With the tool of the Internet so effectively a part of the lives of most Americans and many people in the world, I wonder, what % of interested investigators end up not getting baptized because of what they learn online?

For those of you who served missions recently or know those who served recently, what % of investigators ended up cancelling the discussions because of what they discovered online? How was it handled by the missionaries? And did the info affect the missionaries themselves?

TSCC knows that people are likely to seek out other sources of information, so the mishies will issue a pre-emptive strike by warning investigators in advance to disregard any negative information they hear because it's all anti-mormon lies spread by people who hate the church and are controlled by satan.

That will sometimes work.

I'm one of them and boy am I grateful for the internet and those who put information up, though it took two years of very actively investigating before I made the break out and sunsequent consequences which I was dreading (namely losing what I thought was a very important best friendship or at least what I was led to believe?).

I also helped a recent convert with information and it led to him borrowing my Grant Palmer book Insiders View. He read that and stopped tithing and told me that he felt like a Saint in comparison to the crooked Joseph Smith. It blew him away!

I spilled the beans on negroes being less valiant to a couple of converts ( black bros). They were shocked although one was seemingly in it for how he could he benefit rather than the other way round and he asked me not to blow his cover. lol

I found it all before being baptized. It's pretty hard NOT to find it if you look for stuff on Mormonism.

An eighteen year old will never prioritize it over a perfect ten, though. Sigh. But I have admired you good people from afar for years... I even had to be careful not to use the term "Morg" sometimes.

Not enough.

The last time I was talking to the elders online, and they were not answering my questions I "found" the information online while we were chatting. I wish I could have seen their faces. They told me not to look at it, it was all lies.

BWAAAAAA. poor kids.

A recent convert in my ward got up in testimony meeting and said he researched everything about the church for 2 years before getting baptized and he can say that the church is rock solid. He said if anyone was having doubts they should talk to him or the bishop or someone else that knows a lot because there is an answer for everything. I was tempted to take him up on that and ask him about all my issues but I never did. I would be curious to know what his answers are though. I am not sure exactly how old he is but he is definitely of the generation that would be very familiar with the internet and google.

There have always been non-internet resources out there. I think we overstate the effect of it. There have always been books about Mormonism that have been easy to get and incredibly effective.

It is no surprise, or wonder, that the amount of investigators who look for information on the internet has risen with the amount of people who have access to the internet. That shouldn't be something surprising for anyone.

With or without the internet, a huge amount of people who go looking for information about Mormonism will find information about Mormonism. Whether it is a book, a friend, or the amazing powers of the internet, the investigator who questions Mormonism will probably walk away from it.

Yes, but you had to work for it. Google changed the world, however much you like or hate them. Why learn anything, I can learn how to do ANYTHING, from fixing my car to piercing my penis on the internet in an hour, and get to watch a how to video on how its done.

Big data is the wave of the future.

Books were the wave of the future as well.

I love Google. It has relieved me of the burden of having to remember everything. :)

Still, I see no evidence that it has increased the amount of people finding out about Mormonism. Books have existed on Mormonism for much longer.

anti-mormon lit was a major factor with people we were "teaching."

Somebody who was going to make life-altering changes was usually willing to do some outside searching. Those who didn't do the searching simply liked the warm fuzzies of the mormon lifestyle and didn't care about doctrine either way.

So, having the likes of Google makes it easier for investigators, but I wouldn't say it's been revolutionary in turning investigators away. What it HAS done is it allows the rest of the population (who may have a more casual interest) to see things about mormonism that they probably wouldn't have otherwise. That is profound since now a lot of other people have opinions about mormonism whereas they would be unaware before. Now people know ahead of time to not bother investigating.

I disagree. From kids trapped in an LDS home to doubting spouses, it would be much harder to take the leap and go buy a book that could be discovered in the home. Now they can quickly do an internet search when no one is looking and begin to deconstruct their beliefs.

There are also the people that stumble on things on the internet that weren't even looking for that type of information.

I think the internet has made it much easier to find information about the church



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2012 12:38PM by Sperco.

but caring friends and families, after finding out someone was entertaining mormonism, would visit Christian bookstores and bring back free paper tracts for the investigators. So, the *anti* info still found its way.

But I think we're still on the same page, here. It is MUCH easier to get the info, and much earlier in the process.

Holland in particular is showing a bad case of sunburn. So did GBH after Hofmann affair, though he just pretended it never happened - his standard modus operandi.

I find myself investigating anything new that's presented to me, whether a product, service or what, by going to the internet and exploring all the reviews and experiences. That wasn't available when I was younger. People who are much younger than me probably do that reflexively.
IMHO, people who succumb to missionaries are:

1. Poorer people who are not internet connected.
2. Older people, same issue.
3. People in personal conflict looking for answers to their life problems.

I think that a reflective person who reads and keeps informed would not accept Mormonism easily, because it is transparently BS to them. Countries with a high standard of education and economic success are the hardest mission fields just for that reason.