Carborendum

Without trying to comment on the current conflict, I'll try answering your other questions. We believe that we are the House of Israel just as much as the Jews (modern terminology) are. We're not "replacing" them. We are their cousins. And as such, we are ALSO (not instead of) the inheritors of the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thus by building the Church in the latter-days, we are gathering Israel. The Ancient Covenant People and the Latter-day Covenant People (which is basically what "saints" means) will eventually join together even if it is only a social/political alliance and not necessarily a religious unity. We believe that many Jews will be converted through missionary work. But most will only be convinced when the prophecy of Zechariah plays out: The land of Israel is important in its role in the end times. How much do modern Jews play into that? I'm not sure. I'll have to look into that. I'll get back to you (unless someone else gets there first). The two prophets of Rev 11 will be LDS Apostles. And they will defend Israel, die, and be resurrected. So, it seems that our understanding of end times are fairly close in many aspects. But our role in it is a bit more special than what evangelicals may believe.

Glad to help. I'll try. As you indicated, the pattern was three "trades" or "crafts" and then a nationality. Because it was weird (broke a pattern) I wondered what the deal was. I opened up BibleHub and compared NIV to the KJV: I found how often Chaldeans were replaced with Astrologers. But never anything else. The magicians were largely unchanged. But the other two kept changing. NIV: Magicians, Enchanters, Sorcerers, and Astrologers. KJV: Magicians, Astrologers, Sorcerers, and Chaldeans. What's up with that? Two were the same, but two were changed. Similarly, other translations used various different words. What stood out was that most of them were "crafts". But for some reason "Chaldeans" kept coming up in various translations. Some I'll sum up. The words may be decent translations, but the realization was not about the translations. It was about the origins of the words used and some cultural background. So I go to the Blue Letter Bible to see the original languages and the background, etymology, and alternate translations for the words. "Magicians" (KJV) (לַֽחַרְטֻמִּים) had Egyptian roots. "Astrologers" (וְלָֽאַשָּׁפִים) had Babylonian roots. "Sorcerer" (וְלַֽמְכַשְּׁפִים) was of Assyrian roots. "Chaldeans" (כַּשְׂדִּימָה) was obviously about Chaldeans. But, to be a Chaldean was almost synonymous with being an astrologer (so widely practiced was the art of astrology among the Chaldeans). Then I did some Google searches about this verse and about who each of these cultures were. I read the results. I began putting pieces together. If you notice, we're not just talking about "crafts/trades". The verse is making a statement that Old Neb had the greatest minds representing all the knowledge of the known world at the time. And when they confessed that no man alive can answer this question, it was a certainty. No man could. How would you translate that properly? I dunno. Maybe translating it the way they did was actually the only way to catch someone's attention so that they'd go look it up and figure it out. I don't know how many did. The Contemporary English Version tried to address it by using a completely different method: Counselors, advisors, magicians, and wise men. While this would have been considered a bad word-for-word translation, the "sense" of the passage was more accurate. In Sunday School, I had the class read this verse slowly, I asked them, "Does anyone notice anything strange?" They were kind of blank faced. Then I read it for them by going through the first three very quickly, then pausing before "the Chaldeans." Then I heard a bunch of "Oh"s. Then some murmuring about "what is that about?" So, I explained it. Then all kinds of discussion ensued. That was exciting. This has been famously used in anti-Mormon works as well as sincere LDS questioning: How could Joseph Smith have experienced The First Vision when he obviously had not been ordained to the priesthood? I focused on the word "This". And to tell the truth, that wasn't really a problem. It was enough to get my attention. As you pointed out, it was indeed the words of Verse 23 that answered this. "See the face of God" took on new meaning when combined with V23. Check out the footnote "a" for "Moses". If we understand that there are precursors and that there are predecessors, we understand that the Temple Ceremony has not been necessarily constant throughout the millennia. Reading Ex 19 is all too reminiscent of certain aspects of the temple. So, to "see the face of God" in the temple... what does that conjure up in your mind? A type and shadow of things to come. Then a cross-reference in my brain: Alma said that the Liahona was a type and shadow of Christ. If we look, we will live. Look at what? Live? How? Do we look upon the face of God? Do we live? How? The priesthood and the ordinances thereof. I can hope so.

