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Hi John. I have a question about this part of your post on pride: It may be that people who strongly feel like the church can't help them aren't all that open to the idea that the church can, in fact, help them. Help them in what way? If, for whatever reason, a member comes to the conclusion that t...

As I've talked to people leaving the church over the years, there are lots of reasons people leave the church, but I've found two that are almost completely consistent. One of those is a poor understanding of what faith actually is. How it applies in their life, and what it looks like to have faith...

I appreciate that. I understand that some people have a great draw to what they consider spiritual experiences. I guess my question centers on two things. How do you know those experiences are divine? If not do you care if they are? How do I know? Frankly I can't really know for sure. Spiritual exp...

It seems like you have not looked into the details of various methods that he could have used. This is exactly what Brian Hales uses as an apologetic. Even worse, you are simply using an argument from ignorance.....I can't see how he could do it so I will continue. At least you are brave enough to ...

I just don't think it is as important that we have a perfect idea of God before we start building our relationship with him. Most things in life are like this. There is always some learning along the way. Unless you’re a child who God decides to give childhood cancer to and you die at age 9 after y...

I don't think faith as risk assessment is a convincing framework for what religious people generally mean when they say to have faith. I definitely don't believe the actuarial definition of faith is compatible with what's in scripture. A long time ago I decided the best exegesis of faith is found i...

Most people aren't using the Book of Mormon as a historical text. They are using it to draw closer to God. So yes, if they read a passage and feel a little closer to God, they might trust the missionaries and get baptized in an effort to start a journey toward God. JohnW, assuming there is a god, w...

Most people aren't using the Book of Mormon as a historical text. They are using it to draw closer to God. So yes, if they read a passage and feel a little closer to God, they might trust the missionaries and get baptized in an effort to start a journey toward God. That is similar to the bus analog...

JohnW, I primarily wanted to thank you for being an example of congenial dialogue. It certainly helps my internal compass of curmudgeonality (not a real word, but I'm going to claim it). I want to pre-empt the following that it is not only coming off-the-cuff from memory, but it is from a memory th...

That isn't how I defined trust originally. I said trust was confidence in someone else's experience. I'm not talking about confidence in the brakes in my car but confidence in the brakes of the bus when I first step on the bus. I'm assuming the driver or maintenance person did their job. This is di...