Jessica Finnigan recently asked me about the use of the phrase “I know” in General Conference. I thought I’d quickly look it up, and some interesting results emerged. I could throw in my speculations to explain the results, but I’ll keep that at a very minimal level and ask you to offer your thoughts.
First, here’s a graph showing the use of the phrase “I know” and “I believe” In general conference over the years (the 2010-2020 decade was projected based on the talks from 2010 to now).
The most interesting thing is the meteoric rise and fall of the use of “I believe.” The years covered by the spike in “I believe” include changes in:  polygamy, law of adoption, temple healers, baptisms for health, garment design, etc.
Interestingly, the beginning of the spike occurs when the 1st Manifesto was issued (world we’re “stopping” polygamy), and the spike ends when the “Council of Friends” (FLDS) was created. Then “I believe” has stayed especially low throughout the era of church correlation.
Now the next plot seems even more interesting to me. It is looking at how many times you hear the phrase “I know” for every “I believe.” It makes a “V” shape with a couple outliers. There is a clear trend of hearing more “I know”s than “I believe”s at conference.
It should be interesting to see if this trend continues. Thoughts?
LOVE IT! Thanks for putting this together!
Thanks! I’m always happy to make graphs 😉
Nice article. I find it hard to believe that someone with a PhD can actually believe any of the claims of the LDS Church when the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt against every major belief. Another Mormon PhD made a website called 20 Truths about Mormonism. You should check it out.
Thanks! Regarding my beliefs, I’m transcribing the last lesson I led in EQ which goes into some depth on the issue. I think it will be posted at the end of the month.
This is really interesting stuff! I’m surprised that “I believe” fell out of favor so much earlier than correlation. I guess I just want to blame everything on correlation, but this time it doesn’t look like it works.
(Out of curiosity, did these data come from the corpus of General Conference talks?)
Thanks. Yeah, these data came from the GC corpus.
This is interesting stuff and makes me curious as to the reasons that have brought about the shift in usage. It would be fascinating to be able to understand what changes caused it to be used more and how we got to the point that we’re at now where the word KNOW is used all the time when discussing religious beliefs in the church. I have been having this discussion quite a bit recently and seem to hit a brick wall everytime. Doesn’t matter whether it’s family, my bishop, parents, etc, they FIRMLY state/testify/bear witness that they KNOW God exists, they KNOW the prophet speaks for him and they KNOW Joseph Smith was a prophet and restored the church. I’ve tried sharing that I really don’t think you can KNOW these types of religious things. You can study them, you can read all sorts of things that help you formulate your opinions and you can draw all sorts of conclusions which ultimately lead to your viewpoint but there is no way to prove or verify any of those claims…… they ultimately rely on you choosing to believe (faith) or not. Not too long ago I had a discussion on my front porch with my Bishop about these thoughts. He did not agree and proceeded to use the gravity reasoning…. “Alison it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t believe in Gravity or not – it exists. They can choose to disbelief but it doesn’t change the existence of it”. When I tried to explain that I really didn’t think you could compare the law of gravity to belief in God he did not accept that, brushed it off and proceeded to share his testimony of the things he KNOWS. Sigh. It’s hard to explain that what they are really saying is “I really truly, strongly believe…” In any other setting other than religious LDS people do not use the same definition for the this word. When it comes to religious beliefs Mormon culture has defined the word KNOW in a completely different way! They are amazed, astonished, disappointed and worried that I don’t accept this definition anymore. I readily admit that I don’t KNOW for sure the things that I’m thinking either…. that’s the whole point. We are all just trying to figure it out based on our culture/upbringing/feelings/etc. It always comes back to the argument that their “feelings/experiences” come from the Holy Ghost and thus are fact so they can KNOW. I’m not sure how to breach this huge barrier and it’s causing a lot of heartache because although I’m able to respect what they choose to believe and how they view things… that respect doesn’t come back my way. Because of course they KNOW I’m wrong….
I’m so sorry to hear about your struggles dealing with this. I think on a recent Mormon matters podcast that Boyd Peterson laid out how he deals with that very issue. He points out that it won’t work for everyone, but it might be worth checking out.
Do you know the name of the podcast? I tried searching for Boyd Peterson but nothing came up. I’d love to check it out.
This one on ‘A Thoughtful Faith’ perhaps:
http://athoughtfulfaith.org/boyd-jay-petersen-loving-on/
There are so many different podcasts…
Thanks, you’re right. I think I was thrown since Dan was the one doing the interview.
Once again Alison’s experience and explanation resembles very much experiences and thoughts that I too have had. I like to hear/read of similar experiences and reasoning because it makes me feel, just a little bit less, that I must not be entirely crazy.
I actually agree very much with the Givens’ and others who make the argument that when it comes to faith and matters of belief it can never be like gravity, there MUST be valid reason(s) to not believe in order to make the choice to believe have any power (power in the sense that it affects you and your life in some meaningful way). If faith in the God or anything else was as irrefutable as the principle of gravity (and lets not kid ourselves, the evidence for both are nowhere near of the same caliber) then it would drastically change the nature of humanity’s current existence. I don’t necessarily fault religious people for believing, but it does bother me when they choose to claim that their chosen belief is sure knowledge and even at all comparable to tangible things that science and doesn’t require you to believe in.
