Quotes

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If you like the terms Mormon and LDS, don't fret. Just wait a prophet or two. Revelation will swing back in your direction.
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KUTV 2News covers McKenna Denson's confrontation of Joseph Bishop, who has acknowledged sexually assaulting McKenna in the Provo MTC. As far as we know, Joseph Bishop was never punished for the sexual assault, and remains a member in good standing while... ... Sam Young will be excommunicated this Sunday for attempting to protect LDS children from sexual abuse.
John Dehlin
Mormon Stories
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The Flat Earth Society has members from all around the globe.
tTGA
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The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Imagine if a pre-1978 inter-racial couple who were deeply in love with each other had decided to sacrifice that love by splitting up just so they could reap God's blessings.
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We're supposed to believe that the spirit will tell us when prophets are just speaking as men but won't tell them not to be racist?
Zelph on the Shelf
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If you're at ALL uncomfortable about the Roy-Moore-pursuing-14-year-olds thing, you should at least be AWARE of the Joseph-Smith-pursuing-14-year-olds thing.
Zelph on the Shelf
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It's chaos, be kind.
Michelle Eileen McNamara
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When Noah's Ark finally rested atop Mt. Ararat, the kangaroos stepped off and hopped 7,726 miles straight to Australia. And without any opposing thumbs, they picked up every bone from their own dead so as to not leave a trace of their migration. Isn't that remarkable?
tTGA
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Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.

Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great, how religion poisons everything

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Reason is the Devil’s harlot, who can do naught but slander and harm whatever God says and does.

Martin Luther

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We sacrifice the intellect to God.

Ignatius Loyola

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We no longer have any need of a god to explain what is no longer mysterious. What believers will do, now that their faith is optional and private and irrelevant, is a matter for them. We should not care, as long as they make no further attempt to inculcate religion by any form of coercion.

Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great, how religion poisons everything

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Science doesn't know everything. Religion doesn't know anything.

AaronRa (admits that he didn't think of it first)

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The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction:

jealous and proud of it;

a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak;

a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser;

a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Richard Dawkins

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I do whatever the Bible tells me to do. Except for the parts that I choose to ignore because they're unrealistic and inconvenient, but the rest I live by for sure.

Every Christian Ever

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I'm not usually religious but one time, I was on a plane that was going through some really frightening and violent turbulence. So, I immediately began taking rights away from gay people.

Dan Mintz

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How to prove prayer works...

Don't pray for something that can happen. Pray for something that cannot happen.

Bill Flavell

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No, I'm not religious. And I find it deeply insulting that you would presume that someone as smart as me shares your narrow, delusional world view.

tTGA (the Thinking Great Ape)

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Astrology...

The belief that huge balls of rocks, liquid, gases, and nuclear fusion reactions billions or trillions of miles away from Earth can affect the financial, sexual, emotional, and employment situations of individual carbon-based life forms on one specific planet.

tTGA

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If you believe that this is a war against terror, you are gullible to lies. This is a war of religious intolerance. It's Muslims against Christians.

Leon Gibb

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You shall know what is NOT the truth,

And THAT shall make you free.

Richard Bushman

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The trouble with people is not that they don't know,

But that they know so much that ain't so.

Josh Billings

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What is the gift you're going to give to the world?

Katherine Ozment

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Religion is the accepted insanity and the plague that afflicts humanity. It is a multi-billion dollar tax exempt industry which peddles snake oil that makes people stupid about reality.

Jerry Bloom

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I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.

Clarence Darrow

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It is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window.

Sam Harris

The End of Faith

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Which beliefs one takes to be foundational will dictate what seems reasonable at any given moment. When the members of the "Heaven's Gate" cult failed to spot the spacecraft they knew must be trailing the comet Hale-Bopp, they returned the $4000 telescope they had bought for this purpose, believing it to be defective.

Sam Harris

The End of Faith

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We have the obligation to find out what is truth, and then we have the obligation to walk in the light and to apply the truths that we have learned to ourselves and to influence others to do likewise.

Boyd K. Packer

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Some people are so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good.

Neil Carter's grandma

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Dude! Nobody's normal!

