NOM

I am listening to the "Last Podcast on the Left" of scientology. I have watched the Leah Remini series, Going Clear, and a few other things but didn't really know a ton of LRH. This has been fascinating. They read a bunch of his journal entries and early stuff. I think there is a psychosis that is ...

If you received the most powerful spiritual witness in your life, and that witness told you that the church was not true, would you believe it? I did Exactly. If the praying for testimony method was objectively real, nobody could get the negative response. But people do, which suggests an elevated ...

I choose the middle way because we are all mortals with imperfect information and because of that, I feel safer and more honest in the middle. Life can be black and white sometimes and many other colors at other times. Religion coevolved with humans. Our primitive brains like many parts of religion....

I think this can be a vicious circle where the perpetrator actually becomes the victim. In essence, the victim of their own crime. Similar to what Corsair wrote. Think of it as an iterative process. A young enterprising fraudster decides to target religious marks. Thinking they will be easy pickings...

If you received the most powerful spiritual witness in your life, and that witness told you that the church was not true, would you believe it?

It seems that the gifts of the spirit are best identified after the fact. Hindsight is 2020. This is actually somewhat biblical. Consider the idea of by their fruits you shall know them. And then discussion of the fruits of the Spirit. As quoted above. There is another perspective. Gifts of the spir...

This is fascinating. Great post, I agree this topic needs some technical discussion. So here is some discussion. I think it is only fair to point out that the church does not always operate like a rational business. The top leadership exerts complete control, and they do at times ignore expert opini...

Heaven is just a change of our surroundings. We will be pretty much the same conscious beings we are here. We are already in the eternities. In the middle of them. The interesting thing about my experience going to heaven and back once when I was very sick, was that it was still me. 100% me, my know...

Due to the retracting shape of the rear of some ships, it is conceivable that looking down from the Stern could reveal if propellers were spinning, if the entire stern of the ship was breaching at the top of waves. I have experienced things like this and know the stories are possible. Whether or not...

Christianity is quite a spectrum, from the ultra conservative to the more liberal and open-minded. I think it's great to transition from Mormonism to a Christian church, although I hope it will not be to a more fundamentalist group. I think some evangelical groups are pretty toxic. But even though I...

They only found 13 companies? So are 2 missing? That would allow each of the Q15 to provide CEO oversight to a $2B corporation (on average). Might have some nice perks too.

I agree with seeking the simplest explanation that has potential validity. In this case I believe the most valid argument is to follow the science as Alas noted. In other words, Occums Razor tells me following the scientific evidence is the best explanation. There are almost always gaps in the early...

Some good ideas here but the points you make will work against this argument being seriously considered by TBMs. But I completely agree, the way members absorb the identity of their church role is blocking their ability to reason their way out. A question. How do the top leaders create an identity t...

Spaulding died in 1816, the same year The Late War was published. So Spaulding could not have created the BoM original manuscript as a copycat of that style. Might certainly have been one of many sources but not likely a smoking gun.

This is a perfectly normal human response. And you dealt with it correctly. Humans did not evolve in a modern nuclear family situation. Anyone can get tribal sexual responses like this. And we all have history with feelings that can get activated again at any time. What we decide to do about it is w...

“I preached to a large congregation at the stand, on the science and practice of medicine, desiring to persuade the Saints to trust in God when sick, and not in an arm of flesh, and live by faith and not by medicine, or poison; and when they were sick, and had called for the Elders to pray for them,...

I've watched this process several times, in close relatives losing spouses and remarrying in late life. One married an old friend, another found someone through networking (a mutual friend). Another through a singles activity. Some were happy, some not so much. Rushing into a marriage in late life c...

If Jewish extremist blow-up the dome of the rock to build a temple, we may not get the second coming, but we sure will get an apocalypse.

The best thing the church could do to promote world peace would be to proclaim that the second coming is allegorical.

Most people have some level of religious freedom today, and many choose to be in high commitment, emotionally manipulating religions. Or at least they choose not to consider other options. We have to allow them that choice. How I get past this is to remember that humans co-evolved with religion, our...

What is the Anxiety about? Fundamentalist religions excel at conditioning us to be subtly worried, they say put your faith in God and the church, but then when things go wrong they say that was God's will and church members make mistakes. They can't have it both ways. I think we are conditioned to e...