Moving on to discussing the 2nd "principle and ordinance of the gospel", we address the LDS concept of repentance. Of course, we can't talk about repentance in Mormonism without including its cousin, worthiness. The church has used these twin weapons as task master whip and battering ram to shame members and keep them in-line since its inception. Unfortunately, as with many LDS teachings, it results in untold damage to the church's membership.

The 4th Article of Faith in the Mormon church begins, "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ..." In this episode, we talk about some of the problems and contradictions inherent in the church's teachings about faith, and how faith is ultimately used as a tool to gaslight members and terminate critical thinking.

We all know that the Book of Mormon is full of anachronisms (we poked fun at the story of the Jaredites in a prior episode), but you don't have to read that far to discover the shenanigans. In this episode we have some fun talking about some of the stories readers experience in the early pages of the book.

We conclude our 2-part episode on the church's teachings about how to find "objective reality" in the world. Is the church's suggestion the best method, or is there a balance to be found between reasoning and emotion?

If you're old like us, you'll remember a series of commercials on TV about Parkay margarine. The premise was that it tasted like butter and had the texture of butter, but it was actually something quite different. Likewise, the church claims it has "real butter" with regard to the greatest questions in life, and that those answers can become like an "anchor" to those looking for truth. But is the butter really margarine, and is the anchor really a ball-and-chain?