Mormonism and some other religions claim to have all the answers, particularly all the moral and ethical answers. Adopt their world view, their standards and rules, and you will never be wrong.

Whee! You get to walk through life believing you are always right -- without ever needing to do any of that messy, difficult, time-consuming work of actually figuring out whether you're right.

When your religion-backed world view, standards and rules fail to work, you get to believe the problem isn't you and your beliefs, it's those darned other people. Because God says so.

So when we try to convince Mormons the church is a fraud, they don't see it as doing them a favor. We're trying to take away their certainty that they know everything that matters and they're always right. We're trying to get them to say they are wro... wr... wruh... wrrrr........

TBM friend: You are making a huge mistake with eternal consequences.
ME: I’m willing to consider the possibility that I may be wrong. Are you?
TBM: But I know I’m not.
ME: Again, are you willing to consider that you might be wrong?
TBM:
ME: So remind me again why I’m the one being closed-minded.
TBM:

...they do not live in a geocentric universe but they are not going to waver in their faith that god emits photons that are transmitted to our sun or that NO EVIDENCE for any Mormon claim shakes their rock-hard testiphonies.

Keep up the charade as long as you can...with a big, phony smile!

This, combined with the thread about Mormons being passive-aggressive, is a pretty good psychological profile of the majority of Mormons.

sexismyreligion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This, combined with the thread about Mormons being
> passive-aggressive, is a pretty good psychological
> profile of the majority of Mormons.


I think you just described a variant of NPD--narcissistic personality disorder. Personally, I think most Mos use NPD (or BPD) to mask the fact that they actually have GAD--generalized anxiety disorder.

Just looked it up - it's not classic NPD but looks like it would fall under Millon's subtype, Compensatory narcissist. This is coming from a non-psychologist whose only resource was Wikipedia, so take it for what it's worth.

Sounds right to me.


I think the parallels to the church and NPD are astounding. Narcissism in LDSinc goes all the way through. Leaders and followers show NPD traits because it is inherent in the teachings.

The criteria/symptoms of NPD are:

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty...
3. Believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. Rarely acknowledges mistakes and/or imperfections
5. Requires excessive admiration
6. Has a sense of entitlement
7. Is interpersonally exploitative
8. Lacks empathy: is unwilling or unable to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.
9. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
10. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitude.


Exemplified in Moism

1-nothing more grandiose that being a god in embryo except being god.
2-see 1, and think of the prophecies that mormons will save the day, rule the world in the millenium, etc.
3-members of the only troo church, valiance in the pre-existence, special lineages, heritages, etc
4-perfectionism is rampant in the culture
5-Mos do seem to like getting complimented on their perfect families, jobs, status, etc.
6-entitled as priests and priestesses, gods and godesses.
7-the only reason to have friends outside the exclusive mo clubs is to get praise for being a member-missionary
8-intolerance is extremely high among mos. they preach charity but don't actually understand it.
9-see 4, always worried about how the world sees them, but not so much that they'll start being like the rest.
10-they're numero uno and true.

and say...

"It's not my personality...it's my culture!"

RAG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> and say...
>
> "It's not my personality...it's my culture!"


Yes, there needs to be an official classification on "Religious Self Identity Crisis". It's a real thing and many millions suffer from it.

They know it will all fall down.

It comforts some of them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2011 02:41PM by mav.