Agency

I want to make something clear. My religion is not superstition. I would like you to think of what “superstition” means. I think of somebody kissing a frizzy-haired doll before their bingo number is called: no grasp on cause and effect. The connection between the two events exists only in the mind. I learned cause and effect in science class. Correlation does not mean causation.

I have seen people treat their religion like a superstition and I have seen people treat religion like reality. There is a key difference between these two behaviors. The first, treating religion superstitiously, is dangerous. This is likely to result in learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a psychological condition that happens then the person can’t detect a pattern in their actions and their consequences. That is to say, they feel they have no control over their situation, whatever they do is futile. They have learned to feel helpless.

When you realize, however, that religion is reality, and that God does in reality live, you begin a constant journey of converting faith into knowledge (Alma 32). And as you travel down this path, you gain a sense that you are truly an agent unto yourself (D&C 58:28).