FARMS Actually Converted an Atheist With Evidence for Book of Mormon

[_Kishkumen]

Sleepless night here. At first, I was not going to comment on moinmoin’s post, partly because I did not want to appear to be joining a dogpile. I like moinmoin and what he has to say whether I agree with the specific content or not.

In this case, I really like the Sabellius story. I’ve experienced such uncanny things myself and still find them interesting. These days I tend to wonder about the possibility that somehow we are attuned to things in ways we don’t yet understand. Of course, this is mere speculation based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence, but I enjoy considering possibilities that go beyond simple coincidence.

What does not work so well for me personally is any implied connection with a specific set of beliefs. After all, most people have these uncanny experiences, people of all kinds, who do or do not ascribe to particular beliefs about divinities of one sort of another. What does the uncanny coincidence or even the miracle of Sabellius on the organ say about ancient Nephites or the whisker of Mohammed in Topkapi Palace?

Nothing that I can see. Does it suggest there are things in the world and about myself I can only faintly perceive? Maybe. I can’t be sure what they might be. God? Gods? Djinn? Fairies? Quantum thought transfer?

I don’t know.

I personally don’t care for the denigration of others’ experiences. What is special to you in these things is cool with me. I do, however, think it is fair to weigh these things against the enormity of horror in the world if only to question the conclusions that can be drawn from them. At the same time, I prefer to validate personal experience without endorsing particular doctrinal conclusions. Indeed, I would go further and say that these things have no evidentiary value for validating specific views about the so-called supernatural.

But our personal experiences are individually precious and we can connect with others on a human level as people who also have experienced uncanny things. We cannot expect others to leap to the same conclusions we do, but we ought not to blame others for grasping at meaning. At some point we will be able to embrace the experience and overlook the almost universal solipsism involved in extrapolating specific meaning from it.

[_Themis]

I personally don’t care for the denigration of others’ experiences.

I agree, but we know this story is second hand, so I think it is more open to question any aspect of it.