If God told you to behead a passed out drunk man would you?

[_CameronMO]

One word:
Photocopier.

Laban died for want of a photocopier that a nation not dwindle and perish in disbelief, that dwindled and perished in disbelief despite his decapitation.

Isn't god and his never thwarted plans wonderful? Drops a liahona on the tent stoop, can't do the same with a photocopy of the plates. Some one needs to clue god into 3d printers. Could whip up a brass copy of the brass plates in a jiffy.

What impresses me is that the plates were not needed anyway. Some farmboy drops a rock in a hat and gets word-for-word what was on the plates.

[_Molok]

You guys are obsessed with faux morality.

Today we learn that Real Morality is doing what someone else tells you to do.

[_Fence Sitter]

That's a lot of mind bending there. So you want God to go out of his way to perform magic in order to protect Laban from the consequences of his own actions? Why? Because being pulled out of the game and benched for a period is just so horrible? Perhaps being benched is precisely what Laban needs in order to learn the error of his ways. You guys are obsessed with faux morality.

Laben isn't killed because of his actions, he is killed (supposedly) so Nephi can get the plates. But keep making up your own version of the story if it helps you maintain belief.

[_EAllusion]

That's a lot of mind bending there. So you want God to go out of his way to perform magic

Yeah, that would be ridiculous. Good thing we know from the Book of Mormon that God doesn't perform magic to achieve a desirable state of affairs. Nephi, for example, got the idea to kill Laban all by himself, right?

in order to protect Laban from the consequences of his own actions?

Where do I sign up for your petition to make theft a crime punishable by beheading to be executed by vigilantes?

Before I sign, though, you probably should remember that the text itself gives a different justification for the murder - namely that it is necessary to get the plates to prevent a loss of faith in the people. That there are countless other ways to prevent that outcome that don't involve such a horrific means didn't occur to:

1) The omniscient, omnibenevolent ruler of the universe

or

2) A 19th century author writing pseudoepigraphical Bible tales.

Hmmm. Tough choice.

Because being pulled out of the game and benched for a period is just so horrible? Perhaps being benched is precisely what Laban needs in order to learn the error of his ways. You guys are obsessed with faux morality.

Looks like God is asking that a few people sit out a quarter.

[_EAllusion]

The Fairwiki response on this is great:

Why didn't God simply preserve Nephi's life using divine power instead of requiring him to kill Laban?

The Lord actually did preserve Nephi and his brothers from being killed by Laban....twice.

God is not a magician who waves his wand and removes all obstacles.

God isn't some magician who removes obstacles, except in instances that he is. What was the question again?

He expects us to do as much as we can. For example, God could have caused Laban to have had a heart attack, or cirrhosis of the liver, and died before Nephi got there, but that is simply not how God works.

Why didn't God do something more humane?

That's not what God does.

Uh, yeah, that's just restating the question fairwiki.

Asked and answered!

[_Cinnamon Bear Head]

Vaccines gave me autism. Evil medinc.

[_Fence Sitter]

If it makes you feel better, the odds that he's just saying that to underwrite his comment are quite good. Water Dog has a habit of doing that, like his relative who recently graduated from an elite medical school at the top of his class and endorses anti-vax views and says doctors are now commonly shying away from vaccinations for themselves and family. When you are playing a character, you get to invent your own backstory.

:) Well, proving the existence of this relative would involve in real life information, which I'm not going to do, but I can assure you he or she is very real. There are, as a simple matter of fact, many doctors, nurses, pharmacologists, and other scientists and medical professionals, and increasing so, who refuse vaccinations, all or in part. Every so often this even becomes news as some hospitals will demand something like a flu shot of their employees, and they leave rather than comply. I believe it's less than 50 of medical professionals vaccinate voluntarily, which is telling.

Reasonable to assume that was one of the reasons, but it's not said this was the only reason.

For all you know God may need to punish their kids so future nations won't suffer with unbelief disease.

[_Sethbag]

So either way, why are you so obsessed with the "horribleness" of death? It's illogical.

It's not so much the horribleness of death so much as it is the permanence of it.

I've got a great idea. If you're so keen on the idea that God sometimes wants people offed, then given how much trouble that idea has caused here on Earth, how about we agree that God can very well do it himself?

About the only thing scarier to me than people standing up and claiming God appeared to them and gave them authority to tell the rest of us what to do is people standing up and claiming God ordered them to kill someone.

[_EAllusion]

When my cousin traveled to the moon, he was intercepted by the spaceship of gleezlepoid the infinite. GTI explained that life on earth is merely a transitory state and the act of killing is no more meaningful than benching a hockey player. Except abortion. That's really wrong. My cousin then told me to avoid vaccines and to kill Janet Reno with a hacksaw. True story.

[Guest]

It's not so much the horribleness of death so much as it is the permanence of it.

If there's an afterlife, it's not permanent. If there's not, it's all the same whether it happens now or later.

Um, it's not "all the same whether it happens now or later". Sheesh, do you even read what you post before hitting submit? Some of us actually enjoy life and would like to spend as much time as possible on this earth. We don't want our life cut short by people who hear voices in their head. Below is a photo of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, a pregnant woman in Sudan who is sentenced to be executed for apostacy.



Are we supposed to shrug our shoulders and say "it's all the same whether it happens now or later"? I'm pretty sure she would prefer to give birth and live a few more years on this earth with her child instead of letting spokesmen for God decide when she must die. What kind of horrible life must you be living when "it's all the same whether it happens now or later"?