before you in life will be limited to your ability to reason. The importance of reason, as defined here, is underscored in the scriptures— though the word wisdom is used in its place. There are far too many serious invitations to obtain wisdom sprinkled across scripture than can be quoted here.

The wiser a person becomes in this life, the greater the value they place on wisdom. Wise Solomon used his great resources to figure out the true worth of everything under the sun:

3 I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
4 I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:
5 I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
6 I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
7 I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
8 I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
9 So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
12 And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. (Ecclesiastes 2)

What Solomon found was that the things that normal people desire (money, romantic relationships, beautiful scenes, music, etc.) were nothing but “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Solomon spent more time and money than you will have in this life in evaluating the value of things. He found that wisdom was worth more than all of these. Perhaps he was onto something.

Reason is the toolset for gaining understanding. Only through reason can someone gain an idea of what is right, why it is right, and what it is worth in comparison to other beliefs.

Reason is the ability to mentally evaluate the accurate cost and benefit of potential outcomes of future actions based on information acquired through thought, study, learning, and experience. It is also the tool we use to evaluate how well previous actions matched expectations, and to enumerate changes in beliefs, desires, or actions as suggested by the observed results.

Reason and desire

Desire answers the question of what you want. Reason tells you why you want it. Through reason, you enumerate the space of possibilities and estimate the value of each alternative. You collate and analyze the reasons to believe and disbelieve these possibilities, the putative paths you posit will deliver them, as well as the basis behind your estimate of their value.

Beliefs are not meant to be whimsical or based only on desire. Peter said:

...be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1 Peter 3:15)

To the degree that a belief is not backed by reason, it will lead the holder to outcomes less beneficial than would otherwise have occurred, impede possible improvement, and prevent them from learning from mistakes.

God created humans to act—to intentionally design and choose coherent courses of action—not to be acted upon, or limited to whatever outcomes they are handed in the form of beliefs detached from any reason for holding them. Beliefs that are based on desire and not backed by rationality cause the holder to be acted upon. Desire without reason, by definition, is not an action of intent, but a passive reaction.

A lack of reason will cause a person to desire things that are ineffectual:

He that wanteth understanding will think upon vain things: and a foolish man erring imagineth follies. (Ecclesiasticus 16:23)

You can’t know what will improve the most without reasoning through your options. You must attempt to figure out the cost and the benefit of each course of action. While this sounds mechanical, it is not only an act of great faith, it is a key component of the faith cycle.

By applying reason to the experiences of others and to your own, you can come to a more accurate valuation of outcomes, and that valuation can motivate you to desire things of greater worth than what normal people desire.

Desire without reason is worse than worthless. Desire without reason is the fullness of the baseness of fallen man. When coupled and exercised in their fullness, desire and reason are the propellant that will lead a person to eternal life. Reason alone is insufficient to do so, but reason never exists alone. It will always generate desire, and, unlike the default desire of mankind, desire from reason will lead a person to improvement and greater good to the extent they practice it.

Reason is not passive or emotive. It is active, intentional, deliberate, and logical. Reason reveals truth, which is immutable and transcendent. The truth doesn’t care how you feel about it, nor whether you even correctly understand it. Truth simply exists. How much we will act so as to discover and live according to more of it is our choice.

Reason rests on the assumption that you value truth more than anything else. Without truth as your highest ideal, reason will always be merely some shade of rationalization. Rationalization starts with a fixed desire and finds reasons to justify that desire, typically while ignoring plausible reasons that contradict that desire.

Reason is not rationalization. Honest reasoning requires that you are willing to change your desire.

Reason in the faith cycle is concerned primarily with discovering reality—things as they really are—while desire deals primarily in how we wish reality to be. Wishes have their place, but that place is not in reason, except as far as they motivate us to act in ways we otherwise would not to find and follow the pre-existent paths in reality that lead to outcomes we desire. Even in this case, ruthless reconciliation to reality is required to successfully obtain what we seek. If you have reason to believe that some ideas, situations, or people will detract from your goals, you must contend with them. Simply pretending they don’t exist will prevent you from obtaining what you desire.

