Urban Legends

The following post has to do with my church.

In the church we partake in a lot of talks and lessons.  In these, there are often many stories or anecdotes told.  In a recent class I heard a story that sounded amazing.  I made a note of it so that later, when I was at home, I could research it further.  What I found was that said story was a myth, an urban legend.  It appears it was a story that someone had made up years ago, which had just circulated, because it was so amazing, among members of the church.  Such a story is not part of the doctrine of the church, it is just one of those things that people pass along which sounds cool.  It's like when people say that Mikey from the LIFE cereal commercials died from drinking coke and pop rocks.  It's not true, but it sounds amazing enough that it has been passed around.  During my search, among all the links that I found, I found pages such as this which are dedicated to debunking such urban legends which circulate among the members of the church, similar to a Mormon snopes.  I found many stories which I had heard, even from my youth, which were debunked.

For those of you who are less familiar with my church, I will say that having urban legends floating around does not mean that any religion is true or false.  Urban legends pop up everywhere.  It's human nature.  I will say that I do like how my church does handle false things which people spread around.  I invite you to research the church more if you have any questions about this.

For those of you who are familiar with the church, this experience reiterated to me the importance of knowing things for ourselves and always having credible sources.  I had an institute teacher who compared these stories to finding cupcakes on a sidewalk.  If you were walking on a sidewalk found a cupcake, you would not eat it.  It doesn't matter how good the cupcake looks or whether or not it looks like it's in good condition, you don't know where it has been and therefore you can't trust it.  The same goes with these stories which are passed along.  I am not going to trust a sensational story for which I have no sources.