¥akaSteelhead wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 4:20 pm
eulalia on June 30, 2021 at 11:37 pm said:
I appreciate your honesty and your journey, and wish you well. Just a question from one who is a believer in the ancient text of the Book of Mormon, how do you explain away the witnesses and their gold plates testimonies?
Oh that is fun.
1. the in the ground physical evidence, biological, archeological, yada - directly contradicts the Book of Mormon narrative.
2. Joseph Smith was able to get people involved in polygamy to sign sworn affidavits stating that the church wasn't practicing polygamy - so witness testimony, especially when Joseph Smith is involved, isn't worth much.
Kevin took a passive aggressive swipe.
Bon voyage, David. As is typically the case over many decades of my own inquiries, when I read this sort of thing, whether Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian, or Coe or Taves and various others, or a wide range of LDS exit narratives, the dominant impression in my mind, is that the God or faith or Book of Mormon that you no longer believe in is radically different than the one I believe in. Same seeds (words). Different soil
and nurture. Different harvest. And so often, the problem is not the new wine, but the need for a wine bottle to contain it. That is Jesus previewing the effect of paradigms on the information at hand. A different paradigm can lead to a very different result. And I can always reflect on the fact that if I had taken my leave way back when, I would have missed so much I now cherish and value, and I would have had no idea what I was missing.
But as Joseph Smith puts it, in a discourse late in his life, “But while one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of man, causes “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” He holds the reins of judgment in His hands; He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men, but, “according to the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil,” or whether these deeds were done in England, America, Spain, Turkey, or India. He will judge them, “not according to what they have not, but according to what they have,” those who have lived without law, will be judged without law, and those who have a law, will by judged by that law. We need not doubt the wisdom and intelligence of the Great Jehovah; He will award judgment or mercy to all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining intelligence, the laws by which they are governed, the facilities afforded them of obtaining correct information, and His inscrutable designs in relation to the human family; and when the designs of God shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we shall all of us eventually have to confess that the Judge of all the earth has done right.”
