The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 82,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.
Having read this blog post recently (No Poor Among “Them”) from a former Mormon Bishop about how the Church treats the poor, I thought I would share this:
Letter written by myself as Bishop of Helston Ward to the Stake President expressing my ethical & doctrinal concerns about the introduction of the Helping Hands programme in 2007
Dear President,
My concerns: Are our motives pure?
Bruce C Hafen made the excellent point that:
“It is possible to do good works without love, but impossible to love without doing good works.”
I believe charitable works need to be done in the spirit of real love, not of wanting to gain acceptance or recognition. If carried out with the express purpose “to be seen of men,” then the goodness involved in the good works is tainted by these desires.
If charitable endeavors are done for the wrong reasons, then it is counterfeit love we are showing. In truth it cannot qualify as real charity at all, it’s a different sort of act altogether and worst of all, other people will identify it as such and our efforts to win acceptance and recognition will backfire, and at the least be in vain, or at worst give us a reputation for trying to gain favour and doing good things for the wrong reason i.e. “To be seen of men”.
By doing charitable works “to be seen or men” we will warp our perception of the world. When our actions are counterfeit, when we think we are doing our best, we are not. It is a form of self deception.
Not only will the public perception of the Church be that we only do humanitarian service for Public Relations reasons, but our own members will also realise that service for its own sake is not good enough unless it’s publicised.
I believe other people will not be taken in by our self-deceived, counterfeit actions. Sadly, I think we will gain acceptance and recognition for all the wrong reasons, and other people will rightly be suspicious of us. I believe they will interpret our actions in the wrong light and will say “The Mormons do charitable work for publicity!” And we can’t deny it, because it is the truth.
There is also a very real risk here of teaching our members, especially our very impressionable youth and Primary children the wrong message. Of teaching them that “to appear to be doing good is more important than actually doing good”. That, recognition for our actions is more valued than the actions themselves. We have always been taught by our Church leaders to carry out acts of charity in secret. We have continually been taught to do anonymous acts of kindness and “let not our left hand know what our right hand doeth.” This would seem to be right and good because firstly, the saviour himself taught this principle, and secondly it keeps our motives pure by not giving us recognition for the act from others.
(“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verity I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shalt reward thee openly.” ~ Matt 6: 1-4).
There is risk of devaluing the words ‘good’ and ‘kind’ by making them describe behaviour that merely appears to be good.
Shoud we not rather be encouraging genuine acts of kindness from our members!? Where, with hearts filled
with love, they receive promptings of the spirit to treat others considerately and to show their love by numerous acts of generosity, following the saviour’s example and not wanting, in fact even trying to avoid, recognition or praise for the good acts carried out on another’s behalf.
I have friends and relatives who are not members of the Church who would be appalled to think that the main reason we are organising ‘Helping Hands’ is to “Bring the church out of obscurity!” rather than to do good works out of pure love.
It is no use anyone now trying to say difrerently. I tried to rationalize away my bad feelings about this programme by saying to myself “maybe they have got the emphasis wrong and actually the main purpose is to do good works,” but I couldn’t get away from the fact that it is being led and organised by the Public Afrairs Councils in the Wards and Stake, and the main objective to “Bring the Church out of obscurity” was stressed again and again.
The other thing I am concerned about is the fact that we are not supporting ‘Make A Difference Day’ when we were the main single contributors of the event in the UK. What sort of publicity does this give us? Have the implications of this programme been fully thought through?
Yours faithfully
Stephen Bloor
Outcome: As a result of my thoughts expressed in this letter I got agreement from my Stake President that members of my Ward could be exempt from wearing the Hi-Visibility Helping Hands tabards. We continued to offer service in the local community in the discreet way we had done for many years. In fact, a short while after this discussion with my Stake President, a local civic leader, who was totally oblivious to my concerns about the high profile Helping Hands programme of the Church, commented to our High Priest Group Leader that he respected our Church members for the way they gave service without thinking of recognition or reward.
I wrote another blog post on this in more detail 18 months ago:
https://stevebloor.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/helping-hands-bringing-the-mormon-church-out-of-obscurity/
My good friend and fellow director of ‘Truth Will Prevail’ Chris Ralph wrote this excellent essay eloquently explaining the challenge Mormons have when faced with deciding between either being loyal to the truth, or continuing to be loyal to the Church which lied to them.
He lays out clearly the stark, and often frightening, reality that thousands of Mormons are currently facing as they discover that their testimonies were not based on solid reliable facts, but on a mere mirage.
TRUTH OR TRIBALISM?
