Complementarity and the Gospel

Tom Hardman is a patent attorney in Salt Lake City, and occasional blogger on science and religion. 

A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design, by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek, is a fascinating meditation on the nature of reality. I found Wilczek’s discussion about complementarity to be particularly thought provoking. Complementarity is a principle of quantum theory, but Wilczek argues that “its importance, as an insight into the nature of things, goes beyond physics.”

Wilczek summarizes complementarity as follows: “No one perspective exhausts reality, and different perspectives may be valuable, yet mutually exclusive.”
For example, scientists once assumed that light was either a particle (think of an infinitesimally small billiard ball) or a wave (think of waves in the ocean). These two ways to think about light were thought to be mutually exclusive, and physicists argued about which perspective was correct. But it is now accepted that both perspectives represent a portion of the truth: light is made up of particle-like photons that are accompanied by a wave that governs the direction in which light travels. In other words, the concept of a particle and the concept of a wave offer complementary perspectives on the reality of light. This is known as wave-particle duality.

Wilczek generalizes the principle of complementarity beyond physics, arguing that “no one approach, however clever, can provide answers to all possible questions. To do full justice to reality, we must engage it from different perspectives.”

This reminds me of what Terryl Givens says about Mormonism in People of Paradox. Although Givens doesn’t specifically mention complementarity, he observes that “Mormonism … seems especially rife with paradox — or tensions that only appear to be logical contradictions.” He provides four examples: (1) authoritarianism versus individualism, (2) “epistemological certainty” versus “an eternal quest” for knowledge and perfection, (3) the “disintegration of sacred distance,” and (4) exile from versus integration within Christianity.

I believe the paradoxes Givens identifies are complementary in the way that Wilczek suggests. Several other complementary paradoxes within Mormonism come to mind as well:

Justice/Mercy: The principle of justice (people should receive what they deserve) and the principle of mercy (people should sometimes receive more than they deserve) seem contradictory, but I feel the need for a balance between the two in my efforts at parenting. When my wife and I become narrowly focused on justice — on setting rules, dispensing rewards for compliance, and enforcing consequences for violations — our home feels too cold, too corporate. Yes, the children (more or less) practice their instruments and clean their rooms, but they seem distant and detached. On the other hand, when we focus excessively on mercy — on demonstrating compassion and forgiving wrongdoing — mayhem ensues. Homework goes undone, appointments are missed, promises are broken, and contention erupts. It is only when my wife and I strive, however imperfectly, for both justice and mercy that we are able to maintain a spirit of love and closeness within our family while staying at least one step ahead of utter chaos. I like to think that our Heavenly Parents have similar feelings about the human family, and that this is at least partly why mercy cannot rob justice (Alma 42:25).

Doctrinal Purity/Openness to Truth: Church leaders such as President Hinckley have “spoken … about the importance of keeping the doctrine of the Church pure.” This suggests, as does a current youth Sunday School lesson, that we must be wary of “things that could contaminate the pure doctrines of the gospel.” I don’t dispute this, but at the same time I have received what I believe are spiritual insights and answers to prayer from a variety of non-LDS sources, including literature, movies, music, and art, as well as books about seemingly non-religious topics such as evolution, historical criticism, and even atheism. It is unlikely that I ever would have consulted such sources if I were excessively concerned about being exposed to ideas that would “contaminate” my understanding of the gospel. It seems to me that the concern about maintaining pure doctrine must be balanced with a desire for learning and an openness to truth, regardless of its source. Joseph Smith taught that “[o]ne of the grand fundamental principles of Mormonism is to receive truth, let it come from where it may.”

Faith/Doubt: President Monson was fond of saying, “Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.” I understand why faith and doubt are often characterized as opposites, but doubt has complemented my faith in several ways. Most notably, doubt has helped me to eliminate erroneous (and sometimes harmful) beliefs from my faith. Doubt has also been a humbling force in my life by pushing me to acknowledge my limitations, thereby making me more open to faith. I’m not saying that people should go looking for doubt, but I also agree with Armand Mauss that “doubt is the inescapable companion of serious, reflective thought.” When doubt presents itself, we should see it as an opportunity for spiritual growth and a more mature faith.

Self-Reliance/Interdependence: The Church teaches that self-reliance is “an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being.” Yet the scriptures characterize the baptismal covenant as expressing a willingness to “bear one another’s burdens” (Mosiah 18:8). Those aspects of the gospel that are focused on individual behavior (e.g., personal scripture study and prayer, obeying the Word of Wisdom, obtaining an education) are good and true principles, but they represent only a part of the gospel. We are also called to “remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted” (D&C 52:40). My participation in the Church helps me to remember that the gospel is both personal and collective. Yes, we must be self-reliant, but as President Oscarson declared, “oh, how we need each other!”

Mormon scripture teaches, “The glory of God is intelligence” (D&C 93:36). Perhaps this concept can be supplemented by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s insight: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”