Irritated by faith-promoting rumors

[_Sam Harris]

They're not just within Mormonism...but of course everyone here knows that.

A couple of weeks back I got this email, that I could not believe people forwarded. I mean, how far does common sense have to go out of the window in the name of religion and faith? I understand that for many people faith is important, but what about just plain ole common sense?

The issue has gotten so great for me, that I haven't really been to church lately. Well, that and my health, but I'm sick of the myths, and the fact that some people just don't want to face reality. Is it that damaging to your faith that Christianity was influenced by paganism? Is it that damaging to your faith that the Gospels weren't written by the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?

The email I got was about this Muslim man who burned his wife alive for reading the Bible. He then proceeded to bury his wife and two kids. The kids were alive. He told the authorities that an uncle had killed the wife. Apparently there was a death in the family shortly thereafter, and when the family went to bury this member, they found the two children, one about five, and the other just an infant, still nursing, ALIVE under the sand. C'mon! Seriously!

The story goes that the little girl claimed that a man in white came and fed her, and "woke her mother up to feed her sister"...for 15 days?

Tell me how a story this sensational didn't leak out to every major news organization...the muslim media isn't that rigid that it could hide such a thing.

I believe in miracles, but I also believe in reality. It's a miracle to me that I have someone in my life who loves me and is devoted to me. It's a miracle to me that I have survived multiple strokes. These things are miracles, but they are also within the bounds of reality. They are "food for my faith", but they are also things that people without religous belief can enjoy as well. As they should!

Why do people who believe in a higher power need to rely on fairytales such as the one above? Not only that, but the story was sent without a link to a newspaper or anything. It was just in a word document. And I bet you...people believed it. This is just as annoying as all of those emails I get around Christmas that demand that Christmas be the only winter holiday.

*sigh*

[_Pokatator]

Hi GIMR

I get a ton of them too. Most are annoying. A few I can tolerate but mostly I delete them without reading. Some are OK and don't come with an agenda. One recent one that comes to mind is the 7 Wonders of the World one. I am sure everyone has got it, but to be redundant: Everyone is thinking the pyramids, etc. when a student is thinking sight, hearing, touch, taste, feel, laugh and love if I remember right. These kind are without a real agenda and OK but can still be a waste of time sometimes.

I agree that this is not just a Mormon thing it is an internet and people everywhere thing. I hate SPAM and most of this is SPAM.

GIMR, I am glad to see you back posting more. I hope you are feeling better. I have been quite sick myself this winter but spring is coming and I can see that this "Global Cooling" isn't going to last forever.

God bless you,
Pokatator

[Anonymous]

Thank God I haven't received that particular Faith-Promoting Rumor yet. It's kind of sick, actually.

I'll stick to things like Sister Jones putting an apple pie to cool on her windowsill and it disappears, just at the exact same time her starving son, serving a foreign mission, has some total stranger show up at his apartment and leave them a pie. Or, a little cooler, those ones about the Manti Temple President seeing legions of spirit Nephites guarding the temple from Satan. Or the one about the 16-year old Priest who was tempted to drink some wine at a party and did so, and then was goaded into blessing it using the Sacrament prayer and started to do so, and was struck dead. Or the ones about a priesthood bearer administering to his radiator on a long trip with his family, and "healing" it.

[_Some Schmo]

I don't quite understand it either, except to say that the need to believe has to be a powerful force for some.

You also can't discount how these kinds of stories (supernatural) must appeal to certain kinds of imaginations/personalities. Over this last Christmas, we were staying at the in-laws place. They are apostate Baptists and have no religious affiliation at all. I think they may have a quasi-belief in god, but they don't take it seriously or do anything about it. But we got into the conversation about ghosts, and I was shocked to find out they honestly put stock in some of the ghost stories they've heard (not all; just the more "credible" sounding ones). My father-in-law started going on about "certain kinds of energy," using it in the new-age way to mean invisible forces that float around but can't be observed or measured. I couldn't believe it! I have tremendous respect for my FIL, so obviously, hearing him talk this way was very surprising.

Later on, I noticed that they had recorded a series on paranormal events, and they said that they were really looking forward to watching it.

It strikes me that at least some of this kind of belief is likely motivated by how tantalizing it is, or how much it appeals to our propensity to enjoy a good story.

[_Scottie]

You know what I find so amusing, is that an Faith-Promoting Rumor can be the most fantastic story you can imagine, yet it doesn't require a single shred of evidence for a believer to believe it.

Yet, tell this same believer that Joseph Smith had multiple wives and you need an affidavit signed in Joseph Smith own blood for them to accept that fact.

I think every mission had the requisite "dusting of the feet", which caused the establishment to be destroyed by the power of God.
Then there were the sister missionaries who were in a bad part of town, got in the car and drove away. The car breaks down 10 miles away with anything from the distributor cap to the entire engine missing.

[_Sethbag]

Or the sister missionaries tract out some serial killer, and he's asked later on why he didn't attack the two young ladies who came to his door, and he says he wanted to, but was intimidated by the three tall, dark guys standing behind them.

Yeah, Scottie, you hit the nail on the head.

You get people who are convinced that while others in the world may be falsely convinced about their religious views, they themselves aren't wrong about their religious beliefs really, honestly, truly being the real ones from God. But then they fall into the trap of believing in some Faith-Promoting Rumor that shows up in their email box, only to find out on Snopes later on that it was all BS. But does that make them think hey, if I was gullible enough to believe that, what makes me so sure that my conviction of the truthfulness of my beliefs is any better founded? Nah, that just goes right over their heads. They've got actual, hard evidence that they're susceptible (just like everyone else) to falling for false stories, yet their conviction in the truth of their beliefs remains unshakable.

[_Mercury]

...how far does common sense have to go out of the window in the name of religion and faith?

I could expand on this but the irony of the statement is crowding out anything I say.

[_Sam Harris]

Talk to your nurse about it, Mercury.

[_Mercury]

Talk to your nurse about it, Mercury.

I would but shes getting my third martini right now.

[_Sam Harris]

Got the hook-up, don't you? LOL