Saturday, January 19, 2013

Blog: Of Darkness and Light

http://ldsdarklight.blogspot.com/

I stumbled upon this amazing blog!  The author of this blog is exceptional at making valuable points.  I have often been praised for my ability to write but this author makes me look like an amateur.

He wrote a post which he called The Source of All Knowledge, and it is so amazing that I am going to share it in it's entirety here. This post talks about the use of emotions.  I especially love the analogy of the feather in the wind:

I believe that the single most significant and influential teaching of the LDS church, and the reason that it is as large as it is today, is the idea that an emotion is a communication from God. Not only that the emotion is from God, but also that anything else is of no value. To break it down, the LDS church teaches that (a) an emotional reaction is a message from the creator of the universe, (b) no matter what the emotion is it leads to the conclusion that the Church is true, and (c) declaring that all other sources of information are irrelevant unless they are in sync with the Church being true.

The problem is that it is one of the easiest things in the world to evoke an emotional response. A few notes on the piano will easily move one emotionally. A single look from another person can cause one to feel fear, lust, anger, peace, etc. A few lines of a poem can bring one to tears. A scene in a movie can evoke these same emotions.

The missionaries teach investigators that good feelings about some Church teachings witness that the teachings are true. But if one hears another doctrine of the Church that evokes a different emotional response, like disgust, that is apparently not a message from God, because it might lead one to conclude that the Church is not what it claims to be. Then, when someone such as I tries to investigate the real history and teachings of the Church, and finds strong physical, archaeological, or logical evidence that it is not what it claims to be, the Church insists that all those clues are irrelevant compared to the emotional conviction they have. Doctrine & Covenants, for example, states:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things (Section 6:22).

In other words, if something seems like it's not right - if it seems like you need more from the Church to keep following it - what you are supposed to do is recall the one time you did feel good about it. If you feel bad about it now, there's nothing wrong with the Church, you just need to start feeling good again.
 
In brief, if you ever have a positive feeling about any part of the Church, it must be true. Any bad feelings you have about it are distractions from Satan. I've spent a very long time trying to come up with an adequate analogy, but it's so nonsensical that nothing fits. So here's a try:
 
Emotions are easily swayed, much like a feather moving in the breeze. So imagine a feather tied to a string, hanging from a tree branch. A man sits under the tree and watches the feather one day. A bird up on the branch tells the man that it is a magic feather - it can predict the weather. If the feather moves to the north, there is a thunderstorm coming. If it moves south, there will be sunshine. If it moves east, there will be snow, and if it moves west, there will be rain. The man watches for a while and the feather dances mostly Northwest. He sees some storm clouds off in the distance and concludes that the feather is magic. The next day, the feather sways eastward, but it stays sunny and warm. The man says, "Well, I already know it's a magic feather." So when he learns later in the day that it snowed in Alaska that day, his conclusion is confirmed. "The feather's magic is so powerful, that it could see it was snowing hundreds of miles away!" The next day, the feather moves to the south, and the sun shines. It is indeed a magic feather! The next day it blows to the west, but the sun shines again. A week later, it finally does rain and the man is awestruck that it not only predicted the weather, but that it did it a week in advance!
 
An easily-influenced variable is given ultimate authority. But when the easily-influenced variable acts unpredictably it is meaningless, or still evidence of the purported source's authenticity. This logic contains no real connection between what happens and what is real.

14 comments:

Heather said...

Oh I do like that feather analogy!

Thanks for the blog link... checking it out now!

...and I think your writing is just swell...

Eli said...

Thank you for the compliment! I've enjoyed your work as well!

Brad said...

That is so true! When I first began to question the church I had a friend that was in the same position. He is a history buff and enjoys viewing WWII aircraft. One day he was in a WWII museum and had an emotional response. He recalled that it was same emotional response he had while at church. Obviously, WWII aircraft are not part of the "true" religion. He rightly concluded that emotions are not the correct path to finding the truth.

I love the feather analogy!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to not see a bunch of cheap-snatch like you had on here several months ago; A picture of a bunch of whores with their legs spread to the camera. You are moving in the right direction if you are keeping porn off your blog. The LDS Church is full of evidence to prove it's validity aside from emotion, my blog is full of them.

Mormon411 said...

Thanks Heather, I do okay.

You're welcome, Eli, and thank you.

Brad, yes, I have noticed that correlation too when listening to a moving piece of music or a touching scene in a movie.

Weston, what are you talking about? I have never put porn on my blog with one exception of a nude woman holding an apple. There have been a few other suggestive photos but none of them are anything you wouldn't see at a swimming pool. Be like the cheap-snatch whores on my blog and keep your panties on!

Anonymous said...

It was a game or something, there was a grid of women flashing their crothces into the camera.

Anonymous said...

Your problem is you have turned into a bleeding-hearted liberal. Liberalism sucks, Socialism sucks, Marxism sucks, Maoism sucks, Stalinism sucks, the green party sucks, gun-control sucks, big government sucks, affirmative action sucks, Progressives suck, the whole left-wing-give-peace-a-chance-feed-the-world-we-are-the-world-retarded party sucks. Of course you're misserable about life, you've turned into some kind of faggoty liberal.

Brad said...

Weston, maybe if you became a "true" follower of the teaches of Jesus as stated in the new testament you would understand. If you follow the words of "turn the other cheek", "Feed the poor" "Love your enemies", "Render what is Caesar's unto Caesar", Give all you have to the poor and follow Him. Sometimes I think that the true Christians are the ones who are not religious and are trying to be good people and treat others some dignity and respect.

Maybe you should review the teachings of Jesus in the new testament.

Mormon411 said...

Ah yes, the post about Follow the Prohet. Admittedly, I did choose pictures of girls in very skimpy and see-thru bikinis, but none of them are actually exposed.

Anonymous said...

Brad, when the IRS puts a gun to your head and demands, "give to the poor or I pull the trigger" there is nothing Christian about that, nothing at all.

Anonymous said...

Mo411, I don't do porn, if it looks like porn, I run. You may ask "What is porn?" Well, if the giant armadillo in my jeans starts to lift his head, you know you've hit pay dirt.

By the way, if you don't want me to comment on your blog I wont. No one ever just asks, instead they block me. All you have to do is say, "Hey Weston, don't comment on my blog" and Boom, you got it.

Brad said...

Weston, All civilizations have taxes, there is no changing that. Jesus says you have to pay taxes. To me, that's what he means by the "Render unto Caesar..." statement. Nobody is putting a gun to your head. You don't have to live here. But whether you live here or Canada or anywhere else, more than likely you will have to pay taxes. Unless you are Romney and put your money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying your fair share.

Heather said...

Weston... You flatter yourself. Are you for real?

Mormon411 said...

Weston, you're very welcome here. Just keep it respectful. I'll check out your blog and the evidence you have shared in favor of the church. Maybe even write a post about it.