NeuroTypical

I got another stupid nigerian scam letter a day or two ago via this forum. I guess it's a curse of running a sucessful and popular forum - scammers and spammers and vile naughty people will try to use the forum to spread their message. LM

Our bishop read us three letters last week. The first was the "come on folks, stop falling for scams" letter. (I believe the exact words used were "Be wise") The second was the latest attempt to squelch the "a hush will fall in heaven and people will bow to you when they hear you were on earth under Pres. Hinckley" rumor. I don't remember what the third letter was, but it was something we'd heard before, and it didn't have anything to do with preparedness. LM

By the way, in case anyone is wondering if a skeptic has a common sense reason to be skeptical, consider this: Population of America: 303,000,000 Assume on any given morning, 5% of us (15,150,000) will remember having vivid dreams. Assume 5% of those vivid dreamers (757,500), dreamt about some sort of disaster, natural or manmade. Assume one-tenth of one-tenth of one-tenth (0.001) of these people will have a dream about an airplane flying into a building. So, every morning in America, 757 different people wake up in a sweat, having just experienced a prophetic-like incredibly detailed, very realistic feeling dream about an airplane flying into a building. Every single time these different people got out of bed and went about their daily routine, quickly forgetting the dream. On 9/11/01, those specific 757 people turned on their TV's and saw images they can easily associate with their dream. We don't bother remembering all the other dreams we've had that never come true. But we sure as heck remember the one that does. And we're prone to add substance that isn't there, misremember and reinterpret what we experienced to fit the events of the day. One famous study asked people who had recently returned from their Disneyland vacations, if they got a picture of their kids with Woody Woodpecker. A certain percentage of them remember seeing him in the park, some remember going up to him and shaking his big cartoony hand or getting a hug, some even remember taking the picture. Problem is, Woody is owned by a different company, and has never been associated with anything Disney. Our brains make stuff fit automatically - whether it really fits or not. "But it wasn't a dream - I'm awake when this happens!" - well, run the equasion again and lower the percentages of random Americans that randomly have similar premonitions. Again, 99.9% of them will be wrong, but that .01%, whoo-boy - he's sure got something to remember and talk about and be convinced about, right? I'm not saying the people making claims are wrong. I'm just saying I've got good, logical, common sense-based reasons to not assume they're right. LM

I agree with 95% of everything I've ever heard come out of Elder McConkie. But dang - that last 5% sure is a doozy! LM

How am I coping with high cost of fuel? I have a Consumer Reports used car buying guide sitting in front of me right now. I'm going to make a list of used cars that get more than 35 mpg, narrow it down by browsing repair records, narrow it down further by removing anything smaller than a Honda Accord, and go shopping. I don't think a hybrid would work for us, as we do 80% highway driving - no short trips, no regenerative braking. Like skalenfehl, I'll be parking my big honkin' truck. LM

I can't for the life of me remember a sacrament meeting where something was NOT read. Care to be a bit more specific?LM

Hi Gaea, Just out of curiosity, how come you capitalize so many words? Well, the DSS are ancient, but they certainly are not originals. We don't have the originals for any books of the Bible. At best, we possibly have sixth or seventh generation copies, and most manuscripts are probably further away than that. The Dead Sea Scrolls date between 200 B.C. and A.D. 70. That's 600 years after the original writings of the prophets. The earliest NT manuscripts we have date between A.D. 150 and A.D. 300. Thats 100-250 years after the originals. We're told that a portion of the Book of Mormon was sealed by a metal band, and we're told that God didn't want that portion translated yet. That's one difference between the BoM source records and biblical sources. LM

I've owned a gun off and on for over a decade, and I've had a conceal-carry permit from two states, and carried legally in five states. When thinking along the lines of protecting your home, here's my list of priorities: 1) Lighting 2) Fence 3) A dog 4) Gun The first three make every other house in the neighborhood more attractive than yours. The last two are for when that doesn't deter a bad guy. A gun is not a magic talisman that wards off evil by its mere presence. You shouldn't have one unless you know how to use it, and spend some time preparing yourself to do just that. There are stories about how bad guys take someone's gun away and use it on them - if you don't know how you're going to avoid ending up having a similar story, maybe a gun is not for you. When a bad situation is happening, you don't rise to the occasion, you fall back on the training and preparedness you've put into place. LM

Woo-hoo! Congratulations! So, what's your secret?

