Circle Squared
A Textual Analysis of the Book of Mormon
Chapter 32: "Warm and Fuzzy, Was He?"
Chapter Summary:
Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost--Men must pray and gain knowledge for themselves from the Holy Ghost. About 559–545 B.C.
Parting is such sweet sorrow for Nephi as he laments "the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men." Which is to say, "descent and moral people will agree with me." Isn't this the way many religious people operate? To be moral and good is to believe the same unsubstantiated nonsense as them.
While I do not subscribe to moral relativism (the idea that each person's moral judgement is equally valid in every situation), I also do not look at morality in the same black and white absolutism as Nephi professes. Extreme cases, such as murder and rape, I would agree are universally bad for society. But more nuanced situations, such as lying, abortion, and euthanasia, I see as wide grey areas which could be moral or immoral depending on the circumstances surrounding them.
I may not agree wholly with the next person on a given moral conundrum, but in speaking about these grey areas, I do not look down on another person for their differing opinion. However, I do look down on someone who would make these decisions for another person through coercive legislation. Moral police do not impress me.
God's favored compulsory morality, while rampant throughout Nephi's writings, is only a minor point in this chapter. The main point Nephi drives home is the idea of attaining knowledge through a process of intercessory prayer: thinking about a question, praying and asking god about it, and waiting for the imminent warm fuzzies to ensue. Should this process yield no warm fuzzies, then either the answer is "no," or you messed up the process, most likely through your own sin, and must start anew. If you start over after repenting of your wickedness and still fail to feel warm fuzzies, then most likely the answer is "no."
Unfortunately, Nephi doesn't get this specific in his description of the process of prayer. I added some cultural baggage from my experience with Mormonism. The main difference between what Nephi is saying and what Mormons teach is that Nephi doesn't add any disclaimers or qualifiers. He simply states that if you pray, god will answer you.
I suspect all this extra business about not receiving an answer or the answer being "no" was added later as Mormon leaders realized that god is somewhat selective in whom he answers. What does the church tell someone, such as myself, who never received a definitive answer from god? Rinse and repeat. You see, any problems with the process stem from you--not god. You are either not understanding god's answer, which maybe so subtle as to be elusive, or you are unworthy and in need of repentance before god will bother with you.
This is especially problematic when asking the Mormon god if he even exists. If he doesn't answer you, as was my experience, you are still expected to repent and repeat the process. Really? Why would god expect someone who doesn't fully believe in his existence to repent before receiving an answer? This is completely backward of how the process would work if it were based on reason and rationality.
As you might have guessed, reason and rationality have nothing to do with prayer. The whole endeavor attempts to convince those who already want to believe that the good feelings they have when they pray and think about a given supernatural claim is confirmation from god that the claim is true. This is not a path to truth. This is psychological manipulation. Case in point, how you feel about gravity speaks nothing to the fact that it pulls you to the earth. If it did, then the inverse would allow you to fly.
After about a decade of truly trying to receive an answer on this very question, and receiving only silence from god and excuses from church leaders, I finally threw in the towel. As scared as I was by what this would mean for me socially and with my family, letting go of god was a relief like I could never have imagined. I am not broken. I am not unworthy. The silence I received in response to every single fervent prayer I uttered came from the most obvious, yet "hard to see" answer: god isn't there to answer.