Reason will root you in reality. Reason will help you be honest. Honesty is not an arbitrary quality. Because honesty is a measure of alignment with truth so far as you understand it, and because the truth determines relationships of cause and effect, honesty is also a measure of how effectively you are working towards outcomes you desire. Any degree of dishonesty indicates a person is intentionally deviating from what they believe is necessary to obtain what they desire.

Desire serves well as a priming force for reason. Desire can impart momentum to action in a way that is difficult for most people to muster through reason alone.

Desire can’t give you certainty. Desire is a feeling , not a fact. Reason takes a person from desiring to believe to actually believing.

Desire is fickle. No matter how intense, desire can never be as powerful a force for enduring as reason can be. No matter how intense it is, a desire can be undone instantaneously and unpredictably through the arrival of another potentially arbitrary emotion. A desire’s power stems from its intensity, not its goodness or substance. While emotions can be exceedingly powerful, there is no requirement that they be based whatsoever in reality. For example, imagine the pain you would feel to hear a loved one died, even if the news was—unknown to you—untrue. The intensity of emotions is not based on the degree of accuracy of the information generating them. In contrast, you can’t have logical confidence beyond the strength of the underlying reasoning. A strong rational reason cannot be undone without either superior rational reasons or dishonesty. Reason locks into improvement and can only be honestly undone through finding something better.

All honest reason leads the individual closer to God. Every good thing imaginable here on earth—no matter what it is—will lead you closer to reasons to believe that seeking Jesus is the core foundation of everything that matters here, and to the only place where all good things are found and endure.

Gaining confidence through reason

Faith rests on the strength of confidence—confidence far stronger than anything that can come from mere wishing or mere desire. Consider this powerful, universal promise:

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:24)

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (Mark 9:23)

`Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth. (Mormon 9:21)`

Unfortunately, this promise does not apply to those who have less than perfect confidence:

...without faith you can do nothing. (D&C 8:10)

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (James 1)

It isn’t possible to have such unshaken confidence based merely on desire. It isn’t possible to have complete confidence in what you are asking without any reasons to believe.

If you are wishing, you are not exercising faith. If you are guessing, you are not exercising faith. If you don’t know what you want or what it will take, you are not exercising faith.

Confidence comes through gaining and reconciling to information. Gaining faith requires gaining information. We read that the ancients had great faith because of their efforts in searching and obeying God’s recorded word:

Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea. (Jacob 4:10)

2 ...they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.
3 But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God. (Alma 17)

Faith requires looking into every resource you have at your disposal to search for understanding of the subject:

`Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. (D&C 90:24)`

This includes everything in the scriptures, as well as all good books and people you have access to.

Faith means daring to dream of outcomes that would otherwise not happen, searching for a path to obtain them, and exercising both obedience to the path and sufficient effort to obtain them. If you have not bothered looking into resources that you have the means to investigate, how can you expect God to show you what to do?

Desires are not fulfilled merely because we really want them. You can’t merely wish something were true and still manage to exercise the complete confidence necessary to obey God’s commandments. You can’t overcome ignorance or incompleteness with desire. You have to become: you actually have to know and you actually have to act.

The Lord cried in agony for the Father to spare him death on the cross:

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. (Mark 14:36)

Surely, if it were possible to have your desires fulfilled just because you want them fulfilled, the Father would have granted Jesus’ request.

Jesus said: “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) All things are possible, but not in all ways. This is one reason why desire alone is not enough. Desire must be coupled to the effective actions that lead to obtaining the fulfillment of the desire. Reason is the only means whereby those actions can be discovered and a significant source of the motivation to complete them.

All outcomes have a path to obtain them. Unfortunately, the path to what you do desire usually includes actions you don’t desire. In other words, the gift almost always comes in packaging that you won’t like. You can usually have what you want or do what you want, but you can rarely have both. Reason is the only way you can objectively measure whether the outcome or the path is more important to you through logical examination of the value of the outcome and the cost of the path to reach it. Valuation of outcomes through reason will update your desires, showing you what you really want. Reason will show you what is worth the actions it requires. It will also resolve the frustration that comes when you erroneously think you want multiple mutually exclusive outcomes.

