Nahum

comfortable

Posts by Nahum:

    Unbelief is not Disobedience

    22 June 2010
    Comments (11)

    When I stopped going to church, it was a decision based upon years of wrestling with its truth-statements.  I had stopped believing.  I didn’t leave angry.  I didn’t want my tithing back.  In fact, I worried about the sociality and opportunity to grow through service that I was missing by not remaining active on some level.  I believed that the church offered social and spiritual benefits that gave people a sense of purpose, ethics, and comfort.  I still felt that being raised in the church can make bad people good and good people better.  Though many of my Mormon friends and family members have sinced worked very hard to dissuade me of this notion, I still tend to believe it. (more…)

    Choosing Belief or Disbelief and the Limits of Agency

    18 February 2010
    Comments (2)

    I have heard Obadiah say, “I choose to believe.”  I have also heard other Mormons speak of their faith as a choice.  Like Obadiah, these other Mormons seem to be well read enough to recognize their religion is not without historical or theological problems, but they still feel there is sufficient evidence in their lives to make the choice of belief.  None of these Mormons deny the contribution of environmental influences to that choice, but only insist that such influences are not fully determining, and, therefore, do not render the act of choosing a mere delusion of agency.

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    Knowing

    10 February 2010
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    I have a problem with the assertion that one way of knowing is superior to another way of knowing.

    The “spiritual” way of knowing is claimed as a form of experience, but of what kind is this experience if it is not had through the five senses?  How can we be sure that a spiritual substance has moved through us delivering its own special brand of experience instead of the experience being produced by uncommon brain activity brought about through a particular neurochemical admixture.  It seems certain that certain people can produce these experiences at will (either through training or by means of a genetic predisposition), but why is this means of perception unavailable as an autonomic function to the majority of humanity?  (more…)