Using Faith as a Substitute for Knowledge

[If you are looking to avoid anything 'non-faith promoting', I definitely wouldn't check out the book review section of the Book of Mormon at Amazon.com. In between all the glowing "faith promoting" testimonies of the truthfulness of the book, there are actual BOOK REVIEWS from people who READ. You might stumble across some things that are true, but not very useful...]

from Scott Tippetts via this site

Before I excerpt what [one reviewer] said about the nature of Doubt, please take a moment to recall the principles of brain-numbing as satirized in George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm..... Ready? Now for [this reviewer's] nuggets of wisdom:
There is one thing, a warning that I will leave to any half-hearted browser of this book. That is the corrupting influence of doubt that can cause one to forget the reason for pursuing truth and righteousness.

Satan has many masks, and through doubt, and outside influences he tries to keep even the most sincere reader out of the habit of regular study. I saw this influence at work every day when I gave away free copies of this precious book. Those initially contacted would feel and recognize the beauty of the Gospel contained in it, but would later let criticism and doubt creep in and lose their faith.

The devil is real, and would have anyone believe he is not, and that this book is not worthwhile reading. This alone is reason enough to read it, for the honest seeker after truth is aware of his enemy and stands well armed with any knowledge gained about his tactics....

This type of demonization/Satanization of doubt is worthy of a chapter in Elaine Pagel's book: The Origins of Satan, in which she illustrated how religious partisans [people of faith] have exploited the arch-enemy concept of Satan/Lucifer, applying it to their opponents as a discrediting rhetorical tool.

DOUBT (or, skepticism) is what keeps the average person from investing in a "can't miss / too good to be true" real estate bargain, sight (and property) unseen.

DOUBT is what keeps the average person from believing that blood-letting is a safe cure for most illnesses.

DOUBT is what keeps the average person from letting that sincere, earnest, solicitous street person borrow your ATM card & PIN number, which he will return to you shortly.

DOUBT is what keeps the average person from regularly plunking down large bills to have that palm reader (or astrologer, or numerologist, or tea-leaf reader, etc) make your major life decisions for you.

DOUBT is what keeps the average person from accepting point-blank the convoluted rationalizations of the Holocaust Deniers.

DOUBT is what keeps the average person from thinking that Reverend Moon is the new messiah [Moonies], or from volunteering one's 12 year old daughters to new prophet David Koresh [Branch Davidians], or from committing group suicide so that we can be united with the Alien-Gods in their flying saucer following behind comet Hale-Bopp [Heaven's Gate], or from believing that the evil alien ruler Xenu flew his minions to earth millions of years ago and that we evolved from clams [Scientology].

DOUBT is the opposite of naive credulity, the opposite of blind trust, the opposite of being a stupid imbecile.

Mormons use 'Doubt' all the time - appropriately, even. They'd never suggest that being skeptical of those things I've mentioned above is inappropriate, or even inspired by Satan. So doubt is a good thing, they'd concede. But once you doubt their sacred cows.... well, THEN it's a different story.

Funny that, eh?

"Apply healthy tools of skepticism to everyone except me" is the policy of Mormonism. It's the most dangerous type of conformist authoritarianism -- remember those Orwell examples I mentioned above? Doubt & Skepticism serve as the necessary checks and balances against the tyranny of authoritarianism, as Karl Popper pointed out in his pro-democracy books on 'The Open Society'. Brains and rationality protect us against foolishness and unquestioned tyranny. Being Anti-Doubt is, implicitly, to be Pro-Authoritarianism. And that's exactly what Mormonism wants. Unquestioning Obedience to Authority is what Mormonism considers its greatest virtue; conversely, Doubt becomes Mormon-think's gravest vice. ...In other words, it's OK to use your brain, to be rational, to objectively weigh all sides/claims of an issue or topic, "UNLESS it pertains to our religion." That is the sole exception, the special case, in which it is virtuous to be naive, credulous, blindly trusting, unskeptical, and discount/ignore any and all empirical facts that support 'the other side.'

That, my friends, is a serious psychopathology.

Applied to any other realm of experience, even your average Mormon psychologist will readily tell you that believing something, despite the overwhelming consensus of facts to the contrary, is called DELUSION. 'Faith' is believing in something for which there is little or no evidence one way or the other. It's belief or hope in the unknown. Nothing wrong with that! But I'm not talking about 'Faith'..... given Joseph Smith's claims/teachings, and all the massive amounts of scientific / historical evidence to the contrary, we're not talking about believing in the unknown (as would be the case with many religions). With Mormonism, there IS evidence for believing one way or the other, lots of evidence. And it all falls one way: against. The concept of 'Faith' is no longer relevant. Obstinately continuing to believe in the counter-factual is DELUSION, plain and simple. And, to FEAR 'doubt' as an undesirable mental process, or as somehow indicative of a moral weakness - that, is an unhealthy mental pathology. To go further and demonize objectivity, skepticism, and doubt in a highly selective narrow context (Mormonism only, otherwise they are virtues!) is Cult-Think.

THAT is why Mormonism is bad.

It encourages a dangerous psychopathology.

It warps your brain.

It discourages you from utilizing normal, healthy, necessary mental processes that we need for survival.

Skepticism is good. Always.

Objectivity is good. Always.

Doubt is good. Always.

Anyone who tells you otherwise (Boyd K. Packer comes to mind here), probably has something to hide, and is trying to deceive you.


****My Thoughts***

My favorite part of Scott's response to this reviewer is this:

'Faith' is believing in something for which there is little or no evidence one way or the other.... we're not talking about believing in the unknown. With Mormonism, there IS evidence for believing one way or the other, lots of evidence. And it all falls one way: against. The concept of 'Faith' is no longer relevant.

That's it in a nutshell: Faith is only required when the answer is UNKNOWN, not when the answer is a provable fact, only to be ignored by those who don't want to accept it. The leaders of this church are expecting the members to substitute FAITH for KNOWLEDGE.

They know that there is a danger in exposing too much 'truth' too quickly, that's why they move to control the flow of it, and deliver it in the most 'faith-promoting' way possible. They have to step in and guide each member by telling them what sources are acceptable to learn from, what questions are the correct ones to ask, and how to maintain a testimony in an age of information available to anyone with Google. They teach their members to follow closely to prepared manuals, do not question their 'inspired leaders' and set their unanswered questions aside to be answered 'line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little', thus buying time for the top apostles to come up with acceptable, reasonable explanations for all of those ligitimate questions.

Meanwhile, they can get two or three more years worth of tithing payments and loyalty out of the closet doubter before that member finally leaves the church, [which is inevitable once they realize their questions will never be answered from within the church]. Squishing out the desire to 'know the whole truth' is the only way they can hope to maintain the membership numbers. Calling individuals to repentance for their 'prideful thinking' and 'intellectualism' when they dare to question doctrine or written church history is a short-term bandaid on an ever increasing awareness that the church doesn't always come right out with the truth. If it isn't useful to promote the image of the church, it is swept under the rug and denied.


By the way, September Dawn will open in theaters June 22nd. The church has ALREADY denounced it as 'full of inacuracies' and it hasn't even been SEEN by the general public. I could bet money that it won't hardly get a chance in Utah theaters, but luckily, I DON'T LIVE THERE!!!