Reason, uncertainty, and knowledge

Many allegedly faithful people mistakenly consider faith and reason to be opposites. They will say things like “we just have to take it on faith” to explain something they do not understand. This isn’t faith at all!

One obstacle to understanding faith is our misunderstanding of certainty. No matter the domain, we are too prone to considering ideas as final. Ideas are estimates—mere snapshots of the continuum of understanding.

Too many regard faith as something that is rare and difficult to obtain because it seems difficult or inappropriate to act absolutely confident in the face of uncertainty. Disabusing ourselves of the myth of absolute confidence is necessary before understanding faith and reason’s role in it.

The truth is that everything you believe is uncertain. Uncertainty is inescapable. Everything you believe is either incorrect or incomplete. Confidence is a gradient without a positive absolute: you can have zero confidence in something, but you can never have perfect confidence in it.

Confidence is a question of the strength of your reasons for belief, not a question of whether you have discovered some final truth, of which there is no such thing. The only things that are final are those things that are past, and even then, our understanding of them can be infinitely incorrect or incomplete! Until something has happened, our beliefs regarding it can only be regarded as estimates, no matter how confident we may be about them. It is possible to be extremely confident and still be dead wrong.

As evidenced by the many things you are confident about, it is possible and fruitful to be confident about things in spite of uncertainty.

Spiritual matters and temporal matters alike share the same properties of certainty, though most don’t seem to realize it. It is rare to find anyone who invests the same effort of intentional reasoning in spiritual matters as they do in temporal ones. While most people are quite foolish in their assumed surety over temporal matters (assuming that their lives are as good as they can be, or that they are right about a great many things), some few are unusually humble, willing to assume that they are wrong and that there are others who know much more than they do about life. Yet, for some reason, even those unusually humble in temporal matters typically fail to exercise the same humility in spiritual matters. The difference between faith and knowledge isn’t in one’s effort in applying reason. The difference is that faith pertains to the future, and knowledge pertains to the past.

Doubt is a condition where what is right, or what benefits the most, is unclear. We are told that this is a condition that the faithful never need to endure:

For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. (Moroni 7:15)

Enumerating and quantifying the pros and cons of an idea and comparing it to alternatives is sufficient to make what benefits the most as clear as daylight is from night.

However, this comparison process is limited to both the degree of information you have and your interpretation of it. The existence of information and interpretation beyond what you are aware of creates a condition called uncertainty . Although most who consider themselves faithful would disagree, certainty is a position that is diametrically opposed to the faithful.

Certainty is a state of finality—an assurance that the thinking has been done. But those who have faith understand that there is always more information, and always a better interpretation of it. Most people who use the word “certainty” really mean “confidence.”

Confidence means to have conducted sufficient action, observation, and reasoning to conclude that a particular idea or relationship of cause and effect is true or a particular action is most beneficial.

The faithful possess the right to be supremely confident in all that they do, no matter how bold or courageous or unlikely or, frankly, crazy those actions may seem to those who do not possess the reasons or the interpretations they do.

Confidence can be small, such as when a theory has many plausible alternatives, and the supporting evidence for any one is not vastly superior than that in favor of another. Confidence can be great, such as when volumes of evidence exist to support a putative relationship of cause and effect, or when the net benefits of a course of action are enormous compared to any alternatives. Confidence, however, can never be perfect.

Confidence is a term that is permanently rooted in the perspective of the individual who holds it. It is never transcendent. Every assertion confidence can provide comes with the disclaimer: “given what this person has thought and experienced.”

The closest outcome to certainty is when an expected outcome is obtained in the expected way. Even then, one’s interpretation of events could be incomplete or incorrect. A baby could think that milk comesfrom crying, an incomplete idea even though milk does come after crying. A shaman could think that rain comes from dancing, an incorrect idea, even if it sometimes rains after they dance.

Uncertainty is commonly used as a synonym for doubt. However, it is a very different idea at higher resolution. Uncertainty means the absence of certainty, which can happen at any degree, yet uncertainty does not mean that there is insufficient reasoning and evidence to suggest a clear winner among options.

Put another way, there is always more information beyond what you know about and have access to, and what is right is only ever right according to the subset of information you possess and your interpretation of it. This is always true, and it is the reason you will never be able to categorically and finally list what is right and what is wrong.

