skylercollins

Monthly/Quarterly family barbecues work great, too.

It seems those you have observed don't have as good an understanding of what Zion is than yourself. Perhaps you could finding opportunities to teach them, at least through example.

Well said! I'd like to direct joshua to a blog post in this very subject I wrote: Faith | Skyler Collins: God's Two Options

Our new friend is clearly under the false belief that spirituality can be observed in a test tube. Don't sweat it Interalia, as I'm sure you won't.

Gmail > *

The below book is great for an introduction to the Church: DeseretBook.com - Our Search for Happiness: An Invitation to Understand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Here's some resources from the Church, if you haven't read them yet: LDS Church News - Seven-part anti-pornography series

Great thoughts. I think the very foundational basis for my belief is choice. I have chosen to find God and learn His will for me. Everything else has sprung from that journey.

I thought a Prophet's main concern was spiritual evolution...

As for Sunday School, this year it's been a study of the Book of Mormon. Next year it will be Church History and the D&C. It cycles every year through the Old Testament/Pearl of Great Price, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and then Church History. Then it repeats every 4 years.

Pam, organic evolution is only concerned with the physical, mortal, aspects of our creation, not the spiritual and immortal. Spiritually, we are the offspring of God, physically, we are the offspring of our parents. It's important to separate those realms. If God guided (I say guided, to us it's random, to him, perhaps not so much) organic evolution to create man how it's believed man evolved (from lower life forms), then who are we to say he didn't? The point is, the scriptures are silent on the how, both of our spiritual and physical creations. Unfortunately, as everyone currently alive is confined to this physical universe, all we can discover here is the how of our physical creation, and not the how of our spiritual creation. I have hope we'll learn that in the next life. Through all of this it's important to stay on the side of truth and light, and not try to bring what you want to be truth to your side. In other words, I shouldn't try to get God on my side, I should be concerned that I'm on His.

So is that a problem of too much or too little government? If the federal government obeyed the rules laid out for it in the Constitution, we wouldn't special interests "controlling" the government.

Anyone who is against the globalization of free trade and consumes anything they didn't produce 100% themselves is a hypocrite. You realize that not a single person can make a regular #2 pencil, right? We have, especially here in the U.S., what we have and for as cheap and high in quality as we have it because of the liberalization of free trade. For us to deny to other countries poorer than us, is hypocritical as well. The video really is compelling and makes excellent points on how globalization of free trade produces peace and raises the standard of living. Not a single government entity has ever been able to do that without the threat of force, and certainly has never raised the standard of living. Austro-lib brings up a great point. Government currently is the monopoly on several different functions in society. Take first-class mail as an example. Do you think that companies like Fed-Ex, UPS, and DHL are incapable of delivering first-class mail as "efficiently" as the US Postal Service? I would put all my assets that if given the chance, they would do it faster and better. Unfortunately, federal law prohibits them from doing so. Now that's kind of a silly law isn't it? To whom should you turn to protect you from that monopoly?

I disagree that it takes anything away from the majesty of God. What it does is expand our minds to know the ways in which God works. And that brings me closer to knowing Him and wanting to be like Him. I'm not saying that's what everyone else gets out of it, but it's what I get out of it, and I am more blessed for it. As is the world.

My dispute is not with the historicity of the Bible. I agree with you on that. My dispute is your insistence that organic evolution is false. I don't believe anything in the Bible contradicts what science has determined as the age of the Earth and the population of it's life forms. What the Bible seeks to accomplish and what science seeks to accomplish are completely separate things. They're in separate realms, and I believe the Bible is better at doing what it's meant to do, and science is better at doing what it's meant to do. At some point, most likely in you're lifetime, you're going to have to reconcile your beliefs with the facts of science. As quoted above, truth cannot contradict truth. So if your beliefs are true, they will reconcile with the findings of science. Thus far, mine have. In fact, my beliefs have been strengthened having the mysteries of the God's creation opened up in the way science has.

I hear that objection a lot, although I've never understood how it has anything to do with a free market and the division of labor.

Obviously, you didn't watch the video.

I would disagree. The problem of having one company own everything is brought about by the government interfering too much, not too little. In a truly free market, there is no force and every company is constantly on the defense against competition. When government interferes and gives tax breaks to certain companies and not others, and other such form of welfare for the rich, then it's no longer a free market and monopoly is easier to achieve.

I'm not sure what that has to do with what this video is about. Globalization is about free trade, not government.

Can you explain what exactly it means for God to speak and for something to happen? I'm talking about technicals, how does that process unfold exactly? Don't you know, other than "he speaks, and it happens"? Cause a lot of people "speak" and then stuff "happens"? But that doesn't explain how it happens. For example, the LDS Prophet says "There will be a temple built in such and such city" and then it happens. But the how is certainly more complicated than that. There's no reason that all of the currently understood and developing processes by which the Earth and it's inhabitants came into existence weren't the how of God's creation. The Bible and other standard works give us the who, what, why, and the simple, easy to understand how, but not the real how. That's up to science to discover: I believe I'm in good company when it comes to accepting organic evolution and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The only seeming contradictions are in our interpretation. As a side note, I'm sure you enjoy a lot of pleasures in life that were created because someone, scientifically, asked how. Also ask yourself why anyone who denies organic evolution would go to a regular modern doctor, when in need, who understands human biology and medicine that has been so advanced because of the increased understanding of the human body because someone asked how, unless they're just a hypocrite. Nature, including your physical self, is full of natural processes. The Bible doesn't teach brain surgery or rocket science, yet they exist and have blessed the human race. The principles for each of those are founded in biology (with it's organic evolution) and physics. The wise observer will recognize what scientific advancement really is, an unfolding of the processes of the Almighty.

As posted on my blog, first watch the video, and let the discussion ensue!

This is an interesting statement since the discovery and study of DNA has strengthened Darwin's position. Prior to DNA, scientists compared body parts and what not to trace relationships between species. Since DNA, they've been able to do so more accurately on a genetic level. I'm not sure nature knows anything, and that's not what organic evolution is about. What it's about is that when an organism has a random mutation in some part of it's DNA, and that mutation increases the organisms chance of survival, then it has a greater chance of passing it to it's offspring and so on and so forth. The evolution of the eye can be traced back to mere photo-receptors and what not, as I understand it. I don't know who's "clinging" to evolution as if it's your mother's leg. There are those scientists who are also atheists and bend evolution to mean something it doesn't in regards to the existence of God. Then there are those believing scientists that see evolution differently, in that it is probably the means by which God created and populated this planet with life, culminating in the evolution of physical man. Thanks for the generalization. You realize that organic evolution, and not Intelligent Design theory, is taught at BYU, right?

That reminds me of this quote be Brigham Young, actually:

I just found some more David Baily resources. Thought I'd share: Papers Directory

Yea exactly. So our spirits were formed out of intelligence just as our bodies were formed out of physical raw material. And that raw material was neither male or female prior to being formed as such, in the womb. Of course this is all our imaginations at work. (I mean these ideas we're coming up with.)