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ElRoach0; explaining and defending his beliefs(read "The Official 'Ask a Mormon' Thread" first

I don't see it that way. Both charity and cruelty are within human capacity, and they would have existed regardless. My problem with religion goes a lot deeper. It provides a path for justifying what would otherwise be unjustifiable. But let's not dive too deeply into that.

I don't believe in anything outside of nature. I doubt such statements even possess meaning. I believe in the use of logic and reason to evaluate verifiable data to reach valid conclusions about reality that can help us improve our lives.

So does anything else? Whether it's "bringing the Lord to savages of the new world", or "bringing a free and democratic government to a new country", there's always going to be a justification for doing something terrible.
 
Science says we use just a fraction of our brain's capacity. To me, this hints that, as eternal knowledge goes, we've barely scratched the surface.

If you sit a toddler down and explain in detail how to preform brain surgery, he isn't going to be able to do it. There is a progression of learning that has to occur first.

/my rambling

From Wiki "Ten Percent of Brain Myth" consensus page:

Though factors of intelligence can increase with training,[2] the popular notion that large parts of the brain remain unused, and could subsequently be "activated", rests more in popular folklore than scientific theory. Though mysteries regarding brain function remain—e.g. memory, consciousness — the physiology of brain mapping suggests that most if not all areas of the brain have a function.[3][4]
 
Just a clarification to throw at ElRoach0.

But to better understand the part in bold.


He was saying to God, to give him his honor/power or that which made him God, and that Lucifer would then be God.

Just bringing it up because it was not mentioned as far as I could see.

One other note that makes me smile, though in all probability unintentional. El means deity. You have an El in front of your name. I will not read into it, but it does make me smile.

El also means "The"

And honor can be translated (albeit badly)as price. Could be taken as "set me the thine price", which could also tie in to him being willing to pay the price(suffer) instead of his older brother.
 
El also means "The"

And honor can be translated (albeit badly)as price. Could be taken as "set me the thine price", which could also tie in to him being willing to pay the price(suffer) instead of his older brother.

I'll go with you on the El one. As to the honor, there is no translation. It was given in English, and that is the word they used for the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price it was translated as honor, and I don't think we have the original to look at and see if there were multiple words and it was translated to honor but could have been something else. Either way, I believe honor is the correct word in both instances.
 
I gave the generic Christian principle of reward and punishment as an example. It wasn't intended to be about Mormonism. I'm not going to debate specific doctrines because it's pointless. A Muslim poster will jump in and explain how my response to Mormonism doesn't apply to HIS religion. And if I respond to that, well, you get the idea. There's just so much time in the day.

But what I said applies to your belief, regardless of how you put. There is no difference in demanding a certain behavior while threatening those who disagree, and your version about law and consequences. You're saying precisely the same thing. There's an outside agent making grand claims about his accomplishments. He refuses to give even the slightest proof for his existence (and I do understand the idea of faith. All religions use it to "prove" their religion is the one worth following). And he promises rewards for those who follow (better placement in the afterlife). In other words, we're so very small. At least in comparison to the omniscient master who has absolute power over our destiny FOR ALL ETERNITY. Yeah, I think I'll pass.



My inheritance as the most capable system in all of creation of course! Not me personally, mind you. But intelligent life in general (covering my *** in case there are other civilizations out there). To me, there's dumb energy and matter extending for trillions of miles in all directions. And then there's us. We created all gods in our image because we are the closest thing to gods that the universe ever managed to come up with. And I'd very much like to use this inheritance to create the best possible existence that can be created.

If you're asking about me personally, then yes, I will just die and turn to dust. But that doesn't bother me. The journey of this machine will one day come to a close, and the patterns engraved in the flesh and blood that define it will break down and disappear. And while the processes that replicate my genes gave me the desire to survive, I understand the state of my existence. To ask if I'm just going to eventually die is about as meaningful as asking "so you get hungry and you eat, is this all there is to food??". What's relevant is that as long as we can get over our irrationality and petty tribalism, WHAT I am will survive. And that's all that matters to me.

As for your analogy, you're only confirming my claims of religion's view of humanity's subordination. It is okay to be slaves, because coach knows better than a bunch of small and insignificant creatures stumbling blindly in the dark. I don't understand why anyone would want that.

Like I said before you look at this in a totally different way than I do. You look at this as some sort of master/slave relationship. I look at this as a teacher/student relationship where if I choose to follow the teacher's example and words I will end up better off. If I choose not to I will still end up somewhere, and I hope I'm happy with it.

I get it though, some people like to learn things the hard way rather than learn from the experiences and wisdom of others. That's cool. I just try to learn from the experiences and wisdom of others as much as I can and learn as few lessons the hard way as possible. I've done a few the hard way and honestly it stinks.
My analogy is about a coach, teaching players. Are the players small and insignificant creatures stumbling around in the dark? No. Do they know as much as someone that's been there and knows how things work, not yet.

