vessr wrote:<snip>
Let’s start with the premise that there is a loving Heavenly Father who cares more deeply about me than any earthIy father, mother, friend, or acquaintance could. He might also think it unfortunate that I lost part of my faculties to a stroke. Or it may serve a greater purpose in his plan for my ultimate well-being. But a loving father would not take my faith/belief gene away from me and cast me out because I simply wanted to use what faculties I have left to find Him. He might tell me, as you have, to skip the process of believing; but that is because he knows I’m not capable of believing without studying things out in my mind, again, what mind I have left.
He would not treat an investigator as a piece of meat to be thrown to the devilish wolves because he sought for Him with what faculties he have left. If I am not able, mentally, to “ask God” at this time, he would gently head me in the right direction. He would put the right people into my life to love and inspire me. He would not disown me as my son did when I believed that God was speaking through a Samual-the-Lamanite-type outsider who testified with as much fervor as any Mormon member of the Church that the Sealed Portion was upon the earth. He would not inspire my ex-wife to filed divorce papers because I investigated the Sealed Portion, studied it out, then asked God if it was right, and believed I had received an answer that it was. He would not have inspired those high councilmen who cast lots to see who would defend me at my excommunication court, and who were instructed to advocate for me, to weaken under the Stake President’s eye and to vote against me and in favor of my excommunication, even when my Bishop testified that, as a seminary teacher, I never asked one student to believe me, or even told them about my quest and findings.
Yes, I spoke with God several times in my life, and this is where I am now, unable to do it again in any genuine way without help from him or some loving soul that could teach me how.
My Father in Heaven would not tell me that I am foolish for seeking to find religion based on historical or archeological evidence, at least in part. (Quasi gave me some hope in this direction, and God would not take my hope away.) Yes, perhaps there “is no reason to believe in ANY religion on that basis,” for NONE of them stack up against the evidence.
God would not call my search to find out whether Joseph Smith fabricated the Book of Mormon or had assistance from others as “a ridiculous proposition.”
I have spoken to God many times in the past and this is where I am now in my life. I don’t criticize you, Tobin, in how you have counseled me as an investigator of Mormonism. But I cannot abandon my search at this time.
I am in the Nursery according to my status in the forum. If I am treated as one with childlike propensities, that might lead me somewhere out of the hole I am in. That is, if someone will extend that kind of love and care towards me.
Of course you are welcome to do anything you want (as if I could stop you), no matter how useless and ineffectual it may be. I was simply pointing out that Mormonism is based on the proposition that one must seek and speak with God to determine whether or not it is true. If you are incapable of doing that, I'm just advising you to do other more productive things with your life. After all, if you are going to investigate Mormonism based on a narrow set of criteria that is unlikely to yield any answer other than it a fraud and an obvious one at that, then I'd just skip to the conclusion and cease my efforts there. Instead I'd encourage you to serve others, be kind to your family and others that you meet, and live a useful and fulfilling life doing good.
"You lack vision, but I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on all day, all night.... Tire salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful." -- Judge Doom