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MartinB comments on Building rationalist communities: lessons from the Latter-day Saints - Less Wrong
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I have heard it said (here, even, I think) that the main point of the door to door stuff and overseas missionary work is to inculcate an extremer faith in the Mormons doing them - a sort of cognitive dissonance/brainwash-yourself strategy. Strategies which result in more conversions may result in fewer zealots, and as Jesus tells us, zealots are more valuable than the lukewarm.
Does the church openly acknowledge this? Do the leaders see it this way in their secret planning meetings?
I sometimes wonder how strong delusions of reality effect the goal achievements. Here: would the Church be more successfull in their PR when the leaders or designers of the methods were conscious of their real world factors, or is it better if they are actual believers in their respective faith?
My bet would be that they do, but don't phrase it the way gwern did - maybe something like "missionary work puts your faith through the test of fire" or "talking with unbelievers will give you a deeper understanding of your own faith".