I'm afraid it is both worse than and better than you believe. The actual perception-reaction time is 350 milliseconds (0.35 sec). Sounds bad. So how could it be better than you thought? Scientists have argued over whether such a short interval allows for free will or not. This author obviously is on the side of "no free will." But there are plenty of others who disagree. There are two things to consider here which your author friend has not considered, or at least he disagrees with it. The power of "No". Quiet time. POWER OF "NO" When you are subjected to a stimulus, the brain takes a tiny moment to process it to where it/you are conscious of the stimulus. Then the brain/body will react in 0.35 seconds. But the ability of your conscious brain to stop that reaction is less than 0.1 sec. This is the power of "No." We basically say, "No, I will not do this." Then you can pause and regroup. We're quite aware of those commandments that tell us "thou shalt not..." Why do yo think that is? It's because if we hardwire some things into our brains, we can exercise the power of "No" when there are some things we simply shouldn't do. This is called learning. We pre-program some things into our brains so we know not to do them when there are particular stimuli. We have just strengthened our power of "No". QUIET TIME So, what is important about quiet time? This is the power of "Yes". It is the programming time. It is during times of peace, where we have little to no stimuli, that we can choose without stimuli the paths we are going to take. For many, this leisure time is spent on entertainment or debauchery. So, you can guess what kind of programming is happening. What if you spent that time studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets? What if you spent that time pondering celestial ideas? What if you spent that time thinking, "If I find myself in this situation, I'm going to..." If you don't make good use of your programming time, you are choosing to get bad programming by default. You think you don't have free will because of a 0.35 sec gap? You may be right. It is pre-determined by how you have been programming your brain all your life. But every person on this planet has programming time. It is how you choose to use it that pre-determines what you will do when you're actively engaged with stimuli. So, the question is not how you will react when placed in a situation. The question is: What are you doing during your programming time? Jesus spent his time as a youth pondering the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air. He spent time pondering the meaning and fulfillment of the Law of Moses. He pondered the things of Eternity. He spent his programming time serving others. Enos was an average guy who was simply hunting. But in that quiet time, he pondered the prophecies about Jesus Christ. He pondered his sins and repentance during his programming time. Joseph Smith spent a lot of his programming time pondering all the different faiths wondering which one was true. How do you spend your programming time?

Yup. I bought a lottery ticket and I didn't win. What a waste of money. Proof that there is no God.

I'm sorry. But I don't recognize the image.

The principle of "try again" is where most people fall short. For our current discussion, it is that people tend to stay at the "saying a prayer" phase without ever getting to the "pour your heart out to the Lord" phase. I recently had an interesting interchange with my son. He is a pretty competent piano player. I wouldn't quite call him "gifted" (as far as music goes). But he has simply put in the work and study and time to become pretty good at it. I happened to be in the living room studying something when he came in to practice. Normally, we have the headphones plugged in, so others in the house aren't required to keep hearing the same song over and over again during practice. But that day he had the headphones unplugged. I was actually intrigued at how many times he messed up, and how slowly he figured out the fingerings to get fluent with the piece. I was shocked. He's very competent. He learns new pieces each week. But as I heard him make mistake after mistake, and stop to figure out each step, I thought it was painfully slow. That is when I usually stop trying because I figure it's above my level and don't try further until I've practiced a slightly simpler piece to eventually get to the next level. That is why he's better than I am. I can actually figure things out faster than he can. I can get fluent with some refrains faster than he can. But I lack the patience with myself. He has infinite patience with himself. And all the "failures" are simply stepping stones to success. That is why he can play pieces that I can't. Not because he's better or more trained in the piano than I am, but because he's not bothered by failure like I am.

In theory, that is what the free market should get you. But when we have new technology, it is hard to achieve that when, by definition, a new technology has not been tried, tested, and judged by the consumer market. So, I think it will be another 10 years to get a lot of the flaws in the tech worked out. Then another 5 to 10 years for the market pricing to reflect quality. The other thing to consider is that different companies (nations) have different costs of manufacturing regardless of quality. We hope that there are some factors in the market that eventually even that out as well. But when governments are constantly changing rules, it is difficult for the consumer market's moderation function to keep up with the changes.

