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I'll never forget the day I visited a Shiva temple for the first time. I was in New Dehli with a BYU Independent study group. I stood in front of this massive Shiva lingam in awe as people came to worship and pay respects. At first, I was totally shocked. How could people put a symbol like this in their place of worship? Needless to say, my anthropology professor helped me understand over the next few weeks as we continued our studies.

As a child, I used to watch the Mormon Tab choir and was always reminded of the phallic symbols above their heads. Here I was, coming to worship and being struck with the paradox of sacredness and shame of thinking about such reproductive symbols. Listening to Richard G Scott talk about the evils of touching our private areas while standing below such massive symbols really made uncomfortable when I remembered the symbol.

I was usually reminded of my sexual nature when I grabbed a hymn book in sacrament meeting each week, which has a silhouette of the phallis symbols on the cover. Mostly, it was a very subtle reminder in the back of my mind. It always made me wonder, am I the only one who thinks this about that conference center organ?

zeezrom wrote:Here I was, coming to worship and being struck with the paradox of sacredness and shame of thinking about such reproductive symbols.

Why does religion juxtapose them as a paradox? Why is thinking about reproductive symbols not sacred? Why is it shameful?

zeezrom wrote:It always made me wonder, am I the only one who thinks this about that conference center organ?

Did you mean center organs?

sock puppet wrote:Why does religion juxtapose them as a paradox? Why is thinking about reproductive symbols not sacred? Why is it shameful?

The shock for me in India was that the phallic symbol in the temple was NOT considered a paradox.

Phallic symbolism is prevalent in the LDS church. It is probably the only religion that canonized a drawing of God on his thrown with an erection. http://www.LDS.org/scriptures/bc/script ... _fac-2.jpg (See reference number 7)

Also, the headquarters of the LDS church is also one gigantic phallus.

It makes me wonder if God's lives in a gigantic phallic house in heaven, sits on phallic shaped throne, and sleeps in a phallic shaped bed. The symbolism is everywhere.

And you've failed to mention the greatest phallic symbol in all of Mormonism...the Church Office Building...with its large center tower straddled by large oval spheres of the earth on either side. If I knew how to post a picture I would do so

The phallic symbol typically symbolizes power, not sex. It is no surprise, therefore, that the LDS church has so very many of them.

just me wrote:The phallic symbol typically symbolizes power, not sex. It is no surprise, therefore, that the LDS church has so very many of them.

Interesting that the symbol doesn't seem to represent that to the Hindu believer...

zeezrom wrote:

just me wrote:The phallic symbol typically symbolizes power, not sex. It is no surprise, therefore, that the LDS church has so very many of them.

Interesting that the symbol doesn't seem to represent that to the Hindu believer...

Hm. Maybe I shouldn't have said "not sex." Sex has elements of power, too. Sex or procreation is often seen as a source of power.

My understanding is that ancient pictures and objects that depict gods with erections are using the phallic to symbolize the gods power.

Well the rock formations in "Deseret" speak volumes:



Heavenly Father, in His wisdom formed this rock as an indication to his people that: truly, "this is the place."