On this day, 19th July, in 1837, Heber Chase Kimball and six other Latter-day Saint elders disembarked at Liverpool, being the first Mormon missionaries to be sent anywhere outside of North America. When they reached Preston three days later, the town was in the midst of a General Election campaign following the recent accession of the 18 year old Queen Victoria, and they saw a political banner proclaiming ‘Truth Will Prevail’. They promptly adopted this motto, feeling it to be an excellent omen.
The message Kimball’s team sought to establish might not sound particularly familiar to a 21st Century Latter-day Saint. Preaching in Vauxhall chapel on 23rd July, he made no mention of Joseph Smith’s 1820 first vision, (for that version of the genesis of Mormonism had yet to be penned), but instead announced to an excited gathering that an angel had visited the lower regions and…
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Dear friends in Helston Ward,
Being a recent ex-Bishop of the Ward, I want to extend a message of love and hope to you as you celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the chapel in Helston.
I want to reassure you, my Mormon friends, that life can be even more wonderful outside of the belief system.
Having been born in Helston in 1964 and raised a Mormon, I spent all my teenage years growing up amongst you, and have many fond memories of that time. My parents & grandparents were amongst the first converts to the Church in this area, & along with many of you, were very involved in helping to build the Church congregation and construct the chapel. I did my bit as a 10 year old child painting some of the girders in the Chapel.
You know that I served an honourable full-time mission in Manchester at 19 years of age, after attending Helston School. On my return I dedicated myself to serving The Lord & the Church at both Ward & Stake level, ultimately being called as the Bishop in the Helston Ward in March 2004. All this time, for over 40 years of my life, I have never doubted, but served with all my heart, might, mind & strength. I was prepared to sacrifice everything for God as defined by the Mormon faith.
After serving you as your loving & caring Bishop for almost seven years I resigned on the 11th January 2011, much to the shock of everyone at that time, along with great pain to myself. I made the incredibly difficult decision to resign as your Bishop due to my honesty & integrity, after a painful epiphany regarding the origins of the Church, as new information came to my attention causing me to question the factual basis of my faith.
This new information that I had discovered, though it has been readily available for anyone to read for themselves from reliable sources for many years, was completely beyond my imaginations because, like all good Mormons, I avoided any thoughts which caused me to question my faith out of fear of losing my Testimony. I came to realise that this fear is a very powerful disincentive to the discovery of truth.
Shockingly I came to realise that I had been discouraged by Church leaders from reading anything which causes uncomfortable feelings about the Church, and this fear-based self-censorship had kept me from truly being free to think for myself & ask the most important questions about the truth claims of the Church. Like, if the Church wasn’t true would I want to know, & how would I know?
I am so grateful that my brother David cared enough to reach out to me & alert me to the problems in the Church.
After discovering that the most important information about the origins of the Mormon Church had been kept from me, and that I’d even been deliberately lied to by senior Church leaders, I felt I could no longer trust them, nor have faith in something which is based on lies and deception.
Hopefully, you still remember me as someone who was totally committed to truth. It is my dedication to following truth, & my determination to be totally honest that directs my actions. And it is my compassion, love & concern for others which motivates me to reach out to those who are still being held hostage in the Church.
Though I was involved as a witness in the recent fraud case against the Corporation of The President, I still love the wonderful kind people who make up the Church, and wish you only the best in the coming years.
Currently my focus is on exposing the deception by the Church so that others like me can be spared the emotional turmoil of discovering that their lives have been based on a lie. And I try to reach out to others who are currently going through the traumatic epiphany themselves. (http://www.mormonopenletter.com)
I’m inspired by the analogy from Christopher Miller:
“If you saw a thirsty man drinking water from a well you knew to be poisoned, would you let him continue to drink or would you guide him to a safe well?” ~Christopher Miller
Also my brother David summarises why members often find it difficult to consider the truth, & why we should never give up on those who currently cannot conceive that they have been deceived:
“I believe that anyone who is educated with common sense & has the knowledge that water from the ground can often be contaminated, would, through induction, accept your warning not to drink the water without the need for proof. If however, the same person was dying of thirst, the mind would create an intent, and emotion would create justification which would cause them to disregard the truth.
“I believe that above all else, our brain desires happiness. It achieves this by weighing up the potential risks from moment to moment, accepting bogus claims as truth and assimilating happiness, rather than using energy and resources to find out the truth. If the potential risk is deemed too great, only then will the brain be determined to search for confirmation to the claim.
“Information is key to raising awareness of what our brain withholds from our conscious mind. Unfortunately we are hardwired emotion-driven thinkers. It takes effort and training to exercise introspection and mindfulness.” ~ David Bloor
I appreciate it can be a sensitive subject defending a belief system which has become a part of your identity.
