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Windseeker

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Posts posted by Windseeker

  1. What’s the last movie you watched?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My 13 year old son dragged me and his 16 year old cousin to go see Moana. I really wasn't in the mood for Disney but I ended up really enjoying it. So did the boys. I lived for a time on Maui and my daughter currently attends BYU Hawaii and both my daughters when younger grew up attending a Halau in Seattle and danced Hawaiian and Taitian. My wife also graduated from BYU Hawaii so this movie hit close to home. Both boys commented that Moana reminded them of their sister/cousin.

    I enjoyed the music but was honestly a little disappointed that they didn't use more Polynesian music other than background music. But I guess they are sticking to their standard formula where the songs are typical princess-pop...like Brave. 

     

    5/5

  2. Is God still in the lives of atheists even though they have rejected Him?

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Godless said:

    One of the big problems with his approach is that he fails to identify why atheists tend towards leftism, which in reality has a lot less to do with big government and nearly everything to do with secular social values. The moral/social values of liberalism/socialism/Democrats align far more closely to atheism than conservatism/Republicans. The latter is responsible for policies that suppress womens' health programs, marginalize anyone who doesn't identify as a heterosexual in the traditional sense, and promote religious teachings in the science classroom. If you want to know why we lean left, there it is.

    You are correct, that it has more to do with moral/social values. But the atheists’ highest value of radical equality, where it's not about equal opportunity but equal outcome, can only be brought about and enforced by a totalitarian government which is why they align with liberalism/socialism/Democrats. 

    Quote

    The consequence (of atheism) is that society begins to gravitate around radical equality. That is, people will fight and fight until society cannot and will not recognize that any choice is better than another, that any lifestyle, belief, or action has more moral merit than another....Many post-modern Atheist philosophers, following the logic of Atheism, say that all differences, such as gender and family hierarchy must be eliminated in the process...And so, an Atheist society will continue to struggle and struggle under the banner of equality until the world cannot tell a moral difference between two choices.

     

  4. Is God still in the lives of atheists even though they have rejected Him?

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted

    I read this today and thought it had allot to do with this topic. 

    I'd highly recommend it. 

    http://happiness-seekers.com/2017/01/02/the-alarming-truth-behind-anti-mormonism/

    Specifically: 

    Quote
    No, crises of faith aren’t a Mormon problem. They’re a Humankind problem, a civilizational problem. Faith itself is weakening in Western society.
     
    Perhaps we have learned so much through science that we feel silly relying on beliefs that we can’t confirm scientifically. Perhaps with all the temptations that abound, it’s just easier not having to worry about a God who will hold us accountable for our choices. Perhaps it is something else.
     
    But what I do know is that before He died, Christ told a parable about relying on God versus relying on man. Luke writes that the purpose of this parable is to remind us to “pray always and not faint.” And after telling the parable, Christ asks, perhaps with sadness in his voice: “When the Son of Man cometh, will he find faith on the Earth?”
     
    Maybe we’re starting to witness what Christ was concerned about when he posed that question.
    So, why might the Adversary lay the foundation for plunging Western society into Atheism?  The reason goes deeper than you may have ever expected.
     
    Now that we understand the central role that Atheism is playing in the crises of faith for both Mormons and other Christians, it’s time to understand the profound implications.
     
    3.  Post-Modern Atheism Is Paving the Way for a New and Destructive Moral Order
    To be clear, people who become Atheists don’t suddenly become moral monsters. Their moral views shift, but they probably have more in common with the moral beliefs of their religious friends than they have in contrast.
     
    However, one of the problems with the rise of Atheism is that it comes with delayed consequences. Like the frog in the pot of water who doesn’t jump out because the heat only gradually rises, most Atheists are unaware of where their belief system will lead society.
     
    The reason for this is simply that most Atheists have had a religious upbringing and live in an environment that has been deeply influenced by Christianity. It is one thing to reject revealed religion, and another to abandon mindsets, attitudes, and values which you don’t even realize have been socialized into you since birth. Thus, many Atheists don’t realize that while they have rejected God, everything about the way they see the world is still deeply influenced by religion.
     
    For now, many Atheists can look around and say “we are freed from the foolish traditions of our fathers” and feel content that nothing drastic has changed in the process. But in the long-run, much will change in a society driven by Atheism.
    Fortunately, following the logic of Atheism to its natural conclusions is far from an impossible task.
     
    For 150 years, pioneering Atheist thinkers, philosophers, and intellectuals have been describing the moral order that naturally emerges from post-modern Atheism. While many schools of thought exist within philosophy, a consensus is converging on the rejection of truth that cannot be scientifically confirmed or assessed (which as we will see has transformational consequences).
     
