"I remember, from childhood comic strips and books, a top-hatted, mustachioed magician who brandished an ebony walking stick. His name was Zatara. He could make anything happen, anything at all. How did he do it? Easy. He uttered his commands backwards. So if he wanted a million dollars, he would say 'srallod noillim a em evig.' That's all there was to it. It was something like prayer, but much surer of results.

"I spent a lot of time at age eight experimenting in this vein, commanding stones to levitate: 'esir, enots.' It never worked. I blamed my pronounciation."*

I have asked people from the LDS Church countless times how someone may know whether the Church is true or not. Time and time again, I have been told to pray and ask God. Fine, but what happens if you don't get an answer? Or what if the answer is no? Then, I've been told, then you must not be asking right; maybe you don't really mean it, maybe you don't really want to know.

Maybe it's your pronounciation.

What about the millions who belong to other religions? Surely at least some of them have honestly sought God. Surely not all of them belong to the religions they do just because their parents belonged to it, or because it's what their friends do. Surely at least some of these people find it just as important to try to figure out what the right religion is. Surely some of these people have asked, wanting to know, over and over again. Why aren't all of them in one place? Is God just being moody and not answering anyone who doesn't end up joining ? Is God deliberately misleading these people? Are all of them lying, being stubborn, risking their salvation, just to piss you off?


* Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World