Kawazu

I only log into this website once every couple of years, but this was definitely the thread to read. So, so hilarious. The last time I used chat GPT was when someone I know was applying for some disability service. We asked the chat bot to argue against the points made in the letter and then we used those to make a better letter. Most of the time I think of it as Mad Libs, (the word scramble game) with glitter on top. One of my favorite exchanges with an older version of GPT-3 was: please generate a creative analogy describing with as much imagination as possible how an apricot is like a hammer. An apricot is like a hammer because: -they are both fruit shaped tools that can be used to bash things open -an apricot has a hard shell with internal softness, much like a hammer head and handle -both an apricot and hammer can leave stains or smears if not handled carefully The first two were misses but I should use the third one for a Dungeons & Dragons mob boss who has the character quirk of always eating apricots. This one was a pretty good one: Construct a literary haiku about a random sound: the sound of a blade slicing through the air; it's time to face my destiny Anyway, highly amusing work @Vort.I Looking forward to interacting with you lovely again people next year!

Oh my. Certainly food for thought! :-)

This is how it worked out with my friend. Apparently, I accidentally misstated his fundamental position. He did not say Pope Francis was the antichrist but instead a false prophet, which is to me at least a few rungs down in intensity from the literal antichrist. He read the thread and wanted me to stress that he is always looking to Christ. We talked about some of the Bible verses he uses to say the rapture might be predicted, if not the actual second coming, itself. We talked about some of the reasons he says Pope Francis is a false prophet and even though I expressed my skepticism of what he was laying down, I listened to where he was coming from. He said he would dial it back a bit about the apocalypse alerts. I told him he could send me a countdown timer via a web applet that read 17 days, 2 hours, 24 minutes and I would know what was for. He told me he had been giving me a lot of rapture updates because he feels like the time is sooo close and he is soooo excited. He wanted to know if a bunch of Mormons were going to show up at his house. I told him to, "Open [his] curtain. See the man on the bicycle? He's one of ours." Because we do manage to have fun, the end of the day. So I guess the conversation was a success? Thanks, everyone!

Oh, he knows I ask questions just to ask questions. This is my way. I'm pretty sure he already asked me if I would consider converting in high school, to which I responded, "I will if you will." He has not taken me up on my game of religious conversion chicken yet. 😉 I think I'm going to tell him about this thread and see how it goes. Thanks, again!

Curiosity question: what is occasional 'holy envy'? Secondly, can you tell me a little bit more about what makes date-setting heresy and guesses at who the antichrist is wrongheaded because I would like to explore your thought process, if you wanted. And say for example I were to call up my friend: "Hey, buddy, about the Pope Francis thing…" What might you say, if you have the time, Mr. Chaplain? Often times, when I talk to people, I decided first if what I want to do is ask a question or make a statement about a preference for a future behavior. Example statement: "Hello, my beloved friend, you are able to think whatever you wish. My only request is that in 10 years when this Pope is dead, presuming he has not turned out to be the antichrist, that you may admit the error and consider for 120 seconds the gravity of proclaiming another human to be the antichrist. Fair or not fair? Also, for the sake of curiosity I'm probably going to ask him why Pope Francis? Thirdly, probably going to restate that he is welcome to share one apocalyptic event per season because I may be verging on rapture fatigue. It may be easier for me to just send him the link to this thread. Is there a specific subset of evangelicals that does this date-predicting thing? When I say that no one can know the date as far as I'm aware, he likes to say that blessings still come to those who watch and wait.

Oh my. So many forums used to have a chat feature. Then they would get banned for turning into drama factories. But we should totally bring ours back! 🙂 Wait, because this is the modern age, does the more good foundation have a discord or telegram

Wow! That brings back memories. I always wanted to ask you who that was in the picture. Is it a famous person?

Yes, that the great idea! I forgot we had an evangelical minister on staff. I remembered him but I forgot he was the moderator. How do you manage to practice your religious tolerance hanging around a bunch of kooky Mormons, good sir?

Oh, I'm just stopping in for my once a decade lookee loo. There was a period of time after the site updated a long time ago where I would have to click login multiple times to login successfully and there was this persistent, annoying banner that would not go away. I'm glad that's gone whatever it was. It's good to see your gingerbread face!

