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Originally Posted by photon
Although this is also something that Christianity has has do deal with over the years; Christianity has its fair share of historical claims that have have fallen into question or have no support.. Christians that choose to not just ignore the evidence can still keep their core values intact while accepting the new knowledge. At least some do anyway.
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The best example I can think of related to your point here is the whole idea that christianity believed that the world is in fact flat. There are numerous scriptures where prophets claim this. (False prophecy!).
Check it up on wiki, I don't have the url for it, it is a good read. I believe it was Galileo who challenged the claim, or perhaps he was saying the Sun didn't revolve around the Earth as Christianity claimed at the time... one of the two anyway.
Ok I found it, this is from a post I made to another forum a while ago about the Galileo thing...
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I have always been fascinated by Galileo and the persecution he faced as a result of his research. He had discovered that the Earth in fact moves around the Sun, and not vice versa. This went against the Catholic Church's view at the time.
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Western Christian biblical references Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 include text stating that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." In the same tradition, Psalm 104:5 says, "[the LORD] set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place, etc."[59]
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Imagine being Galileo and trying to convince a Catholic friend of yours that Earth isn't stationary. Good luck! He had ample evidence, but it fell on deaf ears.
Could evidence against the Mormon Church convince a friend that it is in fact false? It really depends on how entrenched they are in their beliefs. If Galileo went up to a complete stranger and said, "hey the Earth isn't stationary"... he obviously wouldn't have much success. This stranger would actually have to be open to finding out that (s)he was wrong about something. A TBM has to be open to finding out that (s)he could actually be wrong, (s)he has to have some doubts before being able to accept the truth.
Just like the Catholic Church's response, the Mormon church forbids members to read "anti" material (how do they really define anti material anyway??!!?). Galileo's published works were apparently taken out of circulation and he was under house arrest until his death.
My point is that even with the increased availability of Church history, I doubt we'll see a mass exodus from the Mormon Church. Even before the popularity of the Internet, evidence was still out there, you just had to want to find it. If you don't want the evidence, you can ignore it.
There is hope however, the Catholic Church now admits they were wrong.
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On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.[77][78]
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My intentions for this post were not to bash the Catholic Church. I have no grudge against Catholics.
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