Many objected to the talk President Uchtdorf gave on 'Truth' to Young Adults in January 2013 http://www.lds.org/church/news/president-uchtdorf-encourages-young-adults-to-discover-truth?lang=eng. He started quite well but then did a complete u-turn. His talk ended up the opposite of 'truth'.

Here then is my re-write, the talk he should have given. I have used his original words, deleting some of the nonsense and untruths, then added some wording of my own that I think he should have included if he were indeed teaching 'truth'.

What Is Truth?
DIETER F. UCHTDORF
OF THE FIRST PRESIDENCY
(as amended by Thomas W. Phillips)

My beloved brothers and sisters, my dear young friends, I am grateful for the privilege to be with you today. It always lifts my spirits to be surrounded by the young adults of the Church, and you inspire me to declare, “Let Zion in her beauty rise.” As you are living all around the world, you represent in a beautiful way the future and strength of the Church. Because of your righteous desires and your commitment to follow truth, the future of this Church looks bright.

I bring you the love and blessing of President Thomas S. Monson. The First Presidency prays for you often. We always ask the Lord to bless, keep, and guide you.

The Blind Men and the Elephant
Well over one hundred years ago, an American poet put to rhyme an ancient parable. The first verse of the poem speaks about:

Six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
In the poem each of the six travelers takes hold of a different part of the elephant and then describes to the others what he has discovered.

One of the men finds the elephant’s leg and describes it as being round and rough like a tree. Another feels the tusk and describes the elephant as a spear. A third grabs the tail and insists that an elephant is like a rope. A fourth discovers the trunk and insists that the elephant is like a large snake.

Each is describing truth. And because his truth comes from personal experience, each insists that he knows what he knows. We look at this story from a distance and smile. After all, we know what an elephant looks like. We have read about them and watched them on film, and many of us have even seen one with our own eyes. We believe we know the truth of what an elephant is. That someone could make a judgement based on one aspect of truth and apply it to the whole seems absurd or even unbelievable. On the other hand, can’t we recognize ourselves in these six blind men? Have we ever been guilty of the same pattern of thought?

And yet it seems to be part of our nature as human beings to make assumptions about people, politics, and piety based on our incomplete and often misleading experience. So often the “truths” we tell ourselves are merely fragments of the truth, and sometimes they’re not really the truth at all. An example of this is the 'creation stories' related in Genesis, the Pearl of Great Price and the Temple Endowment.

Today I would like to speak of truth. As I do, I invite you to ponder a few important questions.

The first question is “What is truth?” The second, “Is it really possible to know the truth?” And third, “How should we react to things that contradict truths which we have learned previously?”

What Is Truth? Can Anyone Know the Truth?

Now, never in the history of the world have we had easier access to more information—some of it true, some of it false, and much of it partially true. Consequently, never in the history of the world has it been more important to learn how to correctly discern between truth and error.

Part of our problem in the quest for truth is that religious teachings have disappointed us so often. We have so many examples of things that religious leaders once “knew” and taught as true but have since been proven false. For example, in spite of what the bible says, the earth is not flat. The stars do not revolve around the earth. The sun cannot be made to stand still for 24 hours.

The scriptures are filled with stories of men and women who misinterpreted “truth.”

Part of the reason for poor judgment comes from the tendency of mankind to blur the line between belief and truth. We too often confuse belief with truth, thinking that because something makes sense or is convenient, it must be true. Conversely, we sometimes don’t believe truth or reject it—because it would require us to change or admit that we were wrong. Often, truth is rejected because it doesn’t appear to be consistent with previous experiences.

When the opinions or “truths” of others contradict our own, instead of considering the possibility that there could be information that might be helpful and augment or complement what we know, we often jump to conclusions or make assumptions that the other person is misinformed, mentally challenged, or even intentionally trying to deceive. Unfortunately we, as a church, paint any critics in this way.

Is It Possible to Know the Truth?

