Easy to be Entreated

This thread is a collaborative project. All are welcome to contribute and will receive credit for their contributions in any future online publications of this work. This effort is in response to the Mormon apologists' argument that there are amazing parallels between the content of the Book of Abraham and many early traditions about the life of Abraham that were unknown before the Book of Abraham text was produced. The apologists' pose the question, "How could Joseph Smith have gotten all of these things 'right' unless they were revealed to him by God?" The major work of the apologists that points out the parallels between the Book of Abraham and these early traditions is Traditions about the Early Life of Abraham by John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid, John Gee. You can read a review of the book by another apologist here. The book costs $50 (more than I am willing to pay), but is often available at many university libraries. The majority of the book is co...

Occasionally, LDS's want to claim that Joseph never had sex with his plural wives. Well here is the evidence. Some other things I found from here : Did Joseph Smith obey the commandment and have sex with his wives? Compton writes: "Because of claims by Reorganized Latter-day Saints that Joseph was not really married polygamously in the full (i.e., sexual) sense of the term, Utah Mormons (including Joseph's wives) affirmed repeatedly that Joseph had physical sexual relations with his plural wives-despite the Victorian conventions in nineteenth-century American religion which otherwise would have prevented mention of sexual relations in marriage." - Faithful Mormon Melissa Lott (Smith Willes) testified that she had been Joseph's wife "in very deed. " (Affidavit of Melissa Willes, 3 Aug. 1893, Temple Lot case, 98, 105; Foster, Religion and ...

I am a psychotherapist in a sexual offender treatment program for inmates in a state prison. My wife is a stay at home mom of two young children. What do you and yours do?

I was one of those Mormons who thrived on meaning, symbolism, and deep doctrines. I was a perfect consumer for the more mystical sides of Mormonism. I would spend much time on trying to make parallels between the endowment and life. I "found" what I thought was a lot of neat ideas and concepts and experienced epiphanies and what I thought was clarity of thought, etc. Needless to say I was very disappointed and pissed off when I came to realize that the whole damn ceremony and gospel were nothing more than fiction and fraud. I still like parables and teaching through analogy and symbollism, etc, as long as people aren't misrepresenting things as secrets of god and such when they are not. I am also bugged by authors who try to sell their stuff as deeply profound and mystical and full of wisdom when they are not all that. Two quick examples of that is " The Secret " by Rhoda Byrne and " What the Bleep do We Know ". And it really sickens me to hear p...

On PostMo, Draconis wrote: Now speaking of having the ground yanked out from under me: While talking to my psychologist she suggested that when I am starting to feel anxious I need to focus on something grounding- something I know will bring me peace and comfort; something "solid." The trouble is, I can not think of anything solid to ground myself with. "Rocks" that I've clung to all my life have washed away as mud into the sea. Every piece of flotsom that looks promising seems to carry the risk of decaying as well. Nothing appears solid to me anymore. I can't find solid ground. I have a hard time having real faith in anything or anyone-- not even in myself. How can I feel grounded when everything in my life has become uncertainty? What do you all find "solid" since you left behind the paradigms of TSCC? I wish I could have faith in things like love, friendship, myself, my family, "God," Superman; almost anything reall...

Here is another piece of the puzzle in understanding evolution. I find it fascinating.

Lately, I have cared less and less about the Church. It is quickly becoming irrelevant in my life. But, I do have to say that it is going to feel real good to defeat the Church on Prop 8 when they have poured so many resources into persuading others to pass it. I just don't think organizations and their leaders who defraud people should win. And I do believe the Church hierarchy deceives its members, especially Boyd Packer and Dallin Oaks. How dare they take advantage of the pure hearts of so many good people who believe their misrepresentations and distortions, and invest so much because of them? I have no idea who all knows the Church isn't what it claims to be, but the words of Boyd and Dallin indicate to me that at minimum, they do. Two, I really want gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered couples to enjoy equal protection under the law and the freedom to marry the one they love just like heterosexuals can. Three, my work in opposing Prop 8 is kind of a small penan...

If you haven't registered yet or if you have but don't think you'll vote this election (or are amused by attempts at reverse psychology) take a look at this:

Hamlet, disgusted at his partying, murderous, adulterous uncle, makes a mental note that "one may smile, and smile, and be a villain". One of the difficult things people face as they try to reconcile the two images of Joseph Smith (God's spokesman and coniving fraud) is how can one man produce both the majestic, loving scripture as found in the D&C, and the evil deeds post-mo's are all too familiar with. I think that huge contrast is one reason why so many TBM's have a hard time believing the awful truths about Joseph Smith. Here is Joseph "smiling": "Let thy a bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let b virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy c confidence wax strong in the d presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the e dews from heaven. " And "smiling": "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go...

