Vort

Reasonable, except that 30 f/t employees at $50k/yr is realistically going to be somewhat more than $2m. But this is back-of-the-envelope stuff, so that gets a pass. The problem I see is that what you've described is not a self-funding temple program. The temples are all cost sinks; none generates a single dime. What you're really saying is that the Church could, if it structured its finances correctly, offer temples that are run off the profits of its (the Church's) investments, without needing any tithing funds. That may well be so, but it's not self-funding temples.

I really don't. Even in the sunny '80s, bagging on Americans and America was popular sport worldwide.

LOL. Guaranteed Dem loss. Hard to believe, but Harris is less likeable than Biden.

The kimchee belt is my favorite part.

Shocker

My guess, FWIW (=$0.00), is that the Supreme Court would disallow Obama from running for being elected to a presidential ticket.

Danites arise!

LOL

Mostly static electricity. A thin coating of WD-40 can help with that.

My son in Houston lives right next to an H-E-B. Great place, very convenient. Houston had a big power outage six or so weeks ago, but the H-E-B stayed open (but they closed off their refrigerated sections). I can understand why my son and his wife love their location, and Houston in general.

Rare. The rarer the better. And FTR, A-1 is swill. It's fine on a hamburger or a really poor cut of beef, but otherwise I like my meat to be meat-flavored.

I am not at all convinced of this. Ask your friendly neighborhood university professor physicist what it means to "create" spacetime, and what existed "before" the Big Bang. He will tell you, "No idea." At this point, the popular cosmology among physicists is just words. Much of the inferred meaning behind those words, e.g. there was not space nor time before the Big Bang, has absolutely no substantiation. Technically, it is not even a scientific question, because the hypotheses aren't falsifiable. Needless to say, there are no models of reality that allow for timeless spacelessness. In short (in honor of MrShorty), I see no reason to think that spacetime came into being out of nothing 13.7 billion years ago. That sounds to me an awful lot like...well...creatio ex nihilo. So if God Himself dwells within space and within time, that doesn't really disqualify the Big Bang, only some people's formulation of what they think it must imply. To me, a far more compelling argument is that the speed of light c is unbelievably slow. Travel through our universe involves great passages of time for even relatively small travel distances. As much as the time involved is important, more important to my mind is the time differential experienced between bodies moving in different intertial reference frames. On a sort of nuts-and-bolts level, I can't see how a c-bound God—especially when c is less than 300,000 km/s—administers even a single galaxy, nor even a small, say 10,000-light-year across, section of that galaxy, much less an entire universe. Of course, my inability to see or imagine something is no indicator as to that thing's potential validity. But the idea that God might somehow, in some incomprehensible (to us) way, exist "outside" of our universe, does seem to allow for all sorts of otherwise impossible scenarios. But please note that that same thinking would invalidate the arrow of time and the whole idea of causality ("first A, then as a result B"), which is a huge thing for me. My interpretation of the scriptures indicates to me that God does not experience nor allow any "temporal paradoxes" a la Star Trek.

What are some good arguments for God existing outside space and time?

Yep, I get the same result.

The article never really defines "Ebenezer". It's taken from 1 Samuel 7:12: "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us." In ancient Hebrew, ebhen means "stone" and eber means "help". Thus, the name Ebenezer literally means "stone of help". So "to raise one's Ebenezer" is to memorialize God's help, as Samuel did.

AKA Republicans.

Yes, but Paul is the foundation of modern Christianity in a Biblically doctrinal way. Augustine is the champion and rectifier of the highly popular (in intellectual circles) Greek "neo-Platonic" view of how Christian doctrine works. We Latter-day Saints flatly reject most of Augustine's important conclusions, which is why we find ourselves distinctly outside of mainstream Christianity. We are not Augustinians. Paul, on the other hand, we embrace.

And those who actually are smart all too often simply end up proving the Book of Mormon's warning: "When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish."

And Augustine, of course, who is pretty much the foundation of modern (non-Restoration) Christianity.

Ironic. By the mid-1970s, US farmers were largely reliable Democrat votes, based mainly on Democrat-cheered farm subsidies and the fact that Jimmy Carter sold himself as a peanut farmer man of the people. (Which was not entirely untrue.) Since Reagan, farmers have been solidly Republican. I assume that Minnesota farmers are not substantially different from other farmers across the country.

Very fun! My answers: Speaker: Samuel, Jacob, Noah, Zoram, Helam, Ezrom, Amaleki Topic: Humility Repentance, Priesthood Duties, Pure Love of Christ, Doctrine of Christ, Plan of Happiness, Law of Moses Starter: Story, Quote, Scripture, Testimony, Visual Aid, Lyrics, Joke

Two titans battling it out in open warfare, striving to assert dominance as the ultimate alpha male. It's a humbling demonstration of true might.

Denial for lack of standing is a pretty common thing, and it's substantive in its own way. I often dislike the "no standing" ruling, but it makes sense from a legal perspective.

I realized that I also misspelled "respondent". I don't know how I manage to make such typos, but I guess you get what you pay for.