From what I can tell, the church really isn't out to force you to do anything or be a certain way. The church is all about sharing what we have - it's up to you to accept it.You wanna dismiss GA's right and left? Go for it. We don't have secret police. We don't tie you up and beat you with bars of soap in socks. We won't try to make your wife divorce you so she can remarry a 'real' mormon. You get into trouble when you start trying to teach me that I ought to dismiss the GA's. I was on the records of the church for 6 years when I didn't consider myself LDS. I didn't hold any of the beliefs. I didn't attend any meetings. The church was content to extend an occasional hand of friendship, and otherwise leave me alone. They never took away my priesthood or excommunicated me or anything of the sort. Now, if I had been standing on the streetcorner handing out "mormons are evil" pamplhets, the story would probably have been different. If I tried to crash a sacrament meeting and shout out how stupid everyone was being? Different story. LM

Very irreverent, misleading, uncharitable, and of course incredibly funny.

The line is drawn at abusing your calling. It doesn't matter how different you are, but you need to teach what the church wants you to teach. You need to home/visit teach without turning your families into captive audiences for whatever personal opinion you think should be shared by the whole world. Also, testimony meeting is for testimonies - not for telling us how God wants us to be or not be in Iraq, how people need to lose weight or go to hell, how you know an evil protestant, etc. Stuff like that. LM

I'm thinking that the BoM loses a lot of its plausability once you start talking about how it is not a record of real people and real places. I'm also thinking that some people may feel forced into considering such a position, due to misunderstanding the various archaeological and DNA-themed criticisms of the book. The criticisms don't hold as much water as it may appear at first glance. If anyone wants to know more about the DNA issue, FARMS is an excellent resource. Take a look. LM

His website is found here, and you can read this alleged lost portion here. I'm not aware of any LDS scholar commenting on this one way or the other. His name doesn't appear anywhere on BYU's or the Neal A Maxwell Institute's website. I'm relatively certain the church hasn't said anything about him or his books. All this makes me skeptical. It seems like the statement "The 116-pages were found and printed back in 2002" is a bit premature. A more accurate statement would be something like "Someone claims to have found the 116 pages, but nobody in the LDS scholarly community or in the church believes him". I do not know why this is the current state of affairs or if they'll change, but that seems to be what's going on. LM

A GA is a source - but Elder Burton didn't say anything about your claim "many have this gift". I want to be clear about where I'm coming from. I believe seers exist. Right now, I know of 14 of them - 11 living apostles and 3 members of the first presidency. Come April, there will be 15 as we name a new Apostle. You apparently believe that God has more seers than that. I'm looking for any kind of authoritative source that backs you up. Elder Burton doesn't back you up, neither have the scriptures you've cited. I suppose Dictionary.com backs you up, but I'm not willing to let that source define the term for me as "a person who sees; observer". I have no problem with Joseph becoming a seer early on. I do have a problem with assigning the title seer to various folks on this board who are claiming to see the future. I'm asking you for some sort of authoritative source that says something to the tune of "God makes all sorts of people seers - not just the twelve and 1st presidency." I've never seen such a source. If you've got one, I'd love to see it. Because if you don't have one, then we've just got your belief about the issue. I do not doubt it is a strong belief, but I do question whether it is correct. I suppose it's possible. I'm looking for something besides opinion and rhetoric and inconclusive evidence used in favor of the possibility by people on a message board. Again, for every real seer, there are thousands or tens of thousands of instances of confirmation bias, polarization effect, Tolstoy syndrome, myside bias, experimenter's regress, and subjective validation. That means when some random anonymous person tells me "My wife says I have the ability to see the future", I'm immediately skeptical.So, I make my request for the third time. Are you aware of any scripture, any church leader at any time, talking about God calling people to be seer for any reason other than to do important work related to the Kingdom of God? The Gospel Principles chapter on Gifts of the Spirit doesn't mention the word seer. D&C 46, which enumerates some of these gifts, doesn't mention a seer. 1 Corinthians 12, another place making a list of gifts, doesn't mention the word. LM