Atypical

S1 E1 0:31:53

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Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

Madalyn Murray O'hair

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After all, what we really want is not to kill God. We simply want a personal relationship with reality.

Seth Andrews

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For me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Carl Sagan

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Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.

Alejandro Jodorowsky

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You can't just say there is a God because the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cancer in children. You have to account for the fact that almost all animals in the wild live under stress, with not enough to eat, and will die violent and bloody deaths. There is not any way you can just choose the nice bits, and say that means there is a God, and ignore the true fact of what nature is. The wonder of nature must be taken in its totality.

Steven Fry

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Trial one: Aspirin plus prayer...

Result: Headache gone.

Trial two: Aspirin without prayer...

Result: Even without being asked, God removed the pain.

Trial three: Prayer without aspirin...

Result: God is probably using the pain to serve a greater purpose.

Unknown

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Today, the single most dangerous threat to humanity is religion.

Leon Gibb 

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There's no such thing as a Christian child, only a child of Christian parents.

Richard Dawkins

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According to religion I am:

     Broken

     Flawed

     Sinful

     Dumb

     Weak

     Nothing

According to science I am:

     Full of wonder

     Smart

     A great learner

     Beautiful

     Potential for greatness!

Which do you think is more damaging?

The Thinking Great Ape

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America prays to God to destroy its enemies. Our enemies pray to God to destroy us. Somebody's going to be disappointed. Somebody's wasting their time. Could it be... ... everyone?

George Carlin

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If you believe that you can pray over your morning pancakes and they will turn into the body of Elvis, you are crazy. If you believe that you can pray over a cracker and it will turn into the body of Christ, you are a Catholic.

Sam Harris

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In my country I am forced to keep my mouth shut but here I am free to talk trash about this country in the hopes that I can soon change it into a country where I am forced to keep my mouth shut.

Muslim woman

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Science adjusts its views based on what's observed.

Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved.

Tim Minchin

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The Bible makes perfect sense... as soon as you realize it was written in a time when women were the property of men, slavery was commonplace and death was the penalty for minor offenses. A time when a belief in gods and magic was ubiquitous, and gods were used to explain every unknown (which was almost everything). A time when grown men knew less about the world than the average 12 year old does today. Then, it made perfect sense but those days are long gone.

Anonymous

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Toddler: When I grow up, mommy, I want to be religious.

Mommy: You need to make up your mind, hon  ...you can't do both.

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Only in America do we accept weather predictions from a rodent but deny climate change evidence from scientists.

The Thinking Great Ape

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Cult: A small and unpopular religion.

Religion: A large and popular cult.

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Ah, the classic "chemakillz" fear mongering. This is something the anti-GMO lobby has latched onto and chooses to intentionally mislead people about. Fact is, if you've ever eaten corn (even organic!) you've eaten a GMO. Corn used to be the size of your finger, but now it's been bred to be bigger and sweeter. The word chemical is not a scary word. The fact is that everything you've ever eaten is a chemical. Period. Even the water you drink is a chemical. Is that scary? No. Dogs are the descendants of selectively bred wolves. THAT is a GMO. I don't know why anti-GMO groups rely so heavily on fear. It's disingenuous, misleading and ultimately boils down to one big hypocritical lie. Organics still use pesticides. Some are more dangerous than ones in conventional farming. But organics companies happily allow you to think "natural is better." Nature does not give a shit about you. Nature will fucking kill you. Think about that before you overpay for "organic" food.

Nizzlekicks

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Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

H. L. Mencken

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What can be more arrogant than thinking that the same god who didn't stop the Holocaust will help you pass your driving test?

Ricky Gervais

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You're going to hell.

    What's in hell?

People like you.

    What's in heaven?

People like me.

    You need to work on your threats!

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Moralist: It isn't me saying that homosexuality is an abomination. It's in the bible!

Rationalist: Yes it is. Let me ask you a few questions while I have you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery (Exodus 21:7). She's a BYU sophomore and speaks fluent Italian. What would a good price for her be? While you think about that, let me ask you another. My chief of staff insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or should I call the police? Also, does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads?

