LDSToronto wrote:You've almost got Dan Peterson's voice in your writing.
Clearly it's an acquired skill. You have to work at obfuscating everything from your intent to your position on any given matter.
Obfuscation...
You know, I think that's the Mormon version of Taqiyya. One must master the art of deception in order to win the war of the mind. If you baffle 'em with enough BS they just might believe that you believe what you're saying, even if you said it with a wink and nudge.
- VRDRC
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
LDSToronto wrote:You've almost got Dan Peterson's voice in your writing. Everything from avoidance to boasting, in one neat post.
I did take a class from him once, but I don't think he's ever warmed up to me. Sometimes I think I can come off as a bit stand-offish.
"I'd say Joseph, that your anger levels are off the charts. What you are, Joseph, is a bully." - Gadianton "Antley's anger is approaching...levels of volcanic hatred." - Scratch
"I'm offended. He called me an idiot. Don't worry about it. He's a dick!"
"I'm offended by boy bands, for God's sake!"
My favorite is when the comedian says something about the Lord, and I was offended, and when I woke up the next morning, I had leprosy.
Also I live in a Democracy and I never want to be offended again.
The best thing about all this is here is a flamming leftwinger putting the hypocrisy into the cultural leftwing value of suppressing speech such as at colleges or in political correctness.
Polygamy-Porter wrote:In the post on your blog about your skepticism over Noah's flood, I read the following:
You also stated:
There are many things in the Church that I am skeptical about, such as most faith-promoting rumors that have not basis besides word-of-mouth, the actuality of the global flood, the literalness of Jonah and the whale,
Would you include the Tower of Babel to this list of improbable Bible stories?
It is my province to teach to the Church what the doctrine is. It is your province to echo what I say or to remain silent. Bruce R. McConkie
Willy Law wrote:Would you include the Tower of Babel to this list of improbable Bible stories?
I'm sure that most of these stories, including the Flood, have some historical basis. Do I believe that there was literally one language and then suddenly a plethora of languages after the Babel incident? No. But I believe that Moroni must have believed it when he abridged the book of Ether.
"I'd say Joseph, that your anger levels are off the charts. What you are, Joseph, is a bully." - Gadianton "Antley's anger is approaching...levels of volcanic hatred." - Scratch
Joseph Antley wrote:I do not think that any of my views on key events in LDS Church history are inconsistent with what the Church teaches about such events, except perhaps on a very superficial level.
The Church actively and consistently teaches that the worldwide flood of Noah's time literally happened and did so circa 2,300 bc. Your view on this is most definitely inconsistent with what the Church teaches about this event, and not in any superficial way.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
Joseph Antley wrote:I'm sure that most of these stories, including the Flood, have some historical basis. Do I believe that there was literally one language and then suddenly a plethora of languages after the Babel incident? No. But I believe that Moroni must have believed it when he abridged the book of Ether.
At the point Moroni briefed Joseph about the Book of Mormon do you think he deliberately witheld the knowledge that his Ether abridgement wasn't an accurate reflection of what really happened - he must have know at that point (having been sent by God) that this portrayal of a literal worldwide flood was a fabrication.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
God allows something inaccurate (the global flood actually being a localized flood in this case), a truth lost so to speak, to be inscribed on golden tablets, by an ancient prophet who then has to haul this heavy-assed thing all over God's green Earth avoiding Lamanites and eventually burying it so Joseph Smith can find it some 1400 years later. Then, Moroni, as resurrected being doesn't bother to set the record straight, nor does God when Joseph Smith is "translating" the tablets... Via direct godly revelation... In which no one would ever see the plates, nor the language in which it was written. God Himself could have revealed the true history and meaning behind whatever flood-like event that happened, but chose to maintain an inaccuracy thus perpetuating false analogies and misleading His flock.
What the hell, man? Does God think so little of his people as to lie to them? What a weird, convoluted mind one has to maintain in order to make everything fit. I don't get it.
- VRDRC
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Willy Law wrote:Would you include the Tower of Babel to this list of improbable Bible stories?
I'm sure that most of these stories, including the Flood, have some historical basis. Do I believe that there was literally one language and then suddenly a plethora of languages after the Babel incident? No. But I believe that Moroni must have believed it when he abridged the book of Ether.
Then you believe that there was actually a man existed that is Moroni as described in the Book of Mormon?
Do you believe that there was the great battle that resulted in hundreds of thousands of Nephites being killed? If so, why do believe it despite the lack of archaeological evidence to support it, while you dispute stories of the Old Testament?
God allows something inaccurate (the global flood actually being a localized flood in this case), a truth lost so to speak, to be inscribed on golden tablets, by an ancient prophet who then has to haul this heavy-assed thing all over God's green Earth avoiding Lamanites and eventually burying it so Joseph Smith can find it some 1400 years later. Then, Moroni, as resurrected being doesn't bother to set the record straight, nor does God when Joseph Smith is "translating" the tablets... Via direct godly revelation... In which no one would ever see the plates, nor the language in which it was written. God Himself could have revealed the true history and meaning behind whatever flood-like event that happened, but chose to maintain an inaccuracy thus perpetuating false analogies and misleading His flock.
What the hell, man? Does God think so little of his people as to lie to them? What a weird, convoluted mind one has to maintain in order to make everything fit. I don't get it.
- VRDRC
Well, Dr Cam, elohim/jehovah made their share of mistakes in the restoration. Learning curve, and all. They got it screwed up on the Book of Mormon, in the ways you point out. But a few years later, when they caused the Egyptian papyrus to come into the hands of JSJr, elohim/jehovah knew better this time than to tell JSJr, through direct inspiration, what those characters on the papyrus actually translate linguistically to mean in English. Fast learners that they are, for this second go at it elohim/jehovah just made the crap of the BoAbr up out of whole cloth and inspired it into JSJr's mind, hoping JSJr wouldn't discover the discrepancy of the whole--as is so obvious today.