I did it for 46 years when I was fully invested in the belief system. I was completely committed, & for me Mormonism was more important than life itself. For me Mormonism gave me my purpose for life. The Church was the vehicle to Eternal Life. I believed everything was temporary except the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was the power of God unto Salvation.
When I resigned as Bishop of Helston Ward one of my counsellors pleaded with me more than once to continue as Bishop, even though I knew the truth claims of the Church were false. He reasoned I was doing a great job, saying I was the best Bishop he’d ever known, and should continue to serve the members.
Though flattered, my honesty & integrity forced me to continue with my plan to resign, even though it caused everyone great pain, most of all myself.
If happiness is the ultimate goal of Church participation then maybe some would argue for its usefulness even if ultimately it’s just a fictitious fantasy. Some would argue that the same can be said for any other religion.
But I would argue that happiness is not always synonymous with wellbeing.
I believe human wellbeing is a more worthy and desirable goal than just happiness.
The objective evidence very clearly shows any neutral observer that belief in Mormonism as a route to Eternal Life is akin to belief in Middle-Earth as the home of Hobbits in JRR Tolkien’s fictional fairytale .
And the Book of Mormon is as historic and as useful as The Lord of The Rings is a true account of real people.
When it comes down to authenticity, I think actual, objective reality is far more useful than any fantastic, fictional stories can ever hope to be.
Though the Book of Mormon may be useful as interesting fictional mythology, unfortunately it is just as historically authentic as stories about Odin or Zeus. Maybe less so, as most of The Book of Mormon is plagiarized! (http://askreality.com/hidden-in-plain-sight/)
I don’t doubt most latter-day Saints are sincere, but even the deluded can be sincere. I think authenticity is much more important than sincerity.
Human flourishing & wellbeing requires more than mere hopes & dreams in an illusionary Eternal Life, but should be based on knowledge of sound objective reality. Though it is a rather extreme example, consider the fact that even the Taliban are sincere and committed to their belief system, but it is very easily & widely acknowledged by neutral outside observers to limit the potential of its adherents. Whether male or female, but especially women and LGBT.
Though to a less severe degree, but still significantly, the Mormon belief system is also acknowledged by neutral observers to limit the potential for human flourishing & wellbeing, especially for women, but also LGBT.
Having learnt that the Church was started by a fraudulent, adulterous, paedophile, charlatan, the vast majority of those who have seen the evidence are convinced the Church is also a Fraud. (http://cesletter.com)
And, as we are told by many of the Church leaders, including a ‘Prophet of God’, that the Church is either all true or it is a Fraud, there are only two choices.
It is a fraud, & as such cannot ever hope to provide an authentic system for human flourishing & wellbeing.
The well is poisoned! All who drink from the well become incapacitated in some way.
There is a great need to love & assist all members of the Mormon Church who yearn for truth, & to help them in their recovery from Mormonism & rebirth into the Real World which promises levels of authenticity in their relationships & life experience which most Mormons can’t even conceive of inside the Mormon Bubble!
I can reassure you, my Mormon friends, that there are many thousands of wonderful ex-Mormons who understand completely the Mormon mindset and how initially painful coming to terms with the truth can be. But also be assured that we are here for you when you need us. We understand the trauma of having one’s life’s foundation crumble under our feet, as well as the crushing realisation that everything we trusted was based on a lie. We know what it means to cry tears of despair at the loss of a fantastical future Eternal Life in the Mormon Heaven, but conversely the feeling of exquisite joy at being reborn into a new world full of rich opportunities for real growth, as well as solid and authentic relationships, never dreamed of before. Life can actually be more real and vivid than ever before once one realises the truth about Mormonism.
I desire all to partake of the blessing of this knowledge and hold out a hand of friendship and encouragement to all who are ready to receive it.
My love and warmest regards,
Stephen Bloor
http://TruthWillPrevail.net
http://MormonThink.com
http://MormonThinkUK.wordpress.com
**********//*******
West Briton newspaper article on my Open Letter:
The Kate Kelly campaign for gender equality in the Mormon Church, the ensuing reaction by her (local) priesthood leaders & the media storm this has whipped up has raised a great many issues which are discomforting for many members and in some cases humiliating them in the public’s perception.
An issue which is of greatest concern to many in the Mormon Church is not whose doctrinal interpretation is correct and whose isn’t, but rather, is dissent tantamount to apostasy?
As a current LDS member with questions himself says,
“That is a question that I hope everyone examines independently of our personal views. Understand that the implications of the answer of that question go well beyond the futures of a couple of bloggers you’ve never met. If there isn’t room for dissent, then there isn’t room for people like me. Am I an apostate? I guess we’ll find out. Heaven knows I’m just trying to do right by my heart, my brain, and my people.”
