askandanswer
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Posts posted by askandanswer
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I think the real question is what happens on your next trip alone, what happens next time you are in a similar situation for a prolonged period of time, what happens next time a man tries to flirt with you? And you dont have to be on a long flight for this to happen, it could happen next time you go shopping. Having once participated and enjoyed it, will you want to do so again? Will this be a once only experience or the beginning of a pattern?
Some possible responses to those questions could be a) I feel bad about this, that's my conscience telling me that it was wrong, so I won't do it again, and I'd better take some preventative steps to reduce the likelihood of it happening again. b) That was a test, I enjoyed it, I passed the test, so if the opportunity arises, I'll do it again or c ) I enjoyed that, nothing bad happened, I want it to happen again so I'll look for or create similar opportunities. B and C are dangerous choices. Any sort of action that releases endorphins often becomes an action that we want to do more of. For some people it only takes one drink to become an alcoholic.
Welcome to the forum, its a great place to get advice and discuss ideas.
- Still_Small_Voice and zil2
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15 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:
I must point out again that you've never met me.
Count your many blessings, name them one, by one...........
- LDSGator, NeuroTypical and Carborendum
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On 12/16/2023 at 12:25 AM, Carborendum said:
This New Yorker article published just last month asks whether it is morally acceptable to have children in a burning drowning world.
Not a new thing, I know. But I see this as becoming a more mainstream ideal that will be a "cancellable" offense in the coming years, unless things turn around.
I just wanted to highlight one of the introductory phrases of the article which, I believe, encapsulates the feelings, intent, and mentality of the green-to-human-extinction mindset:
I want to point out that the word "crystalline" may mean one of two things in this context:
- structured
- clear
I gotta ask: Is it clearly structured or is it uncertain? Certainly clearly structured uncertainty is an oxymoron. And isn't it a bit redundant to say a "structured uncertainty to the structure"?
Yeah, not really. This kind of self-contradicting reasoning is what is driving the ideology. Do they even listen to themselves?
Apparently, it is now considered irrational to have children. This has always been the center of the whole green movement. Yes, it also includes many other aspects that will (if left unchecked) destroy the world as we know it. And the new world order will not be pleasant.
I'd say that if they really believe that having children will actually destroy the world, then let them go on without having children. We'll have children and raise them with good sense, work ethic, time-tested morals, and faith in God. That's the way to win.
I’m in the process of marking 148, 1,500 word first year “reflective essays” in which students were asked to watch, reflect, and respond to this video
by Dr Wray. In this video Dr Wray raises the question about the morality of having children during a time of climate change. I didn’t keep exact track of the figures but my feel is that probably a little over 2/3rds rejected the idea that climate change should be a significant consideration to take into account when deciding whether or not to have children. Again, I haven’t looked at the results too carefully, but my impression is that by far the largest percentage of this 2/3rds would have been from non-western, third world, mostly Asian countries. Most of those who seemed persuaded by the idea that this was not a good time to have children were white western females.
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On 4/19/2024 at 5:45 AM, mikbone said:
We got another one.
My wife was following him prior to his baptism.
He loved the temple open houses. Our clear communication. And Robins (the birds).
Thanks for posting this @mikbone I was unaware of this guy. After reading your post I watched two of his episodes.
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On 4/20/2024 at 10:10 AM, Maverick said:
Are you suggesting that Brigham, as the prophet of the church, taught falsehoods about God for 25 years from the pulpit in General Conference, in meetings of the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12, and in the temple, while claiming that this was new light and truth revealed from heaven?
What I'm suggesting is the teaching of additional light and truth to those who have already demonstrated an ability to discern truth from error does not generally cause the sort of reactions that you claim were caused by teaching the Adam-God theory. So that raises a question in my mind as to whether what was taught was indeed light and truth. It doesn't seem to be quite consistent with Doctrine and Covenants 88:40
If I had wanted to suggest something along the lines of what you have written I would have written something like "As the prophet of the church, Brigham Young may have taught things that might have sounded like falsehoods to some people and that there is some reason to suggest that he may have taught these things for a prolonged period and in various places." "
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On 4/18/2024 at 4:19 AM, Maverick said:
God taking away light and truth from the church because the majority of the members couldn’t handle it.
In a general sense Adam-God is important to me personally because I believe in searching out and embracing all truth. The Adam-God doctrine was taught as truth and a mystery of God by the president of the church for 25 years from the pulpit in General Conference, in priesthood meetings, and in the temple. To me this makes it significant.
The teaching of additional light and truth to those who have already demonstrated an ability to discern truth from error does not generally cause the sort of reactions that you claim were caused by teaching the Adam-God theory. So that raises a question in my mind as to whether what was taught was indeed light and truth. It doesn't seem to be quite consistent with Doctrine and Covenants 88:40
For aintelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; bwisdom receiveth wisdom; ctruth embraceth truth; dvirtue loveth virtue; elight cleaveth unto light; fmercy hath gcompassion on mercy and claimeth her own; hjustice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things.
