LDS President Russell Nelson penned a piece for Arizona newspaper that made its way to the Opinion page of USA Today (why??):

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/16/viewpoints-lds-leader-urges-spirituality-secular-world-column/2864027002/

See, those of us formerly known as Mormons need faith just as much as all the other Christians among this country. Sounds like a crisis, this lack of faith in everyday society, he posits.

"...Homo sapiens is the meaning-seeking animal."

Religious institutions are built upon providing such meaning in the name of God.

It seems the perfect example of giving the people what they want, but not necessarily what they need or is even true. If people are desperate enough for an answer, they will accept whatever answer you give them.

It's the same formula the church uses with the Gospel Topics Essays. Members want there to be meaning in the church's doctrines and history. The church responds by providing the Essays with the assurance that they provide the meaning members crave, regardless of whether the members actually read them. That doesn't make the Essays, or the church that produced them, true.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2019 09:56AM by GregS.

GregS Wrote:
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> "...Homo sapiens is the meaning-seeking animal."

Homo sapiens is also a conflicted animal, teetering between self-centered independence and survival-enhancing group living.

Religions enhance — or even create — group cohesion. Believers are in, disbelievers are out. Believers receive spiritual, mental and material benefits of the group. Disbelievers don't. Disbelievers get banished, left to fend for themselves in the cold, cruel world.

Religion claims religion is the meaning of life and that the meaning of your life should be the religion, the group, the tribe.

What floors me about people making a case for faith because it helps with bad things like illness (death of his daughter) or disaster (the fire), is that they don't seem to make the connection that God presumably was the cause of the bad things that happened in the first place.


Basically this comes off as "credit God but don't blame God" which seems like groveling or childish pleading to me. Do they think faith is going to make God change His mind about intervening in bad things? If not, why bother at all?

It seems so futile to spend all that time on faith instead of focusing on what might actually help with suffering. I guess faith is a last resort for people who have no other options, but IMO this kind of counsel is coming from religions that have a vested interest in keeping people accepting information based on unquestioning faith.


I recognize people need a mental way to cope and pretend that someone is in charge and it will all work out in the afterlife. However, faith doesn't actually help other than serving as a mental placebo. Religion wants to sell you that placebo with a few rituals to spice it up.

dagny wrote,

>God presumably was the cause of
> the bad things that happened in the first place.

Good post, dagny.

Why is faith good ?

They went with heavy hearts.......but they went. I don't know why anyone would make an unnecessary trip like that when his own child just died from cancer. Maybe his family just didn't need him at such a sad time....I can't even comprehend leaving at such a time

a doctor that doesn't know how fragile old bones are??? and mittens does not look young at all. fake news!!!

Nelson, a longtime church general authority and respected heart surgeon, was named the prophet in January. When I was visiting Utah a couple of weeks ago, the buzz among my Mormon family members was that this 93-year-old church president is still skiing Utah’s powdered slopes.

Who still skis at age 93?

I'll tell you who. Teetotaling Mormons who have lived clean and virtuous lives. Have you seen Mitt Romney lately? He’s 71 and looks like he just got his first face stubble and driver’s permit.

We feel better when we can turn to someone and for many people, and that someone is God.

Would really be great if LDS Inc. just allowed folks to worship or pray as they see fit but they do not. They insist people read the B of M and and go to their Temple and tithe 10% and date only other LDS members, and not drink coffee or tea, and give up a large portion of their free time... and so on.

gone4good Wrote:
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> I'll tell you who. Teetotaling Mormons who have
> lived clean and virtuous lives. Have you seen Mitt
> Romney lately? He’s 71 and looks like he just
> got his first face stubble and driver’s permit.

While not drinking nor smoking helps my guess is they have both had work done. Face lifts, profound radio frequency micro needling (tightens skin by 35% at $4000 a treatment) CO2 laser resurfacing. All procedures give natural looking results when done by a good doctor.

Has more to do with money than clean or virtuous lives.