The Worlds Fo Joseph Smith

[Snow]

There is a 2-day academic conference in Washington DC on Joseph Smith featuring LDS and non-LDS scholars and Elder Oakes:

Planned Program

Friday, May 6, 2005

Session 1: Joseph Smith in His Own Time

(9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. ET)

Session 2: Joseph Smith and the Recovery of Past Worlds

(2 to 4:30 p.m. ET)

Evening Session: Meeting Joseph Smith - Elder Dallin H. Oaks

(7:15 to 8:30 p.m. ET)

Saturday, May 7, 2005

Session 1: Joseph Smith Challenges the Theological World

(9 to 11:30 a.m. ET)

Session 2: Joseph Smith and the Making of a World Religion

(1:30 to 4 p.m. ET)

I am watching Jan Shipps right now on the internet. She rocks:

http://byubroadcasting.org/loc/

If you miss it, you can get it in the lds.org archives:

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,...-3067-1,00.html

[begood2]

Snow,

Thanks for the information. It looks interesting. I'm glad you put the link to the LDS archives because that is the only way I would be able to view it.

[Snow]

Originally posted by begood2@May 7 2005, 09:30 PM

Snow,

Thanks for the information. It looks interesting. I'm glad you put the link to the LDS archives because that is the only way I would be able to view it.

Well I here to serve. Serve and protect. Mostly serving but a little protecting on the side. Your welcome.

[leeuniverse]

The video's are now up....

[begood2]

Snow,

Dr. Clark, noted archaeologist and one of the speakers at the Library of Congress Joseph Smith event has teamed up with Matthew Roper and Wade Ardern to bring a conference talk titled "Debating the Foundations of Mormonism: The Book of Mormon and Archaeology."

Aug. 4th&5th, 2005 http://www.fairlds.org/conf05a.html. :)

[Snow]

Originally posted by begood2@Jun 4 2005, 07:26 PM

Snow,

Dr. Clark, noted archaeologist and one of the speakers at the Library of Congress Joseph Smith event has teamed up with Matthew Roper and Wade Ardern to bring a conference talk titled "Debating the Foundations of Mormonism: The Book of Mormon and Archaeology."

Aug. 4th&5th, 2005 http://www.fairlds.org/conf05a.html. :)

Thanks,

I didn't see them on the schedule though. I am debating going to either Sunstone or Fair this summer... I've been to Sunstone 3 times and enjoyed immensely, testimony building even...

[begood2]

Snow,

Yes, you are right... I took another look at the web link and read under Dr. John Clark that he ask that Matthew Roper and Wade Ardern be credited as co-authors for his presentation.

I'm sure that either Sunstone or Fair would be very enjoyable to attend and testimony building! :)

[leeuniverse]

You should definately go to the FAIR Conference then, you get all the building without having to kill the Termites that also infest Sunstone. I've been twice, and should be going again this year. Best time of my year. :)

[Outshined]

You can download Worlds of JS on MP3 now... B)

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,...-3067-1,00.html

[begood2]

Outshined,

I like that web link too. It allows me to take in a little of the conference at a time. :)

I can also go back over topics that are not clear to me.

[leeuniverse]

Session Two however is sadly missing the last two speakers. I'm bumbed because I think one of them had a nice chart which showed 1800's science compared to the Book of Mormon, and todays science compared to the Book. Science has validated a bunch of Book of Mormon claims.

[Normal Bob]

Originally posted by leeuniverse@Jun 9 2005, 07:49 PM

Session Two however is sadly missing the last two speakers. I'm bumbed because I think one of them had a nice chart which showed 1800's science compared to the Book of Mormon, and todays science compared to the Book. Science has validated a bunch of Book of Mormon claims.

Absolutely it has. Which ones?

[Guest Taoist_Saint]

I have one!

In the BoM, Jesus appears as a perfected (exalted?) resurrected being.

Science is on the verge of proving that we can clone a human being...and not only that...genetic engineering could possibly result in breeding improved human beings.

Put the two together, and you have the scientific possibility of "resurrection" in a perfect body.

So that is one BoM truth that might be possibly proven soon (and it also would be proof for the New Testament).

The question is:

Will humanity learn to resurrect itself before Christ resurrects us?

If so, what are the biblical implications?

[Normal Bob]

Originally posted by Taoist_Saint@Jun 15 2005, 05:32 PM

I have one!

In the BoM, Jesus appears as a perfected (exalted?) resurrected being.

Science is on the verge of proving that we can clone a human being...and not only that...genetic engineering could possibly result in breeding improved human beings.

Put the two together, and you have the scientific possibility of "resurrection" in a perfect body.