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9 hours ago, Maverick said:
This is just another way of saying that Brigham Young as president of the church taught false doctrine about the character of God for 25 years.
I like to think that I'm too well-mannered to laugh at the views and opinions of others, but sometimes the temptation arises. To think that God would allow His prophet to teach false doctrine about His character and nature for 25 years, especially after he and His Son appeared in person to Joseph Smith - well that's an example of when I'm tempted.
To quote again from a previously quoted from talk:
Fourth: The prophet will never lead the Church astray.
President Wilford Woodruff stated: “I say to Israel, The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as president of the Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program. It is not in the mind of God.” (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, selected by G. Homer Durham [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1946], pp. 212-213.)
If Brigham Young did indeed teach the Adam-God theory - and I have never looked into the matter myself, and nor do I intend to because it is so unimportant - and God allowed him to continue teaching this, I would be inclined to accept that there must be some truth to it. However, I say this from the position of one who has never looked at the idea or its associated teachings.
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On 3/6/2024 at 3:46 AM, Jamie123 said:
A normal house cat (felis catus) can run at 30mph, considerably faster than a wombat, and faster even than Usain Bolt's record of 27.5mph. It seems to me that athletics is all about humans achieving things as best they can with their limited bodies which are no mean feats at all for animals in general. Human sport is the paralympics of the animal kingdom.
From the ABC, Australia' government funded national broadcaster a few days ago:
How fast does a wombat really run? An investigation into the 40 kph phenomenon
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I came to the same conclusion as @Vort and @NeuroTypical. And that led me to ponder how it can be said that as part of the atonement, Christ endured all and more that any mortal can, will, or has ever been called on to endure because all unbaptised mortals, and probably, occasionally, some baptised mortals, live without the influence or presence of any member of the Godhead in their lives. I’ve no doubt that Christ did descend below all, but I can’t see how He might have gone through the experience that is the ordinary condition of most mortals in not having a member of the Godhead present in their lives.
My lack of understanding of this experience in no way reduces the reality of it, it just raises, what is for the moment, a question to think about.
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I think we can agree on two things; 1) that the Adam-God theory was once taught in the church and 2) now it is not being taught in the church. I'm not sure, from those two facts, whether we can reliably come to the conclusion that it was a) taken away from the church and b) the reason for that presumed taking away was because of the wickedness of the church.
- mordorbund, zil2 and Vort
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Was there ever a time in the life of Christ when at least one member of the Godhead was not present?
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6 hours ago, Maverick said:
It’s true that by the end of his life, Brigham basically said that people could take or leave what he was teaching them about Adam-God, and stopped expanding on it.
Undoubtedly there’s more to the doctrine than what Brigham Young revealed, but as someone who has studied Adam-God extensively, what he taught is clear and easily understandable, at least to me.
Clearly there still exists enough light and truth about this doctrine for you to have studied it extensively. That makes it hard for me to see how this knowledge has been taken away.
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2 hours ago, Maverick said:
Why wouldn’t this have been equally applicable 100+ years ago, when the revelations and visions were being made publicly available?
1. Because methods of publication and distribution were not as fast or as widespread as they are now. Compare with how long it took to publish and disseminate the Book of Mormon to England and Canada with how long it takes to do the same with a publication today.
2. Because there were fewer organisations and individuals that were inclined to make the kinds of attacks we are now seeing. Levels of hate, and the organisations of the haters seem to be higher and better organised now than previously.
3. Those who were inclined to make such attacks were focussed on bigger targets rather than a new and obscure group that only had a significant presence in a few US states.
I've noticed some changes in the world since I've been in it, and no doubt there were some changes between 1830 and my arrival. Changed circumstances sometimes require a response and sometimes that response involves doing things differently.
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3 hours ago, Maverick said:
This still doesn't explain why these types of revelations and visions haven't been shared with the church in 100+ years. Why were they shared before and then discontinued completely?
To publish the revelations in a publicly available book is to make them available to the world and we know who is the god of this world. I can see some advantages in not signaling your moves to the opposition.
I'm not saying this is the reason why the revelations are no longer made publicly available in the way that they used to be, but this possibility does have some plausibility
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On 3/7/2024 at 6:10 AM, Vort said:
Laban was just a misunderstood guy with a temper problem. He lost his head. It happens.
Perhaps it might be more correct to say that his head was re-placed - from his shoulders to the ground.
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On 4/6/2024 at 1:20 AM, NeuroTypical said:
The notion of being "in error" has always interested me.
This is something that interests me as well. I've always wondered what it would be like to make an error. Sometimes I think about deliberately making an error just to see what it would feel like, but when I actually try to, I just don't know how to do it.
(Well, not always
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6 hours ago, Maverick said:12 hours ago, askandanswer said:
The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture.
