Open Letter to Kerry Muhlestein, Mormon Egyptologist

[_Dr Moore]

I’m all for learning about sacred texts with the heart and the mind, as Kerry says in his video. But is it two equal voices superimposing to make belief and worship that much more correct? Maybe, depending on the ideas. But when it comes to religion, I think not. I think there can be only one pilot with religion: mind or heart.

Heart-driven religious belief tells the mind it’s corrupt, unreliable, limited, and prone to pride. Fundamentally this is Mormonism. It may claim to embrace truth, but it also tells the mind how to think, even when that thinking contradicts external evidence. In this sense, the heart is proud and the mind submits. The person is less open to new ideas, even those which are demonstrably better.

Conversely, mind driven belief follows external evidence dispassionately. It doesn’t trust the heart to know truth a priori. Ironically, this mind and it’s subjugated heart are the more humble and open to adopting better ideas.

[_Gadianton]

We probably all live according to myth to some degree or another, not to say that this fact justifies Mopologists from living their myth (which I'm not sure they necessarily really do). But what our relationship with myth should be is a difficult question, at least for me.

As a non-religious example, take romantic love. We are wired to feel a certain way when with the right other person, while in a trope-like situation that we've been culturally programmed to recognize since we were very young. I find it hard to believe that two young people whose tour boat wrecks and wind up on the Blue Lagoon and experience the phenomena as designed are experiencing the same thing as say, two Phd psychiatrists who hook up at work.

If you're wired for the myth but at the same time understand how the wiring works, then that must make living the myth a little bit difficult. And so I think to become a religious studies expert or other specialist who takes apart religions to see how they work, it's really hard to be a true believer.

[_Kishkumen]

We probably all live according to myth to some degree or another, not to say that this fact justifies Mopologists from living their myth (which I'm not sure they necessarily really do). But what our relationship with myth should be is a difficult question, at least for me.

As a non-religious example, take romantic love. We are wired to feel a certain way when with the right other person, while in a trope-like situation that we've been culturally programmed to recognize since we were very young. I find it hard to believe that two young people whose tour boat wrecks and wind up on the Blue Lagoon and experience the phenomena as designed are experiencing the same thing as say, two Ph.D. psychiatrists who hook up at work.

If you're wired for the myth but at the same time understand how the wiring works, then that must make living the myth a little bit difficult. And so I think to become a religious studies expert or other specialist who takes apart religions to see how they work, it's really hard to be a true believer.

Great thoughts, Dean Robbers. In the case of romantic love, the myth does map very imperfectly on the reality. The chemical intoxication of early infatuation gives way to the reality of companionship and intimacy of a less intoxicating kind. Not that people cannot experience further periods of intoxication, but the day to day demands of life make constant erotic infatuation impractical to sustain. Romantic love is thus reinterpreted in other ways to match the real experience one has in living with a partner.

A spiritual path is the same way. I remember that fad in Mormonism about invoking the Spirit in everything, wherein people sought to feel spiritual all the time and thus became insufferable fascists when it came to just getting together to socialize and have a good time. It was a fad that very much overtook CES, but it infected the Church, and I would say that it was a more or less natural consequence of correlation. Correlation is this idea that priesthood and management structure must be the same thing to achieve Zion, and the Spirit fad was about making sure that everything in every mundane situation could be seen as revelatory and Spirit-filled. Needless to say, it was and is dreary business.

The truth is, again, more mundane and mysterious. People who have devoted their lives to God have experienced a "long dark night of the soul" that lasted decades and yet they came out the other side feeling like they gained wisdom in the struggle. That's not the kind of thing we can tolerate in our world of consumer living. A product had better do what it advertises in a reasonable amount of time, or I am throwing in the towel and choosing a new one. Indeed, why not just taste a little of this and that until I am a satisfied customer? Oddly enough, I think that this as much as anything accounts for all of the apostasy we see. People view their religious lives as consumer choices and act accordingly.

I am not saying this is all good or all bad. It just is. The myth of the customer always being right or customer satisfaction is also powerful, and it does influence how people make decisions in other areas of life, be they love or spirituality.

[_Fence Sitter]

If, as you posit, no one would care if the LDS leadership ____ the Book of Abraham, that would be a phenomena we are seeing play out on the American political stage right now, right before our own eyes: Trump-mania. Truth doesn't matter to a very large segment of people. Mormonism makes many people feel good, special, the Chosen people. They keep going back for more, for their weekly dose. Trumpism makes many Americans feel good, special, American exceptionalism, and they too, keep going back for more, wanting four more years. Others of us are flummoxed at witnessing this phenomena. How can you keep going to church, "bearing your testimony" and paying tithing? Joseph Smith was a fraud. How can you believe Trump, he lies and exaggerates? Trump is a fraud. But just like downing a pint of Ben and Jerry's at midnight while you are on a diet trying to lose 20 lbs., it's an indulgence. It makes them feel good.

As I have said before, Trump is a great modern example a Nauvoo era Joseph Smith.