http://happiness-seekers.com/2017/01/02/the-alarming-truth-behind-anti-mormonism/

"Once you’ve tasted the sweetest and most perfect form of Christianity, where else will you go when you leave?"

This is click bait for an article explaining why people who leave Mormonism are wrong. Respond as you see fit(anger, eye roll, laughter, vomit).

^^^^^^This!^^^^^^^^

IMO this guy sounds like he's portraying everyone who leaves mormonism is Atheist, and that all Atheists are Snidely Whiplashes just waiting to ensnare the innocent, unsuspecting sheep. Since leaving mormonism, my daughter is leaning more towards atheism and she is one of the most compassionate,intelligent persons that you would ever hope to meet. Our other daughter is liking the Catholic Church services and believes in God still and that he is a god of love, not fear. I still have belief in Yeshua Ben Yosef, but instead of being religious, now I consider myself to be more spiritual. "The sweetest and most perfect form of Christianity" has caused nothing but heartache and families being torn apart, as well as being one of the most expensive clubs around.

That's yshua ben yud-hay-vav-hay

Per Dustin & Brittney (those two happiness seekers):

"And how could the God of the Bible suddenly decide that everyone should be free to interpret scripture as they wish, creating a church for every opinion?"

Well, then who should interpret it for us?


The trouble with being a sheep is that coyotes eat em.

And isn't that just what the Mormons did? Did JS himself not re-write the bible to fit his opinion?

Exactly. They can't see the forest for the trees. Kind of pathetic...

paulk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://happiness-seekers.com/2017/01/02/the-alarmi
> ng-truth-behind-anti-mormonism/
>
> "Once you’ve tasted the sweetest and most
> perfect form of Christianity, where else will you
> go when you leave?"

The truth is this guy and those who agree with him display such ignorance that I am speechless.

The real alarming truth is that some Mormons think they understand and have all the answers for exmos. They write long-winded blogs and articles where it becomes abundantly clear that they never have had even one conversation with someone who has left the church.

their "expert" opinions. My TBM daughter doesn't have a blog, but she reads these things. But anytime she has tried to talk to me about my lack of belief, she just ends up preaching to me and not listening and telling me what a loser I am. They may try to talk to us, but they DO NOT LISTEN. They are afraid to hear what we have to say.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2017 01:20PM by cl2.

Yes, they talk AT others. Always assume they are correct and are not open minded or willing to listen.

My TBM niece became an insufferable blowhard during her freshman year at YBU. Posting nonstop drivel on Facebook. She insisted that she had evaluated all religious options (as "objectively" presented to her by TSCC). So, by the tender age of eight, she was both well-informed enough, and mature enough, to make this choice (even though most of her training came later).

It's irrational from start to finish.

. . . it doesn't taste like rotten brussel sprouts to someone else.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2017 01:26PM by steve benson.

Mormonism is like cilantro. Either you love it or it makes you barf.

In reading through this article, I noticed that the author has some assumptions built into it that he apparently assumes that Mormons will naturally accept, without question, as given. Some of them:

-- Doctrines such as priesthood authority, Eternal Man, etc. (as Mormons understand them) are absolutely essential to Christianity, and any deviation from these destroys the whole of Christianity. Therefore, a Mormon cannot with any legitimacy leave Mormonism and adopt any other form of Christianity, for all of these other forms are illegitimate.

-- God decides how Scripture is to be interpreted, and of course the correct interpretation includes taking into consideration the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants. If one does not take these works into consideration, he or she is going against what God has decided about Scriptural interpretation.

-- An equation of archaeological problems of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. There are things in the Bible that can't, at least at present, be supported by archaeology, but at least Biblical archaeology shows the ancient existence of cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem. So at least the general geographical and cultural background of the Bible is to some extent supported by archaeology. The same can't be said for the Book of Mormon.

From the article:"Joseph Smith has a relatively immaculate record (based on Western standards) compared to many of the prophets who came before him." My response: Joseph Smiths record is every bit as bad if not worse. His record indicates lying, attempted assassinations, polyandry and adulterous relationships passed off as marriages.

From the article:"Once you’ve tasted the sweetest and most perfect form of Christianity, where else will you go when you leave?" My response: Anyone seeking their higher purpose will find it more abundantly outside of Mormonism than within it.

