My brother's comment about Stela 5 reminded me of the books and CDs my parents sent to me to try to help me regain my testimony. After reading and listening to them I wondered if they'd even bothered to read or listen to them. In several cases they confirmed facts that my father had stated that he couldn't possibly believe were true that were obvious attacks by the enemies of the church. But mostly, they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and were a confirmation of things that I'd only learned when I started reading non-Mormon sources. I also discovered that they conveniently failed to mention facts or information that weren't helpful to their argument. And finally I found that they made some of the most egregious logical flaws in leaping to conclusions that either weren't supported or were explicitly contradicted by their own facts.
Unfortunately, they don't feel they need to study or understand because the Spirit has already told them what the truth is and nothing is stronger for them than that witness and the good feelings it gives them.
5 comments:
You hit it right on the head. I have a great friend from my mission days that I'm still in touch with on a regular basis.
As I was initially struggling with doubts and newfound information, he was one of the guys I spoke with. The odd thing about it was that he didn't want to get directly involved or hear about any specifics because he deemed everything I had to say as being anti-mormon. Instead, he wanted me to chat with his brother and his father in law who were the resident apologists in his circle.
It was both frustrating and mind blowing that he refused to check anything out on his own or engage me in any form of dialogue. My eternal salvation was at stake and all he could do was refer me to a couple of guys that had no answers. Then, he just couldn't accept that they weren't able to help. Then came the good old back up questions about worthiness, church and temple attendance, scripture reading etc etc.
It's great being judged by people that won't even open their eyes enough to see what is or isn't an issue.
psalms 63 "Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: that they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily they say, who shall see us? They search out iniquities... but God shall shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded.,So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves, all that see them shall fless away.. and all men shall fear, and shall declare the Work of God, for they shall wisely consider of His doing. The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in Him and all the upright in heart shall glory.."
Show me ONE happy exmo, post mo, anti mo.. just One....I have yet in my 10 years on the internet met one, successful in life, happy exmo.. kitty.. hey BULLL...yes, we are on average, higher income, higher intelligence, read what we write.. etc
You must not know many exmos then. Have you considered that maybe it's you that's making them unhappy?
The point is that my brother sent me "faith promoting" BoM "evidence" that even the church's defenders reject as ridiculous which shows that he obviously hasn't bothered looking at it.
It's not just Mormons. Everyone does it. They tend to accept uncritically things that confirm their beliefs and just just as readily reject things that contradict them.
Lately a friend sent me the book "Shaken Faith syndrome". When I read some of the sentences from the book to the friend who sent it - even she could see that the book was an insult to any normal rational thinking human being. But what are we supposed to think about a book written by a man who has a website called Mormonfortress? Like Boyd K. Packer always says: The truth is not useful.
They either don't read it or they don't look at it from the point of view of the person it's sent to. When you confront them they are suddenly forced to see it through your eyes and then they see it differently. Or sometimes they are incapable of seeing it through anyone else's eyes. The religious, unfortunately, are often incapable of breaking through their conditioning.
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