{"id":471,"date":"2026-06-04T17:59:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/?p=471"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:28:57","slug":"dwindle-in-unbelief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/?p=471","title":{"rendered":"Dwindle in Unbelief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Book of Mormon uses the phrase &#8220;dwindle in unbelief&#8221; to characterize the decline and disintegration of both the Nephites and the Lamanites. As the angel prophesied in 1 Nephi 12:22,23 And the angel said unto me: Behold these shall dwindle in unbelief. And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations.<br><br>An 18th century writer named Giambattista Vico, perhaps the first anthropologist, summarized the trajectory of civilizations as follows:<br><br>&#8220;Vico saw mankind&#8211;nations, civilizations, cultures&#8211;as going through progressive stages from bestiality to high civilization and then sinking back into barbarism [the later worse than the first]&#8230;The original barbarians possess rude virtues; the later have none left&#8230;Crowded city life produces men who are unbelievers, who regard money as the measure of all things, and who lack moral qualities, particularly modesty, duty to the family, and virile courage. Emancipated from ethics generally,they live by mutual spying and deceit.&#8221;<br><br>Jacques Barzun; <em>From Dawn to Decadence<\/em>; page 315<br><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Book of Mormon uses the phrase &#8220;dwindle in unbelief&#8221; to characterize the decline and disintegration of both the Nephites and the Lamanites. As the angel prophesied in 1 Nephi 12:22,23 And the angel said unto me: Behold these shall dwindle in unbelief. And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mmmind.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}