Am I brainwashed or is it the spirit?

[Anonymous]

Euhemerus wrote:

When I was in my stages of darkest despair with my anger I had a caramel mocha one time, and a beer two times. Guess what? I’m not addicted, I’m not dead, the world still turns, and I even renewed my TR on Sunday

yes, yes, yes…this is brilliant…the world still turns. I guess i like to look at the bigger picture…the idea of staying away from harmful substances, addictive anything, and healthy choices (physical, mental, or spiritual) is wise advice for all human beings. Getting to a specific list of drugs, alcohol, tea, coffee I can accept as an organizational standard, so a choice can be made to commit to it and put faith in it and there is some value in that.

Practically, it is the same to me as Jews not eating pork. Once upon a time there was a practical reason for it, now it has just become a tradition and a symbolic teaching. WoW is that for me now…so I still live it with the symbolic meaning. When Eu took 2 beers…I realistically can’t believe it did anything. But Eu’s last line:

Quote:

For me, if I’m being honest, I “obey” the WoW for two reasons:

1. I saw what alcohol did to people on my mission in Russia.

2. While I don’t necessarily think what happens to people in Russia will happen to me, I have honestly never really been drawn to drinking, or coffee. I don’t really like not being in control of my mind and body, and I don’t really like the taste.

I respect that when people have personal reasons and have made up their mind one way or another, not just to live it “because” and not just to disobey it to spite. There should be a guiding principle behind the decision to obey or not obey, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Heber13 wrote:

I respect that when people have personal reasons and have made up their mind one way or another, not just to live it “because” and not just to disobey it to spite. There should be a guiding principle behind the decision to obey or not obey, IMHO.

I couldn’t agree more. For the record, my breaking the WoW was something that (at the time) I felt I needed to do. That might seem stupid to some, but for me, it was an important step for my psyche. I had to convince myself that all hell would not break loose and gobble me up. I wanted to feel a part of a greater humanity and I thought that by at least trying it I was taking a step into the darkness. For me, I felt rebellious, silly, empowered, enlightened, and finally nothing at all. It was all very anticlimactic. Nevertheless, for me, it felt like an important step.

[Anonymous]

hawkgrrrl wrote:

I see an important distinction between belief and behavior. Behavior is very clearly a choice. Belief is not necessarily a choice; it’s far trickier than that. Belief is somewhat passive. Behavior is deliberate. Personally, I’d like to see the TR interview questions focus exclusively on behaviors and not beliefs for this reason. In a way, I think behaviors are far more important than beliefs. But what I was referring to was specifically why breaking “Mormon rules” leads one away from staying LDS. Also, I think you can take yourself out of Mormonism, yet not be able to take the Mormonism out of yourself.

A friend and I were discussing a relative of his who became atheist. This person decided that because there was no God, he didn’t feel obligated to his marriage any longer, and he immediately quit doing anything he felt was related to the “sham” concept of love. He stopped investing in his relationship with his wife and kids because he suddenly saw the whole thing as an artificial construct to trap him. (Let me pause to say that it would be a completely unfair generalization to say that atheists are selfish and consider all bets off once they “decide” God doesn’t exist. First of all, many atheists are highly moral and highly ethical. Their disbelief in God doesn’t drive radical behavioral changes or dropping other things that make sense to them whether God exists or not like altruism and the benefits of reciprocal marital fidelity.) My view was that while this person may not have been able to choose to believe in God – some people just don’t – he did make choices about whether or not to invest in relationships with his family. He chose whether to be a part of that family or to leave it through passivity, allowing his relationships to atrophy until it became easy to leave. Those behaviors are choices. Not believing in God was probably not his choice.

@Hawkgrrrl, I really like this! I had not really thought about belief vs. behavior in this way before. But it really does make some sense. I guess just like some of us are prone to skepticism, some are prone to belief independent of their ability to “choose” one or the other. Thanks for this!

[Author]

Posts