If the church was 90% true, would you want to know?

[_deacon blues]

My mother, a Saintly woman who passed away a little over ten years ago, was pretty much a TBM- except for polygamy. (and maybe the the Priesthood ban)(and maybe the correlation program that gutted the Relief Society Organization) I remember her stating (around 1970) in a discussion with my older brother, that she thought Joseph Smith had gone a little crazy after the Missouri persecutions, and that explained section 132. My brother stood on the grounds that one must accept all Joseph's revelations- 100%. The memory of that discussion, affected me ever since. I readily accept that the Church has had some positive benefit on my life, for example: Word of Wisdom (helped keep me off drugs), a culture of service, emphasis on family, etc. But it always seemed to me that there was a possibility of error in Joseph's revelations, even though I would usually try to deny, or overlook those errors. When my shelf broke, there was a sense of concern, but also a sense of relief that I wasn't crazy. Anyway, the discussion about the relationship between revelation and truth is not black and white, although some people crave the certainty of a black and white world view. Just saying..........

And God bless us, every one.

[_Dr Exiled]

I don't know if I would put it that way - being 90% true. I think the church has some good things like you said. However, honesty, family, a healthy lifestyle, etc. are things anyone and everyone can discover without the church. We simply don't need a fake prophet telling us the obvious mixed in with the false authority claims, monopolizing our time and demanding 10%, in my opinion. So, if you calculate the good at 90%, I think the false 10% clearly outweighs whatever good it does.

[_Sanctorian]

I hate when people say things like "I'd be an alcoholic, dead, adulterer, etc." if not for the church. It's complete BS.

People are those things in the church. People are also not those things outside of the church. The church, although maybe had a positive impact on your life, is not the reason people are good. People are good because they consciously decide to be good. Church or no church.

So I agree with exiled. Because the church is false, the good has nothing to do with the church and can be found in organizations in abundance throughout the world.

[_deacon blues]

I don't know if I would put it that way - being 90% true. I think the church has some good things like you said. However, honesty, family, a healthy lifestyle, etc. are things anyone and everyone can discover without the church. We simply don't need a fake prophet telling us the obvious mixed in with the false authority claims, monopolizing our time and demanding 10%, in my opinion. So, if you calculate the good at 90%, I think the false 10% clearly outweighs whatever good it does.

I would say that for my TBM Mother, the church was 90% true. For me, it is some where between 1-10%, although I can see how a person, by avoiding evidence, could believe it to be much higher. I think anyone who says it is 100% true or false is deceiving themselves about not only the church, but reality. I agree that assigning a percentage of truth to the church can be kind of silly if not ridiculous, and I do it just to make a point about my Mom; that even a TBM may not be 100% in.