"What is the Mormon response to "...a letter to CES"?
Here's the answer:
"There is no unified Mormon response, because the church is comprised of human beings with different ways of thinking and analysis. To provide my personal experience, I read this infamous letter before I joined the LDS church. And I still joined. Although it has a lot of very interesting information, I found that when sifting through the enormous wall of arguments that many arguments were just factually inaccurate and poorly constructed.
I understand that many people might want to look down on Latter-Day Saints as brainwashed or ignorant, but I just don’t understand how some answers here can generalize the response of a collective sum of 16 million members. We are a united church, but composed of separate individuals from all walks of life, from different countries around the globe, and distinct communities. To say that there is anything like a “typical” Mormon is just ridiculous, as Mormons are a diverse group.
As a Mormon, my personal response to this letter was to treat the arguments within it with an open mind. I found that some premises of the arguments rang true for me while others failed the test of research. The premises of arguments that rang true failed to lead to any logical conclusions that affected my faith in my religion. This is my personal analysis, and why I do not attempt to assume that others should have the same conclusions that I came across."
I don't know, but I wonder if there was a flirtatious missionary involved in this guy's conversion... :-)
"I found that some premises of the arguments rang true for me..."
-That's not a concern to think and cause some sort of alarm?
"There is no unified Mormon response, because the church is comprised of human beings with different ways of thinking and analysis."
-Not the church I grew up. I remember "The Lord has spoken... There is no question what is true..."
Heck, they even created church policy handbooks on every minute detail of a member's possible question about what saith the lord. Now the church makes no official stand about the truth presented in the CES letter other than to brand it as non-faith promoting nonsense.
Joseph Smith was a pervert with 34 wives. I can find no way to tell myself that Joseph Smith was a good man and that it is okay to have 34 wives, most of them secret, some of them underage, and some of them already married.
I wonder how the idiot who posted on Quora copes with the CES Letter's questions about Joseph Smith's polygamy?
Mormons claim they have a living prophet so that he can answer our questions about the Gospel. Yet when actual questions are asked the living prophet is nowhere to be found and remains completely silent.
Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "There is no unified Mormon response, because > the church is comprised of human beings with > different ways of thinking and analysis.
So, no official word on these issues from the church's 15 "prophets, seers, and revelators" then. Got it. Remind me again why they call them that?
> ...I read this > infamous letter before I joined the LDS church. > And I still joined.
Oh, well. There's no accounting for stupid.
> Although it has a lot of very > interesting information, I found that when sifting > through the enormous wall of arguments that many > arguments were just factually inaccurate and > poorly constructed.
A few of them "poorly constructed," I can see (though not many, and the poor construction doesn't entail logical faults that negate the conclusions).
However, "factually inaccurate..." Nope. Clearly, this fella relied on the dishonest, disingenuous, doubt-doubting mormon apologists for his "facts." Which is really dumb.
> ...but I just don’t understand how some > answers here can generalize the response of a > collective sum of 16 million members.
Hehe. He thinks his church has 16 million members. Talk about "factually inaccurate..."!
> As a Mormon, my personal response to this letter > was to treat the arguments within it with an open > mind.
Yeah, based on the above, he failed at that.
> The premises of arguments that rang true > failed to lead to any logical conclusions that > affected my faith in my religion.
So, he's OK with the "Book of Abraham" being a demonstrable fraud, then? And he's OK with Smith (and lots of his "apostles") flat-out lying about their illegal "polygamy" shenanigans, marrying and sleeping with other mens' wives, and using religious threats to get 14 year-old girls to have sex with them?
Really?
That being the case, I don't want anything to do with this guy. If he's OK with those things (and more!), then he's rather sick.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2018 08:06PM by ificouldhietokolob.