The following paragraph comes from a recent article in the UUWorld magazine entitled, " Three in a thousand : A new survey estimates that 0.3 percent of American adults identify as Unitarians—a lot more than belong to our churches ". In it, the author refers to the recent U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum. Gaps between self-described and formal membership are common, said David A. Roozen, a sociologist who tracks religion trends as director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, in Hartford, Connecticut. For example, 25 percent more people identified themselves as Episcopalians and 33 percent more people claimed to be Methodists than either national body counts. The gap works the other way for some traditions, however: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints counts almost 33 percent more people as members than reported themselves to be Mormons in the Pew study. Most churches don't count s...

Since there are a number of us non-theists here, I thought we might share things we have found to help raise our kids to be skeptical and ethical. (Some of the religious parents might find these resources helpful, too). Books - I haven't read all of these, yet. " Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion " " Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide for Young Skeptics " " How Do You Know It's True?: Discovering the Difference Between Science and Superstition " " Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution " " Our Whole Lives " - A series of books for teaching children about healthy sexuality Summer Camps Camp Inquiry Camp Quest Blog Secular Parenting Blog Parenting Beyond Belief forum

Jahedgpeth wrote the following on PostMormon: from wikipedia: In the natural sciences, abiogenesis , or origin of life , is the study of how life on Earth emerged from inanimate organic and inorganic molecules Basically, I can't believe that we could ever get to a viable single celled organism and have that organism reproduce without some sort of "god" x-factor to begin the process. It never has made sense to me. Here is how I get past the probability issue. First, it must be clear that we are not talking about pure chance. There are organizing forces at work. Electrostatic attraction organizes atoms into molecules, and molecules into protein stuctures. Spheres (the shape of the cell membrane and the neucleus) are very stable due to the laws of physics. That is why soap bubbles take the shape of a sphere. So, we are not saying that all of these atoms just randomly aligned out of pure chance. Chance played a large role, b...

Someone named Draconis posted the following on PostMormon: I was talking to someone today and the subject of religion came up. It turns out that he is an atheist who has never really been taught much at all about religion. What was interesting to me is that his world view seems to be very naive, based on lack of reason to believe anything in particular. He's never given it much thought, never been too concerned about it, and only knows that he disliked Christianity because to him they are "too pushy." Beyond that, he has never much pondered the mysteries of the universe at all. In stark contrast, while I don't necessarily disagree with his conclusions, I almost found it offensive that he reached them so callously. He's never pondered the big questions. He has never yearned for the truth. He was totally ignorant to the reasons why somebody might choose to be an atheist and instead just never chose NOT to be an atheist. In short, he has no good reason ...

I just read this wonderful article on Obama's economic vision. This is one of the reasons we desperately need Obama in the White House. How Obama Reconciles Dueling Views on Economy

Ever wonder what it would have been like to have been witness to Joseph Smith tell his tales right there in front of you? A few former Mormons in England have founded a new church. They have a prophet that has translated a new book of scripture written by the ancient inhabitants of England. Their poor prophet hasn't the creativity to think of anything new, he is following the Joseph Smith story line by line as if it were a script. It is hilarious and sad. I wonder how big a following he'll get and how much money he'll make. As P.T. Barnum said, "There is a sucker born every minute". Here is the church's website. Here is a youtube video explaining the Book of Jeraneck. This guy is an amatuer nave. ______________________________________________________________ Matthew Gill's story does remind me of another, much more gifted Joseph Smith imitator, Christopher Nemelka. Nemelka claimed to have translated the Book of Lehi (remember the 116 lost manuscri...

On a thread on PostMormon, Hiker R wrote: A father took his son into the barn one day and asked him to climb up in the hay loft. Then he told the son to jump into his arms. The son said he was scared because he was pretty high up and didn’t think his dad could catch him. The dad assured the son he could. The son jumped and the dad stepped out of the way and the son hit the ground. The dad approached his son and said, “Important business lesson; don’t trust anybody.” I wanted to dedicate a thread to the topic of trust. I disagree strongly with this father's tactics and the moral of the story. I believe that we should trust others, but not with more than we are willing to lose. Like it or not, homo sapiens evoled to become social animals, and trust is essential in all social interactions. We are vulnerable all the time - vulnerable to being taken advantage of, stolen from, injured, confined, or killed by others. We...