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Everything posted by Jamie123
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There used to be a TV game show called "Are You Smarter than an Eight Year Old?" where adult contestants tried to answer questions that would typically be given to eight year old kids. In one episode the contestant was given something like 20-10×0. The answer he gave was wrong anyway, but the show host told him the true answer was zero because "anything multiplied by zero gives zero". The show producers were bombarded with complaints from mathematicians, who said the answer was 20 because the multiplication should be performed first. The producers consulted the question setter - a teacher of eight- year-olds, who defended her answer by saying "eight-year-olds are taught to do their sums left to right" and the TV producers stuck to that. Which would have been fine if the show had been named "Do You Do Your Sums the Same Way as an Eight Year Old?"
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This is still going on with no sign of abating. The latest "thing" is that Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, should resign because he supported Paula Vennells' application to become Bishop of London. (Paula Vennells, as well as being CEO of the Post Office, was also a part-time minister in the Church of England.) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12967021/Calls-Archbishop-Canterbury-Justin-Welby-resign-links-disgraced-Post-Office-boss-Paula-Vennells-supported-Bishop-London-despite-Horizon-scandal.html It's an absolute media circus - not because anything has changed, but because someone made a TV drama about it. Not that I'm complaining - for years I've thought it deserved a lot more publicity than it was getting.
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I had a very strange dream last night, which I think deserves to be recorded. It started with the Israelites, with the Ark of the Covenant. They were gathered on the edge of a great precipice, and were setting up a place to worship the Ark. All colours were very vivid, with a lot of deep greens and purples - rather like a Pre-Raphaelite painting, or the picture of Alma baptizing in the Book of Mormon. Some of the Israelites were building golden calves to decorate the area, but I thought "they mustn't do that - the Golden Calf is bad". I wasn't part of the dream at this point: it was like I was watching in in a TV documentary. Then I was in a church. It was a very old, stone church, but the sanctuary (the area where the altar is) was blocked off - either with a stone wall, or a big oak door. In front of it was a big statue of Moloch, with goats' horns, and a pentagram on his forehead. I was holding something in my hands - either a small rolled-up mat, or a wad of parchment- which I set down at the feet of Moloch. Then I had a feeling that the whole place was evil and I needed to get out. As I headed for the door, I could hear my wife's voice pleading with me to come back, saying "what does it matter about the statue?" For a moment I wondered if I was overreacting; after all, some older churches do have some strange decorations - like gargoyles and the Green Man. But I knew this was something different. I went out of the door and into the churchyard, where there well-trimmed lawns and flowerbeds and trees in leaf - but all with the same deep vivid colours I had seen earlier. The sky was dark, and seemed to be boiling with strange coloured clouds. My wife was following me at a distance telling me to come back, but I kept on walking. I shouted back at her "The Devil deceives!" Then I woke up. I don't usually remember my dreams, but on this occasion I ran through it all in my mind, which is why I can recall it now. I've a nasty feeling this has something to do with my daughter (child), and what she might have got involved with. I wonder if my offering the "scroll" (or whatever it was) to Moloch represents my attempts to accept and respect her new lifestyle - which are in any case "too little too late" as far as she (they) and my wife are concerned. I love my family, but would I really sacrifice at the feet of Moloch to please them? All rather worrying, really.
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Yes Zil that sounds good. There is a lot in the Book of Bormon, and my head is still spinning with a lot of it. It would be good to go back to the beginning again.
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I've been aware of this for nearly 3 years now. My first post about it was here: Most people in the UK are only learning about it now, thanks to the fact that they made a TV drama about it. Some people are telling me they were in tears watching it. It's caused such outrage that the government is now promising to overturn all remaining convictions en masse. (And remember the judicial branch of government are supposed to be independent of the executive branch - we have that in common with the US.) I often think the media has far too much power, but its refreshing to see that power used to champion the underdog for a change.
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Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
Sorry I've not responded for a while. I mainly wanted to thank everyone who took part in this, especially @zil2 for organizing the schedule. Here are a few general comments - I will no doubt think of more in the days to come: Firstly, everyone in the Book of Mormon (with the one exception of the Jaredites, who are not part of the main narrative) is ethnically Jewish. The Gentiles are mentioned often, but no one beyond Nephi's generation would ever have met an actual Gentile. Contrast this with the New Testament, where there was a huge debate about whether followers of Christ needed to become Jews. This is a question we never think about these days, which gives some traction to the argument that the Book of Mormon was written for our current age. Secondly, I mentioned before that the Book of Mormon has nothing like the violence of the Old Testament. Of course, I was referring to the portion of the book we had covered up to that point. When you consider the wars in which the Nephites and the Jaredites were exterminated, maybe that is not quite true. But I still think it lacks the sheer bloodyness of (particularly) the book of Joshua where God commands the Israelites to put entire cities to the sword - including children. Thirdly (I daresay some people will want to scorch me for saying this) the Book of Ether links with the account of the Tower of Babel from Genesis. The early parts of Genesis are difficult to take literally in the light of what we now know about anthropology, geology and astronomy. (Though Ken Ham and the "Answers in Genesis" people would claim otherwise.) I have always regarded the Creation, the Fall, the Flood and the Tower of Babel as "myths" - not in the negative sense of being "untrue", but in the sense that they express genuine truths symbolically, and still being inspired by God. The Tower of Babel story is a "myth" to symbolise the way human languages have diverged - and to underline that this has happened in line with God's plan. But I don't necessarily see this as a problem. Perhaps the Jaredite nation did inherit the Babel myth from the same source as the Israelites' ancestors and take it with them to the New World. And if the Bible contains divinely inspired mythology, why not the Book of Mormon too? I will no doubt think of more things to add in the days to come. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this exercise. It has been immensely illuminating for me, and I hope everyone else has gained from it too. -
Complete with a free working Liahona! (Batteries not included.)
