Look, Kevin, and all other so-called skeptics, your beef is not with me; it's with God and His prophets.
No, it is with anyone who tells me I don't know the truth because I'm not in touch with my feelings. That's idiotic.
They are the ones who have given us the key to salvation and exaltation.
Joseph Smith gave us polygamy, crappy underwear, an extension or racism, and aa slew of other stupid doctrines that were designed to serve his own purposes.
Heavenly Father in His perfect wisdom established the order of things. He is the one who has said over and over again, through revelation to His chosen prophets, that one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without being baptized both of water and of the Spirit.
Prove it.
The Holy Ghost's companionship is required to understand the plan of salvation and to endure to the end in faith.
Prove it.
Not a degree in Logic. The Lord's ways defy logic.
Prove it.
Apologists get themselves tied up in knots trying to answer every criticism with logic and reason.
Because their beliefs are not logical or reasonable.
People leave the church because they lose their faith because they are deceived by the sophistries of so-called intellectuals like those who infest this board.
No, they leave the faith because they used their God given mental faculties to deduce truths the Church has either obscured or hidden. This is why I can sleep well at night, knowing perfectly well that all I have done is use teh brain God gave me. If he didn't want me to use reason and logic, he shouldn't have created creatures with that capacity.
The Luke Skywalker reference was something of a joke, but the point is still made: he didn't blow up the death star with reason, he did it with faith (metaphorically--of course, I don't believe he existed). Just as Jesus didn't perform His miracles and die for our sins or get resurrected through reason and science--He did it through faith and the priesthood, the power of God.
You're an idiot.
As for your references to purple unicorns and flying spaghetti monsters and all similar such nonsense, here is the difference: none of those fictitious gods ever inspired millions to do good, build churches, help the poor, make bad men good and good men better, the way the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has done.
It also produces inquisitions, Crusades, witch trials, lynching, etc. Your modern version of God produces a cult of hypnotized morons who believe masonic symbols on their underwear are important for salvation. They make people better, says who? Utah ranks high in depression, suicides and bankruptcies. You only pay tithes and do charity for selfish reasons, because you're told you can work your way into heaven. So whenever you help the poor, you do it for yourself.
By their fruits ye shall know them.
And sicne Joseph Smith was a pervert and a liar, that's all we need to know really.
To the extent people follow the Light of Christ (if not LDS) and the promptings of the Holy Ghost (if baptized and confirmed), they become better people, their countenances shine forth gloriously, and they feel--yes FEEL--the goodness and tender mercies of the Lord within. This is real evidence.
It is the same crap you see at Benny Hinn conferences.
Like the effects of the wind, the Spirit can be felt even if its origins are not understood.
Prove it. Prove there is a distinction between spirit and self-induced feelings. You can't. All your feelings represent is proof that what I say is true, since you induce these feelings to serve your presuppositions. SOmeone who wants to feel a certain way badly enough, will.
O ye of little faith, I ask you to be wise!
You don't know what faith is. Faith never meant to blind acceptance of stupid beliefs, simply because they have no evidence.
Doubt not! Fear not! No longer persecute those who have the light merely because you think yourself superior in reasoning and logic. Stop worshiping at the altar of science and philosophy, and let the simple truths of the restored gospel heal your soul and give your spirit rest.
You're an idiot.