Forget about whether the content of the plates is true, lets start with are the plate even real? Show me the plates!
To the GA's point...
I agree that religious truth is always, and I would add "only", confirmed by feelings :)
What he leaves out is that the truth feeling you get must be deemed acceptable by church leaders, otherwise we'd have people believing what ever they felt like :)
My exact (same) sentiments currently on the matter.
and REMEMBER that is Ballard speaking for ALL of LDS inc, not just for himself, as he is actually presenting THE official LDS inc pat media response on the matter of LACK (NON existent) of BoM authenticity !!!! That queered response is proof that LD$ Inc executive leadership knows that the Book of MORmON is fundamentally a sham!!!!!!
ificouldhietokolob Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think it's funny (and sad) when people call > stuff they make up that has zero supporting > evidence "truth." > > And then think their feelings confirm it.
The thing is, IF they (those dumb asses) really believe their feelings make right approach to things, and really endorse it as totally valid, then they should be forced to use a bridge, or an elevator, or a ship, or an air plane, or a car that is designed by using the same (BS) "feelings can determine facts" based approach. ....Now, the results from THAT deal would be FUNNY !!!!!!
See how fast the "authorities" - and faithful Mormons - age. It is greatly accelerated. Because they are living wrong. Fighting the universe. Fighting themselves. Living in a coffin.
No truth in them. Can't deny the physical evidence.
One of the great 'truths' of mormonism has always been that knowingly refusing to live gospel principles earns you trials and tribulations, with the opposite being true when you DO live the gospel.
But more and more it is being smooshed into their TBM faces, like a runny berry pie, that exmos do NOT automatically wind up face down in the gutter; that in fact, as a class exmos are happier and much more content than their TBM counterparts, which is why shunning is very acceptable as a tactic, because it shields the TBM from seeing into the happy daily lives of the shunned.
I'm waiting for the mormon version of Facebook to launch, where only the faithful can join, and thus be shielded from things that wouldn't be good, for the church, for them to know/experience.
I've been face down in the gutter exactly once in my life. It was while I was on my mission in France...coming home from a long frustrating day of tracting, light rain falling...let's just say the cobblestone streets of Caen covered in water aren't the best place to ride a Peugeot bicycle. Slip, slide, crash...face down in the gutter. As a mormon.
Faith is blind as a bat. Faith and evidence are mutually exclusive. The presence of evidence voids the need for faith.
That is why the Bible verse, "faith is the evidence of things not seen," makes no sense. It is just another clear manipulation of words to keep people believing against all common sense, reason, and real evidence to the contrary.
Some confuse their own personal interpretation of an inexplicable event or legend as evidence. It is not.