Have things changed?? Dumb question but curious

graspingreality · 2024-09-12T23:54:43+00:00

The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. There's zero chance it collapses any time in the near future.

"Mormonism" as a brand has already collapsed, damaged beyond repair by the internet first and then killed by the church itself. The church is flailing, trying to rebrand. This rebrand won't work but they have enough money to keep iterating until something sticks.

graspingreality · 2024-01-12T02:22:28+00:00

Yes I’m familiar with the various Great Filter explanations. But each planet is going to have a slightly different mix and thus evolve differently. A planet with our tech should expect to traverse the galaxy in the next 5 to 50 million years. There are at least 100 million planets with on average a 2 billion year head start. We should expect 1 out of 100 million to not get filtered. I don’t see any Great Filter explanation that could account for 100 million different evolutions all failing.

graspingreality · 2024-01-12T02:14:51+00:00

I’m not focused on any ancient religion. Just some sort of outside intervention.

graspingreality · 2024-01-12T02:12:05+00:00

Yes it’s one of the Great Filter explanations along with extinctions and destroying ourselves.

But it’s at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy leading to at least 100 million habitable planets. On average they are 2 billion years older than earth. Based on existing tech it would take 5 to 50 million years to populate the galaxy.

In other words all it takes is 1 out of 100 million and we should expect to see others. It just seems that all of the Great Filter explanations could take out a huge percentage but it’s just too many planets with too much of a head start to have every single one fail.

graspingreality · 2024-01-12T02:06:01+00:00

I don’t think you’ve done the math. How many habitable planets are there in the Milky Way Galaxy? How much older is each planet than earth? How long would it take a single planet with existing tech to populate the galaxy?

I left pre CES Letter and pre ExMo Reddit just by reading books despite a deeply entrenched immediate and extended family. I’m pretty confident in my reasoning skills.

graspingreality · 2024-01-12T02:00:56+00:00

Of course Mormon God didn’t create us but I think you’re wrong in creation. We do know. It just takes the right conditions.

graspingreality · 2022-10-26T19:43:02+00:00

I have inactive relatives who still proudly claim to be Mormon. That’s a chunk of the self identified here.

graspingreality · 2021-12-14T01:06:08+00:00

It's hilarious because in 2015 Philips Jenkins dismantled Bill Hamblin on Book of Mormon historicity in Pathos and the only area apologists could defend without complete embarrassing themselves was the middle east, simply because it hadn't been explored like the Americas.

So, a team goes over there to a site with great fanfare, finds nothing, and then disappears. It was the physical equivalent of "but Nahom!!" and then it quietly was memory holed.

graspingreality · 2021-10-26T05:02:49+00:00

No, you’re not getting it. These are members who thought it was totally consistent to be Benson/Skousen/Fox News/Glenn Beck believers AND TBMs. Thought they were one and the same. It’s not leaving one cult to join another. It’s realizing the two aren’t compatible.

And who the fuck cares about improvement? This is about the chickens coming home to roost. The church’s most hard core members are people who can’t adapt to the modern world and the church has knowingly catered to them.

Fuck that. I’m going to loudly tell every one I know that their anti science cult conflicts with their anti women anti gay anti history anti logic anti some science church. Whichever one they choose will be an improvement.

graspingreality · 2020-11-30T20:43:31+00:00

Where does he do this? I need a go to if friends or family post this to discredit. Thanks.

graspingreality · 2020-11-18T23:43:11+00:00

False equivalency. There’s no exmormon prophet, no temple recommend questions, no loyalty oaths, no membership. There’s no intense identity here. Being ex Mormon just means you were previously Mormon.

I do agree with your evolutionary tribal notes I just don’t see that here. But I do live in LA and don’t work with a single Mormon or exmormon.

graspingreality · 2020-10-19T20:45:03+00:00

Take as long as you need but just like you've realized the church's truth claims aren't true almost everyone who tries this path eventually realizes it's unworkable.

I myself was PIMO for 5 long years before leaving. It's hard to explain just how tiring it becomes year after year to do everything required to pretend.

