Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Opposition and Truth

Many, many Mormons hold the belief that because there are those who oppose the church, that it is a testament to it's truth. Satan fights against it with all his strength because he hates truth. Therefore anyone who is Satan's agent, is also full of hate. Thus, if I come along and state that the church is not true, I am working for Satan.

Satan only opposes Mormonism because all the other churches are false and are keeping good people away from the real truth by teaching them false doctrines in a false church, mingled with some truth.

Does opposition to something make that something true? Let's think about it with our rational brains.

  • Mormons oppose anti-Mormons. That must make anti-Mormonism true.
  • The United States opposes terrorism. That must make terrorism true.
  • People oppose illness and disease. That must make illness and disease true.
  • Plenty of people oppose the Catholic church. That must make the Catholic church true.
In short, anything with opposition must be true. But, as I hope you can see from the above examples, that is not the case.

Opposition is a good thing. Without it, the United States would have never come into existance. The colonists opposed the heavy taxes placed on them by King George. This lead to a violent confrontation which eventually ended in the birth of America.

Has there ever been a bill or law proposed that you are opposed to? Does opposition to that bill automatically make it true?

I hope that anyone using the claim that opposition means your cause is true will stop and take a second think about it. Your very own Mormon scriptures say that there must be opposition in all things:

2 Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.

Opposition is a good thing. What if I got a gun and went out on a shooting spree? What if no one opposed me? That would be a bad thing. We want opposition.

So, in the mind of a Mormon, the opposition factor is a huge testimony builder. However, in the real world, nearly everything has some sort of opposition. Does it mean that everything with opposition is true? Of course not, and it is no different for Mormonism.

The claim of Mormon defenders that the church is true because people like me oppose it is absurd. All you have to do is think it through for half a second. If opposition equals truth, then everything that the Mormons oppose is true too.

I'm not trying to say that anyone is stupid. All I am saying is that they need to rethink their claim that the church is true BECAUSE it has opposition.

3 comments:

Seth R. said...

I don't really consider opposition so much a positive evidence of Mormonism's truthfulness so much as a reassurance that just because everyone and their dog seems to have an unkind word for us doesn't mean we are necessarily wrong.

I think that's all the idea was ever meant to be - Just because people hate what you're up to doesn't make you wrong.

Mormon411 said...

True. And it also doesn't make you right either.

Seth R. said...

Basically, it's only a problem when people take the concept beyond its own useful purpose and try to make it into something more.