The sign inside the temple tipped me off: “The glory of God is intelligence”. Well, if you had any intelligence you’d leave.

It must be great fun to goad the dupes. That’s why the sign is there, in great big letters.

Gullible's Island. One session is a 3 hour tour.

A threeee hour tour, a threeee hour tour.

When i first saw it on youtube i knew right away that it was not correct. There may be no jesus but if he did exist he would certainly not be making people do death penalties and secret handshakes and chanting. It did not seem like jesus's style at all from what i grasped about him in the new testament. Jesus even said in the new testament that he is against secret combinations completely and that God makes no oaths with men. So there you have it.

If Ginger would have been in the temple film, I would have enjoyed the experience much more. Even better would've been Ginger meeting me at the veil for the secret handshakes and 5 points of fellowship :)

It is the first thing I saw when opening the site. Thanks. I needed that. My pain pills for my 3 pulled teeth help out, too!!!

I think your explanation makes the best sense I've ever heard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2019 10:43AM by cl2.

It very well could be. I remember when I was in high school, my MiaMaid teacher and her husband, who had converted a year or so earlier, went to the temple. A bunch of ward members went with them, they were having their kids sealed to them too and they were much-loved members. I remember my Mom telling me how speial and spiritual it was and I just wished I could have been there.

However, a week later they let the bishop know they would not be coming back and no longer considered themselves mormon and had no idea how anyone could go through that temple ceremony and not wonder what was wrong with this picture. It was back in the slit-your-throat days too. Everyone was devastated. The explanation was that Satan just worked so hard on them because he knew what kind of members they would have been and that they would have been in high leadership positions.

I think about that now and think how they must have felt. They must have been driving home and going, "are all those people just effing gullible, or what?" I never could really wrap my head around the temple and only went 5 times. I thought there was just something wrong with ME. Why could everyone else say it was spiritual and enlightening and I could only go there and feel sick. I thought I must be taking Satan in with me. I know now that my gullibiliy qotient just wasn't high enough and anything I did believe about it was somewhere on the gullibility scale.

and I had grown up in the church and was with my parents when I went to the temple for the first time. Despite that, I had the same "what the hell is wrong with this picture?" reaction to it. The bloody penalty pantomimes (disembowelment and throat slitting) was worse than if the officiator had given me the finger and cursed me out. It was so ridiculous, out of place...and completely the OPPOSITE of what the pre-temple hype and propaganda made people expect. I was in a state of disbelief the whole time. I couldn't believe that this goofy crap was what everyone had been calling "sacred," "special," "sublime," and all that rot for as long as I could remember. Seriously? These stupid handshakes. This stupid apron. These gruesome death penalty pantomimes?

It's certainly a test of gullibility. It's also a test of intellectual honesty and a test of one's ability to think for oneself, rather than just following whatever herd you find yourself in. It's a test of whether a person is the type of person who, in the fable of The Emperor's New Clothes, would be easily manipulated into pretending to see something that's not there.

I only made it 5 times, too, but one time was doing sealings to a stranger. That was BIZARRE.

The temple was one of the biggest disappointments of my life. The name Lucy was bad, but didn't come close to the insanity of the temple.

It's a loyalty test, first and foremost. I'm betting that most people that go through it, pretty well know it's BS. But fear and peer pressure make them "doubt their doubts". They know it's crap (that's not gullibility) they just Cog-Dis it away and keep quiet.

NormaRae Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think about that now and think how they must
> have felt. They must have been driving home and
> going, "are all those people just effing gullible,
> or what?" I never could really wrap my head around
> the temple and only went 5 times. I thought there
> was just something wrong with ME. Why could
> everyone else say it was spiritual and
> enlightening and I could only go there and feel
> sick.

That was me. I spent another 8 years (serving a mission, married in temple) trying to figure out why I wasn't enlightened or spiritually moved. I hated going there.

The GOLDEN couple from my mission that I had tracked up, taught and had the most "spiritual" experiences with, who were completely taken into the arms of the ward, went to the temple and completely freaked out. They left immediately.

And yet the church just doubles down on the insanity.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous (or at least one of the most ubiquitous) expressions used in the church by leaders and members in hyping and selling the temple experience as being the pinnacle of spiritual edification, etc...is the phrase "further light and knowledge" or "light and knowledge".

That, we were repeatedly promised, is what we would get as our reward, if we lived the commandments and became worthy to get a temple recommend and go to the temple.

Did we get anything at all that could reasonably be described as significant "further light and knowledge"?

Not at all. Not even. Not remotely.

The temple movie is basically just a rehashing of notions drawn from Genesis, the Pearl of Great Price, the D&C and the King Follett Sermon.

