The Truth Process

So to answer this, I drew a picture:   There are three main "types" of Christians. Catholics, Protestants, and Restorationists. Catholics believe that they are Christs original church. Protestants broke off from the Catholic Church and include Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc. Restorationists believe that Christs Church was restored to the earth after an apostasy or falling away.

How do we identify truth? My education compels me to rephrase this question a bit... "how do we Identify what is most likely to be true based on the information that we have available?" The answer? The scientific method, of course! Sadly, some members of the church have come to the erroneous conclusion that when it comes to beliefs of a theological nature that you should neglect the scientific method and instead use "feelings" to determine what is true. This is absolutely ridiculous to most people, so where did this reasoning come from in the first place?! This faulty reasoning is loosely based on the scripture in Galatians 5:22  "...but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance..." Some people who may not have much experience with what a spiritual experience is actually like, may have read this scripture have mistakenly come to the conclusion that if you feel  any of the above mentioned ...

Here is an example of a straw man fallacy: "If the ones called to leadership sinned, then there is no God",  or  "If the ones called to leadership sinned then it isnt Gods church" I will try to explain this briefly. The model of the universe which makes sense to me is one in which MAXIMUM agency is permitted to allow for MAXIMUM growth and opportunities for learning. (Abraham 3) God calls people who are willing to do the work.(D&C section 4) He does not call people that he knows won’t make any mistakes. (Read entire bible for examples) When God calls someone (because they are willing to do a work), He does not suddenly remove their free agency, remove their temptations, or make it impossible for them to do bad things. The people that God calls have a stewardship and responsibility (or charge ) to be a good person and do a good job at what they are called to do. (Matthew 21) If they do a good job and are a good person, they receive of greater joy in ...

How do I know if I have felt the Spirit of God?  It is a unique experience that is impossible to describe. Some people have said that describing it is like trying to describe what salt tastes like. Salt tastes salty... it is its own differentiated flavor that cannot be described without experiencing it.  So if it is so unique, then why does everyone use emotions to describe it?  Just as some experiences are accompanied by emotions, (for example going to Disneyland may cause emotions of excitement), the emotions are not the experience itself, though they often accompany it. Another example might be, eating chocolate and describing it as "so good". Is that really a sufficiently descriptive word? "good". Of course not. You cannot understand what chocolate tastes like by me saying it tastes "good". If I said "How was the game last night, and I reply "good", I cant say.... "ahhhh, it was like chocolate". That is nonsense. You have to ex...

THEISM THAT "DOESN'T WORK" I have talked to a lot of people who have had terrible experiences with religion. After a bit of discussion, I inevitably discover at least one (usually many) of the following: 1. I disagree with what they believed. 2. I disagree with the perspective  on what they believe (they have some distorted twist on something). 3. I disagree with the way that they applied what they believed. One of these things inevitably results in extreme discomfort, to the point that they become extremely motivated to find whatever evidence they can to support their reasons for alleviating this discomfort and tossing all of their beliefs in the trash.  In my opinion, there is a lot of "trash" in theology (just as there was a lot of "trash" in medical science for thousands of years). PANTS AREN'T MY THING Here is an analogy to demonstrate the point I am trying to make: Imagine a person who grew up wearing pants, but they always wore pants that ...

Someone once compared believing in God to believing in "dragons" In response to the comparison of God to dragons, I replied: How many interactions have I had with dragons? None. How many books and witnesses and accounts have I found that describe generally consistent records of people actually claiming to interact with dragons? Probably None. Does the existence of dragons somehow explain events that are EXTREMELY INSANELY INCOMPREHENSIBLY improbable, without the existence of a dragon? No. Is believing in dragons more beneficial or pragmatic than not believing in dragons? No. Conversely, how many interactions have I had with God? A lot. How many books and witnesses have I found that describe largely consistent records of people actually claiming to interact with God?   A lot. Does the existence of God somehow explain events that are EXTREMELY INSANELY INCOMPREHENSIBLY improbable, without the existence of an intelligent designer? Yes. Is believing in God mo...

What is true? 1. Some old mythology books tells you its fairies or something like that. 2. A scientist tells you it's confirmation bias. 3. Another religion tells you that directed meditation and focus allowed clarity of thought to access your memories by placing trust in a higher consciousness. 4. Your monotheistic parent tells you its inspiration from God. How do you know which one is correct? You don't. Welcome to earth. But here are some methods people have used: 1. Whatever most trustworthy (intelligent/sane/good) people believe is most likely correct. (appeal to authority) 2. Whatever most people experience is most likely correct. (argumentum ad populum) 3. Whatever I experience is most likely correct, so If I didnt experience it then its likely not correct (argument from ignorance). 4. Who knows, but whatever it is seems to work when I have given up all hope (pragmatic approach). I think most people appeal to authority figures of some kind for most thing...