Let's start with some facts...
There are 124 temples in use and 10 that are being built.
There are temples on every continent.
The tallest temple is in Washington,DC.
The temple closest to me (and the only one I've ever been to) is in Atlanta, GA.

The temple is literally the House of the Lord. In it we learn more about God's plan for us, and we make convenants with the Lord to serve him and our fellow man. Temples are made up of a number of rooms designed to accommodate certain functions such as marriages, baptisms and instructional sessions. Inside the temple, Church members change into simple, modest white clothing previous to performing their temple labors. The white temple clothing is symbolic of purity and reverence.

I love going to the temple because you can feel the spirit very strongly there. It is very easy to pray in the temple, and I always feel like I receive answers more quickly there. Inside the temple it is very quiet and people usually don't get much louder than a loud whisper. I've been six times since I joined, and every time I go I learn something new. I'm not able to go inside the full temple yet, but one day I will be going to receive my endowments and be sealed to my husband for time and all eternity. Ever since I've learned about the temple I've wanted to get married there, and that's one goal I'm definitely clinging to. I'm very excited to be going soon because my life has been very hectic and I love feeling the peace that the temple provides. Every time I go Heavenly Father provides me with answers that I need, or understanding to know answers will come. I am very grateful for the temple, and I know the work that goes on there is true.

“Temple work … gives a wonderful opportunity for keeping alive our spiritual knowledge and strength. … The mighty perspective of eternity is unraveled before us in the holy temples; we see time from its infinite beginning to its endless end; and the drama of eternal life is unfolded before us. Then I see more clearly my place amidst the things of the universe, my place among the purposes of God; I am better able to place myself where I belong, and I am better able to value and to weigh, to separate and to organize the common, ordinary duties of my life, so that the little things shall not oppress me or take away my vision of the greater things that God has given us” (in Conference Report, April 1922, pages 97–98).

Every religion on the planet provides for an experience where you are close to god. There are Moslems who go to Mecca and have a “real” encounter with god when they go. Their experience is just as real as your experience at the temple. Seriously, their experience is so real that they are willing to be a martyr for their god.

Satan is at work to deceive you. His only prize is keeping you from Christ for eternity. Please don’t rely on feelings too much. We all have them, and they all can be manipulated.

What you should be focused on is finding the source of truth. God has created a universe, which is consistent in laws and scientific principles. Throughout history the way we have discovered those scientific laws is by questioning. God has created us to ask questions and to dig for truth. In the same way that God created us to use our intellect to understand the universe he has given use our intellect to search for him. If your god does not allow you to question him and to prove him to be true, then he is not the same God that created the universe.

Okay, concerning the little post you put on my friend's blog the other day:

1. The use of the phrase "your god" proves only that you're ignorant and have no idea what you're talking about. You should more or less have paid attention to the fact that she talked about God's plan. The only other people who have temples are those who serve under Judaism, and those are the Chosen people. So either way, she meant the same God. Yes, I realize that Buddhists have temples and so do some Pagan sects (Satanists, Wiccan, etc.)Buddhists don't call Buddha "God" they call him "The Great Buddha." Satanists don't call Satan "God" because their "bible," if you will, is written as an antithesis to ours. Meaning they, like Satan, believe in God, but serve against Him. So they obviously wouldn't call Satan "God." It would make things much more complicated and confusing and would muddy their message. Wiccans have various gods and goddesses, but refer to them by name, not as "God" or "Goddess." There are other polytheistic religions that have temples and whatnot, but once again, no reference to one deity as "God." So obviously, one could only be talking about some Christian sect or Judaism when referring to God in the same breath as a Temple. Mormonism is a branch of Christianity nonetheless. Christianity implies that they believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God (big G's for God by the way. Shows respect, you should try it sometime) and the Savior of their immortal souls and determiner of their eternal destinations.

