I was thinking about good, happy feelings today and wondering why I can be moved to tears when I hear beautiful music or look at beautiful artwork, without any meddling from the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost doesn't have anything to do with those good feelings; he's only supposed to give us feelings to let us know if Mormon stuff is true.

Most good feelings are not from the holy ghost. They are just emotional/hormonal responses to happy/beautiful non-church related events, people and moments - like when my first boyfriend kissed me goodnight for the first time; or when I was overcome with tears at the beauty of Florence, Italy; or feeling really happy when I cut class in high school to spend a fun day at the beach with friends. Those are the kinds of feelings that I wish could be bottled up because they are what make being alive so wonderful.

Why then do we need a holy spirit to give us a warm feeling if something Mormon related is true? Why can't we just have a good feeling/reaction to Mormon truth the same way we have an emotional response to other things/experiences that move us? Why does the holy ghost have to hover around us, zapping us with feelings when we allready have good feelings without the help of a spirit?

The only times in my life when I thought I felt the holy spirit testify that something was true, the feeling was a feeling of warmth - no different from how I felt when I was embarrassed or experienced a hot flash. Seems to me if there really were a holy spirit that testified of truth, it should feel a little more special than a minor hot flash. It should at least be a voice that can't be mistaken for something else.

If we are truly spirit children of a Heavenly Father, seems that we should be able to detect truthfulness or BS based on spiritual genes we inherited from our Father. We've got greatness in us so why would God need to create a holy spirit just to send us feelings? We don't need a holy spirit for all other good feelings, so why is a spirit necessary to give us positive feelings when praying for church related truth?

look up the emotion if6 elevation. Its a form of moral confirmation bias when used in religious ways as the holy spirit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2019 06:43PM by dogblogger.

I looked it up. It's just another emotion that does not require a Holy Ghost - in fact there was no mention of a holy spirit/ghost in the Wikipedia article I read.

The article does mention spirituality, which is different than the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a personality; part of the Godhead or Trinity. It is not a feeling. Spirituality is more of a mental state. My point is that it should be possible to feel spiritual feelings without a holy spirit, just like feeling other emotions without the help of a spirit.

I used to run track and often won races. The feeling I had when being the first to cross the finish line was one of elation. I didn't need the track and field spirit hovering over me to give me a happy feeling. It was just an emotional reaction to winning a race.

Why can't a person feel something spiritual without a Holy Ghost hovering around? Why, as Mormons, are we told to pray and wait for an answer from the Holy Ghost? Why can't we just feel something without a ghost intervening?

I had a powerful emotional/physical rush when I finally admitted to myself I didn't believe anything about Mormonism. I guess that was the Unholy Ghost in action.

Mormonism's Holy Ghost is rather useless. He's supposed to be the still small voice helping us resist temptation and stay on the narrow path, right? He's there when we're already being good, when we don't really need him. But what does he do as soon as we even think about sinning? He splits.

The Holy Ghost has instructions, handlers, and servants and interpreters. It isn't just you and him. You have to pray just right, maybe use the "Thee and Thou" old King James English, maybe fast, kneel until it hurts.

You have to keep at it. Maybe you didn't pray long enough, and gave up too soon.

Maybe you were "unworthy" to receive the Holy Ghost. His handlers wouldn't let him contact you.

Maybe the Holy Ghost really did answer you, or He sent one of His servants to help you, like your Home Teacher, or the bishop, and you were too dumb to recognize your prayer was answered. Maybe that Mormon missionary who told you to "read the Book of Mormon" was your answer!

Even Mormons don't get messages and promptings from the Holy Ghost, without some priesthood holder to interpret, as a go-between. You need someone with "authority" to tell you what "no answer/no feelings actually means. Maybe the silence means that you already received your answer, in the past, and you failed to follow the promptings back then. The Holy Ghost only rings once. Maybe the HG wants you to obey the church leaders, because that's what the leaders are there for. The HG guides the leaders all the time, so they have the power to guide you in righteousness, as their faithful follower.

How dare you think you are worthy go communicate directly with the HG, or any of the Godhead. If you are a woman, heartbroken, you need to call on the "power of the priesthood" that your husband or your father or brother holds, since you ain't got it.

