The author is onto us and our blatant use of "ecological fallacies". I assume that he meant "logical fallacies", but it's such a stretch for a tbm to use logic that he subconsciously couldn't bring himself to use the term.
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Good advice. It's tough to be the marginalized, unbelieving spouse. On the other hand, it is devastating for the tbm spouse to believe that their eternal family isn't going to happen. Just a lot of grief all around when one member of a marriage realizes the church is a fraud and isn't willing to live a lie.
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With regards to to number 6 on your mil's list, heavenly father must have a tremendous amount of confidence in you to bless you with so many challenges to help you grow and learn. Like Job, you must be a spiritual giant. That's the drivel tbms hear when they have extraordinary challenges. Of course, when you're not a tbm, those challenges are God's loving attempt to get your attention and help
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If you think the court will result in your excommunication, you could just submit a resignation letter and avoid all the hoopla. Good luck, I know it's a tough situation to be in. However, it does open up the possibility of living most of your adult life free from the church.
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The church would never take away the privilege of paying tithing, and I believe it is a requirement that church service missionaries be full tithe payers. As I understand it based on the talks today, church service missionaries just cover their living expenses and don't pay the church a monthly mission fee. Consequently, it can be relatively cheap if they serve from home. However, it can be m
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Today in sacrament meeting, we heard a pitch for church service missions. It was actually interesting to learn about another way in which the church can exploit it's members. The speaker started by stating the church saves $1 billion a year through the church service mission program. They then listed the rewarding activities that church service missionaries can be involved with, including:
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Nudist bicycling?!? I just got back from a long, off-road bike ride this morning, and I can't imagine it would have been comfortable in the nude. Good way to mark your territory, though. No one else will want to sit on the seat after a naked bike ride.
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Are you referring to your post regarding the atheist who shot 3 muslims? If that is the case, it should be pretty clear why the post was deleted and that it had nothing to due with Mr. Benson. Admittedly, your post regarding the atheist shooter was a bit difficult to decipher. However, your line of reasoning seemed to be that: 1) An atheist shot muslims, 2) RfM promotes atheism, and 3) Exmor
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Outside of Utah, in the southwest u.s.
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We hit a new low at stake conference today, and I wasn't the only one there who thought it was the most boring conference ever. After several soporific talks, the grand finale was a general authority who spoke on staying active in the church. Of course, he disparaged the scientific method and analytical thinking, and let us know that divine knowledge can only come through the spirit. Yo
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The concept of entropy applies to closed systems. The earth is not a closed system since it receives energy inputs from the sun. Consequently, assumptions about entropy do not apply when looking solely at the earth. Also, evolution does not mean that organisms become more complex, it means (simplistically) that they become more adept at passing on their genes (survival and reproduction) in t
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Thanks for the insight ette.
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I started a recent post with "I've heard folks on RfM refer to Bill Maher in the same reverential tones tbms use for Joseph Smith." I thought this was an obvious tongue-in-cheek comparison and that no one would think I was trying to be literal. However, to my surprise and disappointment, my statement above elicited a surprisingly vitriolic response from someone who said, among other
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Holy cow, that's quite a reaction to what I had intended as a fairly innocuous statement. I've learned my lesson, though. If folks on rfm are so hyper sensitive, I'll avoid making tongue-in-cheek comparisons in the future. Sheesh.
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Ah yes, Religulous. I forgot about that. I'll have to watch it one of these days, especially if Tal is on there - I'm sure he had something good to say on the topic of Mormonism.
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Does he speak the truth or his opinions? From the limited amount I saw of his show, he seemed to spout his opinions, but not a lot of facts. I wasn't aware previously that he was anti vaccine, but that makes me doubt his ability to recognize the truth. The case for the efficacy of vaccines is almost as convincing as the evidence against the book of Abraham being a divinely inspired, historical
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The profanities, per se, don't throw me off. It's just there didn't seem to be any substance behind them.
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You nailed it on his sense of superiority, and I found that characteristic to be particularly disagreeable. Additionally, I have a hard time respecting people with a superiority complex since their self perception tends to be based more on a lack of self awareness than an objective evaluation of their abilities/intelligence.
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I've heard folks on RfM refer to Bill Maher in the same reverential tones tbms use for Joseph Smith. I hadn't listened to him before, so tonight I was pleasantly surprised to find him on t.v. as a was flipping through channels in my hotel room. However, I was pretty disappointed with what I saw. Bill seems to be the intellectual equal of Rush Limbaugh, i.e., a very limited world view dictate
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It seems like a bit of hyperbole to state that the u.s. is the most stupid country on earth when the list you use only includes democratic countries, and the u.s. isn't even at the bottom of that list (although you may argue it is close enough). However, I think your use of a single metric to determine the intelligence of a country to be particularly fallacious.
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How in the world is this considered newsworthy? Deseret News is pretty pathetic. With that said, I did like a couple of his points, in particular point 9 with the quote from Aristotle regarding an educated mind and the ability to entertain an idea without accepting it. Of course, the guy's elaboration on each point was devoid of any merit.
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The first vision may fall into this category. I recall reading an account of someone who, coincidentally, lived near js and had a first vision type experience just a few years before js. I think I read about this on Mormonthink.com.
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My wife is very aware of my feelings about the church, which admittedly hasn't been easy on our marriage. In fact we just met with the bishop earlier today, and he extended a very time demanding leadership position to her. For the first time in her life, my wife turned down a calling because she thought it would have a negative impact on our marriage. Great suggestions on how to support my w
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Your response isn't the silver bullet solution I was hoping for, but I appreciate the healthy dose of reality. Ultimately, I have to accept that leaving the church will inevitably affect many of my relationships with tbms. Thanks for your insights.
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Thanks for your insights alpiner. Your right, all relationships are not created equal, and it is the relationship with my wife and kids that I need to focus on the most.
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Yeah, it seems like maintaining relationships with tbms requires biting one's tongue a lot.
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Recently, there was a change in our bishopric. The previous bishop was an intelligent guy who had the cognitive capacity to recognize that my concerns about the church were legitimate. As a result, he was able to accommodate my lack of faith in a respectful manner that minimized my discomfort at church. However, the new bishop is an emotional guy who can't even announce new callings from the pul
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The other day I was at a meeting with a GA when someone asked a question about priesthood keys. After the usual drivel on the topic, the GA mentioned something that piqued my interest. The GA is a member of the seventy and doesn't have any priesthood keys. However, sometimes he is given assignments that require that he exercise priesthood keys, such as calling and setting apart stake presidents
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Okay, let's agree to disagree on this one. If nearly half of applicants are accepted, to me that indicates that the military is still a very viable option for those who want to get an education, but I understand that leaves the other half out in the cold, although other resources such as student loans and Pell grants are still available. I'd like to continue the discussion and respond to some
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I wouldn't say you're necessarily wrong, and I think the intent is good. However, after teaching at a college and working for a federal agency, I'm always concerned about implementation when it comes to government programs.
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