Yes, there is always credit for effort, no matter how small. I've recently had to come to grips with that for different reasons. At the same time, I think that greater blessings can be found when there is more than simple "effort".

I first start with reading a passage. But one problem I have is ADD. So, reading along simply isn't enough. I have to read every single word. One method that has become very useful on many fronts is looking up word meanings. This takes several forms. Look it up in the dictionary. Look up the etymology. Look up the word in the original language (Hebrew/Aramaic in OT, Greek in NT). Consider grammar in both English and in original. Look up various English translations of the Bible for other meanings. Sometimes, I look it up in Spanish and French to see what alternate translations we have. Then I wonder about "weird things." Sometimes I read something, and I notice something strange in the way a verse is written. I wonder, "Why was that written that way?" See "EXAMPLE" below. Is there a series/list of words that seems to break a pattern? Is there an odd word that doesn't seem to flow? Where are the commas? What are the pronouns and antecedents? MEMORIZE: I realize that many have a problem with memorization. And I'm not being critical. It is what it is. It's perfectly fine to paraphrase a passage. But I find that memorization really helps me because I cross-reference in my mind a lot more than looking up the topical guide, footnotes, or concordance. It all blends together in a human brain a lot more easily than looking up a bunch of individual verses and trying to make sense of it. Then I try putting all the above mentioned methods together in my mind and see what the Spirit is trying to tell me. Then the pondering comes from putting all this together and lining it up with: Known gospel principles. Known history. Traditions among those who originally wrote it. Personal experience What is happening in my life and in the world today EXAMPLE: Daniel 2:2. List of words. A pattern is broken. Why is that? I went on a search and found out that this was badly translated. But at the same time, the correct translation would not have drawn my attention to the true intent of the verse. When I realized what the real words were, I had to ask, why is this important? Interesting realization. D&C 84:22 "This". What is the antecedent? It isn't what our detractors seem to think it is. The most common assumption requires incorrect pronoun-antecedent agreement. Once I figured that out, I realized the real meaning of the entire verse (and passage) not just a single word. I'm not sure if this is something that others can do. I've just been doing it all my life without realizing it. But I find that when I do this intensive study, I can actually read a page without getting distracted. The more in-depth study that others would consider boring is what keeps my ADD from kicking in.

I'd reckon that the Dubai Temple will cost more than the Hong Kong temple. It may be that we're working out the financing/accounting end more than the politics of the temple. I don't know if that's intentional. I think it's just a natural result. The BoM makes it clear that we (the LDS Church) are the House of Israel. We are the new Covenant people. There are many scriptures in the Bible and BoM that would indicate that the prophecies and sentiments are directed at us instead of modern Jewry. In other words, it's just a random scripture. I have a hard time reading too much into it.

The difference is found when asking "who were his friends"? Job had people who were friendly and "on his side" so to speak. But even those guys accused him of having sinned "because it stands to reason that any curses we receive must be a direct result of our having sinned." The people who accused Joseph had already declared themselves to be his enemies.

Statements from general authorities are very consistent. "Abortion is like unto murder." There is apparently an ecclesiastical difference. Yet "It cannot be overstated that it remains one of the most grievous sins of this generation (dispensation)." Some use the "like unto murder" as some sort of "get out of jail free card." That is ridiculous. "Oh, I didn't commit murder. I only committed a sin so close to murder that it is difficult to tell the difference." This won't stand up well when brought before our Maker. It should be a HUGE blinking red sign that we ought to do all we can to stay away from it as much as possible. On the other hand, we make allowances for abortion that would not be had for murder of one outside the womb. Rape victims are essentially given a green light (I'm being generous with that terminology, I know). If it is murder, why that allowance? Of the three parties involved, the baby is certainly the one who certainly has no guilt in the matter. There is a difference that warrants some different treatment. Yet, it is so close that it should never be taken so carelessly as so many do in this generation. It is this sliver of a difference that causes so much grief among people who aren't given enough light to understand what they are choosing.

Obviously, you do not know much about what I do or do not know. Yes. Yes. Yes. So far you have not said anything that explains how the man in Korea died. If all these protocols were in place, then how did the robot kill this man? Do you even know what a safety engineer does? If you want to call it that, I guess that is your right. But often times, people do "stupid things" out of ignorance (not knowing any better) rather than out of a low intelligence. No, but when there are very obvious methods that can greatly reduce the injuries, and they were obviously not followed, then we can do better.

