Physics Guy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 4:47 pm
...But I'd still be surprised if many Mormons really thought that their beliefs were justified by their own sincerity.
Surprise.
Hmm. You were Mormon, and you seem to believe this sincerely, so ...
Oh please. Don't be an ass. It's unbecoming.
I've seen people write of the witness of the spirit as a "burning in the bosom", which I take to be a sort of warm feeling inside. While such a sensation doesn't seem to me like convincing evidence for anything, I don't see that the sensation would be the same as sincerity, any more than a stomach ache would be.
Excellent point. You don't, I don't, most here don't, the world in general doesn't, but...Mormons do.
Mormons are taught to seek that sensation--AND to trust it as proof, and are told if they don't find it, it is their fault, and to seek it again. Fake it til you make it is pushed, hard. No, it's not a logical position, but, that is the Mormon dogma for many. That sensation, called 'promptings of the Spirit' among other things, is evidence to Mormons of their 'sincerity' and therefore is taken as truth.
That's why going to one of my heavily Mormon family reunions is like going to a flat earth society meeting. Their sincerity is palpable, and to them it is entirely sufficient. It's all they've got, and they will protect their right to believe without evidence by cloaking it in sincerity, and by attacking anyone who questions whether sincerity should be a valid rationale for belief. It's pretty bizarre. It's also pretty likely that many, for multiple reasons, are faking that sincerity.