From the article:"Post-Modern Atheism Is Paving the Way for a New and Destructive Moral Order. The goal of Atheism is to destroy the moral distinction between choices...Ultimately, this is what anti-Mormonism intends to accomplish."
My response: What Mormonism and religions in general bring forth as a higher moral order is in fact a destructive moral order. It was the influence and demands from secular society that caused Mormonism to give up its radical practices such as blood atonement killings, racism and polygamy. These didn't constitute a higher moral order but merely order as dictated from pompous leaders.

People don't need religion to become moral. Good and evil can be understood and embraced outside of religious belief. By contrast look at the evil and the double standards that have been perpetrated in the name of religion. Joseph Smith broke most of commandments that he supposedly proclaimed came from God.

He also does the classic fallacy of quoting the BoM to show that it prophesies the future--"opposition in all things"-- wow, the BoM knows that post-modern atheism will happen....the church is true!

If he felt that the world was going in a *good* direction, he would have found a quote from the BoM that would have predicted that too....the church is true!

paulk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://happiness-seekers.com/2017/01/02/the-alarmi
> ng-truth-behind-anti-mormonism/
>
> "Once you’ve tasted the sweetest and most
> perfect form of Christianity, where else will you
> go when you leave?"

ummm right out of one of the biggest hoaxes ever -Christianity!

I suspect that this article was intended for doubting Mormons, not for those who have already left. I remember going up to my niece's wedding in Salt Lake City in 2011 and hearing during the evening over the now-defunct oldies channel at 1060 kHz (it's Radio China International today) a plea asking people to hold on to their Mormon beliefs. While the exodus is slow, the numbers looking for the exit sign are growing.

Of course, this guy would question the validity of the half dozen or so people that had heavenly visions at the same near time & place that JS did, but never question the probability that Joseph Smith was a charlatan that doubled down on the whole vision-in-the-forest thing by having a personal audience with God *and* Jesus, something that HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ANY ONE ELSE IN HISTORY. And he could never research the shelf breaking idea that JS & Co. stole a bunch of ideas and made the rest up--no no no no no!!

But, being tightly bound in mormon bubble wrap, he doesn't let that possibility into the equation.

Christianity itself hinges upon the question, “Was Joseph Smith really a prophet?” at least mormon xtianity, you know the "perfect form".

This is a good example of closed minded apologetics at work. You can't be wrong if there's a conspiracy against you. The fact that you get so much "hate mail" for blogging "your truth" is evidence of the conspiracy. Plug ears and say "la la la la la....".

This guy's a poster boy for ideological attachment. Rather than understand, he projects. That's all Mormons are programmed to do, project their reality upon the world rather than testing their reality against the world. The world isn't your enemy, it's your proving ground.

But let's face it. If common sense is your enemy, you are your enemy.

This article was written to make Utah mormons and other heavily brainwashed church members feel good about their religion, with respect to others who others who feel quite the opposite. It marginalizes and trivializes anyone who thinks differently than they do.

It's easier to put others who do not believe as you do, in to a pre-defined box and label the box as 'Evil', then to use your own beliefs to justify how and why you feel as you do. Whether or not your own paradigms are true or not, are completely irrelevant. The result is the same. You feel good about it. That is all this guy is doing with the article. LDS journalism for the most part just fake news.

Little boxes in the valley
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky
Little boxes in the valley
Little boxes all the same
There's a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same

Wow, completely inaccurate statements with leaps in drawing conclusions!

The reader comments are disturbing. The different first vision accounts are entirely different, not nearly the same. Polygamy in the Bible (Sariah begging Abraham to marry another to have children then recognizing it as a mistake) not the same as JS telling a 14 year old she had to marry him for her family's salvation or by God's command. They don't search all the facts or fight their own morals which are screaming that this is all wrong.

There is no claim the Bible needs to be all true for Christianity to exist anyhow! Guess what? Christianity existed before there was any Bible. Just because a group of men put together a set of documents and say they think it is all true does not mean it is all true (don't we all know this by now) BUT it doesn't mean all that information is false either.You would have a hard time convincing me Psalms is inspired but I can glean good from the teachings attributed to Christ in the four Gospels (and I don't need to readjust my moral compass to believe in kindness).

Sorry, I meant Solomon's Songs not Psalms is what I don't believe is inspired!

Christianity does not hang on a testimony of Joseph Smith! Christianity existed long before him. But being lied to and manipulated this badly will affect a person!

Some people deserve to be robbed of 10% of their life's income while scrubbing church toilets every weekend.

From his closing statement....