The thing about truth is that it exists beyond belief. It is true even if nobody believes it. There is indeed such a thing as absolute truth—unassailable, unchangeable truth. This truth is different from belief. It is different from hope. Absolute truth is not dependent upon public opinion or popularity. Polls cannot sway it. Not even the inexhaustible authority of celebrity endorsement can change it.

So how can we find truth?

Even so, the things we once thought we knew are continually being enhanced, modified, or even contradicted by scientists who seek to understand truth.

Remember that in this age of information there are many who create doubt about anything and everything, at any time and every place. You will find even those who still claim that they have evidence that the earth is flat, that the moon is a hologram, and that certain movie stars are really aliens from another planet. And it is always good to keep in mind, just because something is printed on paper, appears on the Internet, is frequently repeated, or has a powerful group of followers doesn’t make it true.

Sometimes untrue claims or information are presented in such a way that they appear quite credible, such as statements we have made as a Church and statements and arguments made by apologists for the Church.

Yes, our world is full of confusion. But eventually all of our questions will be answered. All of our doubts will be replaced by certainty. And that is because there is one source of truth that is complete, correct, and incorruptible. That source is the 'scientific method'.

Now, what is this truth - the 'scientific method'? Definition - " a method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested."

If we will only have enough courage and faith to walk in this path, it will lead us to peace of heart and mind, to lasting meaning in life, to happiness in this world.

Our Obligation to Seek for Truth

But how can we know that this “truth” is different from any other? How can we trust this “truth”? Latter-day Saints are not asked to blindly accept everything they hear. We are encouraged to think and discover truth for ourselves. We are expected to ponder, to search, to evaluate, and thereby to come to a personal knowledge of the truth.

We seek for truth wherever we may find it. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “Mormonism is truth. … The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace all, and every item of truth, without limitation or … being … prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men.”

Unfortunately Joseph Smith was not a good example of someone telling the truth. He lied so many times and about so much that we must dismiss his statement that "Mormonism is truth". It is with great sadness I must admit that Mormonism was founded on and perpetuated by untruths.

So we should continually seek truth from all good books and other wholesome sources. “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. And we will learn that intelligence cleaves unto intelligence, and wisdom receives wisdom, and truth embraces truth."

My young friends, as you accept the responsibility to seek after truth with an open mind and a humble heart, you will become more tolerant of others, more open to listen, more prepared to understand, more inclined to build up instead of tearing down.

Some, however, do not seek for truth so much as they strive for contention. They do not sincerely seek to learn; rather, they desire to dispute, to show off their supposed learning and thus cause contention. Some of our apologists use these tactics. Also, some of our current Apostles.

My dear friend Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, in his talk 'Safety for the Soul' delivered in General Conference in October 2009, used blatant lies, misrepresentations and emotion to support his claim that the Book of Mormon is true. He also caused serious contention by belittling all intelligent and knowledgeable people and sincere truth seekers by saying "they had to crawl over or under the Book of Mormon". Instead Elder Holland should have had the temerity and integrity to say "in order to believe in the Book of Mormon you have to crawl over, under or around absolute truths established by physics, chemistry, biology, paleontology, archaeology, history, anthropology, metallurgy, cosmology etc.". I invite him to publicly express his own contrition over his talk, or justify his claims with truth.

I ask you to spare no efforts in your search to know truth for yourself—because truth will make you free.

My dear young friends, you are our hope for the future. We love you. We have great confidence in you.
It is my prayer that you will seek the truth earnestly and unceasingly, that you will yearn to drink from the fount of absolute truth, using the 'scientific method'. I apologise, on behalf of the Church, for the way we have mislead you in the past. It is, therefore, also my prayer that we, the Church, will embrace truth from this time onwards.



© 2013 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. English approval: 8/12. What Is Truth? PD50045368 000
Deletions and additional wording by Thomas W. Phillips copyright 2013. All rights reserved.

"Truly" amusing. Nicely done.

