Easy to be Entreated

We sang this at fellowship last Sunday. Lilly and I think it is great! "God Rest Ye, Unitarians" Lyrics by the Rev. Christopher Gist Raible of the First Unitarian Church of Worcester God rest ye, Unitarians, let nothing you dismay; Remember there's no evidence there was a Christmas Day; When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say, O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact. There was no star of Bethlehem, there was no angels' song; There could have been no wise men for the trip would take too long. The stories in the Bible are historically wrong, O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact! Our current Christmas customs come from Persia and from Greece, From solstice celebrations of the ancient Middle East. We know our so-called holiday is just a pagan feast, O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact, Glad tidings of reason and fact.

I also post under the name of Enochville on Hatrack and Perspectives. If you see any of my posts from this blog on those sites, rest assured that they are my words.

When was Jesus born? 1)Before 4 BCE. Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king. Luke 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. Note: Herod the Great died in 4 BCE. Wikipedia: Herod the Great ------- 2) After 6 CE. Luke 2:1-2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) Note: Quirinius (in Greek, Cyrenius ) became governer of Syria in 6 CE, ten years after king Herod's death. Wikipedia: Quirinius The Gospel of Luke mentions the census taken by Quirinius when he was governor of Syria, as part of a census of the "whole world", in connection with the birth of Jesus. However Luke and the Gospel of Matthew date the birth to ...

The first question I want answered from each religious candidate is: "How do your religious beliefs influence your policy decisions and vision for the country?" As with any employee, if their religious beliefs are completely separate from their job performance, I don't care what they believe. This might be possible in a presidential candidate if the person doesn't really take their religion seriously (i.e., a Christmas and Easter only attending Christian). But, I think that is nearly impossible for the devoutly religious. For the devoutly religious, their whole world view is filtered through their religious beliefs. Their understanding of world events and how they should be solved is influenced by their religious beliefs. The worldview of a presidential candidate is relevant. Their epistemology (how they learn truth) is relevant. Their views on social issues are relevant. All of these things can be shaped by religious views, which makes the candidate's religion ...

Lilly (code name for my wife) and I took a big step today. We decided to post a link to this blog from my Facebook page. Why is this a big step? Although all of our family knows that we left the LDS Church over a year and a half ago, many of our friends don't, but they will as soon as they visit here. Futhermore, even though our family members know we left, I don't think they realize the extent of our activity among the post-Mormon community and the DAMU message boards. But, this is who we are. We are not asking anyone to read this blog, but if they want to, it is here. We are always willing to talk about anything here. If anyone is interested how much traffic this site gets: VISITS Total 3,913 Average Per Day 25 Average Visit Length 3:23 Last Hour 0 Today 3 This Week 173 PAGE VIEWS Total 6,386 Average Per Day 47 Average Per Visit 1.9 Last Hour 0 Today 8 This Week 331

Obama has as much experience as JFK and Lincoln had when they were elected. He will make a great president because he will be uniquely able to get the votes he needs in congress to pass the important legislation that needs to be passed. Why? Because he is a uniter, not a divider like Hillary. Hillary's philosophy is to overpower the opposition. But she will not be able to get things done by ostracizing her opponents. Obama takes a win-win approach and really listens to those who oppose his ideas to find ways in which their concerns will be resolved and they can work together. Obama is exactly what this country needs both domestically and abroad. This is our chance! Please elect Obama for President.

Sunday School for Atheists is the title of a new Time magazine article on church-like resources for atheist families. I have known about " atheist churches " for a while, but did not know about these summer camp programs and private schools. Hooray for the growth of freethinking! Just as there are growing numbers of people leaving Mormonism, polls show that there are growing numbers of people in America who do not subscribe to any religious identification (their number has more than doubled from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4 million in 2001). We have also seen the rise of many popular atheist oriented books, such as "The God Delusion", "Letter to a Christian Nation", "Parenting Beyond Belief" and "God: The Failed Hypothesis". Often these new freethinkers want services such as "churches", summer programs, and/or private schools. I think we are living in a wonderful time.

