Words

Along with clothing, music, food, and dance; language is one of the most impactful aspects of culture that quickly evolves over time. The origins of spoken language is estimated to date back over 100,000 years ago. There currently exists a few thousand different languages, but only a couple dozen dominate the world population. Language is one of the most foundational elements to our understanding of the reality around us. Words are incredibly important. One of the very first things infants develop is their parents’ spoken language. If certain parents always referred to a phone with the word “banana”, then the child would blindly follow suit. Later in life, the child would be confused when others refer to a phone with the word “phone” because the logic opposes their world view. This language mistake would be rather trivial, however if more important words were incorrectly defined then the impact would be significant.

Throughout the decades the Mormon church has perpetuated incorrect definitions of important words. These significant errors greatly impact and alter the world views and realities of many born an raised members. The church has its own dictionary of gospel terms and incorrect definitions. Though there are many, I will only be addressing a few of the more impactful words by sharing both definitions. I will leave the critical comparative analysis up to you.

Know - be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information. ex “I know pure water boils at 100 C at sea level atmospheric pressure”.

Know (lds) - be aware of through personal anecdotal feeling experience. ex “I know Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ because I had a strong feeling”.

True - in accordance with fact or reality. ex “It is true that 3 is a prime number”.

True (lds) - in accordance with personal feelings. ex “The Book of Mormon is true”.

Witness - a person who sees an event, typically a crime or accident, take place. ex “I witnessed the Total Solar Eclipse in 2017”.

Witness (lds) - a person who has a testimony not based on literal visual observation. ex “Russell Nelson is a witness of the literal living savior Jesus Christ”.

Immoral - not conforming to accepted standards of morality. ex “Wow, that homosexual intercourse of informed consent was very loving and definitely not immoral”.

Immoral (lds) - not conforming to spiritually revealed standards of righteousness. ex “All gay sex is an evil immoral sin”.

Research - studious inquiry or investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws. ex “I researched Mormonism and now I’m Atheist”.

Research (lds) - study church approved literature only. ex “The church leaders want you to research the gospel and stay away from anti-Mormon literature”.

Sacred - connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration. ex “The Mormons consider the sacrament as sacred”.

Sacred (lds) - not meant to be known or seen by others, confidential, private, and secret. ex “The Mormons consider the temple endowment as sacred”.

Translate - express the sense of words or text in another language using verified linguistic techniques. ex “My foreign friend helped me translate a message from a known language and double checked it using a scrupulously peer-reviewed bilingual dictionary”

Translate (lds) - dictate a revelatory text by looking at a rock in a hat. ex “Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham from Egyptian papyrus scrolls”.

When important words are interchanged and mistaught to children, it programs their understanding incorrectly. Learning multiple contradicting definitions fosters a complex cognitive dissonance. When born and raised Mormons hear others say “The Church is not true”, they subconsciously interpret the phrase as “The True is not true”. It’s nonsensical, contradicting, confusing, and damaging to unbiased freethought. I have done extensive Research and I Know the Mormon church is not True or Sacred. Mormon scriptures were not correctly Translated and no person was an actual Witness to the golden plates. I think it’s Immoral to intentionally deceive children with incorrectly defined words.