So that is one BoM truth that might be possibly proven soon (and it also would be proof for the New Testament).

The question is:

Will humanity learn to resurrect itself before Christ resurrects us?

If so, what are the biblical implications?

[begood2]

TS,

A clone would only be a copy of an individual being. It would look the same, sound the same, but it would not be the same. It would not have the same life experiences and would more than likely deviate in thought and behavior from the original from time to time.

[Guest Taoist_Saint]

Originally posted by begood2@Jun 16 2005, 09:24 AM

TS,

A clone would only be a copy of an individual being. It would look the same, sound the same, but it would not be the same. It would not have the same life experiences and would more than likely deviate in thought and behavior from the original from time to time.

I was sort of joking around, but I could take this a step further B)

I don't know much about the biology of the brain, but I have heard that they are making progress in connecting the brain to electronic input devices, which may make it possible to "see" and "hear" things...possibly even smell, taste and feel things...that are being transmitted to your brain electronically.

More information on that here: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=...=mg18624944.600

If the brain is simply a collection of electrical connections, perhaps the "soul" is basically energy that controls the neurons, moving in certain patterns producing complex thoughts until a "mind" emerges.

Is that really a "soul" in the religious sense? I guess only if such electrical patterns could exist outside the body and still produce the same thoughts...maybe separating them from the body would actually purify the system in some way...make it more efficient...which would mean that a soul that is separate from its brain is a superior "mind" to that of one trapped in a brain. That would make sense, but I am no scientist and I have no idea if that is possible...

But let's get back on track...

Take that idea another step further. If we could map the entire mind/soul...those electrical patterns I am talking about...could it be converted to a digital format and stored on a computer chip? CD ROM? Hard Drive? It would probably take A LOT of storage space, but availability of storage space is advancing incredibly fast every year. This idea is talked about quite a bit, and is referred to as "uploading" your brain. Again, its just a theory, and being a humble computer technician, I couldn't tell you if it is possible.

Interesting links:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/23/brain.d...load/index.html

http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Uploading/

Now, lets say you clone a body, and genetically engineer it to perfection...could you "download" a digitalized "soul" into the body, thus completely resurrecting and perfecting the original human being?

Now we would get into a philosophical discussion. Is this perfect copy, including memories, personality, intelligence, etc. still considered the same identity as the original? A tough question...but the answer might be yes.

Maybe that's just science fiction...but so was space travel several decades ago.

[begood2]

TS,

Your web links were interesting! :)

When I read your post about clones, I kept thinking about a fiction thriller that I had read called; "The Third Twin" by Ken Follett ... If you get a chance to read it, you might like it. (How can two grown men, identical in appearance, be born weeks apart to different mothers?)

[Guest Taoist_Saint]

Originally posted by begood2@Jun 17 2005, 12:49 AM

TS,

Your web links were interesting! :)

When I read your post about clones, I kept thinking about a fiction thriller that I had read called; "The Third Twin" by Ken Follett  ... If you get a chance to read it, you might like it. (How can two grown men, identical in appearance, be born weeks apart to different mothers?)

Sounds interesting!

Actually, I have been wanting to read some books by an author named Sawyer (I forget the first name...I read about him on Amazon.com...

He is a sci fi author who's latest books are about a civilization of Neanderthals who live in a sort of utopia in a parallel universe where humans went extinct.

But a few of his older novels did deal with this issue of uploading and downloading the mind/soul. I can't remember the title, but one was about a futuristic world where a man finds out he has a fatal disease. So he uses this technology to "copy" his mind into a robot brain. His body (and original mind) are shipped off to the moon for storage (I don't know why they chose the moon, but whatever...)...where it will eventually die. Meanwhile the copied mind in a robot brain and body continues his life, and even meets a woman who had the same procedure done before she died. Her son is trying to sue her to get his inheritance, claiming his "real" mother is dead, but she insists that she is still his real mother. To make matters worse, a cure is found for the man's disease, so when the guy on the moon finds out, he wants his life/identity back and starts taking hostages.

So the book seems to ask the question: Does copying someone's mind into another body mean that they are the same person...the same identity? Can two of them both be the same? Who has the legal right to the identity of this person?

Sounds like a good story, if you like that sort of thing...and he wrote some other interesting sounding novels too. I plan to find his books in the library...the ideas sound good...I just hope he is a good author.

These are also very similar to the stories of Phillip K. D!ck...who wrote the stories/novels that were made into the movies Total Recall, Bladerunner, Minority Report, Imposter, and a few others. I haven't read any of his books, but I like the movies.

And of course we can't forget "The Matrix".

edited to change the spelling of Phillip K. D!ck...putting an "i" in there seems to cause a problem