askandanswer
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Posts posted by askandanswer
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1. If one source of mercy is available to everyone, under a very narrowly defined set of conditions, and another source of mercy is available to everyone under a more flexible, less demanding set of conditions, which source of mercy do you think would be more useful and more used?
2. Is there a relationship between the quality of mercy and the conditions on which it is accessible?
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9 hours ago, Traveler said:
The spirit teaches line upon line upon line and precept upon precept upon precept.
If we continue to act as if this teaching was true it has the potential to slow the rate of our spiritual learning and progression. The verse of scripture in which this phrase is found suggests that this method of teaching is reserved only for a certain type of people and a certain type of purpose- and not a particularly righteous kind of people or helpful kind of purpose.
13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
A more relevant and recent teaching is
Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!”
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On 10/3/2024 at 7:03 AM, NeuroTypical said:
We'd better get someone out there right away to take a look at this!
- NeuroTypical and mordorbund
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On 10/17/2024 at 12:26 AM, Traveler said:
A little comment. I personally have difficulty with the concept of knowledge. So many things I thought I knew have turned out to be not as well defined as I initially thought. Not that they have turned out of necessity to be wrong – just that I have not understood sufficiently. I worry that when we are convinced we know something, that we are no longer able to consider learning more. I will give an example. Sometimes when I encounter someone that says they know Christ and have a personal relationship with him – it seems that they have completed what they want to know of Christ and are not interested in discovering anything more.
The more I learn the more I am not content with what I know (of any subject – especially science and religion). This is one of my primary expressions in my personal prayers. Sometimes I feel guilty for not being content with the understandings I have been given. Mostly, I do not understand why anyone would think they know so much that learning something new would be a threat to their paradigm of understanding. The one exception is something that I have carefully considered and studied and found to be false or of diminished value.
The Traveler
I agree with this sentiment. The only thing that you or I or anyone else really knows is that which has been confirmed by the Spirit. Everything else is just theory and speculation, based on the balance of probabilities, and subject to change. And I think all of us will be better off if we place a higher value on, and spend more time pursuing, that knowledge which will be true forever rather than theories which will always fade away over time, only to be replaced by new, transient, ideas.
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On 10/18/2024 at 2:31 AM, mikbone said:
This came up during the question and answer session we had with Elder Wakolo during yesterday afternoon's session of District Conference. Our Branch President asked whether this part of the world could be one of those areas where the new style of garment would be trialled. Elder Wakolo replied that the Pacific Area would be included in the trial. No time frame was given.
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Two major cyclones in 2 weeks and they still support Trump!
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On 9/14/2024 at 8:59 PM, Carborendum said:
It is the fact that I never really have any impact no matter what I do. I never made a difference.
I'm sure that some of the engineering projects youv'e helped bring into existence will impact the lives of thousands for decades.
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I believe that in the long run, effort and intent will count for more than outcomes. How others respond to our charitable and Christ-like actions, should not in any way reduce our desire or responsibility to act in a charitable and Christ-like manner.
For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
There's nothing in here about whether the recipient of the cup was actually thirsty, or wanted a drink.
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On 9/11/2024 at 7:18 AM, Carborendum said:
- I worked as a volunteer teacher in several outreach programs.
I've only read the first post in this discussion but felt the need to respond to this one straight away. I don't think any honest and well-intentioned effort to teach something true and helpful to anybody could fail to make the world a slightly better place. There is real and lasting value in effective teaching by good teachers.
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20 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterrence_theory
The US military has probably saved more lives by not fighting, than any other nation or group of people in the history of the world. It has presided over the post-WWII years of unprecedented peace and economic expansion without equal. And I know of no serious argument against the notion.
So yeah, all the politicians from the US say this. Unless it's an election year and they can get votes by being seen as anti-US military spending, or something.
It just seems almost contradictory to have the same person declare against violence yet advocate for increased spending on defence. The primary means by which the defence of a nation is obtained is by increasing the capacity of a nation to commit violence.
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23 hours ago, LDSGator said:
Because I wanted to be clear that violence isn’t the answer.
Do the politicians from the nation that spends more on defence than anyone else ever say this?
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10 hours ago, Carborendum said:
I once worked with an Aussie. And the word "wombat" came up. It wasn't the first time I heard the word. But I had to voice the fact that I didn't know what it was. I knew it was some sort of animal. But I had no idea what kind or what traits it had.
The Aussie girl said, "It's a rock with legs."
"That doesn't really help me."