This question is of the utmost importance, because I believe it underpins the most basic of human character traits of integrity and authenticity.
Truth is paramount, and the ability to honestly and openly question without fear of repercussions is the beginning of discovering it.
Fear of the truth is a major impediment to authenticity and freedom to choose. Fear lies behind the actions of many Church leaders in trying to suppress free-speech.
I personally had my lips sealed by the threat of excommunication if I spoke to any Church members about Church history, after I resigned as Bishop.
My Stake President, under direction from the European Area Presidency, and most likely the First Presidency tried to silence me because of the position of influence I held as a Bishop.
They even gave me strict instructions from the European Area Presidency that I must not talk to the members of my Ward when I visited the chapel for sacrament meeting the week after I resigned as Bishop. At this sacrament meeting I was chaperoned by my First Counselor who had been given firm directions to prevent me from communicating with anyone during my visit.
After ten months of obediently keeping my mouth shut I decided I could no longer stay silent.
I wrote a letter to my Stake President notifying him of my decision to break the agreement. He has never replied.
Here is my letter:
Sent: Sunday 4th December 2011
Dear President Martin,
It’s been a good few months since we communicated so I thought I would report on how things are going for us, as well as inform you of an important change of mind.
Hopefully you & your family are well.
This year’s absence from Church has been a tremendous blessing, from the point of view of spending much more quality time together as a family without feeling guilty. As a simple example, it’s been wonderful to be able to read books at bedtime each night with our youngest son, Elliot. Something I wasn’t able to do often with our other children because of a combination of work & Church commitments. It seems our relationships have grown stronger as a result of spending more time together. This is a very positive outcome.
It has become much more apparent over the last year how we, as leaders & members, sacrifice so much time for the Church at the expense of spending precious time with our families, without ever realising it, because we’re prepared to serve our God no matter what, in the vain hope of future blessings.
I do worry about my friends & family in the Church. I’m concerned about the effects on children & marriage relationships when parents are absent most nights.
All my life I have been willing to give of myself and sacrifice because I believed, (“knew”), the Church was true, and that God would bless us for our efforts, when really it was actually damaging the most important of relationships.
The sacrifices of time & money we have made as a family did not form any part of the reason we left. We have only realised this as the year progressed.
If the Church could be proved to be true tomorrow I would be back like a shot, and serving with all my heart, might, mind & strength like I used to.
I believed in the Church because of its “truth claims”! Not because it felt good!
However, now I am confident the Church is not what it claimed to be, I can no longer, in all good conscience, continue to sacrifice for what I now see is a fantasy. My dedication to following truth is stronger than ever.
The main reason to contact you is to highlight a major concern I have about our current arrangement.
I agreed not to speak about difficult issues regarding Church History & Origins. In fact, if my recollection is correct, you insisted I should not speak to other members about anything to do with Church History, whether true or otherwise! In exchange you agreed to allow me to retain my membership, or not to hold a disciplinary council in consideration of my membership.
Of course, at that time in May you also became aware of my blog posting which included my ‘resignation letter as bishop’ which had been inadvertently made public by John Dehlin, a friend of mine & member of the Church in Salt Lake City who is the producer of Mormon Stories Podcasts. John hadn’t realised the sensitive nature of my blog at the time & once I alerted him of the problem he kindly desisted in publicising it. However, my resignation as bishop was of such a strong interest the news spread quickly around Church & Ex-Mormon forums, & the blogosphere before he could stop it.
You probably heard that it ‘went viral’ &, despite my best efforts by password protecting it, was viewed over 14,000 times by people worldwide in just seven days! This was never my intention, but as the Church is only too well aware information is difficult to control once it gets on the Internet!
You are probably aware the Church currently attempts to suppress information from its members about events in the past which makes uncomfortable reading today. As an active member I was certainly discouraged from reading it because it was deemed not-faith promoting.
However, in my opinion, & General Authorities from the past agreed with this, any attempt at hiding the truth or covering it up should be seen as unrighteousness dominion! (Of course that was before the ‘information age’!)
Let me illustrate with a few quotes:
Elder James E Talmage, “The man who cannot listen to an argument which opposes his views either has a weak position or is a weak defender of it. No opinion that cannot stand discussion or criticism is worth holding. And it has been wisely said that the man who knows only half of any question is worse off than the man who knows nothing of it. He is not only one-sided but his partisanship soon turns him into an intolerant and a fanatic. In general it is true that nothing which cannot stand up under discussion or criticism is worth defending.” ~ James Talmage, Improvement Era, January 1920, p. 204.
