Another scripture for you edification...

[lunaverse]

Alma 32:26-43 (http://scriptures.lds.org/query?words=alma+32%3A26-43&scripturesearch_button=Search)

If you so wish, please read the above scripture. Viewing the old familiar lines with new eyes may be healing. Either way, I'll sum up and offer commentary.

Many of you may remember this famous experiment proposed by Alma the Scientist, Ph.D. He was the first doctrinologist to propose farming as a metholody for fact-finding.

The basis of this experiment is planting a seed. If it is good, it will grow to good fruit, implying that if it doesn't, it was a bad seed.

But if it doesn't grow, if the root withers....

"...this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof."

To summarize: First you plant a seed, and if it is good, it will grow into good fruit, but first you have to have faith and nourish it, and so if it doesn't grow, this does NOT mean the seed was bad, but instead that it's your fault for having barren soil.

Logic: If the seed grows, it's good. If it doesn't, it's good, too, but you aren't.

Luna

[Born Free]

Alma 32:26-43 (http://scriptures.lds.org/query?words=alma+32%3A26-43&scripturesearch_button=Search)

If you so wish, please read the above scripture. Viewing the old familiar lines with new eyes may be healing. Either way, I'll sum up and offer commentary.

Many of you may remember this famous experiment proposed by Alma the Scientist, Ph.D. He was the first doctrinologist to propose farming as a metholody for fact-finding.

The basis of this experiment is planting a seed. If it is good, it will grow to good fruit, implying that if it doesn't, it was a bad seed.

But if it doesn't grow, if the root withers....

"...this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof."

To summarize: First you plant a seed, and if it is good, it will grow into good fruit, but first you have to have faith and nourish it, and so if it doesn't grow, this does NOT mean the seed was bad, but instead that it's your fault for having barren soil.

Logic: If the seed grows, it's good. If it doesn't, it's good, too, but you aren't.

Luna
Luna,
This sort of Mo Logic always worried me, even before I took the leap.

Exercising faith in something seemed like building a biase into the evaluation process from go, which never made any sense for me.

Using a prior bias, one can get all enthused about most anything, but of course one was OK to build in a ProMo biase, but run with an AntiOther biase on everything else. Like , go figure!

Daryl

PS: Sorry to all for being a bit thin on the ground at present. I am currently in San Francisco after a weekend around the Sierra foothills winetasting and checking out Yosemite. Painful weekend. :eek:

[peter_mary]

Ironically, it was Alma 32 that provided me the "spiritual boost" I needed as a young man to finally decide to join the Church. I have come to realize in hindsight that it was a desire within me to join (the girl I wanted to marry wouldn't dream of marrying outside the Church), and so Alma 32 provided exactly the recipe for success in producing the spiritual verification I required, and after a tearful, spiritually moving moment, I called the missionaries and scheduled my baptism.

Powerful shit, man.

I've thought a great deal about this kind of reasoning in the Church, because it is rampant, but Alma 32 is in fact kind of the crowning jewel in this brand of Mo-logic. The Church is repleat with messages of, "The Church is true, and anyone who can't see that is not spiritual/righteous/worthy enough to do so." The implication is that only when you become spiritual/righteous/worthy enough will the spirit whisper the truthfullness to you.

What is REALLY being said is, as I discovered personally, "Once you make up your mind to believe it, you'll believe it!" Or, "Once you DECIDE it is true, it WILL be!"

There's an interesting flip side: Once you decide it's NOT true, it WON'T be!

Anyway, Joseph used this kind or reasoning on his people at every juncture, and Church leaders continue to do so to this day. It's the truck that delivers all the guilt.

Peter_Mary

[lunaverse]

What I find interesting is that Alma was my favorite book. I liked his mighty change of heart and his talk of experiments.

I'm discovering that most of what were once my favorite scriptures, hyms, primary songs, stories, and GAs, are actually the most tricky and controlling. It's quite a confusing thing for me.

Luna

[free thinker]

I'm discovering that most of what were once my favorite scriptures, hyms, primary songs, stories, and GAs, are actually the most tricky and controlling. It's quite a confusing thing for me.


Subtle exploitation of vulnerability I think.

ft