    This is what we know:
    For thousands of years, morality has been based on beliefs about human purpose, the immortality of the soul, and other transcendent truths—all beliefs that are religious in nature, as they cannot be scientifically evaluated. However, post-modern Atheism rejects all of these notions, in the long-term, for the same reason that it rejects religion—they cannot be studied or confirmed by scientific inquiry.
     
    Instead, Atheism replaces the foundations of morality with what can be seen, heard, touched, or otherwise measured. Since this eliminates notions of God and the interplay between good and evil, we can stop looking outward to ask, “what do God’s laws or the Universe’s laws require of us?” And instead, we can begin looking inward and ask more fully than ever before, “wait, what do I want?”
     
    Rather than morality being driven by belief in standards of right and wrong, good and evil, and other such dualisms, morality will eventually be driven solely by human desires, cravings, and impulses—as these are actually palpable. Simply put, society will be governed completely by what individuals think they want and need—as opposed to a sense of duty and obligation to some higher truth about good and evil or directives from Heaven.
     
    To understand what all this means, we must identify the principal need that drives human sociality. The answer, according to the great thinkers of the ages is this: respect. More than anything else, people crave respect. They may want sex, but sex from someone who thinks nothing of you is unsatisfying. They may desire love, but to be loved by someone who doesn’t see you as an equal is demeaning. They may crave empathy, but without respect, there is no real empathy.
     
    The reason that status, wealth, and power all matter so much to so many people is because they gain you the respect of others.
    This desire for respect is the same reason that studies have shown that people would rather take a low salary if it is higher than most of their peers rather than accept a high salary that is lower than their peers. They would rather struggle financially than be the low man on the social totem pole. They value respect over even money.
     
    And why did Cain commit the first murder? Because Cain couldn’t stand that God “had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering [God] had not respect.”
     
    This powerful desire for respect is held in check by a belief in God, but it is unleashed once the last vestiges of religious influence are eliminated from society.
     
    To understand what I mean by this, consider the recent campaign to legalize same-sex marriage. Proponents of same-sex marriage loudly proclaimed that “love wins.” But this was never about love. Same-sex couples already had the right to love whomever they wanted. They could have been content with anti-discrimination laws or civil unions, but it wasn’t enough. No, what they really wanted was for their union to be just as respected as anyone else’s. Marriage was an honor afforded only to heterosexual couples and same-sex couples were going to feel slighted until that changed.
     
    You see, when people begin rejecting moral codes (because they are based on transcendent truths), they shift from feeling ashamed about falling short of moral standards and become angry that anyone would condemn their actions in the first place. They begin to feel indignant that any person or institution in society would dare to say that one choice, one lifestyle, or one belief has greater moral merit than another.
     
    The consequence is that society begins to gravitate around radical equality. That is, people will fight and fight until society cannot and will not recognize that any choice is better than another, that any lifestyle, belief, or action has more moral merit than another.
    (Of course, equality is an important social value, but Christian equality looks very different from Atheistic equality for reasons listed here.)
     
    Many post-modern Atheist philosophers, following the logic of Atheism, say that all differences, such as gender and family hierarchy must be eliminated in the process. They claim that once the forces of radical equality are unleashed upon the old system of traditional morality and institutions, our world will be transformed into something that even they cannot fully conceive.
    What is clear, is that every time society allows one choice, one lifestyle, one belief to be honored above another, someone must feel dishonored. And nothing creates more anger and unrest than to be dishonored, to be respected less than your peers. And so, an Atheist society will continue to struggle and struggle under the banner of equality until the world cannot tell a moral difference between two choices.

     

  5. Is God still in the lives of atheists even though they have rejected Him?

    in LDS Gospel Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker

    Atheism is the ultimate fast-food religion. It asserts the disbelief in a god no one believes in. It makes sense that despite the evidence they would think religion encumbers progress. The atheist contribution to human advancement is a rain drop in the ocean compared with that of theists. It's true from time to time certain religions have stood in the way of fellow theists and their scientific advancements, but science itself and it's methods come from religion and the desire to discover the intelligence of god in his creation. Every advancement any atheist makes is done on the shoulders of god worshiping theists. 

    When it comes to virtue don't get me started. the worst tyrants and offenders of mankind are atheists. 

    So like I said, it's fast-food for the self-absorbed, self-obsessed and hyper ambitious. 

