Mormon Irrationality or Magical Thinking
I am regularly (such as last night) in conversation with well-educated Mormons who struggle when trying to deal with rational concepts related to things like science, investment strategies, politics and other purely secular matters. And I see in their struggles infections likely attributable to the magical thinking at the heart of what is required these days to be a literally believing Mormon. The conversation in which I participated last night that caused this essay had to do with an investment opportunity that a bright, successful young Mormon had been offered. Some Mormons still respect my judgment regarding investments that seem not to require "the Spirit", and he wanted to run by me what had been proposed to him. I was happy to listen for a few minutes and tell him what I thought.
Five seconds into my friend's explanation, I gave him a thumbs down. He has been offered the chance to get in on the ground floor of a “perpetual motion machine” that is going to revolutionize the energy and automotive industries. I summarized the many similar "opportunities" I have encountered during my career and how each of them caused a lot of investors to lose their money while usually also being sincerely believed in by a “genius” inventor who the scientific community “did not understand”. I explained how humans are congenitally (it seems) unable to resist huge upside propositions like this that have little to no support in the scientific theory that ultimately must explain how they work. That is, the speculative stock and real estate “investment” industries and Las Vegas are kept in business by the human inability to assess with reasonable accuracy what a small chance to win a large amount of money is worth. Our greed consistently causes us to pay more for chances like this than we should. And promoters of various types have from time immemorial taken advantage of this human weakness. It is far better to be a seller of chances to invest of this type than a buyer. At least, I told him, the people in Las Vegas are upfront about how they make their money. Everyone knows that most gamblers lose money and the “house” gets rich. And so most people who gamble treat the cost of gambling as the price of entertainment. Those invest in speculative stocks or real estate or multi-level marketing schemes are often sucked into the same game on the basis that they really do have a reasonable chance to make money.
It is crucial that every belief must be thoroughly explored and justified to avoid any future repercussions. Clifford provides two examples in which, regardless of the outcome, the party that creates a belief without comprehensive justification ends up at fault. It is possible to apply the situations in The Ethics of Belief to any cases of belief and end up with the conclusion that justification is of utmost importance. Justifying beliefs is so important because even the smallest beliefs affect others in the community, add to the global belief system, and alter the believer moral compass in future decisions.
The Difficulties of Mormons and Gentiles Living Together The Mormons and the gentiles found it difficult to get along it was both the Mormons and gentiles fault. When large amounts of Mormons moved to a new settlement e.g. Illinois, the gentiles felt that they were going to take over and rule their area. The gentiles attacked the Mormons to show them who is boss. The Mormons didn't fight back but made a police unit, the Danites this protected the Mormons and tried to keep peace. The gentile's thought that this was an army and attacked the Mormons forcing them to go.
Bitton, Davis & Beecher, Maureen U. New Views of Mormon History. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987.
Scott, Donald. "Mormonism and the American Mainstream." Teacher Serve. National Humanities Center, Aug. 2004. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .
President Hinckley asked and answered a question in General Conference on October 4th of 1997. "Are we moving to mainstream America as some observers believe? In this, I fear we are." The comment came due to the increasing amount of shopping that is being done on sundays in LDS communities, and the increasing amount of disobedience to the Word of Wisdom. His tone was one of concern and love.
Perry, Seth. "An Outsider Looks In At Mormonism." Chronicle Of Higher Education 52.22 (2006): B9. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.
In the course of writing this paper I learned about the way the human mind can be manipulated by very simple things, and when it is discovered it is often too late. There are smart gamblers who do win, but the majority don’t think and wind up spending incredible amounts of money.
8 Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm Company, 1972), 277
"Growth of the Church - LDS Newsroom." LDS News | Mormon News - Official Newsroom of the Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .
During the postbellum and early 19th century, people started to challenge what religion meant to them. Lincoln questioned how warring factions could both pray to the same God, yet he concluded that God had “his own purpose” for this war. From these notions, such thought as “the Lost Cause”, was spurred. Another important aspect is people started to challenge their theology with the advent of new science and technology. The effect was to create a competitive marketplace in religion that allowed men and women to shop for religious institutions that they thought best meet their needs. The growing prestige of science compelled Americans reformulating theology; two popular theologies include New Theology, Theodore Munger, and Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy (Goff and Harvey 21-25). These religions are known as NRM, encompassing newer religious groups and old alternative groups, which, together, have challenged mainstream religious traditions and the secular society back in the 19th century, and still to this day. The three popular NRMs during the 19th century are Christian Science, Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism), and Jehovah’s Witnesses. According to Daschke and Ashcraft, people are intrigued by NRMs for a number of reasons: new understanding, new self, new family, new society, and new world (Daschke and Ashcraft 1-13). Conversely...
“History of Fundamentalist Mormons.” Wheat & Tares. Wheat and Tares, 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
The Mormon population holds true to their unique religious beliefs. Most Mormons are similar to those who practice Christianity, however there are some differences. Over the past two centuries that Mormonism has been founded by Joseph Smith, this faith has expanded across the United States. Even though the faith has been powerful to many believers it is becoming less frequently practiced. This religion not only practices God and Jesus as separate people but also believes that God is seen in everyone. Since, Mormons are very religious and godlike we have to be competent to these differences when working with this population. There is very little information about how to perform Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with a child that is practicing
Terry Tempest Williams is fully aware that she is contradicting the church when she writes “women have no outward authority,” yet she still chooses to take part in a ritual of healing that can only be performed by the men. Williams, however, does so in privacy and in the “secrecy of the sisterhood.” The word secrecy hints at the idea of doing something which is not accepted and against certain beliefs of today’s church. She was born and raised in a home of devout Mormons who follow the traditional beliefs of their faith. She acknowledges that the Mormon Church places great importance on obedience. In college she began to question her faith and today would not consider herself an “orthodox Mormon,” although Mormonism still has an impact in her life and work. In her writing, Williams continually contradicts the values of the Mormons.
Witchcraft, Magic and Rationality. Social Anthropology seeks to gauge an understanding of cultures and practices, whether they are foreign or native. This is achieved through the study of language, education, customs, marriage, kinship, hierarchy and of course belief and value systems. Rationality is a key concept in this process as it affects the anthropologist’s interpretation of the studied group’s way of life: what s/he deems as rational or plausible practice. Witchcraft and magic pose problems for many anthropologists, as its supernatural nature is perhaps conflicting to the common Western notions of rationality, mainly deemed superior.
... stock fluctuations. If a financial advisor cannot be afforded, it would have been in the best interest of the investor to read more on the stock market news regarding what stocks were predicted to have a profitable growth. The investor could have stayed with energy and renewables, just cold have chosen different corporations then the ones chosen.