NOM

Could stats be skewed because we simply have more kids due to a high birth rate?

Only an institution like ours makes confessing unbelief or lost belief akin to confessing to murder or adultery.

This reminds me of my grandpa in WWII during the occupation of Japan, he became friends with a Shinto priest who insisted on performing a Shinto wedding ceremony for him and my grandma back home (I guess it works even if she wasn't there) Grandpa joked that he was covered by both eastern and western...

This just came to me from another thread, I think the innate desire to have our reasons for unbelief validated by the tribe might be a sign of infantilization. We tie our self worth to what the "parent" figure thinks of us whether that is the church leader, other members, or real parents.

More often than not, I think the desire to give reasons for leaving the church are less for the TBM, but more for the disaffected person's feeling of necessary self-defense. The key is remembering this is about salvaging a relationship - not proving who is right or who is wrong. Totally agree.

I can see her rationale. The details are what cause the feeling of identity being threatened. Defensive mechanisms then deploy to protect the fragile identity. I did the exact opposite with my in laws and came out guns blazing with facts and history. In retrospect I may have been able to set better ...

Yes this all stems from the emphasis of the doctrine of "being like a little child" in the new testament combined with the preaching of obedience over all else. Obedience and childlike submission. The meek shall inherit the earth, etc.

These fireside are so vague and generic that they are now presenting "doubts" as meaning "lack of faith" or "undeveloped testimony?" This is exactly how my parents and sister to whom I have told about my disbelief see it. They are just waiting for me to "progress back into full faith and fix my bro...

Saw this over on reddit and thought it was interesting. Her advice was to be brave and tell the parents in a face to face conversation (no letters) but to not share any details as to why they left the faith. Details only cause arguments and destroy the relationship. https://www.drlaura.com/pg/jsp/ch...

A little bit of social engineering and experimentation can be fun. Just don't be surprised at the rigidity of mindset in the elderly.

In my case I let my wife run it and I sit there passively. I have a "do no harm" policy regarding indoctrination. I won't stop it because I can't, but I won't be an active participant either.

Very brave of you. I think being authentic is healthy despite any temporary discomfort with parents.

Street cred: 93%. This question elicited a derisive snort: 75. According to one research source , how many instances of the Church purposely hiding or censoring information can readily be documented? Which "one research source" now? Amazingly, just like in half the questions before it, you can get ...

Well done! Good report. I think you represented your position very well.

In the interest of honest disclosure to TBMs, this mentions a study by the church, but the study/report referenced was not conducted or published or approved by the church. It was conducted by NOMs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Did I misunderstand that aspect? The Faith Crisis report was not ...

See how well you do on the new faith crisis quiz. I managed a 95 thanks to my unhealthy obsession.

https://form.jotform.com/83448787949987

In order to fulfill my desire to A/B test subjects that cause cognitive dissonance, I would welcome such a meeting. It would need to be under the conditions of fair agenda setting like was mentioned above.

I think if we had been well-educated individuals such as Alexander Campbell, who wrote the critical expose on the BofM and we had been living at the time of Joseph Smith, we would have had so much more context with which to judge his works. Campbell immediately saw the imposition Joseph was perform...

Thinking of comments made on a recent thread regarding Joseph's accumulation of "revealed doctrine" from sources other than God, I happened upon this quote from Thomas Jefferson in a letter discussing religion written to John Adams in 1823. The foundation for the quote seems to stem from an explana...

Good for you winning leadership roulette like that. Time for a trip to Vegas.