Family relative is on a mission. He found out about the fact that I removed my name. I received an email from him - typical missionary email. He shared how he baptized people and the message within TBoM and how it converts people.

It made me think of this...Missionaries ask people to read and pray about tbom. But why? Shouldn't people pray about the actual CORE BELIEVES within mormonism? Such as...temple rituals, eternal marriage, eternal families, paying tithing and etc?

Why is praying about tbom so crucial, when none of the things are actually included in it? What mormons actually believe doesn't come within tbom.

It's a gimmick. People are supposed to be taken in by the woo of the "buried treasure" book and build up a warm fuzzy.

It's supposed to feel all mysterious. No one is going to feel all fuzzy about the boring stuff they actually do.

It’s a truly bizarre irony that none of Mormonism’s unique beliefs are found in the Book of Mormon (the most correct book on earth).

It always confused me honestly. That whole religion and all of it's appendages is a mindscrew.

In my opinion, a dangerous meme celebrating and representing the nadir (celestial kingdom) of human culture as circa 1890-1955.

Get 'em to swallow your rotten, sour milk...and they won't gag when you stuff the absurd, disgusting meat down their throats later on.

Yeah, milk before meat. Their motto.

Why, indeed?

So don't.

Why pray about anything? All you have to do is carry a rabbit's foot to get the same results.

You should pray about whether praying about things is an
effective way of finding truth.

And then you should pray about whether praying about whether
praying about things is an effective way of finding truth, is an
effective way to find truth.

etc.

That's a whole lotta prayin'...

I've wondered that for years. It doesn't matter if mormonism is true, what matters is what is true in mormonism.

(and of course what aint)

I prayed about the Book of Mormon
Resounding silence as always
That was my answer
Nothing, as is is the Book of Mormon just nothing

I thought I was the only person that got silence after praying for a very long time.

Pray ... About the Law of Gravity & wait for a witness, a 'Burning In Your Bosom', ja ja :)

The honest and sane people heard only silence
Those that said they got answers are either to weak minded to disagree, delusional or having auditory hallucinations, seriously time to get professional help

But resounding silence is also evidence that the Book of Mormon is true, don't cha know.

Any reaction, or non-reaction, is spun into a positive affirmation.

Had a missionary tell me that he, too, got silence when he prayed. He reasoned that, since God knew he was a very rational person, a non-response was all the spurring he needed to dig deeper into the Book of Mormon to find the truth that he knew was there. All I had to do, he said, was to dig deeper.

In hindsight, I should have told him about the first rule of holes...stop digging.

Tell him you prayed about LOTR and received confirmation that it’s true.

You wrote that your family member is on a mission and "baptized people." People is plural! Curious minds must know: where is he serving his two years that he is finding converts to baptize?

He’s in Brazil. Almost done with his mission. And apparently baptized close to 100 people. Who cares none of the people stay, so it’s nothing more than a weird day in a tiny pool.

I had special feelings about things I heard in church, talks, etc., even GC, but the scriptures, No. And especially not the BofM, but I read it plenty of times. I was supposed to, so I did.

The worst stupor of thought I ever had was when I had fasted and prayed, and then asked the bishop for a blessing over answers to my gay boyfriend's situation, and there was dead silence, as though if there were heavens, they were slammed shut. SHOCKING! I'll never forget.

I had my best friend tell me that she was going to send me a bofm to read when she found out I no longer believed. I told her I would read it, but I KNEW that I would get nothing from it. I have read it more than most people I know, family, friends, neighbors, daughter. Maybe she's read it more than I have. My daughter spends an hour a day reading scriptures and writing down her thoughts. Then she tosses the journal she wrote them in later on.

Your family relative is full of himself right now. He has no right to give you any advice whatsoever.

Because I damn well said to~!! So there!!

The Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham are evidence Joseph Smith was a fraud. If he had just stuck to revelations and updating the Bible, the LDS Church would be in a much better position today akin to the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists. A reasonable person could look at LDS doctrines and conclude they are believable. Reasonable people will be swayed against the LDS Church if they do a little bit of research on the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. There are more active JWs and Adventists than Mormons for a reason.

The bom is mostly tradition Western Christian (Methodist) values repackaged.

Praying about the bom contains enough material favorable to most moral views to generate agreement. Praying about that is a form of confirmation bias. It actually trigger feelings known as elevation but which the church calls the spirit.

It's a form of self reinforcing moral deceit.

But yes praying about actual doctrine would make more sense but that won't generate the necessary initial moral agreement.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2018 01:37PM by dogblogger.

But it's not traditional Christianity, that's what's so weird about it. Obviously, JS and his co-authors didn't know very much about anything. There's a lot of referring to "great teachings" but very little elucidation of any teachings. You can read a lot of adventure BS, a lot of very poor metaphors and analogies--familiarity with any scriptural fables of any kind reveal the weakness of Mormon ones--and lots of padding and repetition. But very little in the way of anything revelatory to anyone with even a modest literary background.