Faith doesn’t provide certainty. Rather, it provides a way to act in confidence amidst the otherwise debilitating, yet unshakeable, truth that all things are uncertain. This ability to act under uncertainty is critical, because it is through this very action that more information or better interpretation is gained. To resolve doubt, one must engage in reason and action. Reason and action will also increase certainty, though unlike doubt resolution, this is a process that is never-ending.

Reason and action, in concert, are the only way to gain confidence. Reason alone can’t dispel doubt—doubt is only resolved by faithful action, when outcomes become indisputable past events. Action alone can’t provide plausible explanations of cause and effect; only reason provides understanding.

Reason works in conjunction with other actions. Thinking requires a supply of information through action. What happens in the mind depends on your interactions in the world. Each plays off the other, and neither can do its job in isolation.

Many people pray for increased confidence: to have courage to do what is right, or knowledge to know what is right. Prayer is a wonderful example of the many actions that one can take to dispel doubt and move towards certainty. However, not all prayers are equal. Some can be interactive conversations that yield new information revealed or recalled through the Holy Ghost. Most are not. Some can be intentionally and carefully structured inquiries that work through reason. Most are not. Some can be brutally honest admissions of true motives that would otherwise remain deeply hidden. Most are not.

Even good prayers are typically not enough to generate confidence. Jesus himself said:

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17)

He did not say “pray so that the Father can show you everything you should do before any action on your part.”

It is wrong to pray and ask God for certainty. It is right to search faithfully, including through prayer, to think and act so as to move towards certainty. If you want bold answers from God, the only way to get them is through honest, open-minded reasoning and bold action.

Faith is confidence in what has not yet occurred based on processes in the mind: reasoning based on information and past observation, but not yet proven through experience. Faith pertains to future events. The difference between believing something and knowing it is whether it is fully apparent in reality. Faith describes the future and new things. Knowledge describes the past and any future replication of the past. If it is still in your mind, it is faith. If it has already happened, it is knowledge, not faith. Repeating something is knowledge; creating something is faith.

Faith requires that you have all reasons to believe that certain specific actions on your part will yield certain specific outcomes. When you know that a certain specific action on your part will yield certain specific outcomes, that is not faith, but knowledge.

Opposing reasons

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not a god of ignorance and whim. He is the God of reason. He does nothing arbitrarily. Our interactions with him are not mere pleadings for arbitrary favor, but requests for what is accordant with reality and his divine justice.

Because there is opposition in all things (see 2 Nephi 2:11), the existence of reasons in support of something is insufficient to gain perfect confidence in that thing. There will always be one or more reasons to support anything you can think of. The existence of supporting evidence is irrelevant. What matters is how the rational arguments of each option stack up in comparison to each other—stronger reasons are better than weaker reasons. Reasons supporting competing alternatives must be weighed against each other. What is right is clear not because it exists without opposing alternatives, but because, when adequate effort and skill is invested in reasoning through available information, a clear winner emerges.

Comparisons are also required between the reasons and the purported outcome—bigger risks are justified for bigger reward; stronger reasons are required for less likely outcomes, and so on.

“According to your faith”

When someone says something is according to their faith, or your faith, what does that mean? It means that something is in accord with the person’s understanding of what God wants, based on actual reasons.

For example, when Alma and Amulek were bound, beaten, and starved for many days, they prayed to God:

...O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance. And they broke the cords with which they were bound... (Alma 14:26)

What he meant was “God, because of what we know about Christ, and how we have lived, we have reasons to be confident that you will now give us power to break these cords.”

Miracles happen according to the faith of the individual: the individual possesses reasons, belief in those reasons, and action according to those reasons that exceeds what others are willing to obtain and act upon.

A specific example of this principle is given in Helaman, the prophet general, and his soldiers. They were taught that “those who were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord were delivered at all times,” (Alma 50:22) and they believed it!

15 And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger;
16 And also, that God would make it known unto them whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; not in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity. (Alma 48)

Critically, these soldiers did not merely say they believed that those who were faithful would be prospered by God. Part of their reason to believe they would be protected was their knowledge that they had been perfectly obedient to God’s commandments: “Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness....” (Alma 57:21) Because of their faith, they were miraculously preserved:

21 ...yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them....
26 And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.
27 Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually. (Alma 57)

Faith requires you to find beliefs supported by reasons, and to act according to those beliefs.

