Is Mormon belief little more than wishful thinking?

Question

"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

Alma 32:27

What is the difference between desire-based belief and wishful thinking?

Answer 1

No more than Christainity in general.

Answer 2

The difference is that a desire-based belief in the TRUTH will begin to "enlighten your understanding" and "enlarge your soul" as you would know, if you had read the next verse.

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Alma 32:28

Now, what is the harm in trying the experiment, my friend? What could you possibly lose? If you exercise the faith, the desire and the experiment, and if no such "swelling" motions occur, you will have lost nothing. But if you take up the experiment as suggested, and your soul enlarges and your understanding becomes enlightened then you have gained riches beyond your current imaginings.

God bless. I hope you truly try it.

Answer 3

Since it has been explained very well in the answers thus far.. I will put it a different way. When you get into your new car and put the key in the ignition... You hope the vehicle will start. The more and more you do this, the less hope you have and the more faith you gain... but why does the car start when you turn the key? When you "take apart the car" and study how it works.. you gain knowledge, and that will strengthen your faith. Point being... you can't always interpret the meaning of something or how it works just by "Holding the Key" (or reading one verse)... you need to look at the whole picture, study it out, gain knowledge which will become your wisdom. It is natural for us to learn in progression... but we have to have the desire to learn.

Answer 4

1 NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen
(New Testament | Hebrews 11:1)

21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

The key is, faith in things that are true, and it can be confirmed by the Holy Ghost, while wishful thinking is just individual wants, that only satisfy the dreamer's fantasy.

Besides believing, one must study it, and ask the Lord if it be right.

7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 9:7 - 8)
(Book of Mormon | Alma 32:21)

Answer 5

In order to carry out a behavior, a new behavior for you, you need to think about it first. You need to " visualize it" if you will, before that behavior actually takes place. We all do this, even pro athletes. Have you ever watched a basketball player step up to the free throw line and "go through the motions" of shooting a foul shot before actually doing it? That visualization helps the player "practice" the intended behavior.

That is all Alma is teaching us here. In order to practice a new behavior, IE faith, you need to start with the basics and "visualize" or desire as Alma puts it, to do the behavior. then,. the next step would be to put that desired behavior into practice. Or, in other words, to actually shot the free throw, or to actually practice being faithful.

Answer 6

I absolutely love the chapter of Alma 32 - it's such a good discourse on faith and truth. I hope you read the whole chapter...because what comes after that talks about testing that desire (or little seed as he compares it to) to see if it's really a true and good seed or not.

The next verse starts of the test with:

"28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

So you start with that little desire, that little particle of faith, and just let it work in your heart for a while - then you ask yourself:

Does this enlarge my soul? Does this enlighten my understanding? Does this feel delicious to my spirit?

He keeps going on to explain how to nourish your faith, how to turn into pure knowledge and discernment. It's such a good chapter, I keep learning something new from it every time I read it...the gospel is indeed delicious to me :)

Answer 7

I think Alma here was talking about passive faith and active faith. How many people do you know who say they believe in God, but 95% or more of their lives they are spending time on anything and everything but Him? What Alma is saying is that it requires effort to start to develop faith. You have to be willing to start pondering and studying out the things of God. Then you have to be willing to start obeying the commandments as well. It all has to do with rising above the mundane, physical things of the world and the attitude that "I know best" or "What's in it for me?" (the law of the jungle) and instead deciding that there is more to life than meets the eye. Have a happy day, and I send you a gummy bear.

Answer 8

Cookie777 and daisykristina's answers are so well-worded, I'll only add one thing. Have you read in Mark chapter 9 when a father brought his child to Jesus to be healed who "hath a dumb spirit"? Jesus said to him "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." And then the father said "Lord I believe; help thou mine unbelief." In other words, he had doubts, but he wanted to believe. In this particular case, his desire to believe paid off. He was rewarded with the fruits of his desire and his faith was increased. What if he had addressed his plea to a witch doctor instead and was told he had to have faith in witch medicine? Probably the child would not have been healed. His faith in that thing then would not increase. This is what Alma means by "experiment."
Peace.

Answer 9

I am not sure that anyone could ever really answer that question. That is what makes a faith. It is the belief in something afterwards, something beyond this life. And any person that doesn't share that belief can consider the faith of others as wishful thinking.

So really the difference is in the eye of the beholder.

Answer 10

Isn't ANY belief a desire-based belief? I mean if you don't WANT to believe that this guy sat under a bodhai tree and received enlightenment, are you apt to? If you don't WANT to believe that a man was nailed to a tree to suffer for all humanity, are you going to? Isn't that sort of the point of religion in general?

Answer 11

Any faith this is so captivated with making black pores and skin coloration be a technique or the different on the subject of a curse or a mark for God to p.c. out a sinner... that guy or woman needs to comprehend that the religion is a made up cult. The Bible does not HAVE the type of ingredient. And one ingredient Mormonism does with the passages below is make it appear like it became easily interior the Bible... even if it wasn't. listed right here are the offending racist MORMON passages: 2 Nephi 5:21 21 And he had led to the cursing again upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, by way of fact of their iniquity. For behold, that they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they have been white, and fantastically ordinary and delightsome, that they would not be captivating unto my people our lord god did reason a pores and skin of blackness again upon them. 3 Nephi 2:14-15 14 And it got here to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites have been numbered between the Nephites; 15 And their curse became taken from them, and their pores and skin became white like unto the Nephites; Moses 7:22 22 And Enoch additionally beheld the residue of the persons that have been the sons of Adam; and that they have got been a mix of each and every of the seed of Adam save it became the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain have been black, and had no longer place between them. Abraham a million:21-24,27 21 Now this king of Egypt became a descendant from the loins of Ham, and became a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites with the help of start. 22 From this descent sprang each and all of the Egyptians, and to that end the blood of the Canaanites became preserved interior the land. 23 The land of Egypt being first got here upon with the help of a woman, who became the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which interior the Chaldean exhibits Egypt, which exhibits that that's forbidden; 24 while this woman got here upon the land it became below water, who in a while settled her sons in it; and to that end, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse interior the land. 27 Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage with the help of which he ought to no longer have the marvelous of Priesthood, even if the Pharaohs could fain declare it from Noah, via Ham, subsequently my father became led away with the help of their idolatry;