'Doubt is not sin': Mormons navigate faith and doubt in the digital age
The intersection of faith, doubt is being traversed by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Ref. Source 8
Doubting Mormon Doctrine - Mormon Doubts (Hover)
I wish more members could understand that. Doubt can actually lead to a better research and better understanding of things. There is nothing inherently evil or bad about doubting, it's a normal process of Faith.
Doubts can and will arise
Marsh began the series by characterizing doubt as something most members experience at some point in their lives. He listed six things, both online and in real life, that can contribute to an individual's doubts: unfulfilled expectations, encounters with new information, anti-Mormon literature, educational pursuits, differences of opinion between members and unsettling interactions with other members or with leaders of the church. Ref. Source 2
The Bible was written thousands of years ago, copied, thousands of times, by people that were smart, and educated, and also by people that were not smart, and were not educated. The Jews were worried that their stories would be forever lost to time, since Greece, and Rome, were so prevalent in the world at the time. Rabbis felt they had to alter Biblical stories to sound like Greek myths so the stories would still be remembered.
There is always going to be problems with translation, there will always be additions, and subtractions, to the text, and there will be context problems since Greek and Hebrew have grammar that English does not. Then there is the culture difference between 21st century America, and the thousands of years ago, Middle East.
There is Biblical tradition, which means that something that has been taught for hundreds, and even, thousands, of years, are not found in the Bible, for an example, we all hear at Christmas time, that Mary rode a donkey to the inn when she was about to give birth, yet there is not one shred of evidence in the Bible that she did ride a donkey, in fact, she more than likely walked.
We then have the Book of Mormon; it has only one translator, Joseph Smith, with help from some people writing down what he told them to write. As great of a person, prophet, seer, revelator, that Joseph Smith was, he was human, didn't have very much schooling, and the printing process was riddled with printer's errors. We also don't have any of the original language of the Book of Mormon to read, and compare Book of Mormon scholar's translations, or suggestions, to Joseph Smith's translation.
What does this do for me, with the conflict between doubt and faith? Well, I don't know either Greek or Hebrew, and even if I did, there are numerous changes, either intentional, or unintentional, that range from grammar, and spelling, to doctrinal changes, that could alter all of Christianity's beliefs in Christ. Like I said before, since we don't have the Book of Mormon in the original language, we don't know what Joseph Smith translated wrong. There is a phrase in the Book of Mormon that I like, 'the traditions of their fathers," I like that, since I think it applies to us, just as much, if not even more, than it did to the Book of Mormon people. Like I said, we have hundreds, even thousands, of years of traditions, legends, and even myths about the Bible stories, so which ones are based on fact, and which ones were copied, with some alteration, from traditions, legends, and myths from other cultures? Outside of direct revelation, to a prophet, I don't think anyone will ever know.
This topic used to be taboo years ago but with the internet and all the information circulating the church felt a need to say doubt isn't a sin - interesting.
Interesting topic. In Joseph Smith time we could disagree without any repercusions. If one would preach "False doctrine" The brethren would stand up and correct these doctrinal issues right there. Certainly there were the odd problem with Orson Prat"S teachings.
Today, I have seen more in tolerance of personal opinions then ever before. BYU professors, etc have been fired. Because of "Issues"