     

  8. Finding out your kid used to be a bully and dealing with everyone involved

    in Advice Board

    Posted

    My older brother was a real bully to me growing up. Being a year younger and the second oldest I was always protecting my younger siblings from him. His Mission changed him completely but some of the things he did had a way of returning to haunt him. During a reunion we held,  after we were grown up and married with young kids, my sister broke down and really layed into him about what a nightmare he had been growing up and it got to the point where her husband packed them up and gently escorted her to thier car departing early. They have since made up. My brother just didn't remember anything about the way he was or used to be. It's hard for me because we are just a year apart, but among bad memories or very precious memories that I want to share with him and he seems to have even forgotten those. He becomes noticably uncomfortable when we bring up anything from our childhood. 

    Recently when I was visiting his family his kids, now college age, asked me about a story their Dad (my brother) told me about when I just attacked him out of the blue. I had jumped off our deck and slammed him to the ground and punched him in the face. Somehow my brother remembered this and completely disregarded my side of the story. It made me think that the distance between me and my nephews and neices was because he didn't share my side of things. The truth was that my brother kept trying to wake me up to go help my Dad who was calling for me. After the third time he had punched me in the face several times and left. I remember looking in the mirror and crying because I could see my face swelling and I had never ever been hit in the face or hit anyone in the face in my life (I was 16). It was that and years of intimidation and abuse that made me finally decide to stand up to him. When I attacked him in front of my Dad, my Dad literally cheered me on and didn't interfere because he was happy to see me standing up for myself. So for some reason my nephews and neices think I was psycho and I don't know how the jibs with their grandparents always refering to me as their peacemaker.

    So here I am with this situation and all I can do is love my brother. Whether or not it strained my relationship with his kids is not my problem and the fact that he remembers it wrong is not my problem either. All I can do is forgive him and I do. He has become a someone I greatly admire and he deserves admiration. Whether by choice or circumstance he just doesn't remember things like I do and that's ok. I try to do little things to support those nephews and neices, like liking the facebook posts...lame I know...but we live so far apart I don't have the chance to spend more time with them. 

    Anyway, I really love this quote. 


    Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past. -Lily Tomlin


    Happiness is not found in the past it's found in the present and Forgiveness involves the choice to live in the present. We know what we are commanded to do, our experience and our own mistakes and flaws remind us what a wonderful thing Forgiveness is. If we are to become like Heavenly Father we need to view others as he does. Thankfully he views us as we are, not as we were and that is how we need to approach each other. 

  9. Ok everyone - you need to denounce white supremacists.

    in Current Events

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker

    2 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

    Windseeker and anatess2, I'd like to also extend the invitation to you both, to publicly and clearly denounce white supremacists and neo-nazis.

    I realize it probably seems like something everyone just assumes about folks, but that's no longer the case, as Godless and CNN keep making clear.  So get on the public record!

    Hi Neuro, 

    First off I didn't vote for Trump for moral reasons.

    One of the reasons Trump got elected was as a result of a recoil from 10 years of identity politics rammed down our throats from the left. 

    If anyone one needs to apologize it's the left, their insentience onslaught and accusations of privilege and patriarchy against white people is what has given rise to the Alt-Right. 

    The fact that Trump could not have gotten elected without an increase in support from minority voters as well as those who voted for Obama twice ought to give them pause when they attempt to tie %50 of this country to a minuscule numbers of impotent white supremacists.

    I'm not going to apologize and what we need to be doing is pointing out the lies.

    I am sad for minorities in this country who can't see past the lies and are living in a state of fear  as pawns of the identity politics of the left.

     

  10. Ok everyone - you need to denounce white supremacists.

    in Current Events

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker

    1 hour ago, Godless said:

    Over the last 10 days, Donald Trump has dedicated roughly a dozen tweets to whining about Hamilton, SNL, and the NYT, and exactly zero to addressing the rise in White Nationalist displays of support. If you want to denounce racists and Nazis, how about you start at the top?

    He has condemned the Alt-Right

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/307142-trump-spokesman-denounces-alt-right-meeting-in-washington

  13. Caffeine, Coffee, and Study habits

    in Advice Board

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker

    21 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

    Wow. So cool you've met him! He seems like such a wonderful guy! 

    I'm a lucky guy and it was not because of me. My wife was his physician while he was here in Florida and she received permission for me to tag along.  Believe me I felt out of place like I was standing next to Giants the whole time. One thing I got to observe is how extremely popular he is with the youth. They are very attracted to him, but if there is a choice, rather then meeting the young adoring fans, he will give them an acknowledging friendly wave and move on to seek out the quiet meek frail folks to personally greet.  Another thing I really liked about him.  

  17. Caffeine, Coffee, and Study habits

    in Advice Board

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker

    1 hour ago, Vort said:

    This is an interesting example of how we mishead things, or perhaps hear what we want to hear. I'm not trying to single you out, Sunday21. I think we all do it. You just provided a convenient example. :)

    I suggest you reread or relisten to President Uchtdorf's talk. He did not claim to have drunk caffeinated soda pop. Rather, he said:

     

    I heard this as well. I think it's safe to assume he was drinking a caffeinated soda. I makes sense that he was drinking it to help maintain focus and counter the tedium of having to learn something so boring.

