huckelberry wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:52 pm
...People think I am sincere so my spiritual answer is to be trusted.
It's interesting you would suggest that as an explanation, as I recall hearing something very similar to that in the 70s-80s quite a bit. It sounds like I left about half a decade or so after you, so it's very plausible the emphasis increased during that time. I recall messages like youth and missionaries bring told 'if you aren't all the way there in your belief yet, then just rely on your local leaders'/mission president's/bishop's beliefs etc. and trust them-so you can act like you believe, until you do. In other words, rely on their apparent sincerity as justification for a belief.
That would help justify that little problematic rider of church observations that one should start with at least a touch of hope that it is true.
Starting with an expectation that you will get an answer that the church is true renders the test unreliable to an important degree.
No argument there. Both as a mathematician and as a post Mormon, that is literally my single biggest issue with many Mormon apologetic arguments, as I've stated here repeatedly.
The fact that Muhlestein, an academically trained researcher, openly admitted in a conference address that that is how he constructs his lds arguments simply boggles my mind.
Gaining and building a testimony by stating that you know the church is true is a grim trespass to my mind.
Yes it is. It speaks to the heavily indoctrinated way of some Mormon cultures that it is so easily accepted by some. It's not healthy.