LittleWyvern

Bring a radio and jam out to your own tunes, yo.

Yes, I think we need to move (back) to the meta-issue of discerning between suggestions and doctrine. When we get into specific issues such as this, I think we have a tendency to use the Prophet's words to prove moral superiority of an opinion in a contentious way (attacking somebody with words, so to speak) when there's often no right or wrong answer.

If I remember correctly, CO can turn into CO2 by this reaction: 2CO + O2 --> 2CO2 This reaction, however, proceeds quite slowly, however it can be sped up using a catalyst such as palladium (this is how catalytic converters work). As for whether it's exothermic or endothermic... based on how I picture the bonds rearranging I think it's exothermic, but I'd have to find my enthalpy tables again to make sure.

If I may throw my opinion into this, I think the key word here is suggestion. To me, this means that Elder Benson is offering various methods he uses to fulfill the abstract requirement of keeping the sabbath day holy. I don't think Elder Benson is trying to say that these are the only right answers, or that no other answers are valid, but that these are just some ideas. Your mileage may vary, as they say. So, with regards the the OP, I think your RS president should have been more clear that what she said was a suggestion, not a commandment, but regardless it's a good suggestion.

I tried to explain what it meant in the paragraph below that... I'll try to do a better job next time.

*checks snopes* ...Yep, thought so. This is a rumor that's almost older than the internet.

I explained the analogy slightly different in the "Are we missing the simplicity of the gospel?" thread. On second thought, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to try to used java code to expound on the gospel, but at least I'm forging new frontiers, right?

I think this goes back to the abstract concept vs. implementation issue I was posting about earlier. To illustrate this, I'll explain how this same concept is understood within the realm of computer science, and how this relates to the gospel. In java, there are things called interfaces. These bits of codes contain abstract methods, which specify what somebody who implements this interface must do in order to say that they implement it. For example, let's look at the Collection interface: public interface Collection<E> {int size();boolean add(E e);boolean isEmpty();boolean contains(Object o);boolean remove(Object o);void clear();}Basically what this means is that if you are going to call yourself a Collection, you need to provide a way to see the size of the collection, a way to add an object, a way to see if the collection contains a certain object, a way to remove an object, and a way to clear the collection of objects. Picture this as a concept commandment, such as "keep the sabbath day holy." However, note that there's no code here! When you write an implementation for a Collection, you can decide how you want to keep track of the size, how to add objects, and so forth. For example, you can keep the objects sorted or not. It really doesn't matter how you implement these methods, so long as you do what is required by the interface. Picture this as deciding how you want to keep the sabbath day holy. So, we should remember this difference between the abstract concept (a Collection, or keeping the Sabbath Day holy) and the implementation of that concept. When general authorities speak, they usually give the abstract concepts, and explain the methods we must implement (so to speak) in order to meet the requirements of that concept. Unless the exact method we must use to implement the concept is explicitly stated by a general authority, we are free to choose whichever method we feel most comfortable with, so long as it fulfills the requirements of the abstract concept.

He does, but he also gets to define the term "decent." I wish it wasn't 11pm already. I've still got stuff to finish.

Make sure you don't have any programs that are deleting cookies (file cleaners and some virus scanners often do this).

The best I've heard of (that's free) is OpenDNS. It's a little hard to set up, but it offers some very powerful and secure filtering features.

Haha, if a socialistic or communistic society could run on philanthropism, I think it could be something we could all get behind!

As a general rule when it comes to sources of information, I've always liked to say this to myself: "The closer the fountain the purer the streams." -I. Forgot

You get them. However, doing so involves dividing by zero, so those wishes (and you) implode into a null vector space before you have a chance to use them. I wish I had discovered lds.net a long time ago. EDIT: Uh... I was a bit too late but Soulsearcher didn't provide a wish... if Soulsearcher does, just delete this post or something. EDIT2: Ah, thanks Canuck. Moving on...