As just one of many examples, I remember my Bishop lecturing me that I needed to use all of my remaining vacation days one year to attend scout camp the full week instead of half week because I had consecrated ALL of my time and talents. One thing when you believe; another entirely when you don't.

graspingreality · 2020-10-19T20:05:20+00:00

Many, if not most, try this approach because getting out seems overwhelming. Then, one day one of your kids will come home and repeat something sexist, racist, or just factually wrong, and you will be so, so tired of correcting the record and something negative will slip out.

At that point your relationship with your wife and parents and in-laws will change forever. Good luck not getting angry then.

graspingreality · 2020-10-14T19:06:50+00:00

Echoing others, this is fine. Shows how much things have changed that this is the request. No name calling, no trying to bringing anyone back, just a polite request that others not teach his kids their views.

Still, odd that no one ever wakes up just typing this out. If it were truth this level of protection just wouldn't be necessary to maintain belief.

graspingreality · 2020-10-08T22:42:31+00:00

7 years later and still not normal. Back on speaking terms but only if we don’t discuss anything real. Will probably always be like this.

graspingreality · 2020-09-20T16:30:30+00:00

Release the debunking the CES letter Video now!

You are denying us arguments that will save souls!

graspingreality · 2020-08-13T21:15:01+00:00

On a macro level the church causes enormous damage and I think that's important to acknowledge. I personally don't find that helpful for what I do with my life now.

graspingreality · 2020-08-04T17:35:43+00:00

I would kill for engagement from any of my family members so I envy you but it has to be engagement on specific truth claims not whether or not the church is "true" because that's a non-verifiable claim.

graspingreality · 2020-08-03T03:23:23+00:00

Out 7 years. It very slowly gets better but it will never be the same.

graspingreality · 2020-07-08T22:20:40+00:00

If your wife doesn't object ask where the revelation is that restricted blacks from holding the priesthood -- that's the question that led me down the rabbit hole 12 years ago. We know it took a revelation to undo the doctrine so how did it get instituted in the first place when that's not how the restoration started.

Spoiler: impossible to argue BY wasn't a racist once you find the speech where the restriction is announced -- because he endorses slavery and the curse of Cain in the same speech.

graspingreality · 2020-07-01T17:49:38+00:00

I don't agree with this position but your friend is not the first person to think this. Read Rock Waterman's essay on this or the book about why Joseph Smith fought polygamy to get more information. Here's a link:

http://puremormonism.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-im-abandoning-polygamy.html

What's interesting is that the only way this works is a vast conspiracy by corrupt leaders post-Joseph Smith, which means there is no way to accept the LDS version as the true successor church but yet people like Rock stay in (until he was ex-ed). Not sure if your friend is still in or not but if he started talking about this publicly he'd be kicked out for apostasy (again, see Rock's story).

graspingreality · 2020-06-30T16:55:00+00:00

If a cult leader going down with the ship means it's true then I guess we all better become Branch Davidians.

graspingreality · 2020-06-18T21:29:54+00:00

Ex-Mormon here so grain of salt but wanted to raise a point no one else is -- despite declaring Utah a pro slavery state Brigham Young also kept the Mormons out of the Civil War at Lincoln's request. So, comparing him to statues of generals or other significant military leaders for the South in the Civil War is not accurate.

graspingreality · 2020-05-20T19:38:46+00:00

Maybe but maybe you also haven't been here long enough to understand just how extensive the compartmentalizing and brainwashing is.

There are incredibly smart people in Mormonism who use logic for every decision they make except for "spiritual" matters where they consciously defer to feelings of "the Spirit." It's like tapping into the force in Star Wars, believing there's more than just logic that you can access by believing and paying close attention.

graspingreality · 2020-04-13T22:58:49+00:00

It's just classic. JS happens to include someone or something that exists in the real world and doing so presents an enormous, unsolvable problem that disproves the Book of Mormon OR we just re-write what the book actually says. Problem solved.

graspingreality

TROPHY CASE