pop morality

[Jenny A]

Sorry, but ASK isn't a method of finding anything except whatever it is you would like to  believe.  I try to choose what I 

Sorry, but ASK isn't a method of finding anything except whatever it is you would like to  believe.  I try to choose what I believe based upon what is not what I'd like to believe.

We use Ask Seek Knock everyday of our lives. The parable from which this principle is first taught shows how we use this method in obtaining trivial things. Because the only thing required is the humility needed to see one's self in need.

I understand what you are trying to say, in that you want to try and filter everything through a 'science' filter. Let me ask you, would you 'filter' turn by turn direction through the scientific method or what if someone gave you a treasure map, and they showed you what they were able to bring back from following the map themselves? again would you try and filter the map through 'science' to first validate it? or would you simply follow the directions to find out if it was correct?

A/S/K are directions not a theory that can be tested by the scientific method.

I don't actually try to filter every daily decision through the scientific method.  Common sense, critcal thinking, and experience are enough for most every day decisions.  I don't ask for a peer reviewed study before crossing a bridge or eating a piece of meat.  No one does.   I rely on common sense. Most bridges stay up the vast majority of the time.  Very little contaminated meat is sold in this county.  

Other questions don't merit the time and effort to solve them.  The brand of deodorant I use is reasonably priced and works.  The may be a better working, better priced alternative,  but finding it isn't worth my time.

A/S/K is not a method I use.  Your treasure map analogy is silly.  If someone gave me a treasure map it would be a novel experience. Has anyone ever given you or anyone you know a treasure map?  It's very oddness would suggest further investigation was needed.  I'd have to ask if they'd already brought back all of the treasure,  and if not, why they were telling me instead of getting all of it themselves.  

And unlike someone who can show me the treasure they brought back, you can't  show me god, or even any credible evidence that you found him. Or given your description of him, that he'd be a treasure if I found him. 

I do follow directions, particularly if they appear safe and it's easy to see if they work. Just recently, I learned to make Turkish coffee by googling it.  But, I've drunk Turkish coffee before,  and whether the directions worked was easy to ascertain.   It did, by the way, and we've been having it about every third morning ever since. It makes for a luxurious quarter hour before my sweetie heads off to work.  I follow much more onerous directions if I see real need and results.  Our retirement account is an example of such results. 

But there are directions my common sense and natural  skepticism tell me are dangerous to follow.  Like your hypothetical treasure map, they are often get rich with little or no effort  schemes.  Or like crystals to adjust my aura,  or your god scheme,  the results are not quantifiable.  If someone adds, that it won't work unless you really want  it to,  all the skeptic buzzers go off. 

And before you go off on some ridiculous tangent about needing to want to do something like, playing the piano, quiting smoking or, exercising more, let me note that that has to do with putting in the effort to follow the directions and not if the directions describe anything real. I've taught myself to paint. And yes had to want to learn and practice.  But the results are demonastratable. People can demonstrate piano playing, lack of smoking, exercise, and painting,  see below.  Your god, like my aura remains undemonstrable.  

Frankly, the aura, and god are of a muchness. And while they factually contradict one another both, as well as the truth of the Koran or the Book of Mormon, can be found the same way.  A/S/K is an invitation to invent your own facts,  not a method for finding the truth.  And once they have found such stuff, I don't  see people's lives improving,  but I do see them ignoring or avoiding verifiable facts,  such as the absence of evidence for a world wide flood, which would exist, had it happened. 

Humbleness consists of questioning what you can do and know, not in thinking about superior being loves you and that you know all about that being.