Mormons: How sincerely do I have to pray?

Question

To fool myself into thinking the Egyptologists are wrong, and the Mormon Church is true?

Answer 1

how much sincere prayer does it take to be convinced to suicide bomb a market full of people, or fly a jet into a building? If you pray real hard I bet you could convince yourself you are not an evolved amoeba - good for you! You are special!

Answer 2

Let me turn this question around. How long do you have to go to college before you can fool yourself into thinking that the Egyptologists have the truth?

I have four advanced college science degrees, including a Ph.D. When you examine the history of your science you learn that what has been accepted as well established fact, and is firmly believed by almost all the scientist in your day and age, changes every 100 or 200 years, or more often. We always think that what we believe today is the absolute truth, and will never change, but it always does change. So I wouldn't feel too confident that any scientist is right, and the believers are wrong.

In regard to Egyptologists, I think they will also disagree with Christianity, and tell you that there is no evidence that Moses ever existed. So, if we believe the Egpytologists we have to throw out the Bible as well as other scriptures believed by the Mormons.

The actual disagreement the Mormons have with the Egyptologists is not that great. Anti-Mormons have made much more of it that is real. Usually they do this by distorting what the Mormons actually believe.

Answer 3

Well, for a Mormon that has built up a very large testimony (bigger is always better), they already know the egyptologists are wrong because God told them.

For you, the unbeliever, you are going to have to pray REALLY REALLY hard and build your testimony and pray some more and get warm fuzzies and then cry in testimony meeting and then maybe one day, if you truly believe and are sincerely sincere, you will pray and get the answer you have told yourself you are trying to receive. In this case, the thing about the egyptions. If you don't ever get that, you need to pray harder and more sincere.

In other words, if you don' t get the answer the Mormons tell you you were supposed to get, obviously you haven't prayed hard enough or sincere enough.

Answer 4

I've read about this conundrum - the facts about a certain object or concept taught by a religious body is counter to observable and verifiable fact. Terracentrism vs heliocentricism comes to mind.

Now, if there is truly a god who responds to prayers to those truly seeking enlightenment, and confirms that "Yes, the Earth is the center of the Universe I have created just for you", my response is gong to be one of intense cognitive dissonance.
If God confirms that the earth is merely a satellite orbiting a stable M-Class star, what do I tell the priest?

Any religion that condemns artists, scientists, researchers, scholars and thinkers probably has too much dogma that will fail under inspection. In the case of the mormon church, they unfortunately rely of 19th century folk tales as part of their core of beliefs.

I kind of wonder what will be taught as 'doctrine' fifty years from now as opposed to what becomes classified as 'opinion'.

Answer 5

Well it is like this! You either have faith, or you don't have faith!
How hard is it to believe that God is in Heaven! We have never seen Him! So why do we think He is there? Faith, and because that is what we are taught!
We have been taught that the Church is true! Just because YOU don't choose to think so, is your right to do so! Please leave us to think as WE choose!

But, thank you for asking about what we believe! You really give us a chance to explain what we think, and what we believe, every time you ask your questions! An if you and your friends didn't keep asking these question all the time, we would never have this chance to spread our word, so, thanks again!

Answer 6

First you have to remove doubt. And leave room for Faith. It does seem that one must pray a lot sometimes for a right answer. Sometimes you get the answer but don't recognize it. Fasting comes into play as well.

Swiss seems to have been one of those that has always doubted but went along to sacrament meeting anyway, so it would seem to him that you would need to pray and pray and pray. But it is true if you are sincere then you will get an answer.

But since you already seem to have an answer and not want to think other wise, then your praying will be in vain.

Answer 7

instead of asking if the mormon church is true, try asking if the doctrine is true or not. try specifics too. you might find it a little easier to get some answers.

Answer 8

That's a good question.
How sincerely does one have to pray to realize that about 2 square ft. have been found of a papyrus scroll that rolled across *two rooms* before it was mostly destroyed by fire?

I think your question is less about sincerity of prayer and faith, but more about how we handle logic and polarized sources of fact.

Answer 9

Everyone has their own price of truth.

What is truth worth to you.

Some takes weeks, some take years.

From your statement, you are going no where.

Answer 10

Depends on how sincerel you want the truth from God.