Uncle Ed wrote:I'm saying that mortality on any scale is nothing to "God", but is a focus upon which we myopic, finite human beings attach enormous importance.
Actually, for Mormon's, mortality is of massive importance. How we live during this brief period on earth determines our eternal destiny, including whether or not we get to become a God ourselves. As such, finite human beings (who believe in Mormonism) are absolutely justified in attaching enormous importance to their mortality.
Uncle Ed wrote:Yes, so true. And almost "core" to my divorce with the dogma of the church. It makes GtF into a puny god, one of us, just "more intelligent than they all" (said the smartest man in the room, and he created the room and its inhabitants out of already existing "material")....
Ed, I'm a tad confused about your situation. You clearly aren't a believing Mormon in the sense of that phrase that we all recognise. Do you attend a Mormon Church and associated lessons? If so, how do your 'apostate' contributions get received?
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
Uncle Ed wrote:I'm saying that mortality on any scale is nothing to "God", but is a focus upon which we myopic, finite human beings attach enormous importance. What Is important to "God" Is what we know, and how we get the wisdom to comprehend and keep Joy is both unique and also immaterial since the experiences by which we come to comprehend and keep Joy are temporary
I love it when people speak as if they have a direct line to their god and know what's on his mind.
What you don't understand is that god was a 4 year old with an erector set when he made the universe, then chucked his work in the closet and forgot about it.
My description is every bit as plausible as yours. More so, actually. Mine at least explains why god can't be found anywhere.
God belief is for people who don't want to live life on the universe's terms.
Spanner wrote:Chances are that a bomb went off just after Hitler moved out of range for some reason (getting out of a drafty section of the trench, annoyance at the slurping of a comrade, whatever). When musing on his good fortune, and familiar with stories of divine intervention in the lives of historical greats, imagination inflation takes over.
Very plausible. This undoubtedly happens often.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Bazooka wrote: Ed, I'm a tad confused about your situation. You clearly aren't a believing Mormon in the sense of that phrase that we all recognise. Do you attend a Mormon Church and associated lessons? If so, how do your 'apostate' contributions get received?
I attend every week. My contributions, rare as they are anymore, are almost entirely conventional. The church is not expected to welcome weird doctrines within its own walls. So my opinions and beliefs remain unexpressed when I am there. I think it would be rude and like grandstanding to question in a classroom setting or from the pulpit. Most of those attending are there as TBMs and rightly so.
I've done my best to stick with Mormon theology and cosmology as much as possible. Although what I believe far transcends what Mormonism teaches about those, what I believe does not exclude Mormon doctrine. But neither does it exclude Judeo-Christian doctrine as a whole. That's because my belief is that individual "revelation" will naturally transcend all dogma for the masses. What I accept from "God" is for me and does not require vetting and validation from those same masses to make it authentic between me and "God"....
A man should never step a foot into the field, But have his weapons to hand: He knows not when he may need arms, Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38
Bob Loblaw wrote:I came across this interesting account from a young soldier during World War I:
"I was eating my dinner in a trench with several comrades. Suddenly a voice seemed to be saying to me, 'Get up and go over there.' It was so clear and insistent that I obeyed automatically, as if it had been a military order. I rose at once to my feet and walked twenty yards along the trench carrying my dinner in its tin can with me. Then I sat down to go on eating, my mind being once more at rest. Hardly had I done so when a flash and deafening report came from the part of the trench I had just left. A stray shell had burst over the group in which I had been sitting, and every member of it was killed."
Religious folk might find this an example of Divine Providence, of inspiration given to the faithful to protect them. But then you realize that the inspired corporal was Adolf Hitler.
Some Schmo wrote:I love it when people speak as if they have a direct line to their god and know what's on his mind.
I know what is on my mind. So for this part of "God's Mind", I do know what is going on.
What you don't understand is that god was a 4 year old with an erector set when he made the universe, then chucked his work in the closet and forgot about it.
My description is every bit as plausible as yours. More so, actually. Mine at least explains why god can't be found anywhere.
Except that you don't believe that description. You like it, because it looks like good, intellectual mockery. But your own 'satiable imagination instantly rejects it on the simple basis that as finite as your own mind is it can easily conceive of a concept for "God" that is bigger than you can express in words. And such a concept does not give "God" a mind that "leaks" like ours.....
A man should never step a foot into the field, But have his weapons to hand: He knows not when he may need arms, Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38
"It doesn't seem fair, does it Norm--that I should have so much knowledge when there are people in the world that have to go to bed stupid every night." -- Clifford C. Clavin, USPS
"¡No contaban con mi astucia!" -- El Chapulin Colorado
One of the best posts ever. Would be perfect material for a sacrament meeting talk.
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.
LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
Gadianton wrote:One of the best posts ever. Would be perfect material for a sacrament meeting talk.
Yes, you can imagine the congregation filling up and feeling of the spirit, right up until the talker reveals "...and that young soldier, saved by the propmtings of the Holy Ghost was none other than....."
*congregation breathlessly await the naming of an LDS General Authority*
".....Adolf Hitler."
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
