I took the Salt Lake Express to see the 2017 eclipse. The Salt Lake Express is a bus company that is based in Idaho. When I got to their Rexburg bus station, I noticed that they had Book of Mormons in Spanish, and maybe English, on the counter for the taking. Idaho definitely has a Mormon influence. I wasn't there to attend BYU-Idaho. If you leave religion out of it, Idaho is a spectacul
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The hobby I had was playing blackjack in casinos using card counting. It has been proven that you can put the house percentage in your favor when playing blackjack if you "count cards" while playing. At least this was true with the way blackjack was years ago. Over time, most casinos have changed the rules of blackjack to make it harder or impossible to win with card counting. You c
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At some point, college students have to leave their dormitories, student housing, etc., and look for other places to live. As a young man I chose a place to live. I chose it because I knew a guy who lived there. He was an Exmormon, and I thought it would be nice to live with somebody who shared my views. However, instead of bonding with me and supporting me, he criticized me because of my b
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That's pretty interesting. Thanks for telling us.
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I wonder how Mormons view tattoos. Can they get a temple recommend if they have tattoos? Can they go on missions if they have tattoos? Can they go on missions if they have tattoos? Do any bishops or stake presidents have tattoos? Do Church leaders have some discretion as to whether or not they condemn tattoos? Are people with tattoos looked down on by other members? Are people with
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When you find out Mormonism is not true, you have two options: you can leave, or you can stay. Here are some reasons for staying: 1. You are not 100% convinced that the Church is false. If it happens to be true, you will be punished more severely by leaving (think Outer Darkness) than by staying (think Telestial Kingdom). Believing that all those millions of people who have believed i
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Thanks. It's nice to be posting again. It's really interesting to hear that young Mormon women are getting rejected because they did not serve missions. It was not like that in the past. In the past, women were supposed to get married early. They only went on missions if they could not/would not get married, or if they had a really strong desire to go, and they couldn't go until age 21.
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By "extended family" I mean my parents, siblings, and all my siblings' spouses and children. My sister married a man who doesn't seem like a deep thinker, and his genetic propensity to not think deeply may have been inherited by all his children. My brother married a woman who doesn't seem to be a deep thinker either, and her genetic propensity to not think deeply may also have been
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My two nieces are on missions. It is very sad to read their letters. They are in their "happy worlds". It seems that there is no way on earth they would listen to anybody who tried to talk to them about the possibility that Mormonism might not be true. I wish they would have come to me for advice before going on their missions. I have spent countless hours studying the Church.
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According to the BOM, kids who die before being baptized automatically go to heaven. I don't know how they reach the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom, though, since they never got married in this life. Logically, it makes sense that if you want to be an altruistic, selfless Mormon, you might want to kill kids under the age of 8. You would sacrifice your own salvation, but you would be s
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The FLDS have their problems, but, to their credit, they better understand what is really necessary to salvation, from a Mormon standpoint. They know that marriage is the number one priority, and they try to get all their women married at very young ages. Of course, polygamy makes it harder for many men to get married, but FLDS can't be perfect in everything, right? The FLDS don't do much
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If you don't go on a mission at a young age, you do not lose your salvation, according to Mormon teachings. But if you don't get married, you DO lose your salvation. At least you lose your highest possible salvation, which is being in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. If you are a young Mormon with Mormon girlfriend who is just perfect for you, and if you want the best chance of s
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I think that RFM is designed better than the types of other social media I spend most of my time with. Facebook is not designed for serious discussion. It is more of a popularity contest. It has too many pictures. Reading comment sections is fun, but it is hard to grab people's attention in the comments, so it is a very lonely activity. With RFM, it is easier to grab people's attention.
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In regular Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, marriage is not considered necessary for salvation. It is often considered an obstacle for salvation. They say a married man tries to please his wife, while a single man tries to please God. Monks and nuns are highly respected, and they hold a very high place among Catholics. Some people would say they are even holier than married fol
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Having my eclipse glasses stolen was a rough experience. I needed to let people know about it. Thanks for reading.
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I had another pair, so I still got to see the eclipse. I was watching the eclipse in Utah, and someone came up to me and asked if he could look through my eclipse glasses. I let him look, but I wanted him to be able to have a better view of the eclipse, and I wanted to watch the eclipse without being interrupted too much. I told him I had a second pair, and I went into my apartment to get th
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Yes! I loved it!
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A man I knew in the ward I grew up in died this month. I was trying to decide whether or not to attend his funeral. I decided not to attend. This man's family lived in the same neighborhood I grew up in. We attended the same ward. My parents still live in the neighborhood, and many other people who lived in the neighborhood then are still living there now. Many of the adults I knew growin
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If you like to read history, you may read about the historical problems with Mormonism. But if you don't enjoy reading history, you will be less likely to find out about the historical problems. A lack of historical curiosity puts Mormons at a disadvantage.
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I remember walking into Blockbuster in Provo and seeing multiple copies of Indecent Proposal, where John Gage, played by Robert Redford, offers David (Woody Harrelson) $1,000,000 to sleep with his wife, Diana (Demi Moore). I wondered why Blockbuster would do this, since it was so close to BYU. I thought watching R rated movies was a sin, but after I lost faith in Mormonism, one of the first R r
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How did you learn that he is known as "Rob?" Did he tell you that? I knew he hated the name "Robert", and I read that he wanted to be called "Bob", or just "Redford." If I see him again, maybe I'll call him "Charlie" and see how he reacts ("Charles Robert Redford").
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I saw Robert Redford speak at BYU. He was late (he has a reputation for being late), and he said he was late due to traffic delays from the widening of the road up Provo Canyon. He did not like the harm that this wider road would do to nature. Redford said, "I'm 51." He was sad about this. After saying this he started smiling in his own funny, unique way, licking his lips, an
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Before my mission, I had to go to the BYU Special Collections library to read a lot of "anti-Mormon literature," or "controversial literature". This is where I first saw "Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?" It is also where I first saw "Mormonism Unvailed". Recently I have been reading "Mormonism Unvailed" on the Internet Archive, and it is really
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"Intelligence" means that you can figure things out. It definitely means you can figure out that Mormonism is not true. Anybody who can't figure this out is not intelligent in the highest sense. Even lawyers, doctors, professors, etc. who are believing Mormons after 35 are not "intelligent" in the highest sense. I use age 35 because it takes time for Mormons to overcom
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I'm sorry about that. That must be really hard to deal with.
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Does Lucifer still say that in the temple?
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We know that ancient cultures had ways to write things down, even if they didn't have paper, or even parchment. They could use wax tablets. They could carve letters in clay. They could carve letters in wood and bark. They could write on rock. They could write on pottery. Instead of ink they could use things like berry juice and animal blood. Why didn't BOM people use any of that, as far as
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The Book of Mormon says nothing about education. It says nothing about most subjects we learn in school. It says nothing about mathematics, nothing about the fine arts, nothing about music, drama, humanities, painting, journalism, etc. It says nothing about great literature. It has nothing about religious studies, language studies, geology, forestry, woodworking, physical education, etc. It
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