MG 2.0 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 6:20 am
canpakes wrote: ↑Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:34 am
I’m not so sure that crafting a book of supposed ancient scripture is necessarily the hardest route one could take in making a living during that day, especially if doing so convinces a small population of individuals to believe that story, then consider the author as a
prophet (because the book said so, right?), and then work on providing that
prophet with some amount of protection and support.
You could say - if done correctly - that this could be a
pretty sweet deal. Certainly easier than working the fields day in and day out, yes?
It is interesting that Joseph was this ‘outlier’ that accomplished this massive production we call the Book of Mormon. The foresight that he had at the age of seventeen to see the possibilities and be willing to put the WORK into this book so as to hoodwink others into joining his church. And to BELIEVE he was doing the work of God at the same time.
Amazing. No one else did what he did at such a young age and under so much duress and in so little time.
Talk about being goal driven. Again, at seventeen. Simply amazing.
I suppose we can agree on this fact. Joseph was an amazing young man to accomplish what he did. A religious genius.
OK - all of that is quite possible. Geniuses and remarkable people appear all through history. I'm sure that many also appear and disappear without their genius being recognised.
MG 2.0 wrote:
Or he was called of God. Secularists/agnostics/atheists of course don’t want to go there. They are heavily invested in their own worldview.
Regards,
MG
There is no need to invoke a god, because all of the rest can occur without any divine intervention. You demonstrate this by your unwillingness to accept all other religions as equally valid and true. I assume that you realise that the adherents of these other religions generally as heavily invested in their own worldview as you are in yours.
But, please, can you be a bit more accurate in your second-last sentence:
Secularists/agnostics/atheists of course don’t want to go there with any religion, not just yours,
without compelling evidence.
Interestingly, you don't seem to complain that secularists/agnostics/atheists reject all of the religions that you don't adhere to. Perhaps they simply don't see yours as any more remarkable or true than that of anyone else. And in the case of yours, there is plenty of contrary evidence that is readily available and well known to many of the former believers on this board.
I have not studied any of the others, beyond taking a Catholic catechism class, but I believe that many secularists/agnostics/atheists have, and have come to the same conclusions: for each, there is
insufficient compelling evidence. They are not just being annoyingly unwilling concerning Mormonism.
Sorry, MG - your chosen belief is just not that special.