Easy to be Entreated

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...