“My childhood, which was a happy one, was spent in the command economy of evangelical Christianity. Life was centrally planned; all negotiations had to pass by Jesus’s desk. Sometimes it seems that my childhood was the noise around a hush, the hush of God. And at times an actual hush: I recall episodes when my parents talked quietly and on their own about someone they knew who had “lost his faith,” and the solemn vibrations that would fill the house at these times, as if a doctor were visiting. Similarly, my childhood was marked by the deaths of friends of my parents who were members of their congregation, people for whom the full evangelical panoply—prayer, the laying on of hands, anointing with oil—did not seem to have worked.”

—James Wood—
—The Broken Estate: Essays On Literature and Belief—

A happy Mormon childhood doesn’t avert us from an adult atheism any more than a miserable Mormon childhood guarantees it.



The essay the above quote comes from, the concluding essay of one of the best selections of literary criticism available in English, begins like this:

“‘As soon as a religion seeks help from philosophy, its doom is inevitable,’ wrote Heinrich Heine, in his vibrant, playful little book Religion and Philosophy in Germany. ‘Trying to defend itself, it talks its way further and further into its perdition. Like any other absolutism, religion must not justify itself.’ Heine was right.”

FAIR doomed LDSinc, although Peterson and the boys could never understand this. Their work caused not a few happy believers to turn into doubters. I know when I turned to them, in an attempt to remain ‘in the fold’, I was only nudged out even further.

Human, nonetheless still feeling the hush…

Many GAs have spoken against intellectualism. Are you saying they were right?

Subjective reality does not mesh with objective reality. They are not natural friends. FAIR tried to mate dogs with cats. It didn't work.

Since Descartes, intellectuals have been the cool kids on the block. Religious devotees want to be cool too so they spout the lingo without any clue of what it means.

Religion is about feeling, not thinking. Facts are only relevant in how they make you feel, so how much do they really matter? In other words, what is actually there is irrelevant to one who cannot or will not see.

Each side accuses the other of being blind, which tells me they both are. In such a condition, Solipsism is not so much of a stretch. Mormonism could be a workable belief system, although I personally find its gaslighting and stagnation disgusting. It could be so much more, which is what drives John Dehlin. Everyone who could fix the church gets exed.

What if God is all of us? Are Mormons denying their own magic? Are Atheists? Is there a middle ground?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2024 10:24PM by bradley.

"Many GAs have spoken against intellectualism"

And yet they rely on it.

When they say "intellectuals", they really mean
"critics". They absolutely require apologists as buffers between themselves and the rank and file members. The apologists supply the answers that the GAs are unable to provide. Then the members are satisfied and the GAs get to keep their jobs.

The apologetics with regard to the "Book of Abraham" are particularly funny. Joseph really got caught telling a whopper with that one. It's probably why the church de-emphasizes that text now. You can only get away with so much.

Roughly half of the world’s population follows an Abrahamic religion. Abraham is a crucial figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. If anyone could find something (previously unknown) that was written by Abraham's "own hand upon papyrus,” it would be HUGE news. If TSCC really believed that the BoA was what they claimed it was, they would be shouting about it from the rooftops. Instead, it seems like they want everyone to forget about it.

CrispingPin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Roughly half of the world’s population follows
> an Abrahamic religion. Abraham is a crucial figure
> in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. If anyone
> could find something (previously unknown) that was
> written by Abraham's "own hand upon papyrus,” it
> would be HUGE news. If TSCC really believed that
> the BoA was what they claimed it was, they would
> be shouting about it from the rooftops. Instead,
> it seems like they want everyone to forget about
> it.

I think they want everyone to join their religion first.