Except what then is "The" truth
Something elusive and extremely hard to grasp. Something I doubt I have more than a dime of, but something I hope I can learn more of in the eternities beyond. You want certainty. You want all the answers, but some things are not simple to understand, some things we have to spend well over a lifetime learning.
God, in his infinite wisdom understands how much we are governed by the influence of families and cultural patterns that saying an individual, straight off, all things equal
I suppose your proposing God lies? It cannot be disproved, I agree that far.
It is overkill like nothing else one can find and you could spend a hundred lifetimes and still not have the time to give each one a fair shake.
Default position is disbelief. I only have to show there is evidence for one, not that there is no evidence for others. Also, many disbelieve in things like spirits.
Many are similar, but doesn't Satan work in subtleties?
I have trouble believing that all religious groups except one have been possessed by Satan. Don't we judge by fruits? That doesn't seem consistent with Mormonism, nor quite frankly many, if not most protestant groups and modern Catholicism.
just responds to the message and if they are righteous will find "the truth" may be a bit naïve.
I never said that. I've continually made it clear that nothing is simple. Science is not simple, so why should God be any simpler, in fact shouldn't he be more complex and therefore so much more interesting?
in fact getting outdone by other groups, who, coincidently when measured for things like healthy habits (Word of Wisdom) line up with what science has shown rather than a higher pay back for obedience.
I have no idea where you're coming from with this. Mormons live on average much longer lives than non-Mormons. Other groups follow similar words on Wisdom and they naturally live similarly long life spans. There was a great TED talk about longevity. I'll look for it and see if I can find it. Yes there are groups that live longer, but that is because they live much different lives from Americans. As far as functioning in American society and longevity we do pretty well.
If the spirit really is there, why isn't it's manifestation different to Mormons, rather than lining up with every cultural expectation of the person making the claim within the culture he/she comes from.
The sense of the Holy Ghost is pretty much the same across religious groups. I'm going to find that Time article I read and post it in the next post. I've also had a lot of experience with evangelical groups. Our experiences are extremely similar. Another thing i'll post is about the third man phenomenon. Next post. I don't see how similarity detracts from anything. It just shows we are sensing things from the same source.
You have to accept they are valid experiences and God just tricks some people - most - like God bet with Satan about Job and his success or failure.
No I don't as I've said before, and I don't take them that way.
I'll just address a few of your objections to Mormonism from reason. It would take a long time to go over all of them and would be off the topic of these series of posts. I also doubt it will do any good, and I have addressed the religion v. science conflict in a previous post.
Loan Shifting: In a true translation Joseph would have translated loan shifted words as what appear to be anachronistic words. I've read many accounts from the early Spanish conquistadors. They all saw "pigs" and "horses." Really this is basic science, and I've always had trouble understanding objections to it, but maybe I just don't have enough empathy.
Joseph, according to the church, saw God and Christ and tried to sell the copyright to the Book of Mormon?
I'm not very familiar with this issue, but I'd imagine it was during the Kirtland period when they were struggling to prevent bankruptcy and to build a temple at the same time? I've never really been that impressed with the idea that Joseph was motivated for money. He lived a pretty meager life, worked days while being a prophet, though later he had to be in his prophet's role full time, and was constantly persecuted. If I was a fraud, I would have given up after Kirtland. Just saying.
Is this because they are women and don't count?
Early Mormonism in particular was extremely suffragette-ish, and it remained so in large part up til Ezra Taft Benson, who changed Mormon culture quite a bit, and Joseph Smith was more feminist than the vast majority of people at the time. Just to give you one example. I have a great-great-great grandmother who gave what appears to be a priesthood blessing. We have this recorded in my family. I'm not sure the case is closed about whether women actually had the priesthood at one point. But I don't think, priesthood or not, Mormon theology discounts the importance of women. Many religions preach that woman is naturally evil, that there is a wickedness in it. Mormonism does no such thing. Yes it often times moves slowly. Part of the problem of having old men is that their biases get in the way from their world view, and you have to watch out for this. But having old men is the best way to get spiritual experts as I mentioned earlier.
Just a few things to think about, Lolitsme.
