The Leap Out of Faith

Is faith a necessary part of God's plan--his test for us on this earth? Imagine the following scenario. You are the principal at a large high school, let's say 2000 students. Your main goal as principal is to prepare your students for the real world--for adulthood. You've developed a specific program which your students must follow in order to have a successful career and a happy life after graduation. This is the only way. If they fail to follow the program they will struggle in their career and be miserable for the rest of their lives.  How would you ensure that as many students as possible follow the program? First, I would choose only  one student, who I'll call the Rep,  to tell about my program. Then I'd have him spread the news to the other students. I would make sure he told them that the news was coming from the principal, but if any students questioned his authority or the validity of the program, rather than directing them to me, he was to disparage them ...

Growing up, I took it for granted that faith was a virtue--one of the highest. As I went through my faith crisis I began to see faith more as a dangerous tool used to manipulate people into believing a person's claims without them having to provide any evidence. But there are still stories of "faith" that seem to inspire me. Why is that the case? Should I be giving faith a second look? One of the most salient examples of faith in the Book of Mormon is the story of Samuel the Lamanite (see Helaman 14-16). Samuel, a stranger from out of nowhere, gets up on the city wall and declares that, according to an angel he spoke to, a sign of Jesus' birth will come in 5 years. Then he basically runs off and disappears from the narrative. Somehow all the good guys believe him, and all the bad guys don't. Tensions mount between the believers and non-believers over the next 5 years, and finally come to a head when the non-believers decide to kill all the...