From infancy, Mormon children are indoctrinated with "their" testimony. It is heard and repeated thousands of times. It involves "knowing". Notice in the following testimony how this person "knows". It is never believed.
This is a cookie-cutter testimony. This person has been brainwashed with it their whole life. Mormons change the order around sometimes but it always involves knowing that 1) Joseph Smith was a true prophet, 2) the Book of Mormon is true, 3) we have a living prophet on the earth today, 4) the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church, 5) god lives and loves us, and 6) being grateful that "I know" all these things.
If you've heard one testimony, you have heard them all. Check it out:
"I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. I know that it is Christ's church restored to the earth in our day by the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he saw our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. I have a testimony that God answers our prayers, that He loves us, and that He sent His Son to die for us. I bear testimony that our Savior is our perfect example, that He did perform the atonement for us, and that through Him we all may be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven again. I am so grateful to have the Book of Mormon so that I can continually feast upon the Word of God. I know that this book is true and can give us direction in our lives. I am grateful for all scripture, including the Bible and the words of our living prophets and apostles. I know that our modern-day prophet, Thomas S. Monson, is a true prophet of God who leads and guides us in these days. I am so grateful that I have been able to grow in this knowledge through the guidance and assurance of the Holy Ghost. What a wonderful blessing it is to be a member of the church. My hope and prayer is that all might have the opportunity to gain this knowledge for themselves."
Becoming LDS
Pretty sad... and I am embarrased to admit that I spouted this crap too, almost word-for-word.
Mormons are under the false impression that repeating their testimony will make everyone have an orgasm with desire to join the church. It will confound the wise and the learned. Children will silence professors. It will trump any and all arguments that can ever be forged by the enemies of the lord.
A testimony is bullet-proof armor to a warrior, now repeat after me, "I know..."
4 comments:
I never could understand the mentality. :o( The missionaries that worked on me kept doing it (repeating their testimony), and the fact that the various different missionaries stated the same testimony pretty much verbatim over and over again was one of the things that creeped me out about the LDS church. I mean... I'm used to hearing parrots do that, but humans? Grown up college educated humans??? :oP And the look in their eyes when they do it... like they're trying to hypnotize you or something.
It got worse when I started going to church with them (out of curiosity) only to find that all the Sunday testimony givers ended their speech the same way... and at least 3/4 of them could hardly finish the 'testimony' ending part without cracking up (they started to cry or all of the sudden increased their speech speed to get it over with ASAP). I had a distinct impression that those guys (and some gals) didn't really believe what they were saying but felt compelled to say it (because it was expected of them), and they cracked because they knew they were being dishonest.
Come to think of it, this verbatim a-dime-a-dozen testimony thingy might make a good America's Funniest Home Video if someone thinks to tape it at various Sunday meetings... :oP
Testimony meetings always made me feel anxious; spouting all of those rote phrases "I know" while only "believing" ending up making me feel really crappy about myself. I felt like a bad person.
The irony
I think the easiest way to approach the religious with the gnostic claim of "I know" is with "prove it." Nearly everything in our world is based on belief. We can say that "I know an airplane can fly" because I see airplanes flying. But when I say "I know this airplane will fly", it's a belief, not knowledge. Granted, it's a belief based in reason, previous experience, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary. Thus, I think that "knowing a plane will fly" is more likely to be true than "knowing a god exists, and it's the god I've been taught to believe in."
Whenever I hear a theist make such a claim, I always challenge them to prove it. Knowledge can be shared through demonstration, and if they cannot demonstrate the knowledge they claim to have, and its veracity, then I point out to them that it's not knowledge, it's belief.
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