Contemplative Dexterity

(Apologies for another long post) In a perusal of my Facebook news feed, I stumbled across a lovely article that a neighbor of my parents shared entitled “So…You Think the Book of Mormon is a Fraud” . Mr. Trimble, who authored this lovely article, uses the typical Mormon circular reasoning that states that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet; and if Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same Church that Christ established while he was on Earth. So in the Mormon mind, it all comes down to whether the BOM is true or not, and for this, they rely on warm fuzzy feelings to confirm that the Book is in fact, true. Mr. Trimble states that he noticed that most of the people who criticize the Book of Mormon the loudest, have not actually read it. While this may be true, I don’t think a person needs to read a book fully to understand whether it’s true or not. That’s what research is for. Reading the Book of Morm...

It would probably be good form to write about what the purpose of this blog is and how I came to the decision to start exploring the possibility that the religion I had been raised in might not be the "true" religion, and not only that, but begin to question the existence of God. Better late than never right? I could never honestly answer the question about why I was a Mormon. I gave the typical believer answer that I just knew it was true because I'd prayed about it and felt that it was true, yadda yadda. While the praying part was true, I can't say that I ever received an actual answer. Moroni's promise in the Book of Mormon says that "if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ" then the Holy Ghost will tell you if the Book of Mormon is true(note: this operates under the premise that if the BOM is true, then the Church is true). I've done this, multiple times, and each time I would stay on my knees waiti...