"Doubt and skepticism are of the devil ... Doubt comes from failure to keep the commandments"

Mormon Doctrine, p. 208 (2nd Edition, 1979)

It's not Church history or doctrine ... or BYU scripture round table podcasts. Thanks for clarifying!

"Doubt and skepticism are of the devil ... Doubt comes from failure to keep the commandments"

So doubt couldn't originate in the fact that the church doesn't make sense, that it's claims can be disproven, and that it's emotionally stunting and abusive?

Instead of dealing with questions and doubts in a healthy manner, he chooses to use character assassination to threaten and isolate those who would dare to express their doubts. (see my third point about it being emotionally abusive)?

Doubt is like a front porch. All of us go through it before we get into the house of faith.

All of us in our hearts can cry out, "Lord, I believe. Help thou that unbelief." For the capacity to doubt is one of man's greatest powers. Look around you and see the beliefs and practices that ought to be doubted. The great servants have been distinguished by the fact that in the face of universally accepted falsehood they dare to stand up and cry, "I doubt that!" Without the capacity to doubt there could be no progress, only the unquestioning acceptance of the status quo and its established dogmatisms.
--Rev. William Self
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But wasn't it Joseph Smith's DOUBT that there was a true church upon the earth that led him to kneel in the Sacred Grove?!?

Hypocrites...

Seems like doubt was a big topic in the afternoon session. I'm starting to think there's a trend among the members ... doubts are starting to accelerate. In my ward there are at least 3 other Elders I know of (or suspect) who are struggling with "testimony issues". I'm coming out of the "lurker" stage so this is all new to me.

BTW, I didn't get much comfort from the "throw-more-faith-at-your-doubt" argument. We (who are still hanging on, active members) need some truth, especially when it comes to Church History.

OK.
A guy screws underaged girls and says God told him to.
YOU BETTER DAMN DOUBT THAT GUY!!!

Doubt and skepticism are natural protective faculties that KEEP YOU FROM WALKING OFF CLIFFS!

I guess I can thank McKonkie for screwing up my TBM Dad.

He was a convert, who needed specific guidelines to be able to fully embrace Mormonism.

So when Mo Doctrine came out, he used it extensively and quoted from it all the time. He became a rather militant TBM parent, and followed every rule so exactly and would demand the same from us, his family. It was usually over the top.

Because he believed McKonkie's book was the best available guideline at the time, he was devastated when the blacks got priesthood, only because the guidebook he had been highlighting in yellow marker and quoting extensively--was wrong. McKonkie had written or said"the Blacks will not get the Priesthood in this lifetime."

That was the beginning of a serious of major doubts for him. He started to wonder about many things--but by then, was having health problems and it all just became really too much for him to swallow (that he had been duped).