If you had never been to Spain, and you had no language issues, but didn't know the streets of Barcelona.... would you ask someone to help you find a specific place you were looking for or find a map or would you be all prideful and say you can find it on your own because you are just as smart as anyone else in this city and fumble around back and forth until you found it. Personally, I would rather ask someone that knows and speed things up and save me time, effort, pain and frustration. Other people on the other hand like to think of themselves as the most complex minds in the universe and think they can do it all on their own. That's fine. Just remember when you die eventually, and you still exist in some form.... ask for directions.
 
Like I said before you look at this in a totally different way than I do. You look at this as some sort of master/slave relationship. I look at this as a teacher/student relationship where if I choose to follow the teacher's example and words I will end up better off. If I choose not to I will still end up somewhere, and I hope I'm happy with it.

I get it though, some people like to learn things the hard way rather than learn from the experiences and wisdom of others. That's cool. I just try to learn from the experiences and wisdom of others as much as I can and learn as few lessons the hard way as possible. I've done a few the hard way and honestly it stinks.
My analogy is about a coach, teaching players. Are the players small and insignificant creatures stumbling around in the dark? No. Do they know as much as someone that's been there and knows how things work, not yet.

If you had never been to Spain, and you had no language issues, but didn't know the streets of Barcelona.... would you ask someone to help you find a specific place you were looking for or find a map or would you be all prideful and say you can find it on your own because you are just as smart as anyone else in this city and fumble around back and forth until you found it. Personally, I would rather ask someone that knows and speed things up and save me time, effort, pain and frustration. Other people on the other hand like to think of themselves as the most complex minds in the universe and think they can do it all on their own. That's fine. Just remember when you die eventually, and you still exist in some form.... ask for directions.

You are a rare man that would ask for directions.

/smart-*** comment
 
I'll go with you on the El one. As to the honor, there is no translation. It was given in English, and that is the word they used for the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price it was translated as honor, and I don't think we have the original to look at and see if there were multiple words and it was translated to honor but could have been something else. Either way, I believe honor is the correct word in both instances.

All I'm gonna tell you, is they didn't speak English when it was originally vocalized. There had to have been a translation at one point or another.
 
We could bicker about it all day, but I'm not going to convince anyone. Nor am I trying to; I'm simply trying to share what my open mind has seen as a possibility. I am simply asking that everyone take what evidence they have, all of it, and lead to the logical conclusion; it's possible, no matter how improbable. Wars have been started for less.

What do I believe? Not just believe it's a possibility?

I believe we're here trying to become perfect, so we can become like God. As all of us will sin, in order to be forgiven of those trespasses, we have to forgive others of their trespasses against us. How can I reconcile God not forgiving Lucifer of his trespasses, when taught that we can't be like God until we forgive?

There's a flaw somewhere in the system. Whether that's a lie a man told that was accepted by other men as truth, or something God's unwilling to tell us, or anything else, it just doesn't matter. We can not have such severe contradictions.
 
If you a sit a toddler down and explain in detail how to preform brain surgery, he isn't going to be able to do it.

But to expect a toddler to preform brain surgery, you must train him, slowly but surely, how to do it. It will take 20-30 years, but he'll be capable of it only so long as you teach him along the way. Part of teaching is getting that toddler to grasp concepts for himself.

Therefore, at one point or another, that toddler has to make leaps to grasp the big concepts. We, as humans, have been learning for thousands of years. As illustrated by releasing the golden plates back to the world, God believes us ready to take more steps.

You pretty much just repeated my point. There is a process of learning that must occur. I'm saying, in the context of eternal development, a few thousand years is the mere blink of an eye. Not nearly enough time to gain the knowledge to understand God. So in the toddler analogy, after all those centuries, we're still toddlers.
 
You pretty much just repeated my point. There is a process of learning that must occur. I'm saying, in the context of eternal development, a few thousand years is the mere blink of an eye. Not nearly enough time to gain the knowledge to understand God. So in the toddler analogy, after all those centuries, we're still toddlers.

And how exactly would you measure what is or isn't enough time? We don't exactly have a basis of comparison.
 
From Wiki "Ten Percent of Brain Myth" consensus page:

Though factors of intelligence can increase with training,[2] the popular notion that large parts of the brain remain unused, and could subsequently be "activated", rests more in popular folklore than scientific theory. Though mysteries regarding brain function remain—e.g. memory, consciousness — the physiology of brain mapping suggests that most if not all areas of the brain have a function.[3][4]

This really is just nit picking an unimportant aspect of my point.
 
And how exactly would you measure what is or isn't enough time? We don't exactly have a basis of comparison.

I can't quantify it for you. But as I stated at the beginning of my original post, it's just my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong. But to me, that's the explanation that makes the most sense.
 
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