Knowing.

No, this isn't a movie review post ;) Although I did like this movie, it was about Nick Cage finding this string of numbers and finding recognizable clusters that represented the days in which there were mass losses of life due to an incident. He was eventually able to decipher the numbers down to a point where he not only could match past events, but also predict future events! Not wanting to give the movie away I'll stop there.

So, it's been a while guys! Bryan's been gone for about 2.5 months... I've been getting along alright, it's been weird tho... lonely at times. But I was able to write him a giant letter and even got one back! He told me all about the training center and how much work it was :P The second half of his letter was devoted to his bearing his testimony to me :) I enjoyed the letter and his bearing his testimony to me.

He told me that he wasn't wasting two years of his life for something he "thought" was true, he said that he "knows" the church is true. So that brings me to the topic of today's post: Knowing.

What does it mean to know something? The Free Dictionary puts it this way: Possessing knowledge, information, or understanding. So according to this we can know that the Earth revolves around the Sun... But I guess we could also 'know' that the Sun revolves around the earth, right? I mean before Galileo Galilei, the knowledge of the time was undoubtedly that the Earth revolves around the Sun (The Sun also having a major role in the aforementioned movie). So I guess it's possible for people to know (to possess knowledge, information, or understanding) things that are not factually true.

What does it mean then, when Bryan tells me he's not just serving a mission because he "thinks" it's true, but rather that he "knows" it's true? I guess they mean the same thing, except by using the word "know" it's somehow supposed to mean more than thinks?

I know that 2 and 2 make 4, at least I think I know... I've been taught addition in math class, it makes sense to me, I try it out and it continues to yield the correct answers for me. As far as I can tell, that knowledge is true. Not that I am the authority on truth, but based on the reasoning skills I possess, I am fully convinced of the truthfulness of the science of addition.

I know Bryan believes Mormonism to be the one true religion, I'm sure he thinks it is, I'm also sure he 'knows' it is. But that doesn't make it true, does it? I'd say not at all, even myself, in my assessment of what Bryan knows, I could be wrong. :P Bryan can be wrong too.

For me, instead of using words like 'know' and 'believe' I'd much rather use words like "I am fully convinced". This way I can tell others that I am aware that the evidence itself doesn't make it's own conclusions, that I am the one drawing conclusions from the evidence... That I am fully convinced that Christianity is true, and that Mormonism is not. I could have been wasting the last 8 years on something I "thought" was true. I admit, it's possible for me to be wrong.

I miss Bryan, I know that no matter what, these two years for him will not be wasted. Either way, he's going to be learning a lot, me too! We've got tons of 'knowledge' that we can attain to help us better shape our conclusions right?

Haha, sorry if this is all over the place, but it's something I've been thinking about for a while.