"official" racist church doctrine

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_KevinSim
_Emeritus
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Re: "official" racist church doctrine

Post by _KevinSim »

Darth J wrote:Because Mormonism:

1. Maintains that the Old Testament is actual history.

That's largely true.

Darth J wrote:2. Maintains that God has all of the attributes ascribed to him by traditional theism, and therefore unwittingly adopts all of the philosophical problems of traditional theism.

That's not entirely true. Mormonism doesn't believe in a deity that is as absolutely omnipotent as the deity traditional Christians do; there are some things the deity Latter-day Saints believe in can't do; and in my experience that solves a huge number of "the philosophical problems of traditional theism."

Darth J wrote:So:

1. Pointing out problems in the biblical narrative means pointing out problems in Mormonism.
2. Pointing out problems in traditional theism is pointing out problems in Mormonism.

I didn't, strictly speaking, point out any "problems in the biblical narrative"; I simply said it's extremely hypocritical for traditional Christians to call Latter-day Saints racists when there's as much evidence of racism in 1 Samuel as there is at the LDS website Tim referenced. I don't consider either 1 Samuel 15 or said website inherently racist, because both attitudes amount to statements by God, and God certainly has the knowledge to make statements about races that are true. If a statement about a race is true (like the example I gave about Sickle-Cell Anaemia) then that statement isn't racist.
KevinSim

Reverence the eternal.
_Drifting
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Re: "official" racist church doctrine

Post by _Drifting »

KevinSim wrote:That's not entirely true. Mormonism doesn't believe in a deity that is as absolutely omnipotent as the deity traditional Christians do; there are some things the deity Latter-day Saints believe in can't do; and in my experience that solves a huge number of "the philosophical problems of traditional theism."


What can't Mormon God do that Christian God can?
“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
_KevinSim
_Emeritus
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Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:31 am

Re: "official" racist church doctrine

Post by _KevinSim »

Drifting wrote:What can't Mormon God do that Christian God can?

Do&Co 93:29 says God cannot create intelligence out of nothing. It's not a huge leap of logic to conclude that God also cannot destroy intelligence, cause an intelligent being to go from existing to not existing.
KevinSim

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_Darth J
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Re: "official" racist church doctrine

Post by _Darth J »

KevinSim wrote:
Darth J wrote:Because Mormonism:

1. Maintains that the Old Testament is actual history.

That's largely true.


That's entirely true. Find me a story in the Old Testament that the Church says did not really happen:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14942&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

http://www.mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3 ... 4&p=514996

Darth J wrote:2. Maintains that God has all of the attributes ascribed to him by traditional theism, and therefore unwittingly adopts all of the philosophical problems of traditional theism.

That's not entirely true. Mormonism doesn't believe in a deity that is as absolutely omnipotent as the deity traditional Christians do; there are some things the deity Latter-day Saints believe in can't do; and in my experience that solves a huge number of "the philosophical problems of traditional theism."


Tell me something God cannot do other than those found in standard theosophies (can't do something logically impossible; can't interfere with free will). And I want to see where the Church says God can't do (x).

Darth J wrote:So:

1. Pointing out problems in the biblical narrative means pointing out problems in Mormonism.
2. Pointing out problems in traditional theism is pointing out problems in Mormonism.

I didn't, strictly speaking, point out any "problems in the biblical narrative"; I simply said it's extremely hypocritical for traditional Christians to call Latter-day Saints racists when there's as much evidence of racism in 1 Samuel as there is at the LDS website Tim referenced.


Not all traditional Christians are beholden to everything in the Bible being actual history. Latter-day Saints are, because Joseph Smith thought that everything in the Bible really happened. If you dispute that, show me a story from the Bible that the Church says is fiction.

You're also showing how the Church is very poorly equipped to deal with secular criticism, since people who are not traditional Christians do not believe that either the Book of Mormon or the Bible is a real account of what God said or did.

I don't consider either 1 Samuel 15 or said website inherently racist, because both attitudes amount to statements by God, and God certainly has the knowledge to make statements about races that are true. If a statement about a race is true (like the example I gave about Sickle-Cell Anaemia) then that statement isn't racist.


God has the knowledge to make statements about races that are true.....like, "every member of such-and-such race needs to be killed" or "people of such-and-such race have a different color of skin than you because I cursed their ancestors."
_Darth J
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Re: "official" racist church doctrine

Post by _Darth J »

KevinSim wrote:
Drifting wrote:What can't Mormon God do that Christian God can?

Do&Co 93:29 says God cannot create intelligence out of nothing. It's not a huge leap of logic to conclude that God also cannot destroy intelligence, cause an intelligent being to go from existing to not existing.


Good catch, KevinSim. Mormons believe in a god, not the God. It's too bad that the Church doesn't understand this, and says that the Mormon god is just like the theistic Christian God.

"Chapter 1: Our Father in Heaven," Gospel Principles, (2009)

God is perfect. He is a God of righteousness, with attributes such as love, mercy, charity, truth, power, faith, knowledge, and judgment. He has all power. He knows all things. He is full of goodness.
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