charity wrote:Chap wrote:
There are people on this board who have been through an experience like that in terms of their belief in Joseph Smith as a prophet, and in some cases in their belief in God.
Say what you like about your own state of commitment - but don't tell these people that they are not 'open-minded' because they are never going to come back to where you still are.
Wouldn't real open mindedness leave room for a change of mind a second time for them as they changed their minds once?
Not necessarily. It depends on the issue and on the context. To take an extreme example, if one used to believe that blacks were inherently inferior to whites, but who experienced a change of mind, do we consider her to be closed minded if she doesn't leave open the option to come back around to the opinion that blacks are indeed inherently inferior? In some cases, the weight evidence, and the totality of human experience, have effectively settled the issue.
If one used to believe that the Halocaust was a hoax, but has since become convinced that it happened, do we think him closed minded if he considers the issue settled?
As for Mormonism, I, like many others, left because of evidence against it was overwhelming. It's not one thing, but its all of it together: a philandering, lying, manipulative founding Prophet; a blantantly 19th century work of fiction masquerading as an ancient text; a belief in a world-wide flood and other obvious fables, such as Adam and Eve; granting of divine status to a book that glorifies mass murder; the worship of a egotistical, capricious, cruel God; the chattelization of women; the overt racism and bigotry of its leaders; the creation of personality cults around falible humans; the institutionalized sexism and homo-phobia; the constant lagging behind human rights advances; the elevation of emotion over reason; the routine failure of prayer; the routine failure of priesthood blessings; the sexualization and trivialization of morality; the patently fraudulent "translation" of ancient funeral texts; the perpetuation and cover-up of mass murder; etc, etc.. All these add up to a damning indictment of Mormonism's truth claims. A few spurious parallels between the PofGP and ancient texts are not enough to tip the scale. Sorry.
Based on the evidence, I judge the probability that it's true to be no better than, say, .001. I'm open to evidence, but I've seen most of it, and I don't find it compelling. It hasn't changed my estimation of the probability.
Also, I can't help but wonder, how open are you personally that Islam is the true religion? Or Judaism? Or Evangelical Christianity? Or Shintoism? You consider those issues settled, and you don't mind if we think the same, but you want us to privilege your religion by leaving the door open that it might be true. But why should we privilege Mormonism in such a way? Why not privilege one of the other "major" religions? Why privilege this tiny, inisignificant sect that has left almost no footprint on human history?
God . . . "who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, . . . and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him ..."