For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 28:30)

It may seem difficult to imagine that thinking you know something and failing to hearken to God are the same… [but] if you become set in your idea of the truth, you could only have become so by ignoring what God is continuing to say to you. Living revelation means constant revelation. We should expect to frequently displace our current understanding with something better.

If one assumes that they lack knowledge, the next step is to seek it. If we want to learn more than we know, we will have to investigate points of view that don’t belong to us already. While it is possible that new knowledge exists outside the bounds of accepted truth, scriptural examples suggest it is much more likely that further light and truth will clash with what we already think we know than support it. However, this gives us no reason to fear reading or hearing information that doesn’t agree with what we believe. After all, if we believe man is fallen and God is perfect, we ought to understand that his revelation of our misconceptions is how we become more like him.

You should not assume something is false simply because you have never heard it before. Anyone who does not believe they know everything ought to expect to hear something that they’ve never heard before, or something that contradicts what they have been told previously.

Searching for truth requires a willingness to investigate both sides of a position as objectively as possible. If you are merely arguing for your position, you cannot honestly say you are searching for truth…

Knowledge of opposing views is necessary for two reasons. First, a rational position requires knowledge of both sides of an issue… Second, you cannot effectively persuade others if you are not aware of why they believe what they do… [Additionally], an intrinsic benefit of investigating your opponent’s position is the possible discovery that they are, in fact, correct. Just as you could possess evidence of your position that your counterpart had never considered, so could they. Yet, such a situation is to be desired, not feared, for those in possession of greater truth have drawn closer to God.

For most, unbiased evaluation of opposing views is particularly difficult. After all, no one wants to turn away from their life’s work, or the legacy of their ancestors. The more that is sacrificed for a belief system, the less likely one is to abandon that belief system. That loss isn’t all ideological, either.

Accepting putative truth might cost you your job, your loved ones, or anything else your heart might be attached to. In order to maintain objectivity, one must adopt a posture where they can temporarily detach from their persona and consider putative truth absent of what it would cost them if it were true, what they think of the source, etc. The search for truth must be detached from our temporal and philosophical circumstances.

(Robert Smith, The Glory of God is Intelligence—Acquiring and Disseminating Light and Truth, 133-134)

God will consistently challenge your paradigms.

Orthodoxy is the antithesis of seeking truth from God…

Just because you know something doesn’t mean you know everything. All the righteous ancients knew more than we do, and yet they were constantly seeking for more than they had. When we think of the over-wise, we tend to think of those who flaunt knowledge and are constantly challenging what they are told. In reality, the over-wise are those who are satisfied with ignorance.

(Robert Smith, The Glory of God is Intelligence—Acquiring and Disseminating Light and Truth, 129)