“I admire men and women who have developed the questioning spirit, who are unafraid of new ideas and stepping stones to progress. We should, of course, respect the opinions of others, but we should also be unafraid to dissent – if we are informed. Thoughts and expressions compete in the marketplace of thought, and in that competition truth emerges triumphant. Only error fears freedom of expression. This free exchange of ideas is not to be deplored as long as men and women remain humble and teachable. Neither fear of consequence nor any kind of coercion should ever be used to secure uniformity of thought in the church. People should express their problems and opinions and be unafraid to think without fear of ill consequences. We must preserve freedom of the mind in the church and resist all efforts to suppress it.” (Hugh B. Brown, counselor in First Presidency, Speech at BYU, March 29, 1958)
“If a faith will not bear to be investigated: if its preachers and professors are afraid to have it examined, their foundation must be very weak.” (George Albert Smith, Journal Of Discourses, v 14, page 216)
And other famous & respected men have promoted free speech & discussion:
Thomas Jefferson taught that, “However discomfiting a free exchange may be, truth will ultimately emerge the victor.”
English philosopher John Stuart Mill said, “Any attempt to resist another opinion is a ‘peculiar evil’. If the opinion is right, we are robbed of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth. If it is wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in its collision with error.”
I loved the church because I believed it was true, not just because there was a lot of good in it. The truth was something I felt I possessed and truthfulness was, & increasingly is, something I feel is worth standing up for &, if necessary, sacrificing for!
I was sure that my Prophet, my Church & my leaders lived by a higher law. I certainly believed I lived by a higher law while I taught the LDS gospel as a missionary & as a Bishop. In other words, I believed that truth was the highest of all values taught in the Church. I thought the Church and the truth were one and the same until hearing Elder Boyd K Packer’s talk:
“I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting it destroys. . . . Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting”. -Boyd K. Packer (Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History, page 103)This goes against everything that I believed all my life. According to Elder Packer, there is some truth to be afraid of. I’m sorry President, but my sense of morality means I disagree. I have been taught otherwise my whole life.
Exodus 20:16 – Thou shalt not bear false witness…
Isn’t telling only half of the story the same as bearing false witness ?
2 Nephi 28:28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall.
So, President, is the Church on a sandy foundation or built on a rock? If it’s on a rock, then there’s nothing to be afraid of. If it has a sandy foundation, I can see why the GA’s might harbour ill feelings towards the truth.
If ‘truth’ needs to be protected to the point of lying to cover it up, it cannot be the truth. If a doctrine cannot be mentioned because it will look bad, there is something wrong with it.
Let’s not forget D&C 93:24 stating that “truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were.” Not just things as we wish they were, or as they are faith promoting, as approved by the First Presidency, or as it supports our version of things.
“In conflicting doctrinal and historical situations, we are taught in the church that we should just revert back to our testimonies and put things on a shelf to be answered sometime in the afterlife. Sometimes we’re encouraged to find out for ourselves, although that advice is heavily coated with the warning not to search out information contrary to what the church teaches. The stress is definitely loyalty above inquiry.” ~ Unknown Author
“Each of us has to face the matter-either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God, or it is nothing.” – President Gordon B. Hinckley. ‘Loyalty’, April Conference, 2003.
President, I’m afraid my loyalty is to the truth, therefore I need to change our agreement. I have felt uncomfortable this last year about avoiding speaking about the difficult issues for the Church.
From now on I will encourage my friends both in and out of Church to ask questions, & to search for truth, even if it means standing up against orthodoxy!
I am not “advocating against the Church”, I am ADVOCATING FOR TRUTH! So my friends can make their own minds up & decide to follow the truth, if that is what they want to do.
No one should exert any type of force on another in an effort to make them believe, truth or otherwise.
As President Brown so aptly said, “Neither fear of consequence nor any kind of coercion should ever be used to secure uniformity of thought in the Church. People should express their problems and opinions and be unafraid to think without fear of ill consequences. We must preserve freedom of the mind in the church and resist all efforts to suppress it.”
My plea is to all members of the Church, including you, to open your minds enough to honestly consider the question “If the Church was not true, would you want to know?”
It’s not about whether it “feels good!” Truth is never about how it feels! Truth stands independent & doesn’t care how it makes us feel. Truth is the same yesterday, today & tomorrow. The Church can, & has changed, but truth stands firm & immovable.
When you consider why we believe in the Church, & the gospel it teaches, really consider, honestly. It’s all about ‘feelings’!
I would be very happy to discuss this & anything else with you.
Know that I am your friend,
Love
Steve
A few months later I wrote personal letters to LDS family and friends inviting them to join with me in Apologising to The Blacks for ever holding racist views prior to 1978.
For this action I was summoned to a Stake Disciplinary Council for apostasy.
