Gentle Awakening

PART 5 OF 5: ROADMAP

Version 0.2

e Journey

�  Courage required to stand for the truth and live according to the truth

�  Courage required to follow your heart

�  Courage to do what is right �  Trials lead to our growth and an

eventual better understanding

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“I don’t know anything. I never did know anything,

but now I know I don’t know anything!”

Ebenezer Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

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“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right,

I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed.

It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”

Marcus Aurelius

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“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged,

by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects,

which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.”

Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention of 1787

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“I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie.

I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave.

And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.” 

H. L. Mencken

Sacred Bias

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Gaining Perspective

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How to Avoid Deception

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Spiritual Experiences �  Elder and Sister Mattson (Area Authority Seventy) were told

by jogger: “God loves you.” �  It is important for all people to have spiritual experiences, but

these experiences are not exclusive to Latter-day Saints, and in fact happen throughout the world for people of every land and belief

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Religious Feeling and Truth �  Religious feeling is a poor

measure of truth �  Feeling the Spirit is perhaps a

measure of spirituality or sensitivity, but not of truthfulness

�  If religious feeling (knowing in your heart or by the Spirit) was an accurate measure of truth, then almost every church on the earth would have to be the one true church

�  Examples: �  Bob Chauza (Methodist) has

prayers answered �  Baptist woman knows she is born

again �  Catholics know they have been

helped by Mother Mary �  FLDS know Warren Jeffs is a

prophet �  Terrorists on September 11

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“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone

out into the world.” 1 John 4:1

Trade Up �  Replace error with truth �  Replace “service” to the dead with real

service to the living �  Spend your tithes on something

meaningful and charitable (the church was only donating 0.7%)

�  Make the world a better place �  Show love, kindness, and compassion

to all �  Exclude no one �  Christ said: “Ye must be more

righteous than they” (paraphrasing Matthew 5:20)

�  In other words, demonstrate the good that comes from having built your life on truth rather than error

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“Do what is right,

Let the consequence follow.”

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“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth

shall make you free.” 

Jesus Christ (John 8:32)

A Note Regarding Apologist Tactics

�  Denial: denying the information at $rst until it is proven to be true

�  Distraction: not addressing the actual issue but going to side-topics

�  Confusion: using confusing scholarly explanations that don’t make sense to thinking persons but satisfy non-thinking persons

�  Ad Hominem Attacks: discussing the presenter rather than the issues being presented

�  Retrospective Modi!cation: changing the Church’s position or interpretation to $t the facts once they have been established

�  Dishonesty: giving untrue information to back up claims being made

�  Omission: failing to give important information

�  Deferral: using credentials or degrees to back up claims rather than truth

�  Blame: blaming the person asking the question of having doubts

�  De"ection: saying that the questioning person does not have faith or does not rely on spiritual promptings, or has been deceived by a devil

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Further Online Resources �  truthisrestoredagain.wordpress.com �  cesletter.com �  mormonthink.com

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