It would matter if the doctrine—reward and punishment in the afterlife, for example—is tied with the practice of the members. I would suggest that the Mormon church, like a lot of churches, motivates its members at least partly with false threats and false rewards based on a fictitious afterlife. If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy. Rationalists cannot use these methods and remain rationalists.
unfortunately, much of the motivation. It’s easy to get yourself motivated to do something if you have a clear reward for it. If you truly believe that working to convert people to your faith will get you into heaven, it’s not hard to get up in the morning and go do it. If you think that there’s a 1 percent chance that one of the 57 people you talk to today will become slightly less wrong about the world and go on to lead a somewhat happier life, it’s a lot less motivating. I think the entire unpaid ministry/missionary thing would be much harder to get recruits for here than in the LDS.
It would matter if the doctrine—reward and punishment in the afterlife, for example—is tied with the practice of the members. I would suggest that the Mormon church, like a lot of churches, motivates its members at least partly with false threats and false rewards based on a fictitious afterlife. If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy. Rationalists cannot use these methods and remain rationalists.
Ok. Does it look like that’s the case? Which of these lessons hinge on reward and punishment in the afterlife?
unfortunately, much of the motivation. It’s easy to get yourself motivated to do something if you have a clear reward for it. If you truly believe that working to convert people to your faith will get you into heaven, it’s not hard to get up in the morning and go do it. If you think that there’s a 1 percent chance that one of the 57 people you talk to today will become slightly less wrong about the world and go on to lead a somewhat happier life, it’s a lot less motivating. I think the entire unpaid ministry/missionary thing would be much harder to get recruits for here than in the LDS.