They desisted with this action at the time due to my wife’s then recent diagnosis of breast cancer, for which gladly she has now made a full recovery.
Can the Mormon Church tolerate dissent or even sincere questioning?
Or does obedience, loyalty and conformity always take priority over truth, authenticity and integrity?
*********
See also David Twede’s excellent blog post about loyalty: Paying Trons Revolt
Does God Exist?
And can we become Gods, as Mormonism teaches we can?
If I’m right in my suspicions, we’re all gods already!
Well, we create god as an imaginary being in our minds. Everyone around the world who has a concept of god or gods has this concept by virtue of the capability of their own mind to create imaginary beings in their minds. Like having an imaginary friend as a child whilst growing up, or like imagining there is a Santa Claus, adults retain the ability to continue this consoling pretense for the rest of their lives.
So it’s not so much that God created man in His own image, but it’s much more likely to be the other way round, with humans imagining a supernatural deity, or multiple gods, in order to ameliorate their fear based superstitious concerns about the world around them, and out of a desire to explain the gaps in their understanding of the, often terrifying, forces of nature.
There is far more evidence worldwide for this concept of gods created by our mind’s imagination than that there really is a real supernatural being called God who reigns supreme in Heaven.
If this concept is correct, those who believe in gods have already got one – in their heads!
So, by that definition, religions are right! They just don’t realise why and who God actually is!
It all makes so much sense when one considers the fact that our minds are so capable. Incredibly powerful & dangerously malleable! Therefore capable both of amazing feats of imagination, and also hallucination.
Our minds have almost unlimited potentials for imagination. Just think about our night time dreams. How, sometimes, they are so vividly realistic it’s almost impossible to know whether we’re dreaming or awake.
Humans have imagined beautiful potentials for achievement in every medium there is, including cloth & stone, bronze & steel, written word & in art.
We have imagined crossing great distances on earth by foot & horse, ship & plane, more recently by rocket to the moon, and even planting a rover on Mars.
Our minds are capable of imagining war & peace, we have imagined & discovered the fabric of life & the Universe, even the structure of atoms & DNA itself.
Our imaginations have helped us to discover even the very foundational forces of nature through hypotheses to experimentation, and on to the construction of solid reliable models of the universe which have enable us to build technologies for flight and even space travel.
Our minds, as bronze age humans, imagined Gods as our creators & masters, controlling every aspect of our lives & directing our actions in superstitious rituals & religious rites.
Our imagined Omnipotent Masters could extract amazing levels of control over their adherents, inspiring perfect obedience & absolute devotion.
These collectively imagined Gods behaved in ways which society accepted. In ancient times where superstition had a hold on the fearful imaginations of the people, extreme sacrifices were often required to placate the extreme needs of the imagined Gods. So great was the fear of the unknown, and their anxiety about supernatural forces that this often resulted in blood sacrifices of animals and even humans to placate or appease these imagined Gods.
Over thousands of years, as human society developed a concept of human rights, the expectations of our imagined Gods moderated to overcome the need for the shedding of blood in animal & human sacrifice, we began to value life & personal freedom, we overcame racism, & bigotry, & developed a social conscience.
Our Gods became more gentle too. Eventually the imagined Gods became one God, including one particular God, Jesus, who most humans imagine as gentle, meek & mild.
Our human brains have been so powerful over the millenia creating all the thousands of Gods till eventually imagining the most wonderful imaginary friends who know us implicitly. They believe what we believe. They always answer our prayers in ways that our best for us.
After 46 years I’ve realised I did have an imaginary friend, & now that I realise I created Him it all makes sense to me. I now realise it was me who answered myself all the times I prayed to ‘Him’.
Neuro-science is discovering the way our sub-conscious mind occupies the vast majority of our brains function & it just ‘copies in’ our conscious mind to let it know what it’s decided.
So in reality God is our sub-conscious mind’s imaginary creation.
“The concept of a supreme being, creator of the world, is the product of human imagination. Each individual, in turn, transmits this to the collective fantasy through an ideology or religion. The fantasy comes back stronger and dulls the mind. If the universe had no beginning, no end and is in constant transformation, dialectically, it is God himself, which, for Marx, was created by man – and not vice versa.” ~ Adilson Clayton de Souza
There are many of us who have been through that awful realisation and acceptance that we are probably here by chance.
Then begins the wonderful journey to feeling more human & vulnerable, and yet life more vital than ever before.
More connected to the rest of humanity.
More in control of our destiny as individuals and as a species.
More a part of nature and a creation of the planet.
Gaining a sense of ultimate freedom to decide our own destiny and purpose in life.
God Lives! And He’s In My Brain. (Part 1)
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I’ll Be a Skeptical Korihor Any Day
What is the nature of spiritual experiences, answers to prayer & revelation from ‘God’?
