This was emailed to the exmormonscholarstestify.org website by Ross and Jessa King. Pretty funny. :-)

Any webmasters out there? I'm gonna shut down the site because I don't have time for it anymore. Anyone want to take it over?

I'd hate to see that site go away. Meanwhile we have Mormonscholarstestify. What a mess.

If only that were true! How I wish I could say those magic words, "I am an ex-Mormon', and my previous Mormon existence would vanish away. My family wouldn't still be members, there wouldn't be tension in my home over religion, all that tithing I paid would be back in my bank account, 2 years of my life spent on an LDS mission would be added back, I wouldn't feel compelled to waste time recovering on ex-Mormon discussion boards.

I wish I could erase the half of my life I wasted on the Mormon faith. Give it back!

It sort of like the excuse Christians make when another Christian acts badly. "Well, if he'd do that, he's not a real Christian."

Mormonscholarstestify is Daniel Peterson's plaything. He makes the erroneous assumption that just because a number of "scholars" are willing to blather about their faith that it gives the faith itself some credibility. Most kids learn about the logical fallacy of the appeal to numbers when they are 5.

And wouldn't it be better to be named "Mormonscholarsprovideempiricalevidence.com"?

But noooooooo, these are scholars who bear their testimonies. How quaint.

You don't seriously believe that the internet is a better place with yet another platform for Mormonism--Mormonscholarstestify--while a nicely counter-balancing and correcting site--Exmormonscholarstestify--goes into the memory hole?

First "most kids" do not "learn about the fallacy of appeal to numbers when they are 5." If you can document that through a majority of states' curriculum standards for K education, please do.

Second, the bandwagon effect, while logically false, is nevertheless real and effective. That's why it gets used so much. Advertisers appeal to it all the time, profitably.

Third, you seem to be relying on human beings' innate logic skills to protect them. What do you base that optimism on?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2011 02:33PM by derrida.

before the last few "epic" threads... i used to just try and do funny and spontaneous posts to threads... this is more fun! :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2011 01:47PM by bignevermo.

Some years back--before my daughter became a TBM--she was anti-mormon. Her friend's brother really wanted to date her--but said he wanted a wife with a testimony so wouldn't date her. A few months later, she found out he and his old high school girlfriend "were" pregnant . . . while she was still pregnant, he married another girl and got her pregnant. The one baby was given up for adoption. He stayed married until very recently--after another baby with is wife. They are now separated and he called my daughter and wants to "hang out." He now wishes he had dated her. She told him--I don't want to bear your 4th child . . .

He still considers himself TBM.

When I believed in mormonism, I lived it to the best of my ability. This guy my daughter knows is not a "real mormon"--they need to look inside of their religion before they start making these kinds of statements. If you consider yourself mormon, then LIVE THE DAMN RELIGION.

When I was just emerging out of the church, my biggest concern was that I might be "fired" rather than just be able to "quit."

Telling that for some of us anyway, this "leaving on one's own terms" is such an important thing and that the church has some awareness that this is a point of great anxiety for members on the cusp. And what does the church--being the liberal, progressive, tolerant, joy-filled, enlightened institution that it is--do? It mobilizes that anxiety for its own purposes of course!

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/No_True_Scotsman

[edited to add link]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2011 02:34PM by Scott.T.

...exmos of never having had their heart in it.

Actually, one thing I can agree with Mike Ash on is that it's the more dogmatic, hardline, rigid members who tend to have the greater "Shaken Faith Syndrome" crisis.

I think that's true, at least it was in my own case. I took the church literally. I took "personal righteousness" seriously and felt guilty for sundry things, sometimes woefully, self-flaggellatingly guilty. I worked feverishly at my callings. I was an all-in believer. I wasn't deliberately holding anything back. I felt like I was the proverbial unprofitable servant even at my best. I had no ulterior motive other than who-am-I-to-resist-God. I did it because I thought it was right, not because I expected a reward. Indeed, I thought my chances of making it to the celestial kingdom were slim. I was just going to do what good I could and then take my punishment like a good sport for falling short after all.
I realized it wasn't true in an instant on what might have been my dying breath. I was driven to the brink of suicide by years of guilt, my personal righteousness never being enough to qualify for "peace in this world". I felt inept in the church even though I had given it my very best. But, in the end, instinct said that it's not true.

So after all that, a TBM is going to say I never had my heart in it? I was never a true mormon? The church is its own proof that it isn't true. TBMs' own words are proof they're deluded, when they say things like that.

If they weren't a Mormon in the first place, then why does the church say that they must resign to leave it?

If they weren't a Mormon in the first place, shouldn't the church refund all the tithing they paid in? Otherwise the church accepted that money under false pretenses!

If they weren't a Mormon in the first place, why didn't that special Priesthood power of discernment kick in and tell the Priesthood holder before he baptized that poor never-was-a-Mormon?

This "you never were, because you left" argument is the old purity gambit: those who never question or leave always were members, even if they had doubts from day one. By acting on the doubts, the ex-members have proven that they were unworthy to ever be members - even if they were born into Mormonism. It's a bad arguement, but then it was made by ideologues.

Well for me, this is a true statement. I WAS never a "Mormon", and you would marvel at how at peace I am with that! Like I have posted before I did have another religious influence in my youth, and I thank God I did! I feel bad for other "members" who did not. How can you identify as something when your not giving all the facts on what that something is?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2011 08:26AM by seamaiden.

I find my Mormon past to be quite repulsive, and there's nothing I'd like more than to deny that it ever happened. I appreciate the vote of confidence.

That's funny.

I was "mormon" from the day I was born and it was continually shoved down my throat until I left home at 18. How could I not be a "mormon" then and not be an "exmormon" now.

But, if you think about it, for the exmos who have resigned, it is like you were never baptized, endowed, etc... Like it never happened, so I guess they have a point... Hahaha!!!