2. I agree with you on the whole "Satan is at constant work..." speech. There are other religions and whatnot that he uses to mess with people's heads and tempt them to his will, but the LDS church isn’t one of them. Totally see where you're going with that. But do you honestly think that escaped God's attention? His foresight? See, the whole point to the term "believers" is believING. It doesn't really matter how you show your faith, just that you have faith. If humanity would realize that God wants faith and not works then we'd all be a lot less tense when it came to subjects like this. Faith is a feeling. If you do not rely on your feelings then you cannot show faith. If relying on your feelings is not encouraged, then neither is having faith. God gives us enough information and understanding in the Bible and in the messages of His ministers to have defenses against the manipulation of those feelings. Honestly, if one's feelings are manipulated as far as their own belief goes, then they obviously didn't believe in that Faith too strongly to begin with. Faith is also a sincere feeling. If you have it, then you have it. But if that sincerity is vulnerable to manipulation then there really is no sincerity there.

3. There is no finding the source of the truth. If there was, then faith would be pointless because faith is supposed to be the antithesis for doubt which is one of the chief causes for the non-believING of the non-believers if not THE chief cause. If the entire truth were meant to be found, then full understanding of God would be achievable and that in turn would give leeway to technologies and perhaps even "powers," if you will, that no human ever even dreamed of. It would make ruling the entire planet attainable. Much more than that, it would make it a certainty. Then we'd have millions of people in all their narrow-minded ignorance running around proclaiming that they are God and we'd have millions more religions and eventually Christianity would be forgotten. Either that or we'd have Jedi. In any case, that would defeat God's ENTIRE purpose and probably negate existence.

My point is, you went after someone you don't know with a very misguided argument to something that needed no arguing. You wanted to fight a civil battle. To clear up that phrase, you pitted Christian against Christian. Mormons have two books: The King James Bible (Not sure what type of Christian you are but where I come from that is praised among Christians) and the Book of Mormon. I choose not to debate anything with the Mormon culture because I honestly don’t care. There are no false idols or bastardizations of the truth because if they read the actual Bible, then there shouldn't be any way TO bastardize the truth. Except maybe from interpreting something from a different point of view. But in the end, that's all faith is. A point of view. It was not my intention to attack or offend, merely to educate.

Hey Wess,

Thanks for replying. Your friendship with JForbes1103 is evident in your zealous reply. I commend you for that. I love debate and would love to respond to your comment sentence by sentence. Maybe at another time and with another tone we could do that, but my goal in commenting was not to start a debate. Mainly because as web debates go in the end we would both believe we had given the better argument and would both conclude the other lost.

My goal was not to start an argument. My point was to present ideas that maybe JForbes1103 had not thought of and that she might like to explore.

peace

Hullo Gid!
Wow, so this wasn't what I expected when I signed up for a Chattablog, but oh well! I appreciate the concern you have for me and the desire you have to present new ideas to me, but I'm not so sure it's necessary. When I was 13 I decided the Catholic church was not for me (my parents are Irish Catholic, as are all of my siblings) and I started looking for a church. I've been reading my Bible daily and looking for a church that was consistent with the teachings I found there and as a result I have been to several churches. I've been to churches ranging from Pentacostal to Methodist, Christian Scientist to Baptist and all things in between. I had a system for each church, spending one month learning what each taught, attending not only Sunday and Wednesday services, but Bible studies and other "extra" things. In January of this year I met an LDS girl and she introduced me to some missionaries and I began to learn about what she believed. After much prayer and study the Holy Ghost confirmed to me the things that I needed to know, that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's true church. On March 25, 2006 I was baptized into the church and then confirmed a member the 26th. As a result of this my life has dramatically changed and my relationships with Jesus Christ and with my Heavenly Father have grown stronger. I know what I'm learning is true and I know temple work is true, and the temple truly is the House of the Lord. I would like to extend an invitation to you to learn more about what I believe, you'll probably find it very interesting and be surprised by how much we have in common. I hope you take me up on this, just let me know and we can chat, or you can go to lds.org or mormon.org .

I got nothing . . . .

Silly Jacob, it's okay, you should come to Church sometime. ;-)