The Mormon Prophet Brigham Young taught:
“I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self security. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.”
– Brigham Young, (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1954], 135.)
There is a whole world of amazing scientific explanations for the processes involved in “know(ing) by the whispering of the Spirit of God”, but many dare not consider, truly consider, anything outside of their own belief system.
There are beautiful, known, scientific explanations for the mechanisms of the brain which can account for these “whisperings of the Spirit of God”, but some would rather continue to believe in the mystical.
Though scientific understanding is currently a long way from being complete, I think neuro-science will have all the answers eventually.
There is a strong natural tendency to disbelieve any evidence which runs contrary to our beliefs. It is a common problem encountered by every human being who has the ability to think.
Psychologists call it confirmational bias, or observer bias. The bias is only natural. As Professor of Psychology Michael Shermer says,
“the facts of the world are filtered by our brains through the colored lenses of worldviews, paradigms, theories, hypotheses, conjectures, hunches, biases, and prejudices we have accumulated through living. We then sort through the facts and select those that confirm what we already believe and ignore or rationalize away those that contradict our beliefs.”
It’s an automatic process of our minds. You most probably won’t even be aware of this process of filtering information to fit your belief system, especially if the new information contradicts your current beliefs. Then the cognitive dissonance can make it too painful to consider that you may need to change your mind, so your mind just creates a cognitive blind spot.
The evidence is showing how our sub-conscious minds work, which is very likely where we get this spiritual inspiration from.
The conscious & sub-conscious mind is what our brains do. The mind is a function of the brain.
The sub-conscious mind makes up the vast majority of the function of our brains, with the conscious mind, the self-aware bit of our mind, making up just a small part of it.
The sub-conscious mind is busily working away in the background & occasionally letting our conscious mind know what’s going on. In effect C.C.ing our conscious mind. Saying, “Oh by the way I’ve decided this, or that!”
Scientists have discovered that our sub-conscious mind can have made a decision, or come to a conclusion, some time before we actually realise it.
So the question is, “are we inspiring ourselves?” Or, in other words, “is our sub-conscious mind actually our God??”
The other consideration is how we perceive the conscious physical reality around us. We have to use all sorts of visual, kinaesthetic & auditory assumptions etc about the world at large.
Stage magicians cleverly use these in order to trick our minds. We can inadvertently fool ourselves through these assumptions too. Visual mind tricks are a fun example of how our minds can be easily tricked.
Both sides of the cube are identical in colour & shade, but appear differently to our eyes because our minds make subconscious visual assumptions based on the background
Also, we see the world around us through the filter of bias. We only notice things which we are already aware of, or are thinking about, where our attention is drawn to, a type of confirmational bias.
And, the mind is so powerful we can experience hallucinations in any or all of our senses. Including through self-hypnosis brought on by meditation.
Plus we often subconsciously ignore what doesn’t fit our desires.
All in all, we are psychologically very complex creatures who can be deceived & deluded by any combination of the above factors depending on our state of emotions & state of consciousness.
I’m not an expert, but absolutely fascinated by how I was deceived for so long.
In the gospel sense, if you sincerely pray to God for an answer, you will always get one!
It will never be wrong!
Either: Yes, No or Wait!
So if I pray for a sick relative to live & they do, then God has listened to my prayer, said Yes, & blessed me.
If they die, then God obviously said No, because their must be a higher purpose for them dying.
In other circumstances I may just not get an answer, because ‘the time of isn’t right’, or ‘I need to learn patience.’
Either way, the believer is satisfied! 😉
As a young missionary I was surprised & disturbed when I met a few very sincere ‘Born Again Christians’ who bore their testimonies with as much, if not more, fervency & genuine sincerity as me.
They were just as sure as me of their personal revelation from ‘God’.
They were absolutely, 100% sure of their belief system.
I rationalised that they obviously were being deceived by half-truths. That the Holy Ghost was witnessing of truths, but that they were conflating error as truth because of the other truths the Holy Ghost was witnessing of at the same time.
But I could never fully understand how they weren’t being led to the whole truth.
It was one of those questions I kept on my proverbial shelf for the ‘God of the Gaps’ to reveal to me one day.
Whilst I was serving as a bishop I was also disturbed by some members who had ‘weird’ testimonies.
How did God inspire those members with bizarre spiritual experiences?
I couldn’t quite reconcile it, other than to think perhaps they were psychologically disturbed, & weren’t understanding or interpreting the Spirit’s inspiration correctly.