I remember you! I remember being consternated by what I perceived that the time to be your strong personality but also that you were very funny. :-) Am I losing my marble or did you also happen to have some kind of punk rock profile picture? The profile picture memory is definitely on the hazy and unreliable side.

I have not been on here in something like eight years. It is strangely reassuring to see that many of you familiar faces are active and present.

… And I'm figuring out the most Christlike way to respond to that. Background: We've known each other since before graduating high school and that's been 15 years ago. My friend, he is some sort of evangelical and I am LDS. He's big into the rapture. Really big. In our school days and after, it seems to be he mainly followed end-times events that swept the national consciousness here in the United States (Y2K, 2012 and so on.) Couple years back, he started down the YouTube road. Now there's a new high alert rapture watch every couple of months. He seems really excited about this asteroid that could collide with the planet, not excited about the people dying but about the rapture and Jesus coming back. Which makes perfect sense. He has a disability, somewhat similar to my disability, so the ideas of rapture/resurrection represent having a perfect body with a few less woes then we have right now. I ask him to tell me how he imagines his post-rapture life, when he will be able to fly and explore the whole universe. Myself, I imagine it like a Bible themed Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaign. (I play a lot of D&D.) In fact, during a time when he was having a lot of "high rapture watch alerts" to manage my own exasperation, I thought, "If you can't beat him join him." So I bought some regional snacks from Jerusalem, and I ordered some frankincense essential oil (enough for both of us) to set the stage for a rapture party to be held over video chat. His share of the snacks are already at his house. I figure a rapture party is like a New Year's Eve party except at midnight, instead of a ball dropping, Jesus comes back? At any rate, myself, my friend, and another friend we went to high school with have an informal Bible study group. (I'm the only LDS one. I think they like me to participate because they have faint hopes of converting me. It can be a little awkward sometimes. Yesterday, they did ask me if I was saved, to which I responded: "I should hope so! I just gave the opening prayer to this study session.") Side note: How ethical is it, on a scale of 1 to 10, to passive aggressively send LDS missionaries over to my evangelical friends' houses? I'm thinking I'm letting down Team Mormon by not trying to convert them in return? :P My one friend, whom I am talking about, did agree to occasionally read the book of Mormon with me… Anyhow, my friend drops the Pope Francis thing during the last study group. I told him that I had to go right now but we would be talking about it later. Thinking about it for a day or so, I feel like I am going to listen to what he has to say during our one-on-one. And hopefully I will share my impressions, which are: 1.) I am thinking that the antichrist would probably be more charismatic than Pope Francis. 2.) I will ask my friend about how he feels concerning the moral implications of possibly falsely accusing a fellow Son of God of being the antichrist? It seems like a rather impolite thing to do to another still-living human being. WHAT I'M SEARCHING FOR FROM THE FORUM Note that the first part of my plan involves listening to what my friend is to say. Do you guys have any general conference talks or Scriptures that highlight listening intently to or trying to learn from people with a different perspective than yourself? It's hard for me because I'm often fighting against the impulse to label religious people as whackadoos, even though I am a religious person myself. The hardest thing about LDS church was Fast and Testimony Sunday – imagine someone gets up to the microphone, starts talking about how they felt tempted by the adversary to have a cup of coffee or that they were grateful to be prompted by the spirit where they put their car keys so that they would start the morning off without taking out some of their frustrations on their little ones. There is nothing wrong with the sentiments. I just cringe a little because my worldview is most of the time rooted in practical cause and effect. I play in the mindset of prophets and Angels and Demons on Sunday, as a thought experiment to keep myself intellectually limber. I'm one of the less churchy of the church people and at the same time I think it would be a disservice to write off the entirety of the human religious experience, if that makes any sense. Thank you for reading. Any responses would be appreciated.

Balancing two pencil on top of each other seems like an unstable construction designed to allow the topmost pencil to spin around, randomly. Definitely a silly kids game.

Hi!

Steel World by B.V. Larson. It's basically a science-fiction, space Marine, adventure, first-person narrative. The milquetoast protagonist made me put the book down. I couldn't get a handle on the main character's point of view. He was like a caricature of how some people view 20-year-olds. He seemed without depth or panache, and shallow. I couldn't take it. A better experience was Old Man's War by by John Scalzi. It's the same sort of story but the leading character shows a more interesting inner monologue.