And reality is exactly what they don’t want to deal with. Having been there, it is very hard to face the idea that the anti’s might be right, that the sources might be real, that their arguments might be valid.
It is much easier to let someone at FAIR/FARMS do your thinking for you and to resort to name calling and ‘proofs’ they are told in Sunday School.
Half the battle in getting someone out of the LDS church is getting them to think for themselves rather than rely on feelings (testimony) and pat responses that don’t adress the issue.
Case in point, NHM as ‘proof’ of the Book of Mormon that Resty posted earlier. No non LDS scholar or archeologist would accept it as being proof of the BoM. If you got past the first week of Hebrew class you would know that Hebrew doesn’t have vowels and NHM could be a number of words and names. But they are so desperate to grasp on to anything, because of fear that the LDS church isn’t true and they have been living a lie, that they hold on to the most redicluous things a proof.
It is hard to admit your whole life has been based upon a lie and that the perpetrators of that lie is your own church, the thing you hold most dear. The “church” is their life, not Christ for if He was, they would want the truth at ALL costs. They would take quotes like these seriously, and really put LDS claims to the test as I did.
“Finally, the Book of Mormon is the keystone of testimony. Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon...for if it can be discredited, the Prophet Joseph Smith goes with it. So does our claim to priesthood keys, and revelation, and the restored Church.(in Conference Report, Oct. 1986, 4–5; or Ensign, Nov. 1986, 5–6 ).
“CHURCH STANDS OR FALLS WITH JOSEPH SMITH. Mormonism, as it is called, must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground. If Joseph Smith was a deceiver, who wilfully attempted to mislead the people, then he should be exposed; his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false, for the doctrines of an impostor cannot be made to harmonize in all particulars with divine truth. If his claims and declarations were built upon fraud and deceit, there would appear many errors and contradictions, which would be easy to detect. The doctrines of false teachers will not stand the test when tried by the accepted standards of measurement, the scriptures.”—Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1954, vol. 1, p. 188 6.
The flip side of this coin is that one of the major proponents (Ashton) of NHM is also a major ufologist. Well, I guess if you believe in mormonism, then other outrageous beliefs are possible too.