Rufus wrote:I posted once on MDDB, asked some pointed questions, got called a sockpuppet for some other poster everyone thought I supposedly was, and was promptly banned.
I asked questions about the scientific evidence that seemed to contradict the Book of Mormon. My questions were sincere and I was eaten alive
That place is a wicked wasp nest -- those Mormon apologists are really some of the most vile people to walk the earth. They love to judge others and pat themselves on the back as if they are so smart and wise. Let me tell you, if there really is a jezzus up there in yonder heaven with any power he is going to tell those diseased assholes at the other board that he never knew them. The Mormon internet apologists are some of the worst types of want-to-be Christians you can possibly run into. Hitler would have loved to have had them on his team. Those guys would gladly run the gas chambers in the name of the Lord!
Rufus wrote:I posted once on MDDB, asked some pointed questions, got called a sockpuppet for some other poster everyone thought I supposedly was, and was promptly banned.
I asked questions about the scientific evidence that seemed to contradict the Book of Mormon. My questions were sincere and I was eaten alive
It's still the best defense for Mormonism, especially given the MAD peanut gallery they're posting for.
Shulem wrote: Oh, I can imagine Cicero reading over at the MADhouse during a moment of curiosity and boredom. But my rant was NOT incoherent. Paul O
Touche'
"Jesus gave us the gospel, but Satan invented church. It takes serious evil to formalize faith into something tedious and then pile guilt on anyone who doesn’t participate enthusiastically." - Robert Kirby
Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer. -- Henry Lawson
Why mock anyone? No one should be mocked. But...this is not the case on this board. it is a mocking board.
Funny you should say that.
Do you remember when you defended those idiot Mormon missionaries that defaced a Catholic Shrine, and posted their pics on the net, even with their witty little comments.
Talk about mocking!! Yet, you were right there defending them. So, you too were mocking.
Part of the written apology from one of the nitwits included: I realize that my companions and I have made a mockery of that which is most sacred to many of the residents of San Luis and the rest of the world. I should have known better because I have seen many of the same types of blasphemies made against my own church and I have been appalled.
But you, being outstanding moral compass (sarcasm) that you are, defended them.
sock puppet wrote:It's still the best defense for Mormonism, especially given the MAD peanut gallery they're posting for.
It's really the only one. The prophets and apostles of Mormonism are like chickens in a barn squawking and clucking like retarded idiots-- they say not a word regarding Facsimile No. 3. Hardly any Mormon will do that. Mormons are a stupid people.
My observation of the most staunch defenders of LDS on that board, and the few here, are that most of them are one of the following, or all: -Unemployed -On some sort of Sandy Candy(a.k.a. meds) -Inactive -Own family is a mess
Most people are messed up these days. Too many things things to take us away from the natural aspects of life. And people are absolutely terrible on the Internet. This has been written about in the media. Most people seem messed up these days.
I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. Joseph Smith We are “to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all…” Joseph Smith
hobo1512 wrote: Do you remember when you defended those idiot Mormon missionaries that defaced a Catholic Shrine, and posted their pics on the net, even with their witty little comments.
Talk about mocking!! Yet, you were right there defending them. So, you too were mocking.
Part of the written apology from one of the nitwits included: I realize that my companions and I have made a mockery of that which is most sacred to many of the residents of San Luis and the rest of the world. I should have known better because I have seen many of the same types of blasphemies made against my own church and I have been appalled.
But you, being outstanding moral compass (sarcasm) that you are, defended them.
Pot, meet kettle.
A nineteen year old is a nineteen year old. They do stupid things. That was my point on the taliban site. You people went into antimormon mode blaming the Mormon church for these missionaries. I blamed their age.
I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. Joseph Smith We are “to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to provide for the widow, to dry up the tear of the orphan, to comfort the afflicted, whether in this church, or in any other, or in no church at all…” Joseph Smith
hobo1512 wrote:Do you remember when you defended those idiot Mormon missionaries that defaced a Catholic Shrine, and posted their pics on the net, even with their witty little comments.
Talk about mocking!! Yet, you were right there defending them. So, you too were mocking.