The garments are just long underwear with standard Masonic symbols on them. The prayer circle is just a group of people standing around in a circle digging their elbows into each other and chanting a completely unremarkable prayer.

The handshakes, secret names and tokens are secret-society crap ripped off from the Freemasons that have no place in the worship of an omniscient God.

The bloody penalty pantomimes are more secret-society crap ripped off from the Freemasons.

What's left?

Nothing.

So where's the further "light and knowledge"?

Another trite expression is "I learn something new every time I go to the temple." Really, now. Care to elaborate? Oh, yeah, "too sacred" to talk about.

The whole temple thing is just nonsense on stilts.

Wally Prince Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps the most ubiquitous (or at least one of
> the most ubiquitous) expressions used in the
> church by leaders and members in hyping and
> selling the temple experience as being the
> pinnacle of spiritual edification, etc...is the
> phrase "further light and knowledge" or "light and
> knowledge".

THE GREAT LIGHT IN FREEMASONRY
From The Grand Lodge Of Texas

"It teaches him goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness and brotherly love".

The original Mormon apostles were almost, to a man, members of this nefarious brotherhood of flim-flamers.

They naturally picked on the cant of their beloved writers.

The early brethren filched the rituals of Blue Masonry and thus the Mormon temple rites became word-for-word what you are dished out in there.

Quite satanic, I would say.

“So where's the further "light and knowledge"?”

It’s in the light that shines forth from the GAs bung holes.

The temple ritual is the left over "occult" or "magic world view" of the 19th century that has been modified into a club house with a very high membership fee.

In some aspects, it is a way of lifting people up to a higher plane of existence. The people are set apart as royalty which is a big ego boost. For some this may bring out the negative aspects of their personality but for others it lifts them up to a system of striving beyond their flawed thinking patterns.

The temple scripts often refer to the temple couples as "Kings and Queens, Priests and Priestesses." They love that. It gives them hope of someday being Gods of their own worlds--or at least not constantly being treated like sheep, abused and threatened, lied to, robbed of their time and money, and used for manual labor. No one would dare do that to a Priest and Priestess!

I went through a couple of times with another single divorced woman friend, and we were promised that we would have the privilege of being "Ministering Angels."

My parents' friend was given the calling of Temple President, and he presided over my temple wedding. The president's wife was telling us about some of the duties she had, and how busy she was. I asked her what her position/calling was, as the wife of The President. She hesitated and answered, "Matron."

All the evil still lives on in the temple! Denigration of women, social stratification, superiority to non-temple people, couples vs singles snobbery, rote chanting, strict dress codes, mind-numbing repetition, opulence and the appearance worldly wealth (temple tour guides love to brag about how expensive the chandeliers are) depressive thoughts of death, foul air. How could anyone expect the temple to be anything else other than more Mormonism--worse Mormonism?

I rolled my eyes in the temple, as I had studied the scriptures assiduously, trying to gain a testimony (never happened). It was all the same-old-same-old stuff that I had memorized. Yeah, where was all the new "light and knowledge"?

It is definitely a test of devotion. It isn't giving your daughter or wife up to a leader's sexual appetite but it is a stretch of credulity more than gullibility.

If you can swallow group sign pantomime in togas you might actually really dedicate your time, talents, and all you have to your very life to the church.

It's like the Emperor's New Clothes. Nobody wants to admit they don't see the clothes, or that the temple isn't spiritual and wonderful. They don't want anyone to know they hesitated about it.

I wonder if scientists could prove a link between being Mormon endowed and enhanced sexual virility? That would be a gullibility test of the Placeboner Effect.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2019 02:25PM by Elder Berry.

I think it's more of a graduation ceremony after thousands of quizzes, tests and final exams. If you've made it to the temple and still believe, you don't need to do anything else to prove your gullibility.

I think there are separate categories or classes of people that become converts, among them:

the 'lost people' who are in a life crises or otherwise vulnerable.

Christians who may have been disenchanted with their churches, perhaps a wrinkle with someone (pastor, priest, minister, rabbi, etc). Perhaps they thought they'd 'maxxed out' their experience there or moved, etc. Good, believing folks.

neighbors or friends of a 'good guy/good gal' Mormon who's well impressed by Peter Priesthood and/or Molly Mormon.
Problem for all groups is, there's a ton of expectations/hype in the lead-up to going for the first time, not much substance once they've Paid Up & otherwise qualified.

I knew a couple who quit the RomanCC because of dislike for the rituals; Guess What happened shortly after their first visit to the International House of Handshakes... Right, we never saw/heard from them again, kids & all.