>>1. Is there an internal ability to verify truth?
The only way to verify truth is through faith and prayer. The Mormons
believe in personal revelation. That through prayer you may receive
(through the Holy Spirit) an answer as to what is 'truth'.
>>2. Is "spirit" synonymous with "ideal"?
The spirit is not ideal....the resurrected being is.
>>3. Does the group aspire to destroy truth?
It depends on what you mean by 'truth'. The Mormons believe that their
church is the one and only TRUE church on Earth today. That it is Christ's
church restored to earth in modern times. So, I guess it is really based
on if you believe in Christ as the only begotten son of God. The Mormons
believe in their truth. The truth of the Book of Mormon and the only living
Prophet on this earth (Gordon B. Hinckley).
>>4. Is their a hierarchy of evolution?
The Mormons believe that Adam was the father of all mankind and that
Eve was the mother. The Mormons believe that Adam & Eve were sent
forth to 'replenish the earth' (which opens up other possibilities such
as evolution and perhaps explains where exactly the dinosaurs came from...
perhaps a previous existance that took place on THIS planet millions of
years ago.) I am not totally sure what you mean by a 'hierchy of evolution'
if you are speaking of Heaven.
>>5. Is pressure to conform necessary for maintaining
>>an ideal?
Again we go back to the question of 'pressure to conform'. The only
pressure
to conform is pressure from the individual on himself. Every member or
prospective member is asked to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it and
ask if it is true (Moroni 10:4). If they feel everything in the book is
true then they
are invited to be baptized. If they don't feel the book is true then they
are left
alone. So, the pressure to conform is not there. People who don't believe
in
everything the church is and stands for wouldn't be there in the first
place.
>>6. Can a person write "idealized" texts which
demonstrate a method of realizing truth?
The Mormons believe that Joseph Smith was visited by God, Jesus, the Holy
Spirit,
and several angels from the time he was 14 until he was murdered in about
1850. The Book of Mormon and other texts
were given to him by an Angel (the angel Moroni directed him to buried
plates in
the hills of New York) and through divine guidance he was able to translate
them
into modern (1830's) english. So, these texts aren't a work of fiction as
some might
suggest..unless you consider God to be a fictional character in which case
this
argument is moot.
>I was surprised that the question of "What is
>Mormon?" provoked answers that spoke about
>reproduction, family values, and other *social*
>phenomenon. I would add to the above questions:
>How can the truth of a belief be measured through
>the social behavior of adherents (which would be
>like saying that farmers are good neighbors so they
>must be intelligent)?
Sorry, you must have the response to someone else's post confused with this
one. Someone else was talking about overpopulation and the Mormon's view
on children.