Part of the written apology from one of the nitwits included: I realize that my companions and I have made a mockery of that which is most sacred to many of the residents of San Luis and the rest of the world. I should have known better because I have seen many of the same types of blasphemies made against my own church and I have been appalled.
But you, being outstanding moral compass (sarcasm) that you are, defended them.
Pot, meet kettle.
why me wrote:A nineteen year old is a nineteen year old. They do stupid things. That was my point on the taliban site. You people went into antimormon mode blaming the Mormon church for these missionaries. I blamed their age.
Who did decided to send immature, nineteen year old people everywhere around the world? 1. talibans 2. antimormons 3. the church 4. somebody other : [______________] (your own option)
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
Numinous events, in which we feel connected to some powerful external source, either a deity or the universe, are real and powerful parts of life for many people. Some people, for whatever reason, are more prone to have these sorts of experiences than others. People who have not had these experiences tend to minimize or underestimate their power and effect.
I have never denied having had a powerful numinous experience when I prayed about the Book of Mormon. And I’ve also been mocked by other exmormons for that, at times, on RFM in particular. But it’s true. When I prayed, as the missionaries instructed, “Is the Book of Mormon the word of God”, I felt filled with light, and my body seemed to buzz with what I now recognize as endorphins. Of course, as a nineteen year old who knew nothing about the brain and numinous events, I interpreted that experience exactly as the missionaries told me to. However, the next night I asked God “Was Joseph Smith a true prophet?” and received only stone cold silence as the answer. That bothered me a lot, because I instinctively recognized that these are two very different issues and questions. I went ahead and joined the church, being assured by the missionaries and my LDS sister, that if the answer to one was yes, then the other had to be yes as well, despite my intuition otherwise. As the years went on when I was active LDS, I never did receive a positive answer to my prayers about Joseph Smith. Especially after learning about some of his history, I prayed a LOT about him, and then about the church being true in general, and never received any answer to either question. Eventually I accepted that the silence was an answer of sorts: no.
When I still believed in God, yet could no longer believe in the LDS church, I believed God wanted me to be LDS for some reason. While I didn’t, and still don’t, know exactly how the Book of Mormon was written or by whom, there was so much of the Bible therein, and so many teachings that I found truly worthwhile, despite the underlying current of racism, that I could imagine God “sanctioning” the book somehow as inspired and worthy of being called “the word of God”. That’s a vague phrase, anyway. But then, I thought, God wanted me to leave the LDS church one day, as well, which is why he couldn’t affirm that Joseph Smith was a true prophet or that the church was “true”, because he wasn’t and it isn’t. I can envision a couple different scenarios in which the author of the Book of Mormon could have been inspired to write “the word of God”, but that Joseph Smith was not chosen by God as a prophet or to restore a church.
Later, after I lost all belief in any godbeing, I interpreted my numinous experience in a completely different way. I learned that the brain seems to be wired to these experiences, and that they can be triggered in ways that obviously have nothing to do with a godbeing (through drugs, direct brain stimulation, chanting, repetitive, synchronistic movement like “raves”, meditation, oxygen deprivation, etc). In addition, I learned that numinous events seem to be somewhat unconnected to context. In other words, people can experience these powerful events in varying, and even contradictory, contexts. One person may experience it in the context of Buddhist meditation, another in the context of Catholicism, another in the context of Mormonism, another in the context of a “rave”. What triggers the event does not appear to be context.
But it is difficult to get to the point where one is willing to be skeptical about one’s own life experiences, and what one’s own senses seem to say. It seems counter-intuitive. And I’m not saying that we have to get to that point, either, or that it’s superior in some way. Just that it’s another way of understanding life events that may otherwise seem mystifying.
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.
beastie wrote: But it is difficult to get to the point where one is willing to be skeptical about one’s own life experiences, and what one’s own senses seem to say. It seems counter-intuitive. And I’m not saying that we have to get to that point, either, or that it’s superior in some way. Just that it’s another way of understanding life events that may otherwise seem mystifying.
It describes whyme's avoidance of my question, and why most apologists avoid the subject like the plague.