"I add my testimony to millions of others that Christ lives.............." I believe that there is a right and a wrong, and I believe that there is a God and an eternal law"


Athiests believe there is a right and a wrong. Ex LDS members left because they believe in a right and a wrong and the church was found to be enforcing a wrong ( many wrongs)in the name of it's theological views.

"And because of these things, I am a Latter-day Saint. For the alternative, is the Atheism that would guide our civilization into the abyss if ever we give it the chance."

Civilisation ( non LDS whether Athiest or not) has helped reform Mormonism into it's current Monogamous views and also equality with skin colours and will continue to influence and press for change. How is that an abyss? lol



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2017 04:25PM by Zeezromp.

What should really alarm them is the truth behind "anti-mormonism."

As in truthful history of the church, truthful assessment of facts, and plain old truth -- all showing the church to be a pack of lies.

Clearly they missed that point.


The final 'testimony' is as worthless as that of anyone else with any other unsubstantiated 'belief.' It's no more an indicator of truth than is the testimony of muslim or a catholic or a buddhist, equally sincere in their beliefs.

There is a quite a bit of fallacious argumentation in this piece, but there's one that I'd really like to get at because you hear it quite often from LDS defenders:

"So, to be clear, it’s not that we have discovered new information about Joseph Smith that has suddenly changed a lot of people’s minds about the Restoration. The criticisms you hear today are the same criticisms that have been peddled for decades and longer."

This kind of reason is almost like the more frequently invoked fallacy of appealing to antiquity--the idea that if an ancient authority held something to be true it was therefore true. Aristotle said X, so X must be correct etc.

Instead, this author argues we have to appeal to something new in order for the criticism to be valid. Just because early critics of Mormonism noticed things were amiss does not necessarily mean their observations were in error.

Joseph Smith did not translate those papyrus scrolls in order to produce the Book of Abraham. Some Egyptologists have known this for decades. The passage of time has not brought Joseph Smith any closer to having translated them.

I suppose they are just parroting a criticism one frequently hears from LDS scholars against some works that present Joseph Smith or other Mormon leaders in a less flattering light. They argue that there is little new information in a book like Grant Palmer's "Insider's View of Mormon Origins." It's a way of academically slighting the author, arguing that the work in question does not break new ground in the field of research.

I'm going to leave by the side, whether Grant Palmer's book brings forth something new. Mr. Palmer has addressed that. However, I would also note that many new works of history bring forth fairly little in the way of new raw information, but instead new arguments about how the past is interpreted. So as long as LDS scholars are putting up arguments that are lacking the clarity that you find in books like Insider's View--the argument can continue to get the mud out of the water.

The real thing the LDS scholars are trying to do is side step the substantive evidence and arguments, and their implications for LDS truth claims. Just because historians have known, and discussed, for many years the fact that Joseph Smith gave several contradictory accounts of his "first vision," does not mean that those contradictory vision accounts do not have tremendous implications for an individual's decision as to whether to fully devote their lives to Mormonism.

One of the most beautiful things about having a true church is the trust that it'll be the most honest and truthful organization ever when you have questions about anything, particularly on doctrines, history, and policies/procedures. If it wasn't so honest/truthful then we wouldn't be able to call it the true church and we'd have to call it a fraud or something else instead. So here is a simple guide on what to do when an evil anti-Mormon makes some claim intended to undermine your testimony.

1. Write down the supposed claim of theirs.
2. Go to https://www.mormon.org and click on "Chat with Representatives".
3. Ask the online missionaries for the official answers to the supposed claims.
4. Take the official answer(s) back to these evil anti-Mormons and ask for their response.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 as often as needed to get settled clarity. And don't forget to remember that "continuing revelation" and having a "living prophet" means you should be getting real time transparent true direction :)

Your testimony that the church is true ought to blossom when you conclude "gosh what a completely transparent, honest and truthful church this is" as the missionaries (and the whole infrastructure of the Brethren & administration officials & scholars at BYU/elsewhere) are completely honest and straightforward with you. It would be unthinkable that they would be evasive or use any phrases to try to justify being evasive. Satan might tell them to tell you something like "just have faith" towards trying to convince you/others that the Church is not a true/transparent church. But that would be against the glorious gospel principle of Honesty so no worries :)

This article linked by the OP looks so long/evasive. Having "continuing revelation" is very convenient and makes so much of what they suggest to be rubbish & in fact harmful to the Church's reputation if anyone were to take it seriously.