Boyd K Packer even finds it difficult to explain how to differentiate between spiritual prompting & emotional feelings! –
“The spiritual part of us and the emotional part of us are so closely linked that is possible to mistake an emotional impulse for something spiritual. We occasionally find people who receive what they assume to be spiritual promptings from God, when those promptings are either centered in the emotions or are from the adversary.”
(http://lds.org/ensign/1983/01/the-candle-of-the-lord?lang=eng)
And Joseph Smith at times struggled to know the difference:
According to David Whitmer,
“Joseph looked into the hat in which he placed the stone, and received a revelation that some of the brethren should go to Toronto, Canada, and that they would sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon. Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery went to Toronto on this mission, but they failed entirely to sell the copyright, returning without any money. Joseph was at my father’s house when they returned. I was there also, and am an eye witness to these facts. Jacob Whitmer and John Whitmer were also present when Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery returned from Canada.
“Well, we were all in great trouble; and we asked Joseph how it was that he had received a revelation from the Lord for some brethren to go to Toronto and sell the copyright, and the brethren had utterly failed in their undertaking. Joseph did not know how it was, so he enquired of the Lord about it, and behold the following revelation came through the stone: “Some revelations are of God: some revelations are of men: and some revelations are of the devil.” So we see that the revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copyright was not of God, but was of the devil or of the heart of man.”
Some people say they have actually heard an audible voice. I did. I had a very remarkable and memorable experience as a missionary:
“I had been fasting for over 24 hours & focusing on an investigator family with all my ‘heart, might, mind & strength’. Every thought was focused on them getting baptised.
“I had promised in my prayer never to eat again till they committed to baptism!!!!
“During our visit with the investigators I failed to properly challenge them for baptism, so on leaving to walk away I heard a voice!
“The voice was audibly telling me to return and carry out my promised action to challenge them to baptism. No one else heard it. Just me.
“I spooked them big time by telling the investigators my story of the voice.
“They were baptised!”
😉
But then they stopped attending after just two weeks!
Was it an auditory hallucination??
In all probability! After all, I was physically exhausted, thirsty, very hungry and I now realise, susceptible to hallucinations.
What I understand from psychology is that the mind is very capable of playing tricks on us, including creating hallucinations in any of our senses, or any combinations of our senses.
What our minds perceive is, after all, only electrical impulses stimulating certain areas withing the brain. The mind is actually, after all, what the brain does.
Many people experience these auditory hallucinations when suffering with certain psychopathies, like schizophrenia.
A friend who suffers with this says he can actually ‘hear’ my thoughts!!
And he hears many voices!
So, on looking at the evidence I deduce that it is entirely plausible, even probable, that we all get the same subconscious messages occurring, some with strong hallucinatory aspects to them, but we interpret their origins differently depending on our particular belief system or culture.
I have seen things from the perspective of a faithful Church member & leader. I once believed that the “whisperings of the Spirit of God”, were actually from God. I received (what I “knew” at the time was) divine guidance on a daily basis as I served as a Bishop in the Church for almost seven years.
Over the course of my life from age 17 to 46 years old I have personally had the most incredibly intense feelings of confirmation of truth when I prayed about Joseph Smith & the Book of Mormon. I served a mission based on those feelings or “whisperings of the Spirit” and bore powerful testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel as I taught investigators.
I knew how to initiate a ‘divine learning experience’ and was able to go to God in prayer and plead for answers to many questions over my lifetime. Many members and priesthood leaders were astonished at my spirituality. Frequently my Stake President would publicly acknowledge how strongly God’s Spirit was with me, guiding my leadership of the Ward. They all recognised that I was leading the Ward by the power of God and receiving revelations on a frequent basis. The Stake President strongly emphasised on many occasions that the members should consider me like a Prophet to the Ward because of the way God was guiding me.
Those same feelings of inspiration still come to me in exactly the same way now, even though I’m an agnostic atheist.
How does anyone account for that?
What’s even more alarming is that these “whisperings of the spirit” are not always reliable.
I’ve had those same intensely strong feelings of the ‘Spirit’ several times when important decisions needed to be made, where, after following the so-called ‘divine guidance’, the outcome has been dreadfully wrong. At the time I put it down to God wanting me to have a learning experience, because my mind would not accept the blatantly obvious. The “whisperings of the Spirit of God” were in fact generated within my own brain by simple explainable biological processes of my brain.
There most probably is no external divine communication.
The more we understand about the mind, the more we understand about who we are as human beings.
Scientific research has massively increased our understanding of both the world around us & the world inside our heads.
Many faithful, believing Latter-day Saints try to explain away the discrepancies and difficulties surrounding their belief system, but in reality God doesn’t need apologists. What we need is honest, open-minded, authentic people who are willing to consider all the facts without filtering them to fit a particular belief system.
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
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