BooBoo asked: "For the record, I am willing to consider both scientific and supernatural theories regarding spiritual experiences. Huff, where exactly do you stand? Sorry if I lost it somewhere in the translation." Wow, it really depends upon which theory of supernatural stuff we are talking about. First, we must answer the question of whether this supernatural stuff in any way affects the material world. If it does not, but is operating in some other plane having no influence in the material universe, then science cannot investigate it. But, that sort of non-interacting substance seems irrelevant. If on the other hand, this supernatural stuff interacts with the material world, then science can investigate the effects because we can measure events in the material world and hypothesize what might be going on behind the scenes. If things are as Joseph taught that there is no such thing as immaterial matter, that all spirit is matter just of a finer type (this is called...

Most of this post is from the wiki post on anecdotal evidence : "Anecdotal evidence is an informal account of evidence in the form of an anecdote or hearsay. The term is often used in contrast to scientific evidence, which are types of formal accounts. Anecdotal evidence is often unscientific because it cannot be investigated using the scientific method. Misuse of anecdotal evidence is a logical fallacy and is sometimes informally referred to as the "person who" fallacy ("I know a person who..."; "I know of a case where..." etc. Compare with hasty generalization). Anecdotal evidence is not necessarily typical; statistical evidence can more accurately determine how typical something is. Psychologists have found that people are more likely to remember notable examples than typical examples[1]. In all forms of anecdotal evidence, testing its reliability by objective independent assessment may be in doubt. This is a consequence of the informal way the inf...

Your Inner European is Dutch! Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything. Who's Your Inner European?

About Me Why I left the LDS Church My Perspective To email me My Patriarchal Blessing Thinking About What Was Different With My Wife Genealogy - Its Continued Significance to One Post-Mormon My thoughts about going through the temple for the first time Relaxing and Peaceful Sunday BYOT: Spiritual Autobiography (part 1) My Beliefnet Quiz Results Why I left the LDS Church (Written in Jest) My epiphany regarding the LDS Church What is Your Inner European? Outing My Blog I also post under the name of Enochville My Resignation Letter The Offense-Taking Scale How I like my alcohol What Do You Do for a Living? Book of Abraham Book of Abraham: Joseph Knowingly Deceived More Book of Abraham and Refutation of Expansion Theory My Reply to Stan Barker: Book of Abraham Plagiarism Reply to Stan: Book of Abraham (Part 2) “THE BREATHING PERMIT OF HÔR” AMONG THE JOSEPH SMITH PAPYRI Critics Response to Book of Abraham Parallels Mormonism Prejudice in the pre-19...

Short Answer: Book of Abraham Long Answer: I used to be an amateur Mormon apologist and I believed strongly in the witness of the Spirit. It was my perception that I had more experiences with the Spirit than most members. On countless, various occasions I felt the warmth of the Spirit in my chest, peace in my heart and mind, overwhelming love, what I can only describe as a brightness and clarity in thought, a sure confidence, a connection with God that was so real that it approached tangibility, a knowledge that God was my friend and father, excited joy, a passion for helping the Lord prepare for his Second Coming, a sense of the immensity and beauty of God's plan, heart-aching in prayers, crying out of amazement and gratitude, I gave beautiful priesthood blessings that meant special things to the recepient that I was not aware of, people recovered from their illnesses and sometimes were given instant pain relief and peace, I felt my ancestors prompt and cheer me in my family histo...