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Would you still do good if you didn't believe you would be rewarded for it in a afterlife? If you wouldn't, it isn't my morality that you should be worried about.

The Thinking Great Ape

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If the people of this religion are asked about the proof for the soundness of their religion, they flair up, get angry, and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation, and strive to kill their adversaries. This is why truth became thoroughly silenced and concealed.

Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (854 CE - 925 CE)

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Apologist: Yes, the bible has a lot of sick stuff in it but it has some good stuff too.

Atheist: You mean it's like arsenic laced with vitamin C?

The Thinking Great Ape

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You don't see faith healers working in hospitals for the same reason that you don't see psychics winning the lottery.

Twitter

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Religion is a thought prison with restraints that are only seen after you're free.

Neil Campbell

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Strange times are these, in which we live,
    When young and old are taught in falsehood's school.
And the one man who dares to tell the truth
    Is called at once a lunatic and fool.

Plato

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I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth, if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.

Leo Tolstoy

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We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world's ills or one solution to the world's needs has done untold harm throughout history.

General Kofi Annan

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You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd, and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones who need help?

Mark Twain

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If we go back to the beginnings of things, we shall always find that ignorance created the gods; that imagination, rapture, and deception embellished them; that weakness worships them; that custom spares them; and that tyranny favors them in order to profit from the blindness of men.

Paul Henri Thiry

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Wherever I found religion in my life I found strife, the attempt of one individual or group to rule another in the name of God.

Richard Wright

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Life in Lubbock Texas taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.

Butch Hancock

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Politics, like religion, is only a game. The object of the game is the use of dominion to extract money out of your pocket into someone else's.

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Husbands are like fires. They go out when unattended.

Zsa Zsa Gabor

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I voted felonious over butt-crack, stupid-ass crazy!

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"Like a judge that makes a ruling, and then new evidence is presented, I've weighed that, I've considered that, and I've overturned my ruling. Some people have said, 'How can you deny your past experiences, the testimony you had of the Book of Mormon, and things that you have said?' I don't..! Meaning, in that moment when I said those things, I fully believed them. It was special to me. I had special experiences. But now new evidence has come in and I can't, in good conscience, give my life personally or professionally to something that I think is not being truthful about what it is or where it came from

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And the target moves another inch or two to the left!

"There are some things the Book of Mormon is not. It is not a textbook of history, although some history is found within its pages. It is not a definitive work on ancient American agriculture or politics. It is not a record of all former inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, but only of particular groups of people."

Russell M. Nelson

Missionary Training Center

June 2016

Click here

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A man who won't lie to a woman has little consideration for her feelings.
The Absolute

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We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts (apologetics) so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield. (in a battle against DNA, archaeology, or church history)
George Orwell
(bold mine)

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The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

George Bernard Shaw

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I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Stephen Roberts

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One reason we rush so quickly to the vulgar satisfactions of judgment, and love to revel in our righteous outrage, is that it spares us from the impotent pain of empathy, and the harder, messier work of understanding.

Tim Kreider

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The average girl would rather have beauty than brains because she knows that the average man can see better than he can think.
The Absolute
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Humanists try to behave decently and honorably without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. The creator of the Universe has been to us unknowable so far. We serve as well as we can the highest abstraction of which we have some understanding, which is our community.

Kurt Vonnegut

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The higher the peaks,

The lower the dips,

The deeper the pool must be.

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"The thing you said made me feel bad, so I don't think it's true and I don't think you're a nice person."

The firefighter sighed and raised the megaphone to her mouth. "Sir, you probably feel bad because you're inhaling a lot of smoke. Your house is on fire and you need to come to the window and go down the ladder with me NOW."

But the homeowner knew in his heart that he was a good person and a smart person and the kind of person who would never accidentally leave the stove on and drop a hand towel onto the burner. That just wasn't in character for him.

crustacean singles

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What if every Mormon suddenly decided to do something worthwhile, good, and real with their 10% monthly sacrifice by donating it instead, to the National Cancer Institute? Just think of the millions, even billions of dollars that could be put to work doing beneficial, legitimate good for mankind.

