[Jeff Lebowski]

Slightly off-topic, but all of this talk about "mental gymnastists" always intrigues me. Picking apart matters of faith and religion has always been a pretty simple exercise. Do LDS participate in "mental gymnastics"? Absolutely. As do virtually all other believers of religion. It all starts with a belief in a supreme being that is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Isn't that the biggest "mental gymnastic" of all? Aren't we just quibling over details after that? The LDS faith is unique in that we believe in modern revelation and modern prophets, thus providing a richer and more fully-detailed set of artifacts and documents for the faithless to sift through and pick apart. And I am always struck by the irony of baptists and evangelicals who pick apart the historicity of the BOM and then tell you (with a straight face) that the earth is literally 6000 years old. As SU says, the long-term investment, egos, familial and cultural pressures certainly play a part in keeping the faithful faithful. But I would like to believe that what SU briefly mentioned as the "subjective" spiritual witness is what keeps many of us in the fold. Yes, it is subjective. But at the end of the day, each of us has to balance all of these stimuli, both spiritual and rational, and decide for ourselves what path to take.