A poster on NOM wrote the following: Nothing makes sense. I am reading, but it all seems so contrived. I am just waiting for this dream to end so I can experience something real. Life seems so contrived. All the motions: eating, sleeping, working. Death, joy. Everything is so imaginary. It all exists in my head. Yet around me, I perceive a universe that actually exists, and I see nothing of myself in it. Yet I am completely and utterly dependent upon the universe for my existence. So my question is, if it is made up then it isn't real? And if it is real, then it isn't made up? If all the imaginary things exist because of me, and I am a product of the universe, then why are all these imaginary things separate from the materialistic world I live in? And even if my thoughts are real, then why do they matter? If meaning doesn't exist, then why do I care? Why do I continue to live? But if meaning is contrived, then what is meaning? Who's meaning? What meaning is the most mea...

I left because my dress shoes are uncomfortable. I now attend a church in which one can wear tennis shoes, sandals, slippers, or go bare foot. No, I left because I have solid proof, a photograph even, that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is real. And where do you think he lives? Not in the heavens. The heavens are clear; if god lived there we would have seen him. The FSM lives in the most appropriate place for the god of the pirates - deep in the ocean. And here is his pic: Behold Your Maker! Source Article

I absolutely refuse to allow anyone to manipulate me or guilt trip me. For the most part I am an easy-going guy. But, I become a bear when someone tries to manipulate me. I just will not stand for it. One reason I quit attending immediately after determining the church was not true was to circumvent any manipulation attempts and guilt trips. poster: Hueffenhardt, let me know how you do this..and how you can tell when you are being manipulated..I let people do this to me outside the church in all the corners of my life and I want it to stop!!!! poster: If you want to stop manipulation attempts, but are not doing it, I don't think it is necessarily due to a lack of know-how. It might be due to some internal factors on your part. May I lead you in a little introspection to see if we can identify why you are having difficulty doing what you want to do in this situations? A person cannot be manipulated or guilt tripped without allowing oneself to be man...

On PostMormon.org, a thread was created discussing whether Confucious was ahead of Christ . The author made the argument that Confucious' Golden Rule was superior to Christ's "Love one another as I have loved you" because Christ encourages an external reference point (himself), whereas Confucious encourages an internal reference point. Here is my response: If Jesus were god and loved us perfectly, then the saying, "Love one another as I have loved you," would be essentially saying, "Love one another with a perfect love even as I have demonstrated to you". I wouldn't have a problem with that if Jesus were capable of perfect love and demonstrated that. But, he did not in my opinion. For the sake of brevity allow me to give just a few examples: Matt 10:34-37: 34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against he...

"For there are many yet on the earth among [Mormonism]...who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it" -D&C 123:12 (adapted from the original) The following is a list of sites that are useful in helping the reader learn more about all things Mormon, everything from the Kinderhook plates to the Hoffman cover-up to the most recent happenings in the Church: Search Engine Scholarly Mormon Resources - Find original sources and scholarly articles fast about Mormonism. Includes information from both apologetic and critical websites. Informative Websites (not an exhaustive list by any means) Critical Utah Lighthouse Ministries Topical Guide LDS-Mormon Articles Zarahemla City Limits Deconstructor's Rethinking Mormonism 20 Truths About Mormonism Recovery From Mormonism Articles Reason Real Mormon History Mormon Classics Library Mormonthink Dr. Shades Mormon Information Joseph Lied Apologetic FAIR LDS Topical Guide Maxwell Institute Shields Jeff Lind...

One fundamental lesson I learned as I discovered the fraud of Mormonism that I cannot stress enough is the critical necessity to read information critical of whatever current beliefs you have. The only thing that kept me believing in the Church as long as I did was that I did not read good quality anti like "By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus" by Charles Larson. I was so certain the Church was true and I "knew" lots of evidence that "confirmed" it from institute manuals and other pro-LDS books. After finding out that I was wrong when I had been so sure that I was right, I knew that I needed to not fall into the trap of unjustified certainty again. It is not enough to build a strong case for an idea, one must be aware of the evidence against the idea as well. After reading several posts here, I fear that many of us are again becoming convinced of the correctness of our new views when we have not fully investigated the literature opposing our new views. I believe ...

