Social Media Musings... page 1
Just stuff, posted from time to time, not necessarily in any chronological or topical order, but fitting with the general theme of this website.
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Why I am Not a Catholic
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A Poetic Conversation
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Poking away at the Book of Mormon, at Joseph Smith, at the history of the Church, it is more than just easy to find gaps, uncertainties, and big, glaring question marks on which any number of healthy doubts can rely and survive. If you want to. Or if you need to. But those are not the approaches of genuine seekers of truth.
Don’t get me wrong. Critical thought, which includes activated doubt, is an essential part of any successful intellectual process. One should not ever be deliberately gullible. But we also have to be able to recognize when all we are doing is doubting for the sake of doubt, and causing ourselves to miss the mark.
People who think that they require intellectual certainty before committing to a thing have been lulled into the insanity of the later years of the Enlightenment, convinced by the deceptions of materialists and reductionists who converted whole swaths of people from correct human psychology and epistemology in the early 20th century, and from whose errors we have not yet fully emerged.
The fact is that faith is embroiled in everything, and the only healthy form of doubt is that which exists as a necessary part of the process of living by faith, not as a goal or ambition in and of itself.
So, if doubts exist to motivate you to seek deeper, think more, and, I would dare add, pray harder, then all is relatively good. But if doubts are simply a wall that you have constructed and against which you wish to rest your denial of the possibility of something being true, then you are, in fact, defeating the process of critical thought and truth finding, not participating in it.
So, let me assure you that as you continue asking questions about the Book of Mormon, you will come up with some for which good and convincing answers seem unavailable. I don’t know, for example, why it contains Latin names. I can guess; I can come up with my own explanations; but these are not necessarily satisfying even for me. But I can also address that kind of basis for doubt by recognizing that this question addresses nothing that is essential to the book or its stated purposes. When I address those things – the book’s essential nature and purposes – doubts of all other kinds are easily erased or, at least, set aside with the comfort of knowing that some explanation somewhere will exist and sometime might be found. For, as I said, the Book of Mormon brings people to Christ. The Book of Mormon testifies of him with clarity and conviction unlike virtually any other book. It is passionate in its expressions of faith, and adamant in its examples of discipleship. Anyone seeking Christ through the book, will find him. Anyone seeking not just the truth *of* the book, but the truth *in* the book, will find it. These are the things that truly matter.
I have lived with the Book of Mormon for over 35 years. I still don’t like a lot of its grammar. I don’t always like the way it was composed and arranged. I don’t always agree with the chapter and verse separations, and certainly not with many of its commas and dashes. But I have never failed to be touched by the Spirit of God when I read it. I have found wisdom *in* it, but, more importantly, I have found faith and hope and, yes, even His eternal love, *through* it.
Whatever the truth of its composition might be (and I am more than willing to accept Joseph Smith’s account of that), there is little if any basis for any serious or credible doubt that the Book of Mormon is a book that God uses to bring Christian salvation to individuals, families and communities. I would invite you to consider it first from that perspective. See if God can touch your heart and teach you truth through its words and promises. Then I think you will start to see those questions regarding its grammar and history and so forth through different lenses.
Don’t get me wrong. Critical thought, which includes activated doubt, is an essential part of any successful intellectual process. One should not ever be deliberately gullible. But we also have to be able to recognize when all we are doing is doubting for the sake of doubt, and causing ourselves to miss the mark.
People who think that they require intellectual certainty before committing to a thing have been lulled into the insanity of the later years of the Enlightenment, convinced by the deceptions of materialists and reductionists who converted whole swaths of people from correct human psychology and epistemology in the early 20th century, and from whose errors we have not yet fully emerged.
The fact is that faith is embroiled in everything, and the only healthy form of doubt is that which exists as a necessary part of the process of living by faith, not as a goal or ambition in and of itself.
So, if doubts exist to motivate you to seek deeper, think more, and, I would dare add, pray harder, then all is relatively good. But if doubts are simply a wall that you have constructed and against which you wish to rest your denial of the possibility of something being true, then you are, in fact, defeating the process of critical thought and truth finding, not participating in it.
So, let me assure you that as you continue asking questions about the Book of Mormon, you will come up with some for which good and convincing answers seem unavailable. I don’t know, for example, why it contains Latin names. I can guess; I can come up with my own explanations; but these are not necessarily satisfying even for me. But I can also address that kind of basis for doubt by recognizing that this question addresses nothing that is essential to the book or its stated purposes. When I address those things – the book’s essential nature and purposes – doubts of all other kinds are easily erased or, at least, set aside with the comfort of knowing that some explanation somewhere will exist and sometime might be found. For, as I said, the Book of Mormon brings people to Christ. The Book of Mormon testifies of him with clarity and conviction unlike virtually any other book. It is passionate in its expressions of faith, and adamant in its examples of discipleship. Anyone seeking Christ through the book, will find him. Anyone seeking not just the truth *of* the book, but the truth *in* the book, will find it. These are the things that truly matter.
I have lived with the Book of Mormon for over 35 years. I still don’t like a lot of its grammar. I don’t always like the way it was composed and arranged. I don’t always agree with the chapter and verse separations, and certainly not with many of its commas and dashes. But I have never failed to be touched by the Spirit of God when I read it. I have found wisdom *in* it, but, more importantly, I have found faith and hope and, yes, even His eternal love, *through* it.
Whatever the truth of its composition might be (and I am more than willing to accept Joseph Smith’s account of that), there is little if any basis for any serious or credible doubt that the Book of Mormon is a book that God uses to bring Christian salvation to individuals, families and communities. I would invite you to consider it first from that perspective. See if God can touch your heart and teach you truth through its words and promises. Then I think you will start to see those questions regarding its grammar and history and so forth through different lenses.