I'm not sure I've found all the answers to these questions. .. .. matters still under review. . . . further questions always come up whenever I think I find one answer.
Honestly, I would have to say I don't really know if God approves of any of my beliefs. . . well, not for sure. It's like global warming..... once I think I've found some "settled science", doubts walk in the door. Like the fact that even though temperatures have risen, and CO2 has risen correspondingly, there's this annoying "noise" in the data, and the fact that every ice age we've got any data on has had a short-temp temp spike just before onset. And, clearly, whatever the driving forces in the pattern we have seen, it's clear that an ice age has a stronger force than CO2 ambient values.
If I see a religion blatantly modifying doctrines to win increases in revenues, I get disgusted. If I see a valid scientific issue exploited to increase governmental powers and revenues, I get disgusted just as well
with my empirical experience in the faith department, I have to say I have no question that God and angels exist, and that I owe my life to them in many ways. When I look out on the world, or when I study science, I literally "see" the reality of a "Life Force" promoting a sort of "progress" in the universe, I see a set of laws which might be the laws which are obeyed by the "Gods" or "Angels" or that "Life Force", but I can't determine the origin of those laws, and I realize many Western religious traditions attribute all existence to the work of God, and that even the older religions posit some kind of underlying reality and our place in it as being a progression towards "enlightenment" or unity with the cosmos.
Being in a car somersaulting in the air twenty feet above the ground, and having some kind of force take control, give me a sense of calm, and land the damn thing on its wheels can really shake up a kid who believes in nothing but science. And when I read of George Washington in combat, and accounts of people later saying how they had such good shots at him they couldn't believe they missed, and such, and my Korean war brother in law saying the same sort of thing in his experience in battles where most of his unit were killed, I have to say I have no scientific explanation, and I give "God" the credit.
Mormonism is the craziest religion in some respects, but on a whole, the Mormons have been decent in their actions towards others. Whatever their doctrines on race or specialness, folks like my mom never hesitated to help anyone in need. My grandfather was the mission president in South Africa in 1900, and he wrote to Salt Lake wanting to baptize the blacks and do other stuff for them, and described their faith in God in his observation and experience. The GAs responded simply asking if the same prejudices existed in South Africa as existed in our own country, more or less implying that if the Church did those things the government of South Africa would kick us out again, like they did in the 1860s.