Practical reason

Knowing the best course of action is not meant to be a mystery:

...it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. (Moroni 7:15)

The Spirit of Christ, given to every man in the form of reason and conscience, is the key to knowing the best course of action:

16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him. (Moroni 7)

Your faculty of reason, or your ability to logically evaluate benefits and costs in the context of an understanding of reality, will make the right course of action obvious.

In plain, modern English, good and evil are questions of consequence. What is good is what benefits, what improves, what brings increased joy, and what increases resilience to suffering. What is evil is what harms, what degrades, what steals joy, and what increases susceptibility to suffering.

You can’t discern good and evil without discerning the consequence of action, and you can’t discern the consequence of action except through personal experience or the logical evaluation of the experience of others. What is good and what is evil depends upon a person’s understanding. Two important implications of this dependency are that the highest good can only be perceived by those with the greatest understanding, and that a more accurate perception of good and evil can come only through gaining understanding.

Assessing value through reason

By default, the value we impute to things is arbitrary. Desire in its most naïve form is some mix of maximization of pleasure subject to minimization of pain. Unfortunately, the paths of greatest joy include massive pain. Through the exercise of reason, desire can transcend immediate cost and benefit and become the powerful tool towards good it is intended to be. For example, it is through desire seasoned by reason that a mother chooses to endure nine months of discomfort, hours of pain, and potential death in order to have a baby.

The greater the outcomes we believe will occur, and the more we value them, the greater the actions we will undertake to obtain them. The stronger the benefit you perceive, the more power you will have to obtain it. As others have stated, with a strong enough why , you can endure any what.

Valuing something through faith occurs in the reason step of the faith process. This is where you use your intellectual abilities to delineate the benefits and costs of potential courses of action and make the choice to adopt one or none of them.

What an honest person desires is based on the value they attach to it. Value is assessed through reasonably enumerating available options, assessing the pros and cons of each, and choosing the objective choice of greatest value.

Assessing the pros and cons of different outcomes requires listing the pros and cons of each. The more important the subject, the more critical it becomes to take sufficient time to research and explicitly examine the situation. In the most important matters, it is important to actually write out the pros and cons, in detail.

The choice of greatest value is calculated by measuring the net impact of each option. In general, the benefit of a situation will primarily consist of the outcomes, while the cons will primarily consist of the cost required to obtain them. Without this exercise, people tend to shy away from paths of great price. This is unfortunate, because the price of an option is not relevant in and of itself. What matters is the net benefit: what is left of the pros when the cons are subtracted out? It is a very simple question: are the pros greater than the cons, or not? Among multiple options, it is only slightly more complicated: which option yields the greatest net benefit? This is the path to follow until or unless something better becomes apparent. It’s really that simple.

As you assess value, don’t forget that the outcome is not the only thing you will get out of the path. The greatest value might not be what you get , but what you become in the process. Your outcome might be something that comes and goes. Who you become will endure and continuously bear fruit.

Personal accountability

What is done through reason should only be undone by reason. Honesty requires the maintenance of a good conclusion until or unless new information appears or better reasoning occurs.

Write down your reasoning. You’ll find that this little step enforces some degree of honesty, as we often allow ourselves to be influenced by hidden desires whose explicit statement causes us sufficient discomfort to provide the necessary motivation to change. Keep what you write down, as it will help you to hold yourself accountable. You can refer back to what you’ve written, which will make it harder to excuse yourself in the moment of trial.

Writing down why you want what you want will help you prioritize competing outcomes, save you from ineffective action, and give you the courage to undertake difficult but worthwhile actions.

Writing down your reasoning will help you answer the question “is it worth it?” You can only answer this question if you know what it will take to obtain what you desire and what it will cost you to obtain it. Only when you see the value of the outcome as greater than the cost will it be worth it.

Writing down the reasons why you desire an outcome will help you avoid tossing away the reasons that persuaded you when inevitable challenges arise. Abundant living requires walking in paths that are hard.

