I was in the home of a TBM Mormon and noticed that in their entry way they had a tile with a saying engraved on it. It reads as follows:
"Faith is not believing that God can; it is knowing that He will."
Let's shorten that a little so it is more obvious what the real message is...
"Faith is not believing; it is knowing."
If someone got up in testimony meeting and said, "I believe the church is true," they wouldn't necessarially be made fun of, but you just don't use the word "believe" in Mormonism. You say you KNOW!
There is a tremendous amount of pressure to know. If you don't know, then something is wrong with you and you better get with the program!
"It is called FAITH because it is not KNOWLEDGE." ~ Christopher Hitchens
8 comments:
When adherents say they "know" it's like when the people said they saw the Emperor's new clothes.
Exactly, Andy! I have drawn that same comparison myself.
You touched on another thing that bothered me. If you don't know, it's YOU that has the problem, not the church. The church is perfect, and if you can't see that then you better get with the program or you will be left behind.
They make it your problem, not the church's. I think all religions do this to some extent.
So true, Brad. How many times did you hear the phrase, "The church is perfect but the people aren't"? Yes, the church is perfect and if it isn't working for you, you are the one with the problem. If you can't feel the spirit, you must have committed a sin that you haven't repented of yet. Do you masturbate? That's the reason why. Pay your tithing and Jesus will help you stop masturbating. Then you will finally get with the program.
Yea, it's exhausting! After being out for over 5 years now, I am still breathing a sigh of relief!
I have recently decided to exit from the LDS church because, like you, I have gotten exhausted from professing things I can't believe. But don't you get tired of holding on? Trying to persuade people that it it's so wrong? Isn't that essentially the work of a missionary?
Hi Cait,
At some point I will be entirely ready to walk away. For now, however, it is theraputic for me to talk about it. Maybe soon...
Plus, having people online as a support to me was invaluable.
I actually find the notion whole faith thing strangely comforting.
We can't know - for sure - whether God exists or not. Sure, it's staggeringly unlikely and unsupported by evidence, but there may still be an almighty hiding somewhere for his own mysterious reasons. We can't say there isn't a god as though that were an objective fact.
But according to the god-botherers, that isn't what matters anyway:
I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live
Well, I don't believeth, and that is an objective fact.
Even if I could be convinced, through some "Pascal's wager" argument, that it would be worth my while to start believing it, it wouldn't make any difference.
You can't (or at least I can't) start believing things at will. Something has to happen to change your mind.
Of course, you can start pretending to believe things if you like, but if, deep down, you still think its a load of tosh what's the point?
So I'm happy being an honest unbeliever. If I'm wrong, God exists, and for some inexplicable reason he needs me to believe in him, well, he's supposed to be all-knowing and all-powerful, I'm sure he could do something about it!
Chris, well said. I agree with you completely.
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