"... [A] recent New York Times story focused on Hans H. Mattson, a third-generation Mormon and former bishop, stake president and Area Authority Seventy from Sweden who has been speaking openly, to the Times and elsewhere, about his doubts.

“'I felt like I had an earthquake under my feet,' Mattsson told the Times. 'Everything I’d been taught, everything I’d been proud to teach and witness just crumbled under my feet.'”

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8655836 65/Simple-faith-in-a-digital-age.html [For some reason, RfM won't allow me include part of the address in this link--so if you would like to read the article, copy and paste the address into an address box and remove the space.]

However--and predictably--the article focuses on Mormon apologists' spin:

Terryl Givens concludes that faith in Mormonism "can absorb doubt — and be enhanced by it."

And,

"Dr. Richard L. Bushman ... said he doesn’t think 'you could prove there is more disaffection from Mormonism now than before.'”

This, even though it was widely reported that Elder Marlin Jensen has admitted that:

"'Maybe since Kirtland, we've never had a period of - I'll call it apostasy, like we're having now'...."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/us-mormonchurch-idUSTRE80T1CM20120131



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2013 12:47PM by Fetal Deity.

God, Bushman is an intellectual whore of the first order.

I read the Deseret News article earlier today.

The church will always alienate doubters when they address the issue by citing studies that say that those who are more educated doubt the church less. After reading that in the first few paragraphs, I could barely finish the article.

All the degrees in the world won't help someone who wants to believe. In fact, I think sometimes a high level of education can help believers rationalize the inconsistencies they have to face with their belief system. In other words, education does not equal logical/rational thinking. A lot of Mormon apologists are individuals of very high educational levels, but have become masters at tortured mental gymnastics and cherry picking "evidence" from their vast backgrounds to "prove" Mormonism true.

Its as simple as remembering who owns the dessert news. Haha auto correct.