Cogito Ergo Sum

I think, therefore I am.  Thus said Rene deCarte, the famous mathematician and philosopher.  If I didn't exist, I couldn't question my existence, so I must exist.  However, I can't know your thoughts.  This puzzle has yet to reach a logical conclusion.  How do we know anything beyond our own existence?
For a moment, let's suppose that someone does know more -- really know, as clearly as their own existence.  Could it be communicated?  I imagine it would be like trying to describe the taste of salt, or the color red.  This kind of knowledge can only truly be experienced, not communicated.

That's the big problem when it comes to some of the discussions about orientation.  I can explain my own experience, but you cannot really know -- you cannot really understand.  If one person's eye experiences the color green in a different way than another, could we ever tell?  If one person experiences love in a different way than another, is there a way to know?  What is love, anyway?  It's so hard to define, and definitions definitely change depending on experiences and perspectives.

What would it sound like if someone knows something as clearly as they know of their own existence, and tried to explain it to others?  It's difficult.  But we are social creatures, so we try.  That is why we, as Mormons, share personal testimony.  We try to explain what we feel, what we understand, what we know.  There is no debating it, for there is no grounds for debate.  But there's also no transfer of that knowledge.  Language is too imperfect a medium.  But language is all we have, so we use it.  Just because someone says they know, that knowledge doesn't transfer.  We can't be sure if what that person says is true.  Nonetheless, we have no grounds to refute their statement, either.  It could be true.  That is why we Mormons feel the Holy Spirit is so important.  As a testifier, the Holy Spirit testifies of the truth directly to our understanding, be it emotional, intellectual, or deeper than both -- in the pure cogito ergo sum level of knowledge.  The only way to truly know is to find that knowledge for yourself.

I know what I know.  I don't claim to know that much, but what I do know, I know.  I think about a lot of things that go beyond my real sure knowledge.  I stretch my understanding, and lots of my thoughts and ideas have to change through time.  But I know that God loves his children more deeply than I can comprehend.  I know he speaks to us through chosen vessels, imperfect fallible mortals, prophets like Moses, Jonah, Peter, Joseph Smith, and others.  I can't transfer my knowledge to others.  But I can communicate through language that I know, and that communication can be received.  And maybe others can gain their own knowledge, if they hear it's there for the finding and have some guide as to where to look for it.

That's why we Mormons send missionaries throughout the world.  That's why we "bear testimony."  We want to share what we have.  But we can't transfer knowledge to others.  They have to come to a knowledge themselves.  We just want to give them a guide as to where we have found knowledge, so hopefully they can find that knowledge, too.