“Groupthink” is what naturally happens when a group becomes sedentary and sluggish. When change is introduced or new people are introduced, they challenge the “groupthink.” I’ve never seen the word groupthink (when used correctly) as a positive. Does the church suffer from groupthink or just unity (“being one,” and “if ye are not one, ye are not mine.”)? You decide.
Posts Tagged ‘ faith ’
Spirituality, Rationality, Mentality, Duality
Today’s guest post is by jmb275. In my first guest post, I talked about intellectualism and faith. A few of the commenters pointed out that I had somewhat assumed that we had dual natures – spiritual and rational. The point was mentioned that the term “spirituality” could be loosely defined to be many things – not necessarily religious in nature. In this post I would like to address these issues as I have been pondering it for quite some time.
Looking Forward to the Good Life
I’ve spent some time over the years thinking about questions that remain in regards to the logistics of the afterlife.
Family First?
In a pro-family church, why doesn’t family always come first? We state that family comes before church, and yet there seem to be many in the church who don’t live as if they believe it. What do we need to do to get people to believe that family (and marriage) comes first?
What Bothers Me, and Why I Still Believe
I am an active member of the church, and a believer. I am well aware of most of the controversial issues (Book of Abraham, DNA, Book of Mormon historicity, polyandry, etc.). Some of them occasionally bother me. Others do not. Although according to statistics I am very educated, I probably could not win an argument defending the church on any of those points. I could not support the church on Prop. 8, (if you want to specifically comment on that, please go here). I will probably never understand in this life why we are discouraged from praying to our...
Intellectualism and Faith: A Would-Be Marriage!
It is easy to think yourself out of a testimony. It’s as simple as saying “well I can’t prove God exists, or doesn’t exist, therefore I am agnostic.” Today’s guest post is by jmb275.
Why Faith Needs Reason
The tragedy of 9/11 had a big impact on my views about the relationship between faith and reason. As I watched the video footage of the jumbo jets flying into the World Trade Center towers over and over again, it dawned on me that I was witnessing the destructive power of faith unchecked by reason. Consider for a moment the faith proposition that motivated the 9/11 hijackers: “If you slit a few throats to hijack a plane and then fly that plane into a skyscraper, killing yourself and all your comrades along with thousands of civilian men, women, and...
Anomaly
This post edited to clear up confusion caused by careless and clueless use of language. Some miracles seem to be reliable. As a missionary, I found that if people would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, they would feel the Spirit. However, some miracles just seem to happen, and it is, perhaps, counterproductive to generalize from those miracles. Like the dear member who invited us to teach his best friend. After we had taught a lesson and given him a Book of Mormon and encouraged him to read and pray, the member told him to ignore...
This Won’t Make It Past Correlation!
Another week, another great uncorrelated quote from an LDS Church manual that would never see the light of day in today’s church: Every discussion of faith must distinguish it from its caricatures. Faith is not credulity. It is not “believing things you know ain’t so.”
This Won’t Make It Past Correlation!
Hi everyone, Welcome to my new series where I provide you, the reader, with an excerpt from an LDS church manual, uncited, which I LIKE. That means no Journal of Discourses nonsense like blood atonement, racism, or Adam-God for starters. (Sorry to disappoint some of our readers with that caveat). You can guess if you want, such things as the author (the Church used to have individual authors stand behind their words), the title, the era, or which church program the lesson was used in. But that’s all trivia, really, compared to this: You get to list ALL THE...
The Book of Mormon: A 20th Century Text
There are many positions on which century the Book of Mormon originated in, but most seem to fall into two general camps: the book was largely produced in the fifth century by Moroni, or in the nineteenth century by Joseph Smith. There is a third view: the text was largely produced in the 20th century by committees of LDS Church employees.
How Active Are You? How Orthodox Are You? A Self-Assessment
Take this assessment and find out: (Taken from D. Jeff Burton’s For Those Who Wonder : forthosewhowonder.com. Similar to a Correlation Department survey on Religion and Life conducted among LDS Church members in the mid-1980s)
Analogies of Belief: Expecting the Polar Express
What does it mean to say you believe something or “believe in” something? Would a child say they believe in Santa Claus? Or would they simply act and react to situations as if Santa Claus existed? That is, if their parents took them on the Polar Express would they expect to meet Santa Claus tucked away in a cozy brick house at the North Pole checking his naughty/nice list and getting fist-bumps from Mrs. Claus before he gave rousing speeches to the elves? Is belief as expectation the best way to understand religious belief in general?
Our Foundation Stories Part II: The Meaning of the First Vision
Now that we’ve discussed the nature of the First Vision, what did it mean? There are many meanings, the most vital being those which each person can discover for herself or himself. Here are those we are most familiar with, because they have been written and spoken about at length in the official media of the institutional LDS Church:
Our Foundation Stories Part I: The First Vision or the First Visit?
Do you believe that God the Father, the Son, and maybe even the Holy Ghost visited Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820? Or did Joseph have a vision of them? Does the difference matter? Do you base your testimony, your faith in the existence of God, your continued participation in Mormonism, on a visit of Deity to a young farmboy?
People Who Helped Me Stay Mormon Part II: Roger Keller
There are BYU professors, and there are BYU professors. Brother Keller is in a class by himself. His life story alone fascinates me. Converted to the church as a young adult,
Liberal Mormonism II: Why I am a Liberal Mormon
I was raised in a household of faith. My parents are believers who encouraged discussion of religion in their home. I’ve asked around and found that this isn’t the case in many LDS homes. My parents asked what we children learned in Primary and Sunday School and then what we thought about it!
Liberal Mormonism I: Diagnosis
Let me be clear about a few things. First, I have been diagnosed as a liberal Mormon. Second, liberal Mormonism has been discussed before in the Bloggernacle, with one site devoted entirely to it. Third, I’m not talking about politics. Finally, this means some Mormons have problems with me.
Robert Millet & Krista Tippet Pt. 3: Robert Millet as a Budding “Sunstone” or “New Order” Mormon
As I’m sure you’ve discovered by now — my takeaways from this interview between Krista Tippet and LDS Theologian and BYU Religion Professor Robert Millet say much more about me than they do Brother Millet. That said — in part 3 of this series, I’m going to make my argument that within this interview, we can see yet further signs that both Robert Millet, and the LDS Church, are becoming more and more open/liberal/progressive/tolerant in their willingness to allow for a “Sunstone” or even a “New Order Mormon“-like perspective when it comes to an LDS belief/testimony. Here are the...
How to Support
