What Do People Here Believe?

[honorentheos]

Normally I don’t read your posts. I read this one. It deserves a response.

I no longer come from the same place I did years ago. People change. I came to feel/know differently than I did when I was in that dark place.

I chose to believe in God. Everything else then began to fall in line. Do I have questions? Sure. Don’t we all. Do I have faith in the restoration and all that this entails? Yes.

And this is where we differ. I came back from the abyss. And it took a LOT of effort and patience. And balance.

I will not carry on with this conversation with you. It serves no purpose. You are who you are.

Best wishes to you, along with Res Ipsa and other nonbelievers, in your life journeys. May you have a sense of equilibrium and experience happiness in the choices you have made.

We all live with them, don’t we?

Do no harm. Seek peace.

Regards,
MG

What parts of Mormonism were a fabricated farce?

- Doc

The Hugh B. Brown parts. Everything espoused by Ezra Taft Benson? Right from the mouth of God.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

What parts of Mormonism were a fabricated farce?

- Doc

The Hugh B. Brown parts. Everything espoused by Ezra Taft Benson? Right from the mouth of God.

I mean, if MG has an apostasy cum redemption arc, then let’s hear it. He’s been claiming for years that he was at where we were and are, so I want to see if there’s an actual ‘fabricated farce’ within his reconversion story.

- Doc

[Doctor Steuss]

To be accused of hubris is ludicrous. At least from where I’m sitting.

The juxtaposition of those two sentences is one of my favorite things posted as of late.

[Res Ipsa]

I no longer come from the same place I did years ago. People change. I came to feel/know differently than I did when I was in that dark place.

***

And this is where we differ. I came back from the abyss. And it took a LOT of effort and patience. And balance.

***

May you have a sense of equilibrium and experience happiness in the choices you have made.

We all live with them, don’t we?





Regards,
MG

So, doubting the existence of God is a "dark place" that, according to posts upthread, we nonbelievers stayed in.

But Homo superior did what was necessary to come back from "the abyss," while we lazy nonbelievers just stayed there.

And the passive aggressive "we all have to live with our choices," meaning, from an LDS perspective, you'll be punished for yours.

Even when he tries, he can't just wish everyone well.

[Dr Exiled]

Let me guess what happened to MG 2.0. He probably didn't go to church one week, went to a starbucks instead and sipped some coffee. He was at a crossroads. Would he continue to sip coffee and then move to hard drugs and sexual immorality as most do? The abyss was thankfully avoided, he confessed his sin to his bishop, and he came out of the experience even more determined to preach to sinners online.

[Tator]

I thought MG was a Snapple addict.

[MG 2.0]

What parts of Mormonism were a fabricated farce?

- Doc

As we mature and gain experience and understanding we reach certain pivot points where what was once little understood becomes open to further enlightenment and comprehension. It’s a natural progression unless that process is inhibited or stumped along the way. You can see examples of this all around you. Education follows that pattern. The workplace follows that pattern. Relationships follow that pattern. Religious/metaphysical knowledge and understanding follows that pattern. Scientific knowledge and understanding follows that pattern.

As I grew and matured I came across things that didn’t fit in with my traditional views and understandings of ‘Mormonism’ and the Restoration. Science and religion. Conflicts in moral values. Creationism and scientism. Etc.

Pivot points.

Just like many, I gradually…and then suddenly…hit the wall. Where to go? Hard times. Very hard.

I had to decide where and what to do. And as it was, I had a family that was moving along, generally, on a traditional ‘LDS path’. So for a while I mimicked that activity as best I could. It was hard. Very hard.

Somewhere along the line I decided to do more study and also look at trying to keep a balance in what I was reading. To look at everything and turn it all upside down and look at everything I could both pro and con. Science. Religion. Philosophical views maintained by believers and non believers. Etc.

A gradual pivoting took place. I decided that it would NOT be unreasonable to move forward with a tentative/conditional belief and faith in a creator God. Small as it was having started from a point of general non belief. As that ‘seed’ grew I was able to then come back to those areas of church history, science and religion, moral discrepancies, etc., and work on those from the perspective of believing in God. I continued to ask the question, “If God exists…then?” I looked at various puzzle pieces that didn’t seem to fit and looked to see why they didn’t SEEM to fit and then look at various options and perspectives…with the help of others…that helped those pieces come together more uniformly. Perfectly? Sometimes. Always? Not completely.

A reconstruction of faith beyond/different from what had been. A new beginning. A rebirth of sorts.

What once was lost to my understanding because of incomplete understanding was now open to my consciousness where it hadn’t been before. Much work. Much patience. And some deep thought, prayer, and introspection.

I realized that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stood a greater chance of being ‘God’s Truth’ than any other system of belief and/or understanding in the worldwide market place of ideas/philosophies. It was for EVERYONE that was willing to accept Jesus Christ and be willing to conform their lives to living a fullness of His Gospel.

It didn’t happen over night. Did I become stuck in ruts along the way? Yes. But I kept the wheels turning and kept moving rather than staying stuck and giving up the fight for faith.

Those things that had led me to think that Mormonism was a ‘fabricated farce’ no longer held the weight that they had. In fact, I came to see how those things actually fit into a system where God allows for agency, growth, and understanding on the part of His children.

Here I am. And there you are! Probably more than you asked for.

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

To be accused of hubris is ludicrous. At least from where I’m sitting.

The juxtaposition of those two sentences is one of my favorite things posted as of late.

Indeed!

[MG 2.0]

To be accused of hubris is ludicrous. At least from where I’m sitting.

The juxtaposition of those two sentences is one of my favorite things posted as of late.

We each have our own point of reference and perspective, don’t we? We are coming at this ‘juxtaposition’ from a different place.

Regards,
MG

[honorentheos]

The Hugh B. Brown parts. Everything espoused by Ezra Taft Benson? Right from the mouth of God.

I mean, if MG has an apostasy cum redemption arc, then let’s hear it. He’s been claiming for years that he was at where we were and are, so I want to see if there’s an actual ‘fabricated farce’ within his reconversion story.

- Doc

For sure. I'm just ribbing him over his past statements indicating his belief in Mormonism is closely aligned with a political conservatism that makes Mormon beliefs and rightwing American politics essentially defenders of God. You know. God's kingdom on earth. So Judas Goat liberal GAs like Hugh B Brown have been weeded out of the leadership over that same period of time as the Dahlin H. Oaks have taken up the Ezra Taft Benson mantel.in keeping the kingdom pure. The second coming? That's the day folks like MG await as the final comeuppance for those with whom they disagree. Not that it's as simple as a disagreement because it's really a cosmic battle between good and evil. So, all the stuff said in this thread.

What he doesn't seem able to understand (literally) is that the Mormon description of God isn't a matter of faith but of intellectual contradiction with reality for at least me. No amount of faith in the world changes that. Elohim is on the same footing as Scientology's Thetans. If you want to believe in them, ok. But it's rejecting reality as presently understood while seeming to be very much what one may expect from someone developing a cosmology in the 19th c.