Posted by:
Henry Bemis
(
)
Date: March 04, 2023 01:50PM
“While these may be family traditions passed down from mother to daughter, I have not heard of any doctrine preached by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, or any of the other male Mormon prophets on these matters. If such information exists, please will somebody let us know where the documentation for it can be found?”
COMMENT: It is revealing that a nevermo, such as yourself, would wonder about a claimed connection between Mormonism and the denial of common-sense thermodynamics. Those of us who were raised in Mormonism know full well that no such connection exists. There is NO CONNECTION between the history, doctrine, pronouncements and traditions of Mormonism and the denial of common-sense beliefs about the thermodynamics of water. Yet, remarkably, exMos—like the OP and the poster “notmonotloggine” still like to insist: “There is a connection.” Notice, however, they cannot articulate just what this supposed connection is, other than proposing a “Mormon brain,” or some other such nonsense.
In any event, all of this can be understood as a popular fallacy prominent on RfM, that can be stated in many forms, including the following:
“If *any* immoral act, character flaw, harmful social position, disfavored political view, violation of law, irrational belief, failure of logic, or denial of common sense, surfaces on the news or social media--or reported as a personal experience--as being associated with a Mormon, then such act, flaw, violation, or failure, *must* be attributable, in whole or in part, to Mormonism.”
By this wonderful fallacy, we can now criticize Mormonism for anything and everything that is associated with any given Mormon. If some Mormon denies common sense physics, it must be Mormonism; if some Mormon abuses children, it must be Mormonism; if some Mormon commits suicide, it must be Mormonism; if some Mormon is involved in a murder, it must be Mormonism. Of course, it never works the other way. If, by chance, a Mormon does a noble deed, Mormonism likely had nothing to do with it, or they did it despite being Mormon.
Now, the above generalization is admittedly overstated. Moreover, there *are* examples of the above negative events where the facts *do* point to a person’s commitment to Mormonism. These exceptions aside, wholesale engagement in this “ExMo fallacy” (as I like to call it) does represent a common practice here on RfM, as exemplified by the present thread, and many, many others. And some of the smartest people here (like Hedning) engage in it.
Here is another popular fallacy common on RfM, that is somewhat related:
“Since by the application of rational thinking, one can come to know that Mormonism is false, those who have rejected Mormonism (e.g. ExMos on RfM) are better critical thinkers than those that remain committed to Mormonism.”
Again false! First, rational thinking involves the knowledge and assessment of (1) *objective* facts, (2) facts related to one’s personal subjective values; and (3) the facts and practical realities of one’s personal and social life and commitments. Such personal values and practical assessments encompass a wide variety of considerations that extend well beyond mere assessment of objective facts and determining truth and falsity.
This means that facts notwithstanding, a Mormon can adhere to Mormonism either by ignorance, or through favored value judgments and related intuitive probability assessments, or for practical considerations, without calling into question his or her critical thinking skills. Of course, one *can* make moral judgments as to how one weighs such things, and how one eventually acts on such commitments. Nonetheless, one’s critical thinking skills most often have little to do with it. Thus, there is no reason whatsoever to assume that an exMormon is any better a critical thinker than a Mormon. This is born out empirically by noting that many fully committed Mormons are successful in educational and professional pursuits, including in mathematics and the sciences. Simply stated: THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN A COMMITMENT TO MORMONISM AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS!
Both of these “ExMo Fallacies” appear to be ingrained in ExMo psychology. That is why when someone like me (or occasionally others) calls attention to it, otherwise smart people here on RfM say manifestly stupid things, like, “Pay no attention to the man presuming to know it all.”
It is an outrageous affront when our TBM friends and family ignore us and dismiss us when we present the facts of Mormonism to them in good faith. But when someone points out our own fallacious reasoning about Mormonism, it is perfectly O.K. to ignore them, insult them, and/or marginalize them with silence.
As I like to say—-now somewhat skeptically—-we are better than that. And to the great credit of Admin, so far they have allowed this internal blunt criticism to be made; something that Mormon authorities would never do.
Anyway, as a nevermo you might take note of all this. It explains a great deal here on RfM.