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Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
I can't quote chapter and verse, but isn't there something somewhere about people in beseiged cities "feeding upon the fruit of the womb"? P.S. I found it - Deuteronomy 28:53. -
Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
Such short chapters all of a sudden! -
Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
Well that was what would have happened if Scrooge hadn't changed his ways - but we all know how the story ends! -
That's why the Good Lord invented gravy!
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It was before I put it in the oven - it was a very successful turkey. The main problem was I didn't put the roast veggies in soon enough so they were a bit hard, but other than that I really quite impressed myself! 😋 No food poisoning or anything!
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Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
I think most people who really thought about it would agree with that. The promise of the coming Messiah can be found throughout the Old Testament - though of course they could not have called him "Jesus Christ" because that name is Greek. Their equivalent would have been something like "Yeshua Messiah" - which is presumably what the Book of Mormon people would have called him. -
Book of Mormon Reading Group: 25 Dec - 31 Dec 2023 (Ether 8 - Moroni 10)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
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Merry Christmas to all! I was just stuffing the "turkey" (actually a chicken) and my father came in and said he'd read in the paper "don't stuff your turkey" because of "contamination". Have you ever heard such rubbish? People have been stuffing their Christmas turkeys for years and years and I've never heard of any "post-Christmas turkey stuffing disease epidemic". I've stuffed our turkey every year for years and no one in my house has ever died from it. I'd actually just finished the stuffing when my dad came in with the news, but much as I love him, I'm not going to unstuff the turkey just because some silly twonk who writes in the newspaper wants to make himself sound clever by saying "don't stuff your turkey or you'll die of malaria". If we do die of malaria I shall stand corrected. P.S. I have now unstuffed the chicken. My Dad was fretting.
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Book of Mormon Reading Group: 18 Dec - 24 Dec 2023 (Mormon 1 - Ether 7)
Jamie123 replied to zil2's topic in Book of Mormon
I've been lagging behind, but I'm finally up to date again. This is all very grim stuff. Sorry if someone explained this already and I missed it ( i will go over the comments again more thoroughly tomorrow), but why is the latter part of Mormon, written by Morono, still called the "Book of Mormon" and not part of the book of Moroni? -
The Michael Bubble song made me think of this. Almost at the end of The Magic Flute when Papageno finally gets to be with his "Papagena" - his ideal woman for whom he has been searching the whole opera. He has met her already - firstly in disguise and then in her true form - at which point the priests chase her away because he is "not yet worthy of her". (He comically shouts at them "Don't interfere in my family affairs!") I love The Magic Flute and Papageno is one of my favourite characters ever. This is an English translation, but I like it as much as listening to the German while reading the subtitles. (I have studied German but made as little progress with it as I did with French. So if you tell me its been murdered in translation I believe you - but this is good enough for me!)
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I think you got gypped. A proper cracker has a kind of cardboard strip inside it, which is bonded in the middle with a very tiny explosive charge. If both people grip the cracker tight and pull it goes off with a "crack" (similar to a squib). There are cheapo crackers out there that don't have this.
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Now here is a very good woman wearing her hat and laughing at her joke: No Humbug for her! One more: How does Good King Wenceslas like his pizza? Deep and crisp and even
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Just got back from work Christmas party. The jokes in the crackers were up to the usual standard: What do sheep say to each other at Christmas? Merry Christmas to ewe What would you call a cat in the desert? Sandy Claws Which playwright was afraid of Christmas? Noel Coward Can't remember the rest. I'll let you know if more come to mind... If you don't know what Christmas crackers are, here are some: they go bang when you pull them open and they contain jokes, paper hats and other small things (such as badly made plastic whistles, combs, thimbles, fortune-telling fish, tape measures, dice etc.) I say it should be the law that everyone must belly-laugh at all the jokes in all the crackers (however lame) and wear the paper hats, on pain of being crowned King (or Queen) Humbug for the evening.
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Thanks for the support guys. Apart from saying "Quirnius" instead of "Quirinius" I got through OK. 😁
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Nearly time to go... think of me...😟