I like your questions. I believe that some spots of Christianity might be true. The Spirit of God dwells within us. God is Love. And so on.

I felt the spirit, without even asking or summoning Him up. I looked out my back window and saw my toddler granddaughter skipping across the grass, barefoot, her arms flung over her head, in pure summer joy! My heart burst with Love. (It was the unconditional kind of Love, too--so there, Idiot Nelson!

In high school, I would patiently wait until midnight so that my date would not have Holy McGhost talking trash about me. It worked like a charm.

Midnight, eh?? Is that when He goes off the clock? Damn, wish I would have figured that out then. Good info...what else you got?

I'm the holy ghost buster.

Any cult or religion has to bottle good feelings with their logo to keep you hooked.

Even sex: I felt a little bit ill when my brother told me that he and his wife prayed before they had sex (because it's only for making babies, right?).

What's even worse is when you have a feeling or "personal revelation" that doesn't agree with TSCC, then it isn't the HG, it's Satan! How conveeeenient.....

"When I wouldn't listen to the Holy Ghost and practice plural marriage, God sent an angel with a drawn sword to convince me!"
--Joseph H. Smith, Jr., a reluctant philanderer.

It’s used for the “gift of discernment”, which is correct at about the same rate as “wild ass guess”.

I've heard things like the HG is kinda like the guy who hands our participation trophies or stickers for doing something nice but in the form of a good feeling and to warn us of danger etc.
Almost hit by a car, but the car honked so I moved and I got told, "That was the HG watching over you and saved you!" Um, no. I think it was the honking driver and me getting my a&& out of the way! Now if the HG appeared and said hey, there is a car coming or swooped down and flew me out of the way...ok, i'll give credit where it is due. Can't think one one experience where I have felt something that I can say, "Yup, wow I feel something good or feel good about something or happy and that's the HG!" Nothing comes to mind but I feel good when I make a decision with my agency to make all my own choices and help someone and then feel good about it. They say it's the HG cuz if they don't then they call you selfish. phooey.

p.s. When I spoke to my TBM dad he said I haven't felt it at church ever (expect one time when my kids sang in the one and only primary program cuz they didn't want to but did it for me and were just too cute and I felt loved and warm and fuzzy but no, still not the HG)

But, my dad said I never feel it cuz I'm not listening (like it would be audible?) or that I must not be living my life righteously. cuz yeah...I'm sure I was from birth until teens I was living so un-righteously haha *facepalm*

SPOILER ALERT: It's all b.s. and there is not HG

I was killing the MTC by driving away the HG.

I was told that by drinking caffeine from Barqs root beer (sold in the church's own vending machine~ this wasn't a sneaking off the MTC for a root beer run) that I was offending the spirit. A lot of missionaries had unproductive missions and I'm to blame.

:D

the Holy Ghost seems to be a superfluous character when you really think about it. Both HF and JC are supposedly omniscient, omnipotent beings who know all of our thoughts and can hear and answer our prayers. There is no superpower that they don't have.

So....

My best guess is that the Holy Ghost is one of HF's spoiled playboy spiritual offspring. (You know...from the favorite wife, just like JC and the rest of that elite family who live in the big house.) But he was notorious as a screw-up in the pre-existence. Everyone knew that he really didn't deserve to be the boss of anyone and the only reason he got special treatment was because he was one of the boss's legitimate offspring. His name in the pre-existence was Badam Bondi-Bahman. HF wanted to send him to earth to get a mortal body like everyone else. But Badam resisted. At first he thought being born into a life where he would be a big Hollywood movie star boinking everything in sight would be a good gig, but HF told him he had to have just a normal human lifespan. Badam didn't like that and threw a temper tantrum, demanding that he be part of the Godhead right along with JC.

So HF essentially created the "Holy Ghost" position for his spoiled son Badam. It was really perfect for Badam. He never has to show up for work. If somebody claims that Badam isn't really doing anything, all he has to say is that he's working his butt off but nobody can see him because he's invisible and if you didn't notice anything actually getting done it's because you're not worthy. It's the original Emperor's New Clothes deal. HF's invisible "hard-working" son.

He/she/it ain't.