In mathematics and philosophy and a number of other fields, there are certain statements that are so foundational and also impossible to prove that they are simply accepted as true. We often call these axioms “givens” because they can't be arrived at through purely logical constructions. For example, there isn't any kind of logical or mathematical way to establish that one plus one equals two. You just have to take it as a given, but once you do, you can build an entire field of algebra on top of that foundational statement and use this given fact to prove many others. We all feel intuitively that one and one makes two but there is just no way to prove it logically. There are certain truths that we just have to be given and can't just work them out all on our own. These given statements or basic assumptions lie at the heart of every branch of science and philosophy, yet somehow we are comfortable with given statements that we must take on faith in fields of science, but can have a much harder time accepting the same kind of given statements in religion. It ought to be no more difficult to accept as a given statement that God exists or that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world than it would be to accept as a given statement that parallel lines on the same plane never intersect or that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. There are just certain truths that we can't work out but must be given. To have to be given truths does not make us weak or stupid. It makes us blessed. “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17). If we are given a testimony of God the Father and Jesus Christ, or of the Restoration of the gospel and the truth of the Book of Mormon, and we then build on that foundation by adding other proofs and syllogisms, we are not doing anything differently than a mathematician or a philosopher or a scientist building on their given statements. I am grateful that I have been given a testimony of my Heavenly Father's and my Savior's love for me. I didn't earn this knowledge and I can't prove it, but I can build on this foundation and prove many other things, not the least of which is that any of us who ask of God with a sincere heart and faith in Christ can be given the same truth and knowledge.
