pam
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Posts posted by pam
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In Mosiah 1:3 it mentions the "mysteries of God." Just what are those mysteries that King Benjamin is referring to?
"The term mysteries of God as used in the Book of Mormon denotes the saving principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are termed mysteries because they are unavailable to the natural man, not because they are mysterious or difficult to understand. They must be revealed from God through faith and obedience. They are designed to lead God's children to eternal life."
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So I've known that the Book of Mormon was written in Reformed Egyptian but what I didn't know is something that Hugh Nibley (LDS Author and Apologist) said:
"'We now realize that the ancient Jews could write quickly and boldly (in Hebrew), in an artistic flowing hand, with the loving penmanship of those who enjoy writing.' And the Nephites got rid of this to learn in its place the most awkward, difficult, and impractical system of writing ever devised by man! Why all the trouble? Simply to save space. What space? Space on valuable plates. When did the custom begin? With Lehi. Where and when did he learn 'the language of the Egyptians'? In Palestine, of course, before he ever thought of himself as a record-keeper. Did the wealthy Lehi learn Egyptian characters so that he could sit in his house in the land of Jerusalem and by writing Hebrew with demotic (a form of Egyptian writing which differed from classical Egyptian hieroglyphics; it was used for recording deeds, books, etc.) symbols save a few cents a month on writing materials? And did he command his sons to learn Egyptian so they could save space when they kept records? Of course not: when they learned the language, neither Lehi nor his sons had any idea that some day it would be useful to keepers of records on metal plates. They had no other reason for learning Egyptian characters than to read and write Egyptian. It was only later when historians became cramped for space that they saw the advantage of continuing to write in Egyptian. And the Egyptian characters can only have been preserved for their use because the language was also preserved..."
"The fact remains that the abridging and editing of the Book of Mormon was in a language known to no other people on earth but the Nephites." (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and The World of the Jaredites , pp. 16-17)
In conclusion, what was the language used by the writers of the Book of Mormon? The short answer, "reformed Egyptian," is probably more helpful and accurate than the long answer discussed above.
- zil2, JohnsonJones and Vort
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6 hours ago, Traveler said:
One of the big questions coming out of the current conflict in Israel is how did the military intelligence fail and not see this coming? Not just the intelligence of Israel but that the USA had not idea either? Perhaps I can provide some insights. During my time in the military, I was attached to an army intelligence unit.
There are two parts of military intelligence. The first part is the collection of information and data. The second part is analysis of the data and information. Thus, there are two possibilities for failure – First, the lack of or incorrectness of data and information or second, the failure to draw the correct conclusions in analyzing the data and information.
The USA has had many failures in recent history. Both in collecting adequate data and information but I believe more so in analyzing the data and information correctly. I became aware of intelligence failures concerning the Vietnam conflict during my time with army intelligence. I was quite taken back because operational events demonstrated that well known elements of intelligence were being ignored – I believe strictly for political purposes.
I saw what I believed to be more failures during the Carter ministration when with the hostages taken in Iran. Then the continuation of failures that brought us 9/11 and ignited the gulf war under the Bush administration. Recently there have been critical failures from the sectary of Defense (General Lloyd Austin) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of our military (General Milley). First with the withdrawal of US assets in Afghanistan we were told that there would not be problems because Isis could not take over Afghanistan for months or years. There were other breaches as well. Then with the invasion of Ukraine where we were initially told that Russia would not invade (or was unlikely to invade) then we were told that Ukraine would fall within 72 hours to a week.
Now we are being told that there was no intelligence indicating that Hamas would attack Israel. I am concerned that we will discover that there was intelligence to the contrary but for whatever reason (likely political) was ignored or diminished. I am also concerned that there is intelligence that critical terrorists’ risks are being birched at both our southern and northern borders. Again (though I do not have access to secure information or data) I believe it possible that critical data and information is being set aside for political reasons. I am also concerned that despite all the intelligence breaches and the severity of the breaches that no one is being relieved of duty and replaced.
These breaches come under both Republican and Democrat administrations. I believe this is much more than a political party issue. I am also concerned that in all the news services I only hear our new reporters blaming one political party or the other. I am beginning to think this is by design.
The Traveler
Intelligence is so much more advanced than it was during your time in Vietnam. This was just outright embarassing on all parts that their intelligence nor the U.S. saw this coming. Somehow Hamas was able to keep this so much under wraps that even with our advanced intelligence it wasn't detected.
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31 minutes ago, Lumin8 said:
In my opinion, this life is not to determine what you like or what would make you happy, that was the first estate test when we had all the options before us. This life is to show what the true desires of our heart are despite being in a fallen state. It is to show how much we like those things, to what degree.
I think a good metaphor would be the soldier in training who says they would never leave a fellow soldier behind but not everyone in the heat of the battle and in that confusing state would actually go back for their fellow soldier. When one has a chance to reveal what takes priority over other things, that is when what really makes a person happy or not is revealed. As Elder Bednar puts it, the true test of this life is to see if we follow the promptings and desires of the body or do we follow the desires of the spirit? That is what President Nelson said in his talk that thinking Celestial means being spiritually minding. It is just another way of saying, are we spiritually minded or carnally minded. What pulls at our heart the most? God will interpret our actions with that in mind, what is our true desire of the heart.
@Lumen8 I'm curious to know what part of San Diego you live in.
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16 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:
Comic books used to be so easy to find when I was younger. The would be in stores and even gas stations. They were everywhere. The last time I think I saw comic books in the stores was at a Walmart some years ago. These days I don't see the comicbooks around like they used to be.
