NOM

If only the Book of Mormon revealed whether they really sacrificed the winners or the losers (or neither) at the end of a Maya ball game.

This is a great thread. All of the responses are very interesting. Yes, I also appreciate this discussion. I sure was impressed with Givens's By the Hand of Mormon when I read it soon after its release. I've wondered in recent years how differently I might look at it now were I to read it again.

I think this book is excellent. One of the reasons I liked it was that some of the points Haidt made backed up thoughts I'd had myself about how we as humans come to conclusions and then attempt to support our conclusions using reason. It was amusing to find myself more or less applying this practic...

There's always this one.



I ordered it a few years ago but have not found anywhere to put it yet. I don't live in a place where anyone would ever recognize it if were I to put it on my car.

If I lived anywhere near Utah I would attend for sure. In 2015 by random chance I happened to be in the area on a trip and I caught one session on the last day. I also got to briefly and awkwardly meet a few people I admire. It was memorable.

I also finished listening to this today. I don't listen to as many episodes as I used to, but I thought this was a good one. One thing I noted is that Showalter wishes that she hadn't exposed one of her sisters to the issues that were troubling her. Although she doesn't blame herself and her sister ...

I originally started participating (more) at NOM after Facebook and other factors killed the Mormon-themed forum that I used to frequent (Mormon Stories Second Ward). While I understand why Facebook is a popular discussion platform, it's such a bad one that it's a shame so many groups end up being c...

How about Doctrine and Covenants 19, where God seems to be saying that He uses terms such as "endless" and "eternal" when taking about punishment in the afterlife because people will (incorrectly) interpret those words to mean endless or eternal in duration. At least, that's how I always interpreted...

Back in the mid 2000s, discovering some interesting new details about Mormon history led me to start questioning. I quickly realized that Mormonism was simply the icing on the problem. I think my real "crisis" came when I realized that I could question the supernatural stories in the Bible and when ...

I still wish Richard Dutcher's Joseph Smith movie had materialized.

A few years ago, those attempting to find a "middle way" were assailed by critics among the faithful and also among those who had moved on. You just couldn't please anyone if you were neither hot nor cold. I think it's interesting that now even NOM members disparage the NOM approach. (Not saying any...

I've watched the tone of this place shift somewhat as the number of those who actually want to stay engaged to some degree diminishes and the number of those who simply feel trapped grows. Fortunately, even when the discussion here resembles the anger and open mockery you see in other places, an und...

This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but it's a passage from Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (p. 363): By the mid-1950s a change was underway in Mormonism that profoundly affected its political influence. The hierarchy and church publications encouraged an unpreceden...

I've found myself learning to accept uncertainty while also using it as a shield at times. By that I mean that I'm able to push off coming to an uncomfortable conclusion by escaping into uncertainty. Maybe those religious traditions have some truth to them after all, even if the evidence doesn't see...

I might have mentioned this in another thread in the past, but one of the very few times I've had the opportunity to discuss my faith transition and questioning freely was with a co-worker, whom I had learned had once been in school to become a preacher but had lost his faith during the process. He'...

I barely had a faith crisis before it became an existential crisis. (I don't really like using the word "crisis" here but it's the common term.) While I find the issues specific to Mormonism interesting, I think the more serious issues lie a few layers deeper. What Joseph Smith did or didn't do lose...

Welcome. It's tough to decide what to do when confronted with a deluge of new information that makes you reconsider things that you might have never even thought to question. And as Corsair said, you can just keep digging and finding more layers if you're so inclined. It continues to be unsettling b...

I didn't read the article, but I couldn't help noticing the abundance of safety devices on their trampoline. They must spend as much time preparing to jump as they do actually jumping. One time I got a ride home from church with a friend as a kid and I was surprised that they played the radio in the...

I don't know about skin color, but I always liked this tangential story. A WILY PROPHET. In the days when Brigham Young was directing the theocratic government of Utah, the Mormon missionaries in England converted a one-legged man near Dulwich. This man, now strong in faith, con- ceived the idea tha...