What I like is the supernatural rules. They want me to pray about the BoM, and then I'll get a testimony that it's true. Why has it got to work that way? Because that's the rules? Why can't they pray about my getting a testimony about the truth of the BoM without my praying about it? Is that against the supernatural rules? Why have I got to be the one that prays? Why doesn't it work if they pray? Where's the supernatural rulebook that sorts this out?

You’re supposed to ask if these things are NOT true. That way if you get a witness, God’s not lying.

Why indeed?

Why is it necessary to pray to find out if the Book of Mormon, WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN DECLARED TO BE THE BOOK OF ALL TIMES, THE TRUEST BOOK ON EARTH, is true?

Seriously???

I personally always found this directive, this commandment, to show that THE CHURCH was in doubt itself about what it had declared was the truth. I mean....how are "mere" members expected to do what the church has already said was already done?

dum de dum dum



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2018 02:29PM by presleynfactsrock.

presleynfactsrock Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why indeed?

Well, you're certainly not going to find out it's "true" by examining evidence...

So...prayer!

It’s so true that it needed 3600 corrections.

I've read hundreds of books and never needed prayer to help me decide if they were valid.

After I was no longer LDS I told a member that for me, praying about the Book of Mormon is a moot point because I reject the God described its pages and will not pray to or worship such an evil deity.

From Chorus Line one of my favorites....

"They all felt something,
But I felt nothing
Except the feeling
That this bullshit was absurd!"

That would be my reaction to praying about the BOM.

The Book of Mormon is a ridiculous read. Steel bows. Horses and chariots in the ancient America's. Huge battles where there is no evidence of. Probably the most ridiculous part of the BoM is the story of the Jaradites crossing the ocean in submarine type ships full of animals with glowing rocks providing light.

Prayer is an act of submission. Just bothering to pray about it is giving it a chance, one it doesn't deserve, and in my opinion it's shutting down your brain's BS detector, a BS detector that already knows the B of M is boring as hell and that it fails as a history, as a novel, AND as a spiritual book.

Guess what? Asking someone to read and pray is the first step in their little mind game. If you don't get an answer, it's not like they'd say "I guess God doesn't want you to join". Instead, they'd say you don't have enough faith, aren't worthy, aren't sincere, need to try harder, or . . . (fill in your own blank). He probably doesn't realize it, but your friend has just invited you to a mindf*ck.

Let's also not forget that giving you advice to read and pray about a book when you didn't ask for advice is a breach of normal boundaries. What you read, or pray about, is none of his damn business. Normal people might tell their friend about a book they liked. But they wouldn't try to TELL someone to read a book.

BTW, I read it probably 18 times and prayed intensively for at 20+ years and waited for an answer. It never came. Waste of time, energy.

EIGHTEEN TIMES!!!!! That just gave me a headache, a big fat one.

Hie, I hope you were given bribes and wonderful gifts galore.

At the risk of a lawsuit, I will ask my sexist question: Is this book more to a male's liking.....you know the battles, and battles, and battles galore? The crossing of the rubicon by the Jaredites in those amazing bee-filled barges with holes both on top and bottom? Now, I know for sure that I don't have any world statistics to back me up, but myself and my female friends did not play sword fights ever. Just sayin'.

Okay, I'll stop.

You shouldn't. That's his job!

If people prayed about the beliefs, they would simply go away [the beliefs and the prayers, and the bombs (book of morbid bs)].

I found in activity the best medicine (and didn't even know at the time I was sick. TSCC makes me sick.). The cure was in removing the biggest obstacle to sanity/ reality/ peace and happiness, TSCC itself. X-communicated it altogether.

That's how I roll. I rock! Not just talk. Also walk! Just don't bowl. Whole!

The book is rubbish. Can't "pray" about trash.

Can't think rationally about their 'church' (empire). It's not rational. It LIES and it's "followers" STAND for it.

That's faith.
And stupidity.

"...apparently baptized close to 100 people."

I'm not dissing your relative, but if that is true, I'll bet that the people were promised something tangible (English lessons, etc.) or something implied.

In any case, NOT real spiritual conversion. They will 99% bail in a few months.

I read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it repeatedly.

No angel appeared.

Clearly the BOM is fake.

Because it is part of "pay" "pray" "obey". And without that y'all is SMOKE!!!!

When attending a Sunday service to solve quriosity, everyone who gave a testimony spent an hour crying.
Not very spiritually uplifting. Have Faith and ye shall have your tears dryed by the holly ghost. O.K.WOW !

yeah, pray and see what happens and then come back and tell us all about it.