I used to think f/t meetings were great - now by educating myself through statistics, I can see they are simply biased and destructive.

In short, Testimony meetings are never statistically valid (tell me something I don't know). Examples of the power of prayer, priesthood blessings or righteous choices lead the congregation into falsly believing this is true of all good mormons and how an all loving God operates (If you're good enough you might benefit too). Expectations of grandiose stories keep the selection bias in place. Nobody feels right about saying "hey - I'm so glad Sister Smith is pregnant for the 8th time...um... my husband and I have been trying for children, praying, and paying tithing for over 8 years. I now question if there is a God that loves me enough to give me children."

On the flipside, all it takes is one testimony meeting story about so and so's brother-in-law leaving the church and becoming the party playboy to give everyone that leaves that exact label. In truth, as we all know, the partier is the exception. Again, nobody is going up and saying "hey... my Sister left the church and has never been happier... I'm thinking about doing the same."

In the end, f/t meetings are bad data with even worse consequences. Maybe we can start a Statistics class for TBMs?

I don't know about Fast & Testimoany meetings, but here is an interesting statistic: According to the 2016 School of Sphincter Study, 5 out of 7 members of the mighty morg are envious of those who are nonmembers. I didn't just pull this out of, well, I think I read it somewhere on the web, but I can't remember where.

We had a mission presidency counselor on Sunday share 3 instances where he was prompted to share the gospel and the people were receptive. The whole time I was thinking "what about the other 997 attempts you aren't telling us about?"

And here's the really fun part:
I'd bet real money that the vast majority (surely more than 50%) of the "faith-inspiring" positive stories told at F&T meetings are completely made up. As in never happened. As in flat-out lies.

You get praise and approval from peers for telling a "faith-inspiring" story at F&T. Whether you make it up or it really happened. Nobody ever fact-checks.

We had a woman who BRAGGED about her encounters with strangers. When she helped someone out, she stated in her testimony that she always told them she was mormon and that's why she was helping them out. It got to the point where we folks in the congregation had an internal groan whenever she started up the aisle on F&T Sunday. It was kind of a gossip item in the ward.

"...she stated in her testimony that she always told them she was mormon and that's why she was helping them out."

That reminds me of the quote Penn Gillette cited that religious people do good deeds because their god tells them to; atheists do good deeds because it's the right thing to do.

I have wondered sometimes if the existence of religion is a natural part of the evolutionary process because it gives the masses some behavior guidelines.

You're not far off. Harari in his book Homo Sapiens argues that our ability to create myths and believe in them gave us an evolutionary advantage over other species. It allowed us to cooperate in large groups and trust relative strangers, which in turn gave us the ability create things on a grand scale.

Having to sit through F&T meetings in a suit and tie, especially during the summer months in that stifling hot chapel and listening to all the blubbering on about Joe Smith being a profit of gawd and how they knew the B of M was true and on and fucking on....and caring not a whit about any of it even as a 10 year old, seemed like torture and child abuse.

RB

If you are normal, you DO NOT stand up, but then I never did bear my testimony in F&T meeting. I'm just not into expressing to a bunch of people my deep and personal feelings.

Even in this ward, which is a really good ward, my daughter says that she and the last bishop's wife always say, "I wonder what so and so will say today." And just wait for all the regulars to sand up. We had regulars in our ward when I was growing up that were a bit nuts.

Lol..funny, we had the regulars too. Every F&T meeting the same people telling the same story or some version of the same thing.

The emphasis is, or used to be, on CS "healing." I've been to just a few over the last several years. I noted that I hear fewer testimonies which actually recount (alleged) healings, and those tend to be routine ailments, easily explained by naturalistic means. Most were thoughts and sentiments.

Back in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s when I attended more, I noticed the same people getting up. Same people. Same stories, Blah, blah...

I've posted (a few times--am I getting to be like those repetitive biddies?) how a favorite SS teacher of mine had remarkable testimonies of healing, including recovery from blindness when his WWII tank was hit by a shell. His wife, following his divorced, said he made them all up. "Hell hath no fury..." I'll never know for sure, but I tend to believe the ex-wife.

My stirring testimony of the power of priesthood blessings:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1916350,1916350#msg-1916350

In all the times I went to church I never heard one proper story.
I was excited the first time to hear other's stories of WHY they thought the church was true. Maybe a miracle or an answered prayer or two. That is what a testimony should be. An explanation.

All I heard was "I love my family, I love this ward, I love the church and I know the church is true. Thank you" cue multiple variants of the same damn thing.

:-(

Reading all these posts reminded me of a F/T regular.

She was an older lady, a widow. We were all fairly certain that she had nagged and worried the poor man into an early grave.

Every F/T meeting, she would stand up in the congregation and take FOREVER to walk to the podium. You could just feel the disappointment and gloom fall over everyone in the room.

When she finally got to the podium, she would go on FOREVER with her list of complaints - occasionally sprinkling in thanks to God for one thing or another - but mostly negative stories. She spoke in a low, almost monotone voice.

Honest to God, she would take about 10-15 minutes. You could almost hear people's eyes rolling.

I do not miss those days....

In Festivus the airing of the grievances is limited to only once
a year. In Mormonism it's once a month.

A few years back I visited a real hellfire Baptist church a few times. Everytime-and I mean four or five times-this scrawny little twerp would tell me that he saved ten people at a nearby truckstop. A scrawny man next to those big truckers? I don't think so. I went elsewhere. I wonder if every church has it's repetitive denizens.

alera Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A few years back I visited a real hellfire Baptist
> church a few times. Everytime-and I mean four or
> five times-this scrawny little twerp would tell me
> that he saved ten people at a nearby truckstop.

"I saved ten people at a nearby truckstop."

Translation: "I spent the day handing out Jack Chick comics and
ten people didn't hand them back or throw them directly into the
trash."