For real. I had this conversation just now. I personally believe in god. As in me. As an individual but i will never say I know unless, it’s fact. Just like the concept of right and wrong. In reality right and wrong are opjective. I can’t claim it to be true. Truth means real, correct with no chance of being incorrect, supported with point to show and explain why it right. While False is contrary, something that was said with nothing to support it to be true, with Facts.
It’s irritating to hear people claiming things to absolutely correct but realize it not based in reality. Now some can be claim that their reality is true, but its because it lies in Faith.
I know lies in facts.
To believe lies in faith.
Could the 1860 rise of “I KNOW” have anything to do with the RLDS missionary attempts to convert the SLC saints?
It certainly could be. I guess if we wanted to know for sure, I’d have to go through every instance of each phrase and categorize them by topic. I don’t have the time or motivation, but it would be cool to see.
I find this really interesting and I am surprised that the discrepancy between “I know” and “I believe” is not any higher.
Over the past couple of years I have taken notes about when certain phrases are used in testimony meetings. In around 15 or so recorded meetings(mostly in BYU singles wards) I only heard the phrase “I believe” a handful of times (literally about 5). The times the phrase “I know” is used is high enough I am not going to bother to try and count them all.
I am curious as well as to what is the driving force behind this cultural norm. Obviously this article shows that a lot of it comes from the top and pervades to the lay members. Also I feel there is a cultural pressure to be certain in your testimony and use the phrase “I know” as opposed to something with a weaker connotation like “I believe”. I have personally felt it myself. Also missionaries are taught to use the phrase “I know” in the mission field.
It would be interesting to find out where the real motivation for this switch came from, or if it was just the result of emergence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
I’m not sure that this data shows influence from the top down, maybe it’s showing the leadership using the language of the members? My best guess is that there were probably a few leaders who led or pushed for such a change, then a large portion of the membership followed, then the rest of the leadership followed. But in reality, I have no idea.
Intersesting, I never thought of the possibility of it coming from the bottom up. Like you, I really don’t know where this comes from.
I would be interested in seeing how these phrases are used throughout the canonized scriptures. There could be a difference between what is used in the scriptures and what is used in GC.
Just like Alison above, I find the use of the word “know” hard for me to use because it’s so absolute. With all of the people who profess to have “known” Christ but yet have fallen away from the church, by definition wouldn’t they be at risk for the unpardonable sin? IMO, I don’t think they are risk because their “knowledge” was never at that point.
In the vein of this topic,I often find it ironic to sit in a testimony meeting and never once hear the phrase “I believe” but yet sing the song “I believe in Christ” at the end of the meeting.
I’ve been thinking about this language usage quite a bit lately. I’ve been wondering if the individuals who use it, and the leaders who model it, are consciously doing it out of a desire to demonstrate (or feel) conviction or simply because that is the cultural norm. I suspect that it is some of both (equal parts?).
This issue started for me in the MTC learning a foreign language for a mission. Before my mission I felt perfectly comfortable to claim the things that I believe when I shared my testimony. I noticed it was slightly out of the typical pattern but it felt genuine & honest to me and I never received any comments or instruction about my use of “I believe.”
In the MTC I was told, very explicitly, that due to the way the foreign language works if you say “I believe” then you have to modify the verbs that follow in a way that suggests doubt and uncertainty. Therefore, as missionaries, we were to bear testimony only and always with “I know” so as to not create a stumbling block for investigators. This was a very difficult thing for me to put into practice as just weeks before I was very consciously choosing to say “I believe” so as to not misrepresent myself.
It wasn’t until many years later that I began to allow myself to honestly acknowledge the effect that had on me and on my faith. That I forcefully shoved aside my concerns and internal objections to “be obedient” felt like serious self-betrayal.
I had a very explicit instruction to say “I believe”, I don’t think it is ubiquitous but I am sure that I am not alone in this type of guidance by the church. I suspect experiences like mine play heavily into the disparity in frequency of use, especially at local levels of the church.
Last paragraph, I meant that I had explicit instruction to say “I know.”
Very interesting to hear your MTC experience. I’ll have to ask my hubby and son if they can remember if they received this counsel while in the MTC as well. I suspect you may be right that “the individuals who use it, and the leaders who model it, are consciously doing it out of a desire to demonstrate (or feel) conviction or simply because that is the cultural norm.”
Great comment Jason!
“Although your subjective experience may seem very real to you, it doesn’t necessarily represent reality.” Thomas Riskas. I think saying “I know…” has become so commonplace that people don’t pause to realize what they are actually saying and the absurdity of their saying it. Why this mindset has come about I have no idea, but it seems somewhat cultish, if that touchy word may be used, and self-delusional as well. I realize that it packs an entomological punch to use “I know” rather than “I believe” but it promiscuous and unthinking use smacks of arrogance and dishonesty.
I wish this comment system had the ability for me to +1 or “thumbs up” your post.
+1 very enthusiastically!!
Should be “epistemology punch”
Interesting post. I really do know how elusive the word know can be in an LDS setting.
Technical question. How in the world are you pulling off the statistical analysis? Do you have some sort of database that you are using? are you integrating with some sort of system that has access to GC talks over the past hundred years or so?
Cool stuff,
Matt, Geoff said upthread that the data come from the Corpus of LDS General Conference talks. It’s a ton of fun to play around with.
how many wives?