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On Dealing With Uncertainty, Bruce Hafen


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https://www.lds.org/ensign/1979/08/on-dealing-with-uncertainty?lang=eng

 

I immensely enjoyed reading this talk. Brother Hafen outlines three levels of thinking in life, and the Gospel. 1st level thinking is the division of the world into pessimism and optism. He criticizes both, as problems which arise are either criticized or brushed over, without actually being dealt with. Level 2 thinking allows someone to accept ambiguity, but may also be dangerous as skepticism and ambiguity become the foundation of their thinking, rather than conviction. Level 3 thinking allows one to accept ambiguity, but maintain a firmness of conviction.

 

Before commenting I encourage you to read through the talk, it really is a good life lesson whether you're a member or not.

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This spelled out something I have believed for a long time:

 

 

 

Church and family life are not the only places where the right answer is not always on the tip of our tongues. If you would stretch your mind about the implications of ambiguity, you might think once again of the Viet Nam war—should our nation have tried to do more than it did? or less than it did? or perhaps you could consider whether we should sell all we have and donate our surplus to the millions of people who are starving. You might also ask yourself how much governmental intervention into the regulation of business and private life is too much. The people on the extreme sides of these questions convey great certainty about what should be done. However, I think some of these people would rather be certain than right.

 

Some people have a need for certainty that it drives them to oversimplifying everything and adopting a "party line" to keep things simple. There is a market for it. We have people convinced that vaccines cause autism, that right-wing talk radio is news, or that some new political program or new job or new vacation or new relationship will make everything in life work out.

 

One of the greatest members of the Church I know in his old age mentioned that we should have taken an Institute class from him when he was younger. Back then he knew everything. Now he said he knows Jesus is the Christ and the gospel is true and everything else is subject to amendment and correction as we go. He did not mean this in the sense that he questioned everything to come from Priesthood leaders or the scriptures; you would be hard-pressed to find someone more obedient. It did mean that he was flexible and adapted as things changed or he got new understanding.

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The reason we crave "certainty" is because it gives us a sense of peace in an uncertain world.

 

But actually certainty about anything is an illusion.

 

Alma 32 cuts to the chase and tells us definitively that the only proof we can have of certainty is a sense of peace.  If we have peace, we don't need "certainty" which is itself an illusion anyway.

 

I learned this from John Dewey, an atheist, but Alma 32 brought it home in a spiritual sense.

 

In the off chance anyone wants to read Dewey's philosophical explanation of this very point, here it is in an abbreviated form.  But Alma 32 says it better!

https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/dewey.htm

 

To me, this is the definitive statement on certainty, which still holds true today. 

https://archive.org/details/questforcertaint032529mbp

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The crucial question becomes "Why is certainty something I crave?"

 

When you see that craving for certainty as an irrational emotional need, you become free.

 

This relates directly to Kevin's Perry Scheme. 

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This spelled out something I have believed for a long time:

 

 

Some people have a need for certainty that it drives them to oversimplifying everything and adopting a "party line" to keep things simple. There is a market for it. We have people convinced that vaccines cause autism, that right-wing talk radio is news, or that some new political program or new job or new vacation or new relationship will make everything in life work out.

 

One of the greatest members of the Church I know in his old age mentioned that we should have taken an Institute class from him when he was younger. Back then he knew everything. Now he said he knows Jesus is the Christ and the gospel is true and everything else is subject to amendment and correction as we go. He did not mean this in the sense that he questioned everything to come from Priesthood leaders or the scriptures; you would be hard-pressed to find someone more obedient. It did mean that he was flexible and adapted as things changed or he got new understanding.

Dang you anyway!!  ;)

 

Do you know the sweat and pain I had to go through for years just to figure this out- and here you just post it in a couple of paragraphs?

 

GRRRRRR. ;)

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https://www.lds.org/ensign/1979/08/on-dealing-with-uncertainty?lang=eng

 

I immensely enjoyed reading this talk. Brother Hafen outlines three levels of thinking in life, and the Gospel. 1st level thinking is the division of the world into pessimism and optism. He criticizes both, as problems which arise are either criticized or brushed over, without actually being dealt with. Level 2 thinking allows someone to accept ambiguity, but may also be dangerous as skepticism and ambiguity become the foundation of their thinking, rather than conviction. Level 3 thinking allows one to accept ambiguity, but maintain a firmness of conviction.

 

Before commenting I encourage you to read through the talk, it really is a good life lesson whether you're a member or not.

To me, having come from the philosophy side, it is straight Dewey.  Great stuff- put in language accessible to church members.  Ostler teaches philosophy the same way.

 

I really wish I could do that.

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Some people aren't happy unless they can find flaws in everything LDS related.

And some seem too quick to simply ignore and pretend they are not there....  In reality there are both real problems that lack satisfactory answers as well as real room for real faith.  Both shouild be acknowleddged and discussed and sought to understand.... I would expect nothing less of a truth seeker

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And some seem too quick to simply ignore and pretend they are not there....  In reality there are both real problems that lack satisfactory answers as well as real room for real faith.  Both shouild be acknowleddged and discussed and sought to understand.... I would expect nothing less of a truth seeker

And yet Kevin's Perry Scheme says this about the "truth seeker"

 

POSITION 9. Commitments in Relativism further developed.

The person now has a developed sense of irony and can more easily embrace other's viewpoints. He can accept life as just that "life", just the way IT is! Now he holds the commitments he makes in a condition of "PROVISIONAL ULTIMACY", meaning that for him what he chooses to be truth IS his truth, and he acts as if it is ultimate truth, but there is still a "provision" for change. He has no illusions about having "arrived" permanently on top of some heap, he is ready and knows he will have to retrace his journey over and over, but he has hope that he will do it each time more wisely.

Is this your same definition of a "truth seeker"?

 

Should it be?

Edited by mfbukowski
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I'm willing to grant that it's probably me, but I find his "three groups" to be totally nonsensical.  It almost made my head hurt reading his theories. 

 

Pretty sure he meant it in a general sense. The fact that I've actually seen people who fit into these groups lends credence to his theories. And if someone fits into a fourth group or beyond, then so be it.

Edited by CMZ
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