After I announced to the family that I didn't believe anymore, a couple of my siblings presented a version of the following argument.

"The LDS Church promises greater blessings in the next life than any other church, so why not take a chance? After all, if it's true and you reject it, look what you have lost."

Say based on TSCC's idea's either way I'm going somewhere nice so why does it matter? I'll still come out better then I am now.

Also in addition "I'll have 10% more income", more sex, more fun and more alcohol (if thats your thing) :)

That's hilarious, because they're straight up calling it after-death insurance. In their own brainy-washy way of course :)

After death insurance that requires payment of yourself / who you are or want to be and 10 percent of your income. I used to use this kind of thing on my mission.

"If any other church believes that you just need to be baptized to be saved, then you get so much more by being in our church. You are saved in theirs and if we are right you get even more!" When really you give up so much that defines you that you hate life anyways...

I'm really ashamed that I used to think the same way as a TBM.. "like, why doesnt everyone join the church... even if they dont fully believe it, because then they will go to a better heaven."

After-death insurance is a spot on description. lol!

What on God's earth are blessings? If God intervenes with blessings for the chosen few, this renders God guilty of playing favourites, and this runs against any reasonable job description of an equitable God. The murderous, psychotic depiction of God in the scriptures is hardly the characteristics we would expect of a God, but rather symptomatic of a nasty fascist intergalactic empire builder.

Why would we wish to be servants in the next life of the Great Mussolini in the sky? Blaah, who wants to live forever anyway? When you shed this glutton-for-punishment wish to live forever, you are clean of any hankering for a God.

The "Why not take a chance" argument is of course an extension of Pascal's wager:

"If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is." (Blaise Pascal)

This argument, on the surface attractive, is false: If God is a benevolent nice chap there is no need to take the gamble, since we are all saved by grace. If God, as seems more likely, is a nasty fascist intergalactic empire-builder, you have backed and become a slave of this fascist Stompentrooper.

Why would God be obsessed as to whether we believe in Her? And why would God consort with a con-man paedophile treasure-seeker in the woods? Is this the best plan God can come up with?

We have lost nothing by not believing the hype. Beer, man, beer's the stuff to drink.

You can't actually use TBM and logic in the same sentence.

enoughenoch19 Wrote:
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> You can't actually use TBM and logic in the same
> sentence.


+1000!

Mormonism's basic premise: he who dies with the best dogma wins.

Jesus rarely spoke of an afterlife. His concern was for the living.

He even said so on Easter. "Why do you look for me among the dead?"

Pascal's Wager

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

This is a form of Pascal's Wager.

I'd hit them with some actual logic.

Say, "since we don't know what's true, safest is to follow a
religion that has the WORST punishment for non believers. That
way I'll avoid the worst thing. If Mormonism is true I'll still
get a great afterlife, but if Catholicism is true and you're a
Mormon you burn in hell for eternity.

Best strategy is to be a Catholic. If Mormonism is true and ur
a Catholic you do great in the afterlife. However if
Catholicism is true and ur a Mormon you burn in agony for
eternity.

Game theory says better strategy to be a Catholic.

+1. Excellent point.

Why not "take a chance"? That may be an acceptable way to approach a $100 bet on the next Knicks game but is it appropriate to base your life choices on?

If this is the best your sibling has to offer, they are on very shaky ground.

Say, "no it doesn't. The LDS church promises men the opportunity to join a pyramid scheme, doing the same exact thing every other male does forever and ever. Women aren't promised anything other than being one of many breeding cows assigned to one god for the rest of eternity. How exactly does that trump nirvana?"

Or if it's not true and this life is all their is, I'll have wasted it residing in the poor house after giving 10%+ of my hard-earned money to a corporation which just exhausted me and killed my self-worth.

Uh, no thank you. I think I'll pass on that suggestion.

That is so dumb. So if I make up a religion that has even more blessings in the afterlife as TSSC then you should follow all the rules I make up because, What if I'm right?!

How about, being utterly misguided in this life--the one I know exists!--in order to, maybe, screw my brains out in eternity isn't worth it (like, I can, you know, screw my brains out right now. Why wait?)

...........Is better than any other religions imaginary afterlife lol

This reminds me of the old Popeye cartoons where the character Wimpy would go around promising "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" with the big joke of course being that he had no intention of paying. TSCC is selling something very similar. They will gladly reward is in heaven for a cash payment made today.

This is my bargain, I will give mormon god 90% of everything I earn after I die in exchange for them giving me one of their temples today. Lets see how fast the church jumps on that deal.

Judge each and every one of the MORmON 'Prophets' by their works and you will see the truth. They are to a one lying liars who perpetrate a lie (The LDS Church and MORmONism).

Matthew Chap. 7:

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth devil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Once again, a simple Christian principle, Heaven, gets all mormo-fied & complex, complete with a prison and missionaries!

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=a5f4cb7a29c20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

>> The LDS Church promises greater blessings in the next life than any other church

Not if you've seen South Park. Mormon heaven is where you wear white shirts and bike helmets all day, and do nothing but boring stuff.

"The LDS Church promises greater blessings in the next life..."

Says who? I don't aspire to Godhood. I know someone that did...could it be...SATAN!

Why would you want to be a polygamous God for eternity?...managing dozens of wives, billions of wayward children, damning billions from the get go, etc...? Sounds like hell.

I figure, even if I'm wrong, I don't want to live with the trickster God that is the author of so much confusion. Besides, the lower degrees of glory sound more like heaven to me.

Chump Wrote:
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> I don't aspire to Godhood. I know
> someone that did...could it be...SATAN!
>

THIS! And, from what I've read, the idea of binding God is a tenant of Satanism.

to:brother not of jared
there is good evidence that the book of Matthew was written in about 75CE by Arrius Calpurnias Piso

Pascal's Wager explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqJpZOljjG8