The Great Outdoors

My ward had a campout in New Hampshire this weekend, so I spent the last three days roughing it in the great outdoors. We slept in sleeping bags, gathered around campfires, canoed on the nearby lake, and participated in group competitions. We ended the weekend with a sacrament meeting in an amphitheater on the side of the lake. When I first stepped into the amphitheater, I was struck with the beauty of our surroundings. The sky was clear, the lake was wreathed in lush, green foliage, and the morning sun was just hitting the water and reflecting off the endlessly shifting ripples. It was a rare opportunity to worship God while surrounded by His raw, glorious creations.

Every time I’m out in nature, I think of the words of the prophet Alma to Korihor, as recorded in The Book of Mormon. When Korhior asked for a sign of God’s existence, Alma responded, “The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44). Being out in the great outdoors increased my faith in God.

At the same time, I understand that there are intelligent people, many of whom have dedicated their lives to the study of the natural world, who don’t see the majesty of the wild as evidence of God’s existence. They can see the same natural phenomena and interpret them to be evidence that there is no God. I’m a well educated person, and I am well aware of their expertise and their arguments. So, why don’t I believe them? Why don’t I accept the opinion of the experts?

To answer that question, I have to talk a little about authority. The world is filled with authority figures, and we submit ourselves to them throughout our entire lives. When we are children, we submit ourselves to the authority of our parents. Then comes the authority of our teachers. As we grow up and start exercising more our own authority over our lives, we are still subject to the authority of others. We let doctors guide many of our health decisions because they are the authority. They know best. We can’t be experts on every aspect of life, so we listen to those who are. But what happens when you have two doctors giving different diagnoses? What do you do when two authorities on the same subject don’t agree?

In these cases, I have decided to look into the subject as best I can, and then make my own decision based on what I know. This is the only option available to me because I am ultimately responsible for my actions and I have complete authority over my life.

In the debate over the existence of God, countless authority figures support both sides of the argument. I’m caught in the middle. Alma also teaches how we can decide for ourselves which side we will join. He explains a spiritual experiment that we can perform this way: “Now, we will compare the word [of God] unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me” (Alma 32:28).

That’s the experiment I have personally done to find out which side of the debate I will join. I have experimented with prayer, I have experimented with scripture study, I have experimented with fasting, and all the other commandments. The seed has grown. I now know which authority figures are right and which are wrong. I can’t prove that to anyone else. It is evidence for me only. But I can encourage others to perform the same experiment. By the laws of nature, if the same experiment is repeated in the same way, in any other place, or inside any other person, it should end with the same result. So go ahead, do the experiment. And you will be able to see what I see when you go out into the great outdoors.