NOM

So often times when Faith is conflated with belief, it is said that you have to have faith first. As in, you get your mind to believe, then the proof will come. The more I studied church history the less I was able to believe in the truth claims of the church. So does God either plant false evidence...

if polygamy was indeed a true principle that will be practiced in the heavens (that being why a man can be sealed to more than one woman where the revers is not true) and yet the sex ratio (men to women) on the earth is basically 1:1 (with Male ratio being actually slight higher at birth). Are the ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jJ3ZjbBpSa I would like to hear all of his answers to his concerns, but this makes me confused again. TL;DR Guy resigns/is excommunicated and goes full anti. Receives a faith healing followed by a series of events that appear to him to be miraculous, including an ul...

Thanks to all who posted here, this is great advice. I will be teaching this Sunday and I will be looking for a way to teach them a good principle and if possible one related to the lesson.

MoPag wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:05 am

Bring treats, play games, and just teach them to be good, kind non-judgmental people.

MoPag, You are speaking my language with the Simpsons pics!!

Clearly showing a double standard that either God's law is subordinate to civil law, or that the leaders of the Church are acting arbitrarily. So, if God allows it to be done in one nation, why not allow? Hmmm. . . maybe God is not making those decisions. It would be an enormous show of good will t...

Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32 A year ago, when my country's pussy-grabber-in-chief was elected, I had similar feelings. Like people were okay condoning such terrible behavior and attitudes toward women, and feeling frustrated and dejected. Don't forget H...

Faith is best when it is tailor made by you, rather than just putting on any old off-the-rack thing. That makes the whole experience worthwhile. Throughout life, people believe many different things. I feel comfortable as a progressive 21st Century Mormon sitting on the exact same pew with my 8th C...

I have read James Fowler's Stages of Faith and going through it again. I looked up Don Bradley, FAIR has an interview with him and two others (Janet Eyring, Maxine Hanks) that had returned to the church. In my mind they didn't at all go back to a stage 3 belief. They have adopted a stage 5 nuanced f...

moksha wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 09, 2017 9:33 am

I came back. Gone from about age seventeen to fifty-something.

When you were gone were you inactive, resigned? Did you believe during that time? How do you manage your current nuanced faith?

From what I understand the church makes it difficult to go back if you resign. What percentage of the people who resign have decided to go back? Are there any statistics on this?

Other than MormonThink? I really like the back and forth between Runnell's CES Letter, the FAIR response to the CES Letter, and then Runnell's response to FAIR. I appreciated his response to fair as much as the original CES letter https://cesletter.org/debunking-fairmormon/

When I look at the list of evidences stuff on FAIR, the majority of the "evidences" that are proposed start with: "There is no way Joseph Smith could have known...." Do we really know what kind of information he was or was not exposed to? Was he a prophet? Did he have a lot of dumb luck? How much wa...

My head just exploded.

Dang it, I keep Noobing... Apologies

Thanks Everyone! These are great suggestions. Right now, pulling out a principle and teaching that seems like the best bet.

If you were the big guy and could (theoretically) dictate anything, but needed to keep it from all falling apart. What would you do? * Open the financials :lol: * Slowly reduce the church block to 1.5 hours? * Stop doing marriages in the temple, only do the sealing after 1 year of marriage? * Shorte...

wtfluff wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:39 am

they're a lot better at finances than they are at being hip in front of a camera.

Dang the video got taken down by "Intellectual Reserve, Inc." Is that the church's bully division?

I have reached a point where I can sit through the most ridiculous church talks without clenching either teeth or fists. Their inability/unwillingness to step out into the scary world of reality is not my responsibility. :( I am not quite there yet, I get anxious and angry still. They like to comma...

Caffeinated soda was as bad as cocaine in my family growing up. I remember once having a few swallows of Mtn. Dew as a kid, like maybe when i was 9 or so. It tasted so good, but I felt so guilty. I confessed to my parents who assured me the guilt I was feeling was because I had sinned. Kind of funny...