This is a special gift, that is given to few, based on this individual salvation, edification, and are obedient and faithful. Let me offer a question here, in the BOM, was Mosiah set apart as a Seer? Or the young boy Joseph Smith, was he divinely set apart as a seer prior to translating the plates? Just an interesting observation. That's not a source - that's an assertion followed by some questions. What's your source? That's a description of a seer - nothing about your claims that "Seers are not called but is a talent from on high" and "many have this gift".Again - what is your source? If it is your own opinion or interpretation, please identify it as such. If there's an authoritative source, let's hear it. LM

What is your source for this claim? I thought the first presidency and Qof12 were called as prophets, SEERS, and revelators...LM

I dunno. The teenage brain is a chaotic and scary place, still maturing and changing. And from what I can remember of those days, spending hours at some kind of meaningless pursuit seemed to serve some sort of purpose. I would hook up earphones and crank up music - the same music - over and over and over and over again. At least your daughter is interacting with peers. Is the content of the texting innapropriate? Because if it's regular teen girl stuff about boys and hair and life and whatnot, I might not be too worried. I'm not saying some sort of cap isn't appropriate. I'm saying that if sending 4000 giggly irrelevant txt messages per month was my daughter's biggest problem, I'd fall on my knees with tears in my eyes and thank God with all my heart for how good things are going. LM

Humble also means to be teachable. Knowing you don't know everything, identifying and seeking to fill in the gaps, that sort of thing. I find it useful to think about what humility does not mean. It does not mean weakness, or gullibility, or enduring unrighteous abuse or dominion. Being a doormat is not being humble. It's inviting/allowing/participating in desecration of your divine nature. LM

Since you're asking for ideas, I suggest you work on your end of the marriage. You have a marriage issue that is expressing itself in all sorts of facets of your life, and your growth in the church is only one of these facets. What you describe isn't anything specific to mormons - it's a marriage issue. I can suggest a good book, if you're willing to look at what you can do to help: Ten Stupid Things Couples Do to Mess Up Their Relationships - get one used for $7 including shipping. Good luck! LM

Hi VisionOfLehi,Could you tell me your source for this? I've never heard it before. From what I can tell, the church has not issued any guidance at all about tithing and lottery winnings, or about any other specific income. The guidance they do issue, is we should tithe one tenth of our intrest/increase, and it's up to us to determine what that means. We're counseled not to gamble or play lotteries, and it seems like there are plenty of 'mormon urban legends' floating around about how someone won a lottery and tried to pay tithing on it, but the envelope burned the Bishop's hand, or the spirit told him not to accept it, or whatever. But stories that float around do not doctrine make, at least not in my book. LM

Because it makes someone I love have DT's, not sleep for weeks on end, and struggle to not hate herself.Your mileage may vary, and if you insist on ingesting alcohol, I pray that your mileage may vary greatly. LM

When I put myself in that joke's shoes to see how I fare, the ending is quite different. I've developed a certain tenderness for our cousins in the few struggling churches that split away from the saints that moved west. Many of our cousins in the CoC/RLDS are not having good times, as their leaders have been making changes that have caused them to hemmorhage members over the last decade or two. Imagine having a testimony of Joseph as strong as you or I, but having no church to call home. Perhaps our friend Dale might be willing to share a few heartbreaks and his opinion of things in general. LM

Hi Gerlinde, If you're out to point out holes in our beliefs and sway us to your position, the answer is no. If you're out to ask us about our faith and learn what we believe, the answer is sure! Welcome. I've never met a mean pagan. LM

As far as we can tell, Elizabeth is off living her life as a private citizen. Her captors occasionally make the news (see here), but she and her family seem content to just live life out of the public spotlight except for court appearances. Good for them. LM