Hey good job on the adjustments. But just thought I would mention that I still think Uchtdorf is a man of God. That might not be saying much to you seeing as you choose to see no further than your own eyelashes and sources that have no credibility. I hope you find your way, whatever that may be, but you no longer have to tear down what other people believe. I publicly apologize for all the offense that the mortal members of the church might have caused, but I do not apologize for what Uchtdorf said or anything that the other prophets have said in God's behalf.

Well, he speaks for God now, just wait 20 years til he gets thrown under the bus by the church as not speaking for god and being a terrible gay hating bigot.

This will be around the time a prophet reveals that it was always okay for gays to be married in the temple, just some older prophets had an uninspired policy to exclude them, and that it was always doctrinally okay to be gay.

It isn't like it would be the first time a prophet is renounced by the church after older members were convinced that prophet spoke for god.

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What sources are you referring to? LDS sources can be used to verify that the LDS church was not founded on truth. Many sources can be used to prove that the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham are not what Joseph claimed. We know for a fact that Joseph was a liar and an adulterer. You can believe that God commanded him to lie and sleep with women to which he was not "legally and lawfully wedded", but the fact remains. It's a shame that you choose to see no further than your own eyelashes. You said, "I do not apologize for what Uchtdorf said or anything that the other prophets have said in God's behalf." There's no need for an apology, because history has made it clear that no church leader has ever said anything on God's behalf.

He knows what to say to make the rank and file members believe and obey. That will bring in more money in the long run. Seems that the upper tier is learning that you can get more worker bees with honey than with the use of guilt, fear and shame. Wolves in sheeps clothing, all of them. No one gets to the upper tier unless they know the real purpose of the corporation.

Great job, Tom.
A question we wish to ask President Uchtdorf: How does he feel about his own crawling over, under and around the tax laws to acquire extra summer vacation homes with the property taxes paid at the church office building?

That truth may not make him free...

Also his allegedly false story about being a hero and rescuing hostages. Case of the Paul Dunn syndrome.

Uchtdorf gave a pretty clear and clean description of how the church has been lying to and deceiving its members for years.

He has some nerve to stand there and tell people to find the truth. The comment that members aren't required to believe everything the church tells them is load of shit. Since when? Every member who questions the church knows it will be to their detriment.

He's playing a cover up game. He tells the world that members should search out the truth. They shouldn't believe every thing the church tells them. There are some members that may think this is true. They may go find out the truth of something. Let's use the BoA as an example. The member has found the truth. He goes to church and tells that truth in a class. Shortly after class he's told the bishop wants to meet with him. When he finds out that he's in big trouble for telling the truth, he's confused. Then he gets angry and is insulted by what the bishop has said to him.

The next thing you know you have another person out of the church. The members are saying it was because he was offended. They don't get the connection that he SHOULD be offended. The church talks about truth out of one side of their mouth, while lying out of the other side. It's a classic double bind.

I did not quite read the intro that you put and was in awe of Uchtdorf words and thought 'no, he can not have said that'.
Then I reread the beginning and realized I had skipped a few words indeed.

Good job on your rewrite.

very nice.

Good job making him truthful. Unfortunately, you can't make this speech sound intelligent. He still comes off like a 4th grade teacher talking to his class. I do realize that's because you were stuck with his original wording. The underlying stupidity of this is the pretense that the question "what is truth," and the attempt to answer it, was invented by Mormon authorities (Isn't awesome that he's discussing "truth" with us;, like, only a GA of the One True Church would ever lecture us on such a deep subject!).

I wish the "youth" in his audience could be made to understand that this subject has been mulled over by the world's foremost thinkers for 2500 years, and in a much less juvenile way (do we really need the story of the blind men and the elephant retold to us in such a condescending way? Did he hold up the book up high so all the youth attending story-time could clearly see the pictures?)

The reason why turning college into trade school isn't a great idea is that the youth, in concentrating solely on earning a living--crucial as that is--don't get an opportunity to explore the depth of human culture. If they did, they'd have no patience for being spoon-fed pabulum like this.

and, as time goes on (more is revealed), the gap is Wider, not narrower.


How's that workin' for ya, LDS, Inc.?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2014 03:33PM by GNPE.