"It's the truth! Autos all over Australia get destroyed by hitting a wombat. Then it just walks away like it was awakened from a sound slumber."
"I still don't know what a wombat is."
"I told you. It's a rock with legs!"
Later that day I went to the library (internet was still developing back then). I found what it was. I'm having difficulty believing it really can "destroy" an automobile by "allowing the vehicle to hit it."
I've never hit a wombat but I've spoken to people who have. They can cause quite a bit of damage. But in every case I've heard about the wombat gets far more damaged. Hitting kangaroos - roos - can also be a bit of a problem. In the city I was living in a few years back you had roos in the urban environment, and car-roo interactions were a frequent event and quite damaging for roo and car.
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10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.
Section 121 was received in 1839. Is the above verse consistent with what is written in the History of the Church? I thought by this time, and particularly during the Kirtland Safety Society problems of 1837, some of Joseph's friends had turned against him and charged him with transgression.
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On 9/5/2024 at 12:44 AM, NeuroTypical said:
Agreed on all counts. And no matter how much the government pours into healthcare, including the generation-inspiring Obamacare/ACA, the government has utterly failed for 6 decades to make a dent in the poverty rate.
Has the definition of poverty stayed the same across those six decades? Perhaps today's person in poverty might enjoy a standard of living that was middle class standard 60 years ago. I don't know, I'm just raising a question.
- NeuroTypical and LDSGator
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On 9/4/2024 at 10:57 AM, Phoenix_person said:
I happen to know that Gator has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. My belief that he could rearrange my face if he felt so inclined is an evidence-based one.
I'm pretty sure that @mikbone could as well although the methodology is likely to differ.
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In our Branch we could post this notice every week...... if we met in the janitor's room
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The Plan of Salvation is a great plan because under this plan, we're all winners, except the sons of perdition. Everyone will get what they want.
- Ratbag, pam and JohnsonJones
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US politics is watched closely in Australia. (We need to keep an eye on you so that we can be ready to bail you out of your next war
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This comes from an article by the government owned national broadcaster which is meant to be politically neutral but which has swung quite a bit to the left in recent years. I was interested to note the size of the change in the pro Democrat vote from before Biden's withdrawal in July to after his withdrawal in August. The Trump vote was largely unaffected.
The Coalition are broadly comparable with what the Republican party used to be like, the Labor party is the Australian equivalent of the Democrats, One Nation resembles Trumpism and the Greens here are pretty similar to the Greens in the US. When the Australian vote is broken down by party allegiance we get:
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16 hours ago, mikbone said:
The point wasn’t about respecting veterans. It was about flippantly disrespecting a Medal of Honor recipient.
Which I find detestable. Especially from a prior Commander in Chief.
The following video is the first recorded action of a medal of honor recipient. The footage took place in Afghanistan 2002.
This is his story.
I have performed countless hours of pro bono work as a surgeon performing debridement of IV drug abuser abscesses and amputations from diabetic gangrenous wounds, etc.
I would never compare my civilian efforts to those of John Chapman’s.
That would make for an interesting comparison - the guy who causes injuries compared to the guy who fixes them.
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8 hours ago, zil2 said:
He was posting more in Instagram for a while, but it's been a while since I saw a post from him (I follow him and other Apostles there). I figured maybe his health doesn't let him keep up. (These weren't staff-made posts with clips from GC or whatever, like some of the other Apostles do. Elder Holland was clearly speaking from his office specifically for social media. Presumably with staff doing the camera and posting work, but it was Elder Holland speaking directly from his desk.)
Its comments like this that occasionally make me consider, very, very briefly, whether I should start engaging with social media.
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20 hours ago, Carborendum said:
My daughter pointed this out:
I know of one particular sometime member of this forum who'd go crazy over this quote.
It's been less than a year, and I'm not sure if any of us watch the apostles sufficiently closely to notice, but has anyone noticed an increase in Elder Hollands approach to his calling since this time?
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Here is EVERYTHING you need to know and do. If you can do what this says you don't need to do anything else.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/personal-finances-for-self-reliance?lang=eng
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In temporal terms, I guess you could say the Lord is using a carrot and stick approach.
On another level, I think there may be some value in exploring the idea that we need a blessing to entice us to do good, and that there needs to be a cursing to help us refrain from doing evil. Its interesting that the inherent nature of good is insufficient to entice us to do good, and the inherent nature of evil is insufficient to restrain us.
Why No Crosses?
in Learn about The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints
Posted
It's nothing to get cross about