Certainty and Trust: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

October 30, 2014 by James Faulconer

Continued from Page 1

These words -- believe and certain -- are expressions of my trust and hope. I have faith in Jesus Christ. I trust him and I cannot imagine doing otherwise. I trust that life in him is better than life without him. I trust the things that the Spirit has whispered to me, including that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet. The assurance of those things gives me hope, and I’m satisfied to call that assurance certainty.

Such certainty isn’t incompatible with objective doubts. Indeed, objective doubts may be essential to faith. If I were relying on objective certainty, measurable reality, I would not need trust or faith. I don’t have faith in my certainty; I have faith in God. God seems to prefer that we trust him than that we have objective, scientific facts about him.

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About James Faulconer

James Faulconer is a Richard L. Evans Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, where he has taught philosophy since 1975.

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