The comic books today definitely aren't like the comic books I grew up with.
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On 10/2/2023 at 3:04 PM, prisonchaplain said:
Vancouver, WA kind of covers Oregon too, since it's just north of Portland.
Portland does have a temple. It may be to take some of the pressure off of it.
- prisonchaplain, Vort and JohnsonJones
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I'm happy to hear of another temple in Alaska and also Maui will now have one of their own.
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- Savai’i, Samoa
- Cancún, Mexico
- Piura, Peru
- Huancayo, Peru
- Viña del Mar, Chile
- Goiãnia, Brazil
- João Pessoa, Brazil
- Calabar, Nigeria
- Cape Coast, Ghana
- Luanda, Angola
- Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Laoag, Philippines
- Osaka, Japan
- Kahului, Hawaii
- Fairbanks, Alaska
- Vancouver, Washington
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Roanoke, Virginia
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
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22 hours ago, Traveler said:
I am of the opinion that AI is not quite what a lot of people think. Sometimes not even those that create the software. Sometime ago I designed controls for AGV’s. AGV stands for Automated Guided Vehicle. In essence this is a cadre of unmanned fork trucks under complete control of computers. After running simulation of the factory against known parameters it was determined that 30 AGV were needed to handle the load. Currently there were 20 manned fork trucks, but the factory was being expanded. It was determined that the company could only afford 15 automated AGV’s. I added a simple change to the AI algorithm (learning algorithm) that I thought would handle work assignments quicker and more efficiently.
Bottom line – 12 AGV’s were able to handle all the work assignments – even for the expanded factory. There were other surprises discovered by the plant sustainers (system operators) that allowed them to operate the factory more efficiently and reliably (with one exception – but that is a whole other discussion).
I am excited that the Church is developing its own AI. But this is not a kind of entity that is capable of thinking on its own – only within parameters. This is why it will never guess or attempt to tell anyone where the next temples will be built. The advantage AI has over humans it that it is able to scan much more information than people. Like a robot in a factory, it can perform more specifically defined tasks under much more stringent and defined parameters than people.
The Church AI can access more information than a person or even a number of people – in addition the AI can organized and craft the information faster than people. This can be a valuable tool to those interested in ways of utilizing the data and creating reports. But be assured that an AI crafted by anti-LDS accessing the same information would produce very different results.
The Traveler
Is the Church developing its own AI? This one that NT just showed us isn't affiliated with the Church at all.
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1 hour ago, Ironhold said:
Not everyone has reliable internet access even nowadays, but there are still places where over-the-air TV and radio are big things.
I was just saying I personally watch on their website.
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I just watch at the church's website.
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On 9/19/2023 at 11:32 AM, LDSGator said:
Kid, don’t make me release the dingos.
You're about as dingy as they get. Oh wait...you said dingos. My bad.
- Backroads, LDSGator, askandanswer and 1 other
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3 hours ago, LDSGator said:
He looked like a drowned rat when they pulled him from the lake.
- zil2, Vort, askandanswer and 2 others
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14 hours ago, Carborendum said:
@pam,
Are you available to come visit Houston? I believe I'll have another watermelon in a couple of weeks.
Let me see what my schedule is like once I get home. I'm still gone for another few days.
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2 hours ago, Carborendum said:
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but..
1) Yes, they've lost a lot of money and market cap.
2) It doesn't matter because they now have an excuse to simply get rid of "dead weight" (read: conservative executives and employees).They'll still survive (either by refocusing on things only liberals will love) or by being bought out by other companies who will have a "little" better social track record that will lure conservatives back in. If we run forward 20 paces, get pushed back 15. Rinse-repeat. Over time, the enemy never realizes how much ground they've lost.
If you only market to liberals, you'll still have a customer base of 150 million people in the US alone. That is enough to be quite successful in business. This is why boycotts don't really matter. The fact that Bud Light has only lost about 25% of sales means that 75% of the population doesn't care -- or they agree with Bud. The 25% have spoken. We're done.
The bus boycott worked because they had nearly 100% participation from Black passengers. Today, we seem to have 50% participation from conservatives and zero participation from liberals, with some liberals buying Bud to support them even when they never drank Bud before.
The way I see it....any dent is a good dent.
- Jedi_Nephite and mirkwood
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8 hours ago, Jamie123 said:
If by "investigating" you mean meeting with missionaries and attending LDS services, then no. I have gone through all of that, but about 30 years ago. For a long time I've thought I had good reasons to think the Church is not true, but my interactions with LDS have (nearly) always been so positive that its not easy to walk away completely.
Its come home to me recently that there's a lot I still don't really understand, and even if I'm going to stay a nonmember, it wouldn't hurt to read the entire BoM. Also this past year has been so horrible and i think a new project like this will help me focus again. I love everyone here on this forum, which is why I've been in-and-out of it for so long. And I'm really thankful to everyone who's joining me for this exercise.
Well we love having you on the forums as well. Thanks for suggesting this. It is a great suggestion.
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I didn't catch but when are we starting this? I'm old school and I still use my quad. I'm leaving on vacation Monday so I'll take it with me if we are starting this soon.
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8 hours ago, askandanswer said:
No need to wait two weeks @pam, I could probably squeeze you in some time before then. As long as you bring lots of yummy gingerbread alligators.
I think you live a bit far away.
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Book of Mormon Reading Group: 09 Oct - 15 Oct 2023 (Words of Mormon 1 - Mosiah 13)
in Book of Mormon
Posted
Could you imagine having to make a written copy of King Benjamin's speech for every single person there? Not like in our day today with video/audio recording devices and all of the technology we have.