Here are some quotes to consider:

I think what you're saying is not so much stupidity, but ignorance. This is ignorance in the design of the Ai as well as the design of humans who interface with the machine. The AI wasn't properly programmed for inspection/diagnostic mode. The man with the box nearby was not aware of what the robot would do when seeing his actions. This just reminds me that safety engineers are a lot more important than we tend to think. And there were obviously insufficient safeguards put in place. Of course, that's easy to say with hindsight. And I certainly don't want to say that others would have avoided this. But regardless, Korea doesn't have the safety record that the US does. Safety design consists of three different methods. Engineered Methods Procedural Methods PPE For this incident I doubt PPE would have helped. But obviously there are both engineered solutions and procedural solutions that could have been implemented to prevent this. Engineered: Give the AI a "diagnostic" mode so it doesn't do anything physically without being told, yet it can give data for what inputs it is receiving, and what "decisions" it would make because of those inputs. Procedural: Clear the area/cordon off the sensory input areas during diagnostics/inspection. Again, this is with the benefit of hindsight. Unfortunately, when we have new technology being introduced to a human population, we will always have these incidents as part of the growing pains as more and more powerful technologies are implemented. And as a society, we need to make decisions about what price we're willing to pay on an individual level as technologies can improve our lives on a societal level. Unfortunately, I don't know if anyone has the wisdom and foresight to make proper judgments about what price is fair for what benefit. We just fumble through into the future and lick our wounds as we go. There's not much more we can do.

I can't tell from your commentary on this image, but do you know why this is satire? The lever doesn't really make a difference.

Not really. This is the "site" of an old building that was destroyed (I believe) in the 1800s. That was "The Rising Sun Hotel". There were some characteristics that leaned towards the interpretation that the song was about this hotel. But most music enthusiasts believe that it was only a kernel. The development of the "House of the Rising Sun" as a metaphor was much broader than any single historical building. So, many sites in the US, UK, & France were thought to have provided inspiration for the lyircs. The building that now stands is just a generic commercial building. But many movies/shows that have been filmed on-location in NOLA were filmed on this specific street because of the mystique surrounding that song and site. Some may recognize this street from the movie Undercover Blues and the reboot of Leverage (if anyone actually saw that show, I didn't really like it -- the original was much better). However, I believe the Leverage scenes were on a sound stage that was mocked up to look like that street. So, it may be that many scenes were not shot on location, but on the similar sound stage because of the historicity of the actual site.

Did you happen down Conti Street?

There once... was a house... down in New Orleans...

LoL! FTR to everyone else, @55Spud responded with the heart.

Come on. We all know what a big hit IV was. You didn't like that?

I think you may be right. Notice the heart reaction. Yeah, Pam and MrShorty... KIDDING!!!

We can play with words and origins a lot. I've studied these words (predestination, fore-ordination) many times and pondered them for many years. Bottom line: Etymologically, they are identical. Usage and definition are whatever we want them to be within that overall concept. The idea of predestination (per many evangelicals I've had the pleasure to know) indicates that either Choice does not exist. We're just mindless automatons moving through a pre-determined set of thoughts and actions that God has set up. Choice may exist, but God has already set things up that it is predetermined what choices we will make, so our choices are already made for us. With many debates over the differences, I have found that we keep going in circles on the differences, or which is accurate. At the end of the day, I have faith that I have a mind that God has given me to determine right from wrong. And I have the freedom to choose good over evil. And it is those choices that will determine my eternal destiny. We are not railroaded into our decisions. We all have plenty of time to consider our own wishes, what are the desires of our hearts. And we will be judged on the exercise of our agency based on the light we've been given.

I'm getting the shift outta here. I mean, I'm getting rid of my Nissan Versa (a clutch) and buying a car with a continuously variable transmission.

Korihor knew better. He knew, but would not know. He saw a freaking angel. But the "angel" said there was no God? Then what is an angel if it is not a ministering being from God? He was apparently educated enough to be able to think logically. But he didn't take the time to consider, "Hey, a divine being just came and told me there are no divine beings." Uh-huh. He sure didn't know what he was doing. No sir. Yup, I'll buy that for a dollar.