Nelson Chung wrote:Let me preface this by saying that I am a TBM and I don't intend on ever leaving the Church.
I would suggest that all TBM's "don't intend on ever leaving the Church." It is if and when they are no longer TBM's that leaving becomes an option/consideration.
Let's be honest: Evangelical Christianity is not very appealing to a group of people with the educational profile of Mormons.
It isn't just the "educational profile" of this superior group of people. It is their fantastic skin complexion, their spectacular hair and their collective height that make this above option not very appealing to anyone who are fortunate enough to belong to this exceptional group of human beings!
Themis wrote: I'm not ex-Mormon but when someone figures out LDS truth claims are not true, it's likely they will figure it out about Christianity as well.
For me it happened in the opposite order. I left the church because I came to the realization that Christianity made no sense.
As soon as you concern yourself with the 'good' and 'bad' of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you. - O'Sensei
But let's also recognize that that atheism offers nothing but despair. There are alternatives available. Philosopher Richard Sherlock, for example, converted to Catholicism because he said that faith needs to be rational and Mormonism is based too much on feelings. What I find especially appealing is Eastern Orthodoxy. They bear an uncanny resemblance to what Mormons are used to: temples, priesthood, deification, no guilt from original sin, continuing revelation, degrees of glory, and much more, all within a Trinitarian framework.
You could change the title to "Ever explore different lifestyles". All their pursuits are ultimately after what the LDS Church already offers. The problem is that what they find is some perverted or bizzaro version of it.
Ceeboo wrote:It isn't just the "educational profile" of this superior group of people. It is their fantastic skin complexion, their spectacular hair and their collective height that make this above option not very appealing to anyone who are fortunate enough to belong to this exceptional group of human beings!
Peace, Ceeboo
Actually, white people smell like milk and their earwax is sticky.
By far the huge majority of people on Mormonscholarstestify were born in the LDS church. So many things that challenge the truths of the LDS church. Missing Book of Abraham papyri, still to be found Book of Mormon cities must be a burden for many thinking LDS.
Hilary Clinton " I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's GDP.I won in places are optimistic diverse, dynamic, moving forward"
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological pattern or anomaly, potentially reflected in behavior, that is generally associated with distress or disability, and which is not considered part of normal development in a person's culture. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives.
If You prefer the word "mad", then yes, Nietzsche was mad. I used the words "mentally ill", which is - someway - more courteous.
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
aussieguy55 wrote:By far the huge majority of people on Mormonscholarstestify were born in the LDS church. So many things that challenge the truths of the LDS church. Missing Book of Abraham papyri, still to be found Book of Mormon cities must be a burden for many thinking LDS.
Not really. I get together with other thoughtful Mormons in my area (I live in the most educated town in the country), and we've discussed issues like polygamy, evolution, Mormon 2nd-coming expectations, united order, Brigham Young's new biography, other faiths, problems with the CES system, correlation, etc. Sometimes it's necessary to readjust the way we look at the nature of revelation, the literalness of scripture, etc. But nothing really becomes a problem.
"It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey." - Soren Kierkegaard
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological pattern or anomaly, potentially reflected in behavior, that is generally associated with distress or disability, and which is not considered part of normal development in a person's culture. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives.
If You prefer the word "mad", then yes, Nietzsche was mad. I used the words "mentally ill", which is - someway - more courteous.
aussieguy55 wrote:By far the huge majority of people on Mormonscholarstestify were born in the LDS church. So many things that challenge the truths of the LDS church. Missing Book of Abraham papyri, still to be found Book of Mormon cities must be a burden for many thinking LDS.
Not really. I get together with other thoughtful Mormons in my area (I live in the most educated town in the country), and we've discussed issues like polygamy, evolution, Mormon 2nd-coming expectations, united order, Brigham Young's new biography, other faiths, problems with the CES system, correlation, etc. Sometimes it's necessary to readjust the way we look at the nature of revelation, the literalness of scripture, etc. But nothing really becomes a problem.
Nelson,
Do you believe God wanted Joseph Smith to marry other mens wives? Or that Joseph got the instruction on polygamy all wrong? Do you believe Adam was literally the First mortal man on this planet and before him nothing died? Do you believe the book of Abraham is a literal translation from the papyrus or not? Do you believe that God and Jesus both appeared to Joseph Smith despite the fact that Joseph didn't remember God appearing and speaking directly to him until decades later?
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
