Alma 32

This chapter features some of the cognitive biases encouraged by Mormon instructions on how to learn the truth about LDS teachings.

The analogy of treating the word of God as a seed may demonstrate how mindfully practicing a principle may uplift or inspire you, but how do you think these techniques would work if applied by religions with beliefs that are mutually exclusive of LDS truth claims?

In many ways the practices of the Zoramites are modeled after the religious hypocrites spoken of in the New Testament gospels. Compare Alma 31:13 with "For they had a place built up in the center of their synagogue, a place for standing," to Matthew 6:5 with "for they love to pray standing in the synagogues".

Also compare verses 2-7 to New Testament writings which often highlight hypocrites oppressing or ignoring the poor and needy (see "poor", Mark 12:39-42, Luke 10:30-32, Matthew 25:42-45). There are several instances of where it is stated that the poor will have the gospel preached to them (see Luke 4:18, Luke 7:22, Matthew 11:5).

The name of the hill, "Onidah", in this verse shares the same pronunciation as that of the Oneida tribe of Native Americans which was part the Iroquois Confederacy and located in upstate New York. Compare the Book of Mormon pronunciation guide for "Onidah" with the Merriam Webster Dictionary pronunciation for "Oneida". Even if the Book of Mormon events really happened in somewhere in the Americas, to expect the pronunciation to not change as language evolves for 1,500 years is ridiculous. See also the usage of the word "Onidah" in Alma 47:5.

Alma 32:17-19

Apparently a sign would lead to knowledge, and with knowledge there is no cause to believe. So a sign must not be the same as evidence because with sufficient evidence I have cause to believe. For example, the evidence for the germ theory of disease is overwhelming, so I believe it.

Book of Mormon examples of evidence leading to belief in a good way:

2 Ne 11:4,6-7 - Nephi’s “soul delighteth in proving unto [his] people the truth.”

Helaman 5:50 - Prisoners see sons of Helaman, Nephi and Lehi, encircled as if by fire; see angels; and hear voices. When the prisoners told the Lamanites about this, “the more part of the Lamanites were convinced of them, because of the greatness of the evidences.”

We are not to seek after signs, but proof and evidence seems to be good according to the Book of Mormon, so should we not seek evidence?

If Mormonism is true, and believing that Mormonism is true is the result of putting enough work into it as this verse indicates, then we can always say a person who fails to believe didn’t work hard enough to believe in Mormonism. This type of situation is often called a double bind—a situation in which you are given a choice or dilemma, but there is no good choice. Either way, you fail.

If someone spends what they believe to be sufficient effort to learn whether the Book of Mormon is what it claims, and they conclude it is not, then according to this verse, they have not exerted enough effort. The double bind is that if they fail to put more effort into studying the Book of Mormon, their conclusion about the Book of Mormon is due to their lack of effort. If they decide to study the Book of Mormon further, they are likely to think they are wasting their time.

Consider the effect of Jehovah’s Witness (JW) missionaries teaching a person their conclusion about the JW Church shall be unto them according to their work, and that if they put enough work into it, they will reach the “right” conclusion—that the JW Church is Jehovah’s only authorized organization. What kind of effect or influence might this have on a person studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

I actually like this definition of faith better than Hebrews 11:1, which it is borrowing from. According to this verse, in order for a belief to be real faith it has to be based on something that is true. So it doesn't matter how hard a person believes in a flat earth, the evidence contradicts it, so that's not real faith.

The rest of the chapter, however, contains unreliable methods for determining truth. Positive feelings and a greater understanding of conspiracy ideas (see verse 28) could easily be experienced by a person that is getting into flat earth pseudoscience.

A better method for determining truth is mentioned in Alma 30:44, where we can use the evidence left in the natural world to see to make deductions about what is real. Ancient American artifacts, fossils, and even Native American DNA point toward an extremely unlikely historicity of the Book of Mormon.

Encouraging biases - Leveraging desire for social reciprocity and suggesting reward for belief.

This verse reminds a believer of God’s mercy for believers. The message is at least two-fold here.

First, a believer is reminded of a debt of gratitude. As a social being, a believer in God’s mercy will want to reciprocate, so it primes a believing reader to want to do what the Lord wants, and this verse says God wants the person to believe what is claimed to be the word of God.

Another message in this verse is that a person who believes in God will receive God’s mercy (and the obvious correlate: that a person who does not believe in God will not receive God’s mercy). If accepted by the reader, this could promote reward anticipation for belief or fear and guilt for disbelief. All of this, if believed to some extent, promotes a desire to believe further, hence it encourages motivated reasoning followed by the blatant admonition to “let this desire work in you, even until ye believe.” (See Alma 32:27)

The use of the word “experiment” may give an impression that the process described here for developing faith is somehow similar to the scientific method, but the verses actually encourage something quite different from a scientific experiment. The scientific method would promote careful experiments to minimize the effects of biases and help sort through the facts regardless of which religious claim is investigated. These verses promote biases that could encourage belief in whatever faith was being investigated using these principles.