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Woman: a biped with two hands, two feet, two breasts, two eyes, and two faces.
The Absolute
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When I realized that to be a Mormon in good standing and out of suspicion with your Utah County neighbors you ought to be a gun toting, anti-gay, GOP voting, white {male} supremacist, ponzi-scheme loving, constitution touting capitalist - this democratic socialist about keeled over!

Gina Colvin

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It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it.

Edmund Way Teale

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There have been nearly 3000 Gods so far but only yours actually exists. The others are silly, made-up nonsense. But not yours. Yours is real.

Ricky Gervais

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Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time. It is therefore at least millions to one that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.

Thomas Paine

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The problem Mormonism encounters is that so many of its claims are well within the realm of scientific study, and as such, can be proven or disproven. To cling to faith in these areas, where the overwhelming evidence is against you, is willful ignorance, not spiritual dedication.

Tom Philips

(Click Here)

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Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

John Adams

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Ironically, Mormonism is 100% comprised of inconclusive evidence yet Mormons unflinchingly bear their testimonies that they KNOW the Church is true. Then, when confronted with any actual evidence that challenges their testimony, they discount it by calling it inconclusive.

Leon Gibb

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Once you go fact, you can't go back!

Mr. Diety

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"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."

Susan B. Anthony

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Skeptic - Did you fact-check this before you re-posted it?

True Believer - I don't need to. It agrees with my preconceived views and biases so it must be true!

thelogicofscience.com

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My emotions don't mean something is true, they are just information on how I'm feeling.

Marisa Pond Calderwood

Click here

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And then the thought came across Joseph's mind. If God created Adam from mud and dust, couldn't he have created His own son without screwing my wife?

Unknown (to me)

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I will not stand Idly by, in line like sheep by the cliff-side, and allow myself once again to be guilty of blindly obeying something that my moral convictions tell me is wrong.

Leon Gibb

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They've been wrong before. They're wrong now.

Leon Gibb

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"Truth doesn't fear doubt."

The Book of Freon 1:4

Click here

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Nobody dislikes me quite as well as I do. I'm the best!

Leon Gibb

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I'm willing to concede that the youthful, humble, uneducated, and impoverished farmer Joseph Smith could not have possibly had the means, talents, or capacities to concoct such a complex literary work as The Book of Mormon.  But I also must concede that the devil DOES possess the means, talents, and capacities to concoct such a complex literary work and very likely COULD accomplish such a task through a young and uneducated farmer such as Joseph Smith. This is particularly believable in light of the Mormon Church's recent acknowledgment that Joseph Smith had years of previous training and experience in communicating with the occult.

Leon Gibb

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Because if anybody has the right to condemn any variation on traditional one-man, one-woman marriage, it's the Mormons!

Twitter

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Recent update to Mormon Handbook of Instructions:

"Eighteen year old children of LGBT parents must denounce their parents before being allowed to be baptized." After claiming for years that LGBT people were destroying families, the LDS Church is now trying to destroy LGBT families.

Twitter

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Recent update to Mormon Handbook of Instructions:

"Children of cohabitating (or married) gay parents cannot be given a name, and a blessing, or be baptized {until they denounce their parents after they turn 18}. But we love gay people."

Twitter

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Skepticism -- the simple request for reasoning or evidence before accepting a proposition -- is a virtue to treasure and cultivate in our kids. But cynicism is something quite different. A cynical position makes negative assumptions as a matter of course, not as a result of the evidence, so a cynic is as uncritical as a dewy-eyed believer. One accepts without thinking; the other rejects without thinking. Both postures are obstacles to critical thinking, and both should be actively avoided.

The Inquiring Mind

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In view of the LDS Church's recent publication of pictures of Joseph Smith's magic seer stone that he used for translating the Book of Mormon, it gives their claim/statement of authenticity, "upon this rock" (Matt 16:18), an entirely new perspective!

Leon Gibb

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We should "give a break" to past prophets who used racist, sexist, violent, and doctrinally incorrect rhetoric, but modern members can get disciplined for speaking the truth or expressing their views?

It's okay for Joseph Smith to break his own laws regarding polygamy, but members can get disciplined for breaking a non-scriptural rule against masturbation?