    In my opinion I think diet anything, has way worse chemicals then caffeine.   (Diet Pepsi drinker here, just started my second day of giving up soda).

  18. Best Post-Election Reaction

    in Current Events

    Posted

    1 hour ago, MormonGator said:

    I'm all for peaceful protest. In fact, I think it's fundamental to democracy because it keeps politicians on their toes. Democrat or republican-I do not want them to be conformable. They work for us. 

     

    I agree but I doubt I'm the only one who in the space of a week finds these protests have grown as tiresome and ineffective as the icebucket challenge.

  20. Audiobooks

    in Book Club

    Posted

    I agree that Dune (Macmillan Audio with Scott Brick, etc,....) is amazing. One of the best because they use different actors for the voices. My next favorite is Harry Potter by Jim Dale (amazing, he does all the voices from the move) followed by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy narrated by Stephen Fry.

     

  22. Best Post-Election Reaction

    in Current Events

    Posted

    3 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

    There are some things we can agree on and others that we don't.  I will agree with you on this:
    Empathy is lacking on BOTH sides of this issue.  No doubt about that.

    There is hate and judgments based on race on BOTH sides.

    People are people, we should judge them as individuals.  True.

    The areas where we disagree, I have already explained (here or in other discussions). It would be redundant for me to repeat it again.  (What I mean is...there is more there than I have time to unpack.)

    Would you agree that racism is racism?

  23. Best Post-Election Reaction

    in Current Events

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker

    2 hours ago, LiterateParakeet said:

    Who gets to make the call of who is being "overly sensitive" and "injecting race"?  It's white people who have the tendency to say that and to me it's the equivalent of "sit down, shut up and let me get back to watching my football game."  What reason do white people have to care about race as long as we are in the majority?  If we walked in their shoes for awhile (to coin a cliche) we might see things differently.

    About the video, as I said to Backroads, I have acknowledged (more than once now) that there is wrong going on on both sides.  There is hate on both sides.  Are you ready to do the same and admit that some Trump supporters are throwing around hate as well? 

    We'll just have to disagree on this one.  Trust me the other side sees things happening from the Conservatives and makes them dig their heels in deeper as well.  It goes both ways.  

    If a persons racial sensitivity is to a point where they dehumanizing others based on race, judge others that because of their skin color they are incapable of experiencing and understanding the broad range of human emotion, particularly empathy, and feeling the need for segregation and safe spaces then that person is simply a racist. I understand what causes a person to hate and make judgments based on race, walking in my own shoes. In my own shoes I've been treated poorly because of my race. Racism and dehumanizing others is something we all must reject. 

    I appreciate my son's reaction to his Latina friend who told me as a white person I had no right to an opinion and that I should think before I speak.
    "You're going to tell someone who chose to marry a minority and raise 4 minority kids, as well as basically raise a half Mexican son of an illegal immigrate and a half Haitian nephew that he doesn't know what it's like to be a minority? As a white guy he is a minority, maybe you should think before you speak".

    If you find your self saying "White people" to anything, be very careful to consider what it is you are saying. Are you generalizing and dehumanizing?

    People are People. We ought not to make assumptions on a persons humanity, character or potential nor should we treat people differently because of their race. Ending racism starts with that simple truth.   

    There is no way to right the wrongs of the past, there is no path to justice thru racism, discrimination, and hate. Martin Luther King was inspired with the only possible solution. "A color-blind society". 

    And yes, there are hateful people on both sides no doubt. I agree with you.

  24. Best Post-Election Reaction

    in Current Events

    Posted · Edited by Windseeker
    spelling

    LP, Don't you think there is a difference between race insensitive and racist? I believe Trump is the former but I don't believe he's racist. We need to stop supporting those who can't see the difference. People are tired of the lies.  

    And when it comes to race insensitive, everyone fails at some point because some people are overly sensitive. Those who inject race into everything whether they realize or not are feeding racism and division.

    For the last eight years the left has successfully turned, any opposition to Obama, any concern about our national security, any concern about education, any concern about the strength of families, any concern about the safety of children, any concern about the economy and any concern about crime into allegations of racism, sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry. 


    The concerns people had the last 50 years about religion being intolerant, divisive, dogmatic and repressive of free thought are how I feel about the left in this country. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtlzPUtyBnI

    These protests and incessant displays of glassy eyed ignorance have convinced me I was wrong not to vote for Trump. He's simply an equal opportunity offender of people, not a racist, bigot homophobe.