Mormons do not feel threatened by science. They are not enemies of the rational world. They are not creationist.

1. Mormons do not feel threatened by science. • They are not enemies of the rational world. • They are not creationist. • On human conduct, they tend to stress personal examples rather than getting the state to enforce religious rules.

2. Philosophy and Thought in America

3. Epistemology • Epistemology—the study of knowledge (and its nature, limits, source, validity). Main questions include • What can I know? • (types of knowledge, definitions of things) • How do I know? • (mechanisms or technologies of knowing) • How can I know if I know? • The grammar of truth. That is, what are the rules (grammar) by which we recognize truth? How do we recognize revelation as revelations? Are we born with mechanisms to evaluate truth as truth?

4. 3 Systems of Knowing in Western Thought: • Scholasticism • Rationalism • Empiricism

5. Scholasticism • Scholasticism: faith or belief is the sole source of knowledge. • Reasoning derives conclusions from premises based on faith and authority. • Scholasticism was used to put down heresies because Church dogma was more important than individual concerns. • Personal revelation that challenges church dogma is not accepted. • Joseph Smith’s vision. • Women who work. • Elevates faith over reason. • Much of nature is beyond mortal understanding and reason. • Believe something despite evidence to the contrary.

6. Example of Scholasticism Science and Religion By Joseph Fielding McConkie

7. Science and Religion “As a people we have often taken pains to assure the rising generation that there is no conflict between "true" science and "true" religion. Properly understood, we have repeatedly been told, both will always be in harmony. The difficulty with such a statement is that it makes neither good science nor good religion. Science, as it is generally understood, is decidedly neutral on all matters of interest to religion.

8. Science and Religion continued “Using the scientific method we seek to understand the physical universe of which we are a part. It has proved itself a fit tool for doing so. It is not effective, however, in finding spiritual truths. . . . God is not subservient to the laws of the physical universe. Indeed, he created them. Thus he can answer prayers faster than the speed of light. The laws that govern in the celestial realm are far beyond those known to us in this temporal, telestial state in which we find ourselves.

9. Science and Religion continued “Great effort has been expended to find and sustain harmony between science and religion. Such efforts are born of an allegiance to science, not faith in Christ. They are a way of saying that if something can be demonstrated by science, we can safely exercise faith in it. Thus we find doctrines or principles that cannot be sustained by the laws of science being brought into accord with them. “In fact, true science and true religion are incompatible by their very definition. Science centers in demonstrable facts; true religion centers in faith in the unseen.” (Joseph Fielding McConkie, Answers: Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions, pp. 154-155, 172)

10. Rationalism • The theory that reason, rather than experience, authority, or spiritual revelation, provides the primary basis for knowledge. • Rationalism holds reason to be a faculty that can lay hold of truths beyond the reach of sense perception (empiricism). • Rationalism also has been the rival of systems claiming esoteric knowledge, whether from mystical experience, intuition, or authority. • Rationalism displays confidence in the intelligible, orderly character of the world and in the mind's ability to discern such order. • In the 18th cent. rationalism produced a religion of its own called deism • Holds the theological doctrine that human reason rather than divine revelation establishes religious truth.

11. Empiricism • Empiricism: Experience is the sole source of knowledge in the world. • Our world view is a factor of sense perception • Defines the relationship between the senses and an external physical universe • Scientific studies are based on empirical data—what can be observed. • Requires public, repeatable evidence.