We should worry about exposed shoulders, two-piece swimsuits, and short shorts even though the only thing the book "written for our day" says about clothing is to beware of expensive, fine-quality clothes typically worn by church leaders?

Gay men can't be scout leaders, but straight men are allowed to meet alone with a teenager behind closed doors and ask them deeply personal questions about their sexuality?

Despite Judeo-Christian history being full of polygamy and concubinage, marriage has always been between one man and one woman?

Joseph Smith ("the man who communed with Jehovah") and Jesus Christ (Jehovah") frequently had alcohol  and even drank wine shortly before their deaths, but alcohol today will keep somebody out of the temple?

A person must be honest in their dealings with their fellow men to get into a temple run by an organization that continues to obfuscate its history and practices, make demonstrably false claims, and hide its financial records?

Nephite prophets went through great pains to engrave their history on plates that were abridged, protected, transported, and buried by Moroni so that Joseph Smith could dictate the Book of Mormon without even looking at them?

Members can't drink beer which is prescribed by the Word of Wisdom, but can eat meat excessively which is prohibited by the Word of Wisdom?

Joseph Smith saw God, Jesus Christ, and the angel Moroni but the plates were the physical evidence he needed in order to have faith in his calling. Yet the reason there is no physical evidence of the Book of Mormon is so that members can have faith?

The church always talks about protecting religious freedom, but its schools expel anyone who leaves the church?

A member must declare every year that they pay 10% of their money to a church that won't declare what they do with the tithe-payers money?

Members must sustain church leaders as prophets, seers, and revelators despite the fact that leaders don't prophesy, "see," or reveal anything?

Tanner Gilliland

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The awkward moment when you trust DNA to find ancestors to do saving temple work for, but reject it when it proves the Book of Mormon wrong.

Zelphontheshelf

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When your religion is all about being a little better than everyone else around you to the point of finding out you have flaws that is threatening to a level that one must label it "anti-Mormon" and spend hours singing praises to your own beliefs being a bit better than everyone else's, your religion doesn't deserve respect. It doesn't deserve to be treated on a par with other beliefs ...because the belief that one is slightly better than everyone else isn't a virtue that improves the world, but something that drags individuals down and shields them from improvement.

Exploring Mormonism

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Satan is so pesky! Making people think it's wrong to marry other men's wives and teenagers. Classic Satan!

Zelphontheshelf

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"Sisters, don't go around looking like men. Wear a little lipstick from time to time. It's not that hard!"

M. Russel Ballard

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"Even a barn door looks better when it's painted!"

David O. McKay

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After considerable praise regarding how important women are in the church, he said, "Just don't talk too much in those meetings!"

M. Russel Ballard

(paraphrased)

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"If I could make out with any church leader it would probably be Elder Ballard. But only if he's wearing lipstick."

Kate Kelly

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"What is absolute truth in the morning of your life can turn out to be absolute lies in the afternoon of your life."

Wayne Dyer

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Joseph was killed because he destroyed a printing press for printing "lies" about him. But now the Church agrees with what the paper said while still maintaining that he was a martyr!
Zelphontheshelf
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The only way that you'll ever know that you're right is to be willing to admit that maybe you're wrong.

Leon Gibb

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"It's hard for me to understand anyone who turns to other voices on the internet without first turning to the voices of the scriptures or to the voices of the living prophets and apostles."

M. Russell Ballard 9/13/2015

Oh cool! So does that mean that Mr. Ballard will directly answer whether Joseph Smith taught that the Native Americans were all descended from people from the Middle East, and he'll explain to us why there is no evidence of this, while there is abundant evidence against it? If we go by his logic, no one in the Church would know anything about the Book of Abraham issues, polygamy/polyandry, the various first vision accounts. The living prophets and apostles tried to hide all that stuff by ex-communicating anyone who published on it. Not to mention the fact that the living apostles and prophets have contradicted themselves and changed doctrine. How are we supposed to rely on that exactly? Seems to me the message is to continue relying only on the Brethren in ignorance. Conform and obey. Don't seek the truth.

