DiscussMormonism.com

Chap wrote:When we come down to it the ultimate argument against skepticism on this board always seems to come down to this: you better believe the stories I believe in, or else my big deity will really, really beat you up one day.

Highly convincing. Not.

Philo Sofee wrote:I am reminded of a story about a story tellling a story about stories too......

zerinus wrote:It is not a story, but a truth, I was brought up to believe that God has appointed a day of judgement in which all mankind will be resurrected, and then will be judged according to their works.

zerinus wrote:Religion is, has always been, and always will be a matter of faith. You either believe it or you don't. If you don't, that is okay. No argument. We will just have to wait and see who gets the last laugh. I think that I will.

Karin Armstrong wrote:Where is the fun of religion, if you can’t disapprove of other people! There are some people, I suspect, who would be outraged if, when they finally arrived in heaven, they found everybody else there as well. Heaven would not be heaven unless you could peer over the celestial parapets and watch the unfortunates roasting below.

Chap wrote:

zerinus wrote:It is not a story, but a truth, I was brought up to believe that God has appointed a day of judgement in which all mankind will be resurrected, and then will be judged according to their works.

So you're the one with something to worry about, it seems. Since most people here can't see any reason to conclude that your assertion is true, we won't be worrying.

Oh, by the way, no less than three major religions believe in a day of judgement. Unfortunately their deities makes demands that are in important aspects mutually exclusive, and there are even divergences within some of those religions. Are you sure you got the right version of the right religion?

Waste of time to ask. No matter what religion people have been habituated to by their parents it is always the right one.

zerinus wrote:I know think that the Book of Mormon is true.

Chap wrote:

zerinus wrote:I know think that the Book of Mormon is true.

Could you write with more care in future, please?

zerinus wrote: I know the Book of Mormon is true!

wayman29 wrote:All this might be true and in saying what I am about to is in no way in defense of the mumbo jumbo but the ritual provided a psychological road map, where the path is known and stable. You would do this as a community to reinforce the community and yourself with in the larger whole to define and make sense of your place in it.

In the book Black Elk Speaks he travels to the lands above to visit the grandfathers. He returns and creates a symbolic Horse dance in which he is told to act out the entire vision for the community to see in which they all participated. The vision was very apocalyptic and set the groups mindset to handle and make sense of what was on the way.

The ritual when done each time year to year, century to century connects the past ,present, and future to the participant. This only works as long as the symbols in the ritual are known and are seen on the cosmic/universal scale by the individual participant. The host and wine unite the believer to something larger within themselves and with the community. Not with the historical but the cosmic.

Should we not be more miffed at those who reduce the symbol to the historical, or from ignorance render it useless, or those who redefine the metaphor for their own selfish gains?

"I am the Jackal of jackals, I am Shu, who convey breezes, in
presence of the Glorious one, to the ends of the sky, to the ends
of the earth, to the ends of the filaments of Cloud.
I give air to those Younglings as I open my mouth and gaze
with my two eyes."

-Egyptian Book of the Dead Chapter 55

Rosebud wrote:zerinus.... How can a story that may or may not be true (as you put it) demonstrate that people who aren't like you will be hurt and you won't? Why would a good god hurt them for not believing? Can you thing of any reasons why humans in the history of the world would have started writing stories that discriminate against other humans based on belief? If humans write stories are they mythology? If they're mythology, will a good god really jump out of the clouds and follow the stories' morals in order to make the stories correct and protect the beliefs of the humans who wrote them? Would a good god observe the mythology and wonder how to help his children treat each other better seeing as how the mythology is discriminatory? How would a good god have felt about the exploitation of poor people necessary to build monuments in order to support stories people wrote? Would you want to worship any God who is not a good god?

Philo..... For me, writing the books that are in me and have to come out as part of my journey has really helped. A book lasts (for better or worse, but hopefully better... you certainly won't). A book about being miffed by the mythology would be a quick write and a great read. You'd probably feel better about what it says if it lasts than you would if you wrote books like Nibley's.