This thread is your oppotunity to tell us about one of your current affiliations. It could be a home schooling group, a mountain biking club, a religious group, an online community of people with similar interests. Give us a link and/or an introduction. What is one of your hobbies or passions that you regularly chat with others about? How did you become involved? I'll go first. I am a Unitarian Universalist. My wife, Lilly of the Field, and I left the LDS Church at roughly the same time and shortly thereafter became agnostics/atheists. We wanted to keep all that we liked about our previous lives as Mormons and change and improve on the things we did not like. We both enjoy feeling peace, transcendence, unity, joy, comfort. We wanted to be part of a community that encouraged those feelings through hymns and the sharing of thoughts and experiences, but without supernatural emphasis. I'd rather not have to filter through a bunch of stuff I don't believe that is taught f...

Our brains are amazing! We often take for granted the sensations and perceptions and phenomenological experience different clusters of neurons give us. We become acutely aware of what these neurons do when we induce fatigue in them. Here are a few examples: 1) Wernicke's area is involved in language comprehension. It is the area of the brain that allows us recognize the meaning of words. To fatigue this area, say the same word over and over and over again until the word doesn't even seem like a word anymore. There is this weird disconnect, it is like a flip has been switched and the word is now meaningless. 2) Our brains treat faces differently than other visual objects. Face recognition generally activates a different area of the brain -the right middle fusiform gyrus - than non-face object recognition. There have been some remarkable studies with split-brain patients that have shown if you present paintings of faces created out of inanimate objects such as vege...

The following is my response to mhedgpeth who posed the question on postmormon , "Is the truth about reality knowable?" My response: My everyday language would suggest that I have many beliefs which I do not. I don't believe in free will, yet I speak as if I do. I can doubt the validity of just about everything, yet my sentences are written as if I am certain about the statements I am making. I live with the ambiguity. I speak the way I do partly because that is the way English is structured, but also because our minds are trained to think as if we have free will and as if we are more certain about things than we can be. Believe me, the irony is not lost on me. I first read Rene Descarte when I was in Middle School. I think he is right in that nearly everything can be doubted. We very well could be in the Matrix in which everything we think is real is actually just computer software, or something else. If we see a table, feel a table, taste a table, hea...

Perhaps it would be helpful if we first define our terms. From wiki : " Brainwashing (also known as thought reform or as re-education ) consists of any effort aimed at instilling certain attitudes and beliefs in a person — sometimes unwelcome beliefs in conflict with the person's prior beliefs and knowledge." From phinnweb : " Below is a list of the usual brainwashing/mind control techniques used in schools, hospitals, army, religious cults, totalitarian states; with political prisoners and dissidents, mentally insane, some versions of psychoterapy, etc., etc. "Indoctrination" is a more slight and more subliminal form of brainwashing (e.g. commercials). However, these concepts are nothing short of controversial and open to various interpretations. 1) HYPNOSIS - Inducing a high state of suggestibility, often thinly disguised as relaxation or meditation. a. Repetitive Music (most likely with a beat close to the human ...

Here are some things about Mormonism that many people do not know. Anyone who would like to learn more may use the valuable links on the thread: " Resources for those investigating all things LDS ". 1) The Book of Abraham is not as Joseph Smith claimed - the writings of Abraham written by his own hand upon papyrus. In fact, the text contains anachronisms and much of the text appears to be borrowed from other authors whom Joseph confessed to be familiar with: Swedenborg, Book of Jasher, Josephus, Thomas Dick, etc. 2) Joseph Smith had 33 wives, at least one as young as 14, two were his own teenage foster daughters, and several were concurrently married to other men, and yes there is sufficient evidence (children and statements) that he had sex with many of them. 3) The text of the Book of Mormon was dictated by Joseph while burying his head in a hat with the very same peep stone he used while defrauding Josiah Stowell by claiming to be able to find buried treasure and ...