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There comes a point when you absolutely cannot just "choose to believe". Choosing to believe in the face of [compelling] evidence to the contrary = delusion.
Zelphontheshelf
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"... I agree that one needs to have faith - but when does faith become willful ignorance? Faith should bridge the gap between our logical knowledge and our spiritual selves. But when faith contradicts fact, are we expected to ignore fact? Does God, who gave us our logical brains, expect us to suspend their use as part of endless mental gymnastics to prove our fealty not only to Him, but to other men?"

(click here)

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Brainwashing somebody to follow the prophet doesn't count as "agency".
Zelphontheshelf
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I'm not "anti-Mormon". I'm pro-integrity!

(Click here)

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The heart of contemporary Mormon discourse... dictates that it is more right to be unified around a fallacy than it is to raise a challenge to the group's world view.

Gina Colvin

(Click here)

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The Church I grew up believing in, the Church I've raised my family in has officially admitted:

1. "The First Visions aren't exactly what we said they were."

2. "The Book of Mormon translation isn't exactly what we said it was."

3. "The curse of dark skin isn't exactly what we said it was."

4. "The Native Americans aren't exactly what we said they were."

5. "The Book of Abraham isn't exactly what we said it was."

6. "Polygamy isn't exactly what we said it was."

You know what? I am under no legal, moral, religious, cultural or family obligations to stay... it isn't what I thought it was.

Sandra Tanner

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At the age of 37, when he already had at least 25 wives, Warren Jeffs told a 14 year old girl that if she married him, she and all her family would be exalted in heaven. No... Wait... Pardon me... My mistake. That was Joseph Smith. I always get the two of them mixed up!
Zelphontheshelf

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Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?"

Priest: "No, not if you did not know."

Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?"

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Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

Ambrose Bierce

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Am I to believe in every absurdity? If not, why this one in particular?

Sigmund Freud

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Welcome to Planet Earth, where belief masquerades as knowledge!

This way to the unasked questions...

That way to unquestioned answers...

Anonymous

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"Milk before meat" shouldn't mean disguising meat as milk so vegetarians will eat it.
Zelphontheshelf
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Science is open to criticism, which is the opposite of religion. Science begs you to prove it wrong - that's the whole concept - whereas religion condemns you if you try to prove it wrong. It tells you to accept it on faith and shut the hell up.

Jason Stock

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The threat of punishment for disbelief is the crowning touch of Christian misology. Believe in Jesus - regardless of evidence or justification - or be subjected to agonizing torture. With this theme reverberating throughout the New Testament, we have intellectual intimidation, transcendental blackmail in its purest form. Threats replace argumentation and irrationality gains the edge over reason through an appeal to brute force. Man's ability to think and question becomes his most dangerous liability, and the intellectually frightened, docile, unquestioning believer who doubts his doubts is presented as the exemplification of moral perfection.

George H. Smith

(bold added by me)

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Satan controls the water yet you're baptized in it!

Kathy Evans

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What's the first thing that a hen teaches her chicks about crossing the street? Close your eyes, walk quickly, and hope for the best..! You may have taught your children to open their eyes and to look both ways. Mormons have their eyes open but they are only willing to look one way. Even blind people exercise better judgment when crossing the street.

Leon Gibb

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"....'Noble Cause Corruption'.... is the practice of excusing poor and even unethical conduct as having a noble end. Noble cause corruption is the belief that 'good intentions purify bad behavior' like for instance; polygamy; racism; the unequal treatment of women; the support of unjust war; the spiritual and physical abuse of LGBQTI folk; cultural imperialism; secrecy with respect to church finances; an extraordinarily unhealthy affinity with the extreme right etc.. I've heard all of these practices and policies excused time and again because apparently they derive from some heavenly intention - thus, there is no need to retract, or repent."

"Doubters... Without exception are hurt by a church that preaches and requires full disclosure and honesty of its adherents but have neglected to do the same in return. But being hurt and angry doesn't make them apostate. Far from it. They are people who for the most part love the church, have profound testimonies of the divine in their lives, have given years of service, have loved, cried with, and have served the heartbroken, the poor and the needy."

Gina Colvin

(click here)

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Joseph Smith claimed that to look at the plates without the "gift" meant instant death. Why then, did he worry about them being stolen?