Rather than a scientific experiment, it’s more like being given a sample of a product, told what the product is supposed to do, and encouraged to look for anything that might support the claims of the product manufacturer. It’s like leveraging placebo effect, without control groups, to convince someone of the product claims rather than looking at the evidence.

The instruction to “let this desire to believe work in you” is the essence of motivated reasoning (see also Alma 32:22).
“Motivated reasoning refers to the unconscious tendency of individuals to process information in a manner that suits some end or goal extrinsic to the formation of accurate beliefs” (Dan Kahan, the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School, “Motivated reasoning & its cognates”).

The danger of motives for reasoning other than getting at the truth is that it encourages all sorts of biases in favor of supporting the motive, even at the expense of truth. Motivated reasoning is a sort of catalyst for the biases. As Yale neurologist Dr. Steven Novella explained, motivated reasoning “is a catchall covering the suite of biases and cognitive flaws that lead people to arrive at confident conclusions they wish to be true, rather than objectively following facts and logic wherever it leads” (“Solution Aversion and Motivated Reasoning”).

What if you took the admonition to desire to believe and applied it to the teachings of some other religion that claims to be the only true religion of God? Isn’t the following likely? “People may ultimately come to believe that the weight of evidence supports the position that they already wanted to believe was true. And they will believe this without recognizing that their own desires influenced the evaluation of the evidence” (Art Markman Ph.D., “You End Up Believing What You Want to Believe”).

Alma 32:28-35

Yet there are lots of contradictory “seeds” that cause this swelling and enlightened understanding and that begin to be delicious to their recipients. Some of these seeds are that Catholicism is the only true religion, others that only Islam is God’s religion, and yet others that only Mormonism is the true religion of God. By the explanation in this verse, although they contradict each other, they are all good “seeds” since many are enlarged and enlightened by these various, contradictory teachings.

Also, according to these verses, the seed will grow, unless you cast it out by your unbelief and resistance to the Spirit of the Lord. This teaches that if you study the Book of Mormon, but do not conclude it is what it claims to be, you are to blame for casting it out. This type of situation is often called a double bind—a situation in which you are given a choice or dilemma, but there is no good choice. Either way, you fail.

If someone studies the Book of Mormon, and they conclude it is not what it claims, then according to these verses, they cast out the teaching with their unbelief. The dilemma is that they either stop trying to believe and are accused of casting out the word, or they continue trying to believe even if they justifiably think they have done their due diligence.

Consider the effect of Jehovah’s Witness (JW) missionaries teaching a person they will know the JW Church is Jehovah’s only authorized organization as long as they don’t cast out the truth of the Jehovah’s Witnesses by their unbelief. What kind of effect or influence might this have on a person studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Consider the reasoning in this verse. If your knowledge is perfect in a thing, your faith is dormant in that thing. If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Christ, then, by the reasoning of this verse, is your faith in Christ not dormant?

The more care you provide a seed of any tree, the more likely a tree will sprout from it. If a person takes care of the word as taught by Catholicism, Hinduism, Scientology, etc. in this way, isn’t it more likely the person will end up believing the religion they are studying is the only true religion?

Alma 32:38-40

According to these verses, if the seed withers, it could be because of your neglect or because your ground was barren. This teaches that if you study the Book of Mormon, but do not conclude it is what it claims to be, you are to blame for your neglect or your barren ground (unfit heart?). This type of situation is often called a double bind—a situation in which you are given a choice or dilemma, but there is no good choice. Either way, you fail.

If someone studies the Book of Mormon, and they conclude it is not what it claims, then according to these verses, the seed did not grow because of neglect or barren ground. The dilemma is that they either stop trying to believe and are accused of neglect or barren ground, or they continue trying to believe even if they justifiably think they have already done their due diligence.

Consider the effect of Jehovah’s Witness (JW) missionaries teaching a person they will know the JW Church is Jehovah’s only authorized organization as long as they don’t neglect the JW teachings or have barren ground. What kind of effect or influence might this have on a person studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Alma 32:41-43

The more care you provide a seed or seedling of any tree, the more likely a tree will sprout and grow to provide some benefit. If a person takes care of the word as taught by Catholicism, Hinduism, Scientology, etc. in this way, isn’t it more likely the person will end up believing the religion they are studying is God’s only sanctioned religion?