Yes, this is true. But this doesn't explain why there hasn't been a single revelation quoting the words of God directly that has been added to our scriptures since 1847. The question is why this is?
Because it is not necessary.
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1 hour ago, Maverick said:
So, what’s your take on why there hasn’t been an official revelation quoting the words of God directly added to the scriptures since 1847 or a vision since 1918?
Perhaps you missed my earlier post on the previous page where I responded to this question. Here is the essence of that post.
From a talk that I know some people here highly appreciate
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/
Sixth: The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture.
Sometimes there are those who haggle over words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obligated to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet Joseph, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you” (D&C 21:4; italics added).
I note that this talk was also quoted in the October 2010 session of General Conference.
I did a quick search of the scriptures searching for the phrase "Thus saith the Lord" using the search function on the church website. I acknowledge that is not always a reliable search function. The search returned a lot of results for the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, one result for the Pearl of Great Price, and no results for the New Testament, when the Lord actually said quite a few things. We should not discount what Christ said in the New Testament simply because it is not preceded by "Thus saith the Lord."
Despite the absence of the use of the phrase "Thus saith the Lord" I would value the inspired messages of the Lord contained in our General Conference reports more highly than all the scriptures that say "Thus saith the Lord." I'm often puzzled why people think that the word of the Lord given to people in cultures far distant from our own in time and distance is of equal or greater value than the word of the Lord given to prophets living here and now. The past is a foreign country.
Addressing your point about no visions since 1918, if Proverbs 29:18 is true, that where there is no vision, the people perish, it is probable that the reverse is also true - where there is vision the people perish not. With its continuing rate of growth, the church and its members, are flourishing more than perishing, so I guess we can assume that there is vision. Who has it, and where its recorded, is not always clear, but I think its as clear as it needs to be for the Lord's purposes. In addition, I suspect that to be a special witness of Christ, as are, and have been, all of the apostles, you probably need to have witnessed something. I would be happy to consider whatever they have witnessed to be a vision, or something equivalent.
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I have some uncertainties about the idea that there is a connection between the availability of the word of God and the wickedness/righteousness of the inhabitants of the world. If people are being bad then perhaps they need more of the word of God to help them become better. If people are being good, then they should be brought to a higher level through the receipt and application of more of the Word.
I also have some uncertainties about the idea that there has been a reduction in the quality and quantity of the word of God being received today because the people are wicked and undeserving / unheeding. I reject the notion that the word of God today is being held back because of the wickedness of the people. Never in the history of humanity, not even when Christ was on the Earth has there been such an abundance of the word of God as there is today. More of His word can be found in more places than ever before, and more comes almost every day. I don’t know if we can make any reliable conclusions about the wickedness and righteousness of the people today compared to other times but the multiplicity of temples around suggests that the balance today tips more towards being more righteous.
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A latter-day Prophet describing how he received revelation
- zil2 and Just_A_Guy
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From a talk that I know some people here highly appreciate
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/
Sixth: The prophet does not have to say “Thus saith the Lord” to give us scripture.
Sometimes there are those who haggle over words. They might say the prophet gave us counsel but that we are not obligated to follow it unless he says it is a commandment. But the Lord says of the Prophet Joseph, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you” (D&C 21:4; italics added).
And speaking of taking counsel from the prophet, in D&C 108:1, the Lord states: “Verily thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Lyman: Your sins are forgiven you, because you have obeyed my voice in coming up hither this morning to receive counsel of him whom I have appointed” (italics added).
Said Brigham Young, “I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture” (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot], 13:95).
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I have vague memories of PResident Hinckley describing how he received revelation about the design of small temples. I think it happened while he was on an overnight plane trip ahd he started with some skeches on the back of an envelope. I'm not engaged in this discussion enough to go and search for that talk. However, the topic does resonate with something I've been thinking about lately, and that's Amos 3:7.
7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, abut he brevealeth his csecret unto his servants the dprophets.
If this verse is true, I think what happened with covid, specfically, the lack of a clear warning, would support the conclusion that if the Lord does reveal everything to the prophets, the prophets don't then pass everything on to us. The way the Prophet, and the church as a whole, responded to covid seemed to suggest that they were unaware, and unprepared, that it was coming.
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4 hours ago, laronius said:
It seems like there would be people all along the spectrum of faithfulness and yet the imagery suggests there are some pretty significant gaps in that spectrum.
The imagery/analogy is faulty given that the sun is a star.
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On 3/21/2024 at 5:12 AM, Traveler said:
On another note – if you are going to ski through trees make sure you are capable of keeping both skis on the same side of all the trees
It would have been very helpful if you had mentioned this earlier! I've been trying to work out what I've been doing wrong. Perhaps I should start trying to go through trees instead of trying to go around them. I'll have to think about that a bit.
Someone flirted with me…
in Advice Board
Posted
Another way of putting that is that a girl would never be alone with @LDSGator