Leon Gibb

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You are my wall of reality against which all of my dreams are dashed to pieces.

Leon Gibb

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"And what I know to be true is that the Gospel of Christ.... does not cast out good women who exercise faith and speak according to their conscience. The Gospel of Christ does not proclaim the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman and then cast out a woman (Kate Kelly, among others) who dares discourage parents and seminary teachers from condoning materials (click here) which teach that God would command men to practice infidelity and sexual assault."

Emily Belanger

(click here)

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"The church's push to protect the rights of those practicing an immoral lifestyle all while hoping to somehow protect religious freedoms demonstrates to me they are lacking in moral judgment, inspiration, and leadership. If this continues at this pace, I will not leave [the] church -- the church will leave me."

Anonymous Bishop

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"Any time we free ourselves from religion and find that we really don't need it, we free ourselves from all the negatives of life and are fresh to learn how to live without feeling that 'you are the best and your's is the only way'. Others begin to matter just as much as you. You also find that you don't have to change the good that you know because you realize it is inherent to you as a human being."

Howard K (edited)

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"Losing your faith is not like realizing that you got an arithmetic problem wrong. It is more like discovering your entire mathematical system is flawed, that every calculation you've ever made was incorrect. Your bank balance is off, your life savings might be gone, your business could be in the red when you've imagined it to be flourishing, except you seem to be the only one who realizes it, and how is that possible? Is everyone crazy? Could you really be the only sane one? And if the entire world goes by a flawed system, doesn't it, in some odd way, make the wrong way right? Or at least, there is consistency; they're in sync, zigzagging together, while you walk the straight line all alone. And yet, you know, you know that you are right and they are wrong, and that you can demonstrate it if given the chance, but they won't give you the chance. You cannot speak of it because if you do, you will be like the lunatic who prophesies end-of-times doom and gloom, or like the one heralding some new Age brand of salvation and redemption. Passersby can barely be bothered to snigger."

Shulem Deen

(click here)

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pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.

Ambrose Bierce

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"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized that I was talking to myself."

Peter Barnes

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"My take is that 'doubt your doubt' is a double negative. Turn it around and it sounds moronic, 'believe your belief.'"

Don Bagley

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Dictated by Joseph Smith in July of 1843, D&C 132:54 says, in part, that God would destroy Emma Smith "if she abide not in [God's] law" (of polygamy). In less than 12 months, Joseph Smith died a violent death and Emma, who opposed polygamy, lived another 36 years until finally dying of natural causes.

Leon Gibb

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Regarding John Dehlin's disciplinary court...

Why is it wrong to want truth?

Why is it wrong to talk about truth?

Why is it wrong to help others learn and process truth?

Why does the Church fear the truth?

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If your favorite actor was spending a portion of your patronage in support of a cause you disagreed with, wouldn't you want to know?

If the LDS Church isn't true and you're a member of it, wouldn't you want to know?

Leon Gibb

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"The Mormon Church has a new statement on what they call 'Plural Marriage' and what I call Polygamy, Polyandry, Pedophilia, and Pious-coercion. Is it an over reaction to have your mind blown away by realizing the exploits of Ol' Joe Smith make Tiger Woods and Bill Cosby look benevolent and chaste in comparison?"

Klienrock Osei

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Those ideals that I believe today could be dismissed by future First Presidencies. Tell me again, if he's a prophet and he speaks for God but he's telling me something today that can be denounced tomorrow, why do I need a prophet and how can he possibly expect me to trust him?

Leon Gibb

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Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened.

Sir Winston Churchill

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The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

Jean Paul Sartre

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When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest.

Anonymous

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The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.

Mark Twain

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It's easier to fool people than it is to convince them that they've been fooled.

Mark Twain

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We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.

Carl Sagan

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If you are comfortable with a lie, you will never look for the truth.

Anonymous

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I've been single for a while and I have to say, it's going very well.

Like... it's working out.

I think I'm the one.

Emily Heller

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I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

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Faith is evidence enough, and reason becomes a threat to faith, thus, reason is from Satan, not God.