Excuse my ignorance, but is there any truth to this video (sorta NSFW)?... <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jFZ1jVO3-OE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jFZ1jVO3-OE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> I'm not going to lie, the majority of my knowledge of LDS stems from what I've gathered from friends (who are LDS), people who troll morman.org and South Park. I have never heard a lot of what this video teaches, and under the YouTube set of comments alone it seems like a rather heated following. Discuss? (If already posted, as always I apologize)
From what I gathered the comments about Black people are correct. It wasn't until the 70s that they started to allow African Americans to be priests in the church. Black people are seen as forgiven for forsaking Christ. Also, the comments about Joesph Smith and the Native Americans are correct as well...
I went to a