Reason keeps you on the path even when it is hard, because the question is not whether something is difficult but whether it is worth it. Reason is the only tool that can assess worth.

Writing down the reasons you have around the topic you’re considering will free you from anxiety, depression, and unhappiness that will otherwise likely arise in the unfolding of your life. When you are surprised by outcomes, you will be able to intercept harmful, fruitless feelings that come, with a calm confidence that leans on the impartiality and discipline that is only possible when you engage in and continue in appropriate, rational due diligence. You can live in a state where you deeply understand that you can’t control outcomes, but you can control your performance.

Writing down any supporting reasons for the path is also important. If you focus only on the conclusion, you will miss the chance to improve your beliefs when your premises are called into question.

Written reasons also help you rationally evaluate the effects of new information. For example, a desire to lose weight may include as outcomes “so other people find me more attractive” and path-supporting reasons as “healthy eating and exercise have physical and mental health effects beyond weight loss.” Later, you might come to realize that other people finding you attractive is less important to you than eating delicious food whenever you want. However, the other benefits of healthy eating and exercise may outweigh your desire for instant carnal gratification.

Precept and experience

Some hope that God will magically trick or force them into being better. This will never happen.

The only channel God has to stimulate change in you is information:

41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue - of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
42 By kindness, and pure knowledge... (D&C 121)

God will send information into your life, through your experiences, through your surroundings, and through people. He will first attempt to send you information by precept. Unfortunately, hardly anyone will make use of this information:

Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. (D&C 93:31)

While it is possible for God to send information in more obvious ways, unless a person already loves truth and correction, it will hurt more than help. Most people react to more obvious information with anger, not gratitude:

And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily. (3 Nephi 7:18)

The Lord told the story of a man who died and found himself in hell. He could see Abraham in heaven, and he implored him to send messengers to his family so that they could change their behavior before it was too late:

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. (Luke 16)

As Abraham said, the only thing we can expect to receive here is the information showing that something is right. Not only will God not send more than that—more than that doesn’t exist. Our situation is determined here, and will be determined hereafter, solely on our recognition of and reaction to truth.

Our perception can only change in two ways: through mental precept or through bodily experience.

Because so few people have developed sufficient faith to learn all that is available through precept alone, God graciously provides experiences.

Often, suffering is the only thing that will help a person shake from the apathy, ingratitude, and insensibility so prevalent in human nature.

Learning through experience is not as fruitful as learning through precept. The justice of God dictates that the more obvious a path is, the less rewarding it will be. No person who is compelled to value something will ever extract as much joy from it as the person who values it through precept.¹

The problem with learning value through experience is that it is almost always too late to experience the full measure of what it is you have come to see the value of, and it is usually too late to experience any of that value at all. For example, if a person decides to fill their lives with shallow relationships during their youth, preferring good looks and good times over a stable, successful partner, they will likely only discover their mistake when they are too old and in possession of too many emotional flaws to qualify for the stable partner they now value. The same sort of thing happens in nearly every good thing God offers to us in this life. The same idea applies for eternal blessings as well, as death brings with it the termination of opportunities to obtain a great many things that cannot be obtained outside of this world.

There is no reason to wait until motivation toward righteousness comes from experience. Through faith, it is possible to acquire and exercise that degree of motivation now , and receive tremendous blessings for doing so before being compelled to do so.

Reason is a mental exercise. Tremendous changes can come merely through honestly thinking about past, present, and future circumstances and modifying one’s behavior as if they were in the same situation.

Alma the younger described how reflection upon his own situation yielded an understanding of his true standing before God—along with the pain it brought—far beyond what his current experience yielded:

6 For I went about with the sons of Mosiah, seeking to destroy the church of God; but behold, God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way.
7 And behold, he spake unto us, as it were the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet; and we all fell to the earth, for the fear of the Lord came upon us.
8 But behold, the voice said unto me: Arise. And I arose and stood up, and beheld the angel.
9 And he said unto me: If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God.
10 And it came to pass that I fell to the earth; and it was for the space of three days and three nights that I could not open my mouth, neither had I the use of my limbs.
11 And the angel spake more things unto me, which were heard by my brethren, but I did not hear them; for when I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God—I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth and I did hear no more.
12 But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.
13 Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.
14 Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.
15 Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.
16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.
17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world. 
18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy. (Alma 36)

