Not quite sure where you’re going with that. Artificial = man made. In the case I’m presenting to consig. the hoops are things such as magician’s tricks, spiritualism, or automatic writing. These all rely on something other than God or angels.
Mankind has seemingly always had a predisposition to create ‘artifices’ of instruction or enlightenment which supplant the one and only true God. Of course, they are not going to readily admit that. God has ALWAYS had a hard time getting through to knuckleheads.
But He has always made allowances for that.
These conversations are always inhibited by the proposition put forward by secularists that God cannot be known and/or that he doesn’t exist except in the minds of those that ‘need’ god.
My personal belief is that God is real. He exists. If God exists then it’s not far fetched to think that other ‘beings of light’ also exist. So I start with that presupposition. Immediately I and other believers are at odds with secularists who have a leg up in the sense that there are no actual proofs for a creator God.
So yeah, Philo, from where you’re sitting nowadays you are looking at the God which LDS folks worship as being essentially manufactured by a select group of shamans.
I disagree. I think God/Christ reveals Himself at times in human history and did so to Joseph Smith and others. Of various religious persuasions and systems of belief.
A secularist is going to ALWAYS choose the white hat and the magic hands of Joseph Smith over a God inspired translation of the Book of Mormon. What choice do you really have? Your options are severely limited or nonexistent.
Regards,
MG