If you like my quote so much, I feel a little compelled to expound upon it. Let's take a general concept: charity. Unconditional love for others. Pure love of Christ. If you ask any LDS church member what charity as a concept means, they'll probably all tell you the same answer. So, the concepts are generally understood. If you ask the same group of people how they incorporate charity in their lives, you'll get an amount of answers roughly equal to the size of the group. When somebody takes an abstract principle and implements it in their lives, the exact procedure will be different than anybody else. This is what is usually up for debate here on the forums. The problem I see with doing that, though, is most of the time there's really no right or wrong answer as far as the implementation is concerned. So, we could debate how best to be charitable in our lives but it's really opinion vs. opinion and it doesn't really help either person. This same argument can be extended to other abstract concepts, like modesty, but for the sake of not getting into that argument I mention nothing more of it.

Ah, then perhaps my points stand but in a slightly different fashion. It just may be that we all understand the doctrine, and understand the theoretical points of the Gospel. The controversies come by people interpreting the theoretical points differently in practice, and usually both say that their interpretation is the right one. There's really no room for debate on general concepts, but how we should incorporate these concepts into our general lives is a very debatable subject. And... I suppose that a forum environment is more of a natural setting for debates than sermons. Perhaps a voice environment (ventrilo?) would be better for discussing gospel points.

LDS culture and actual LDS doctrine are often hard to separate, especially in a monolithic culture area such as Utah. While it would be nice if people honestly wanted to know about our basic points of doctrine, most questions about the LDS faith come from the most visible part: the culture. So while it may seem like we may be ignoring doctrine, it's just that the doctrine is not as... controversial, I guess.

You're free to use whatever you feel comfortable with. I've never read any of these translations, but if there's something completely different in any scriptures you quote I'll let you know. :) Hm... that's a good question, and I have two suggestions. First, my favorite part of the Book of Mormon is when Jesus visits the Nephites. This event runs from 3 Nephi chapter 8 to 4 Nephi chapter 1. Another suggestion is the first part of the Book of Mormon, which runs from 1 Nephi through Omni, which focuses more on doctrine. If that's too big of a block I'd just start with 1 Nephi and move forward from there as you feel comfortable. If there's anything specific you want to learn about first, let me know and I'll suggest a good place to start.

I think a great thing to do would be to join the Elder's Quorum with a service project if you feel able. The groups are usually small and there's a great sense of community in service. :)

It's an open canon, but yes, that is what is in our canon so far. You can search through any of our books of scriptures over here if you're interested. :)

Were it not that my dad dated a convert to the church, I would not exist.

Hey, I think I found Jono (that whole Catholic thing really was a joke)! *makes himself a little detective badge*

We don't believe that God's Spirit was completely removed from the earth (indeed, many people throughout the apostasy were probably divinely inspired), but that the authority of the priesthood was lost. In the LDS faith we believe that doing ordinances (like baptism) with the proper authority is very important. This priesthood and authority is what we believe was restored to Joseph Smith via John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John, and by extension our entire church had its authority restored. We don't know with any degree of certainty the exact history of this time period, but we know because of the First Vision that somehow the priesthood authority was lost. This is just me guessing, but probably the fact that a lot of Jesus' disciples were later martyred had something to do with it. Anyway... I better get to bed too. I'll be back tomorrow though. :)

Oh, sure, that's not a problem, ask away (that's part of the reason why we're here, anyway). Whatever you feel comfortable with would be fine. :) EDIT: I must note, though, that because of location most of the forum members are asleep at the moment... so it might be a while before somebody answers your questions, so don't feel like it's anything you're doing.

Usually, the best place to look for answers to contentious subjects would be FAIR (and for non-contentious subjects, Mormon.org - Home). I'd search there before making a post, as most probably somebody has already asked a question on the subject you'd like to ask a question on. If not, then put it in it's own topic (this sub-forum would be fine, I guess) but just try to be nice about it. As long as you ask a question without any preconceived answers about it, you should be fine. :) Above all, don't be afraid to ask, just try to be nice. :)