I once knew with every fiber of my being that Mormonism was true. I believed it wholeheartedly. The thought that the church could be anything but what it claimed never crossed my mind. Yet I also held beliefs that I also knew to be true that I just couldn’t reconcile with my Mormon beliefs. They weren’t huge conflicts like evolution vs the Adam and Eve fable or America being populated by an Asian immigration vs being populated by Lehi and his fictional descendants…those would come much later…no my initial conflicting ideas were my firm knowledge that dinosaurs existed millions of years ago vs the churches claim that 6,000 years had passed since the time of Adam and Eve when death was first introduced into the world…thus making the existence of dinosaurs impossible. So being unable to reconcile these seemingly unreconcilable beliefs, I simply found a way to build various compartments within my brain where I could place each of these seemingly unfalsifiable truths…apart from each other.
Despite knowing that this conflict existed, I also knew that if I were to take the time to scrutinize and examine this conflict that one of my firmly held beliefs would not come out unscathed. The rational part of my mind feared that this could be the church…so I built a particularly strong wall between my natural desire to resolve this conflict and my belief in the church. Upon reflection, I can now see that my mind had been trained to build these various compartments within my mind in which to place these truths that conflicted with my Mormon beliefs.
I had been taught that the truth claims of the church trumped all other truth claims, Mormon truth was truth with a capital T. Scientific truth on the other hand was unreliable and subject to change as new information was discovered. I was taught that eventually, scientific discoveries would come around to support LDS truth claims.
Therefore, despite knowing that the church was true and that dinosaurs existed…I blamed this seemingly unreconcilable conflict on the unreliability of science. It also caused me to buy into ridiculous LDS apologetics to explain away the dilemma… the false apologetic idea that dinosaur bones had been parts of other worlds…gathered together during the earths creation. This is why they existed…they never actually had lived on our earth…but had lived on an alien planet who’s part had been used by God to form our own earth. As bizarre as it seems now…I was taught this in Seminary and Sunday School and sadly I believed it…why? Because the church was true god damit.
Any religion that requires its members to hold beliefs that conflict with scientific reality is a religion that is built on a false foundation. By this standard Mormonism is a false religion.
I am so grateful that I was eventually able to find the courage to face reality and confront the various mental conflicts that Mormonism requires in order to maintain belief. I am so happy to be able to have a mind free of the burden of mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance. The truth really does set you free…
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Church Seeks Right to Discriminate Legally
I’m a history buff, I love reading and studying history. And through my study I’ve seen several recurring themes repeating themselves over and over again thoughout history…In war, some generals realize the war is lost long before the rest of the general staff come to this ultimate realization. It appear that some of the LDS Generals have come to this same conclusion with respect to marriage equality.
During World War 1, the German’s planned a massive sweep through Belgium, a neutral country, with the intent to trap the French Army in a military procedure that almost proved successful for Hannibal against the Romans nearly 2,000 years earlier. Attempt to out flank the French, cut them off from their supply lines and attack them from both their front and their rear…then demand peace terms beneficial to the Germans. They planned for the war to be over within 3-4 months and planned accordingly, having only enough ammunition to last 6 months. But despite years of preparation and planning…success hinged on two very important unknowns to happen…01. That Belgium would remain neutral and allowed Germany to just waltz through their country unobstructed and 02. That England would not come to the aid of France. Neither of these conditions happened.
Despite early victories, when Germany’s battle plans failed to play out as intended, several German Generals approached Kaiser Wilhelm II suggesting that Germany sue for peace. He demurred, and WW 1 slipped into a war of attrition…each side wearing the other down in stale mate trench warfare until one economy could no longer support the war effort. That turned out to be Germany.
A similar scenario played out during WW 2, with the inevitability of defeat apparent to all but Hitler, several generals, including some of Hitler’s closest supporters, suggested that Germany seek a peaceful end to the war one that would allow for terms that benifited Germany. But the Allies already sensed victory and knew that it was only a matter of time before Germany would be forced into unconditional surrender.
I see a similar scenario playing out with the LDS church. Their massive effort to defeat marriage equality on several fronts, in California, Arizona and Hawaii, initially brought them short term victories on the battle field of societal change. But these early victories were short lived as the tide of these efforts to deny the Gay community equality eventually created a shift in societal attitudes. Soon the church was seeing defeat after defeat in their attempt to deny equal rights as federal court after federal court struck down LDS backed laws that discriminated against the LGBT Community.
Now with the Supreme Court having decided to weigh in on this issue and settle once and for all the question of whether the Constitution guarantees marriage equality, the LDS church sees that they have lost the war, the marriage equality forces are approaching on all sides and victory for equality is all but guaranteed. So realizing their inevitable defeat what does the church decide to do? Sue for peace terms beneficial to themselves by carving out a means by which they can continue to legally discriminate.
Well I say…NO…we have them completely surrounded and we should not accept anything but their complete and unconditional surrender. There is no reason to fall for the LDS Churches last gasp attempt they have already lost the war, victory is all but assured, they baked their cake and now they should get to eat it. And I might add...they should be required to bake one for the Gay weddings as well...
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/…/on-discrimination-th…/
During World War 1, the German’s planned a massive sweep through Belgium, a neutral country, with the intent to trap the French Army in a military procedure that almost proved successful for Hannibal against the Romans nearly 2,000 years earlier. Attempt to out flank the French, cut them off from their supply lines and attack them from both their front and their rear…then demand peace terms beneficial to the Germans. They planned for the war to be over within 3-4 months and planned accordingly, having only enough ammunition to last 6 months. But despite years of preparation and planning…success hinged on two very important unknowns to happen…01. That Belgium would remain neutral and allowed Germany to just waltz through their country unobstructed and 02. That England would not come to the aid of France. Neither of these conditions happened.
Despite early victories, when Germany’s battle plans failed to play out as intended, several German Generals approached Kaiser Wilhelm II suggesting that Germany sue for peace. He demurred, and WW 1 slipped into a war of attrition…each side wearing the other down in stale mate trench warfare until one economy could no longer support the war effort. That turned out to be Germany.
A similar scenario played out during WW 2, with the inevitability of defeat apparent to all but Hitler, several generals, including some of Hitler’s closest supporters, suggested that Germany seek a peaceful end to the war one that would allow for terms that benifited Germany. But the Allies already sensed victory and knew that it was only a matter of time before Germany would be forced into unconditional surrender.
I see a similar scenario playing out with the LDS church. Their massive effort to defeat marriage equality on several fronts, in California, Arizona and Hawaii, initially brought them short term victories on the battle field of societal change. But these early victories were short lived as the tide of these efforts to deny the Gay community equality eventually created a shift in societal attitudes. Soon the church was seeing defeat after defeat in their attempt to deny equal rights as federal court after federal court struck down LDS backed laws that discriminated against the LGBT Community.
Now with the Supreme Court having decided to weigh in on this issue and settle once and for all the question of whether the Constitution guarantees marriage equality, the LDS church sees that they have lost the war, the marriage equality forces are approaching on all sides and victory for equality is all but guaranteed. So realizing their inevitable defeat what does the church decide to do? Sue for peace terms beneficial to themselves by carving out a means by which they can continue to legally discriminate.
Well I say…NO…we have them completely surrounded and we should not accept anything but their complete and unconditional surrender. There is no reason to fall for the LDS Churches last gasp attempt they have already lost the war, victory is all but assured, they baked their cake and now they should get to eat it. And I might add...they should be required to bake one for the Gay weddings as well...
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/…/on-discrimination-th…/
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