I don't know that fear of death would drive anyone to Mormonism. Let's put it this way, had Peterson been born in some other religion or no religion, the chances he'd spend ten minutes with Mormonism is about one in a billion by my calculation.Physics Guy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 1:34 pmI wonder exactly how fear of death may drive people to Mormonism. There are other belief systems which offer just as much hope for afterlife without all the Mormon baggage of ugly history, fake Scriptures, and high activity demand. I mean, one can just decide to believe that after death we all get eternal beach vacations, with no strings attached. If you can really believe that, you've got the fear of death licked.
I suppose that's the rub. If you just decide to believe something, it's too obvious that that's all your doing. When evidence is unavailable, one way you can still raise your confidence is to up your investment. A $100 bottle of wine is bound to taste better than a $10 bottle. If you don't actually know wine, but you really want to be sure you're getting a good bottle, you might just try to buy the most expensive bottle you can find.
Maybe committing to Mormonism is kind of analogous to that strategy.
Since he's Mormon, and by his own account never questioned anything and his beliefs haven't changed since he was twelve, then should he fear death, his hope is in a Mormon context. Mormonism has some overlap with spiritualism and theosophy. He probably even believes in a silver chord, maybe it's gold for Mormons.
I would say this, because of some of the similarities Mormonism shares with spiritualists, dead relatives communicating from the "other side" in the temple, the spirit world as an in-between state, and a lot of that fluff in Mormon culture, there might be a draw to Mormonism for people who have been drawn to spiritualism through popular culture, but then at the same time want a church. I recall a new member from my mission who was a spiritualist. Super nice, intelligent, charismatic lady, normal conversation is going on and then, wow, that morning a demon ran across her wall and she had to bind it, or something like that.