Faith is belief based on ideas , and ideas are not limited to what we personally experience. For example, a group of people long ago had a powerful experience while hearing accounts of people they had never before met:

9 And again, when they thought of their brethren who had been slain by the Lamanites they were filled with sorrow, and even shed many tears of sorrow.
10 And again, when they thought of the immediate goodness of God, and his power in delivering Alma and his brethren out of the hands of the Lamanites and of bondage, they did raise their voices and give thanks to God.
11 And again, when they thought upon the Lamanites, who were their brethren, of their sinful and polluted state, they were filled with pain and anguish for the welfare of their souls. (Mosiah 25)

Through reasoning alone, these people were able to marshal the same emotions and lessons learned as they would have had they passed through the same experiences themselves. We have voluminous material for such experiences in the scriptures. How often do you read them while sincerely placing yourself in the same situations? Do you faithfully project yourself into similar circumstances, extract reasons and desire from the account, and apply them to your present life with future outcomes in mind?

Beyond scripture, God will make information available to us by other media and through people we cross paths with:

21 And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing.
22 For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.
23 And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come.
24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them.
25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. (Moroni 7)

Learning through reason opens to us a much wider learning channel than personal experience, not only because some mistakes in life are irreversibly constricting, but also because we are limited in experience by time and circumstances. It is very foolish to assume that what you understand through personal experience is all there is to know about the issue at hand.

If we will not learn through reason, God’s only remaining recourse is experience. Learning through experience tends to be slower and more irregular than learning through precept, which can happen instantaneously and as often as the person seeks it. Experience tends to be far more painful and permanent than precept. Even then, how one reacts to information is always up to them.

God has made you free to choose. No one is ever forced to believe. Every step in the faith cycle includes your choice. Desire is a choice. Reasoning is a choice. Acting according to reason is a choice.

The only thing that isn’t your choice is the outcome. This is determined by God’s law ordained before the foundation of the world. You choose the outcome by how you choose in the previous steps of the faith cycle.

God’s responsibility is to provide the opportunity to acquire sufficient information to know, as much as can be known ahead of time, the set of possible actions before you, and the outcomes stemming from each of them.

God’s responsibility is not to make the choice for you or to plainly dictate which path you should take. The more plainly God leads you, the less faith it is possible to exercise, and therefore the lesser the blessings possible. The opportunity to acquire information preserves your ability to exercise faith in ways that giving you the information directly could not. God, being wise and loving, will use every means he has to make as much information available to you as possible while still preserving faith. For example, he could make the information available through means that defy conventional wisdom, such as through a person that others think is foolish, or through a path that requires great humility, or in a way that requires great belief in him. Examples of these three include, respectively, outsider prophets like Elijah, Naaman the Syrian being instructed to bathe in a river he thought was below his stature, and Nephi seeking directions on the Liahona.

God’s responsibility is not to make it easier for you to choose one or the other, but if he mercifully does so, it won’t be by magic. It will be by increasing your awareness of the negative consequences of suboptimal choices through your own experiential suffering.

God has given each of us the immutable agency to choose what we desire and how to act. This is the test of mortality.

Desire is things as we wish they were. God has given you the power to reason in order to reveal more of reality, but he will not force you to desire what is of the greatest benefit. What you desire is your choice.

Reason will show you how to act, but reason will not force you to act. It is through reason that you are an independent entity. Reasoning is how you digest information from external sources into your own information. Information can come from anywhere, and it is your responsibility, and yours alone, to seek information, to evaluate information, and to assess its worth. You, and only you, can assess the worth and implications of information through reason. You get to choose to believe or reject reasons. You get to choose to assess the value of each piece of information. Choosing not to exercise this right does not absolve you of the responsibility of reasoning. It just means you will end up wherever the current leads you. It means you have abdicated the gift of agency. It is highly unlikely that one who takes the passive approach will get very far at all in or after this life.

How rare is the person who does only what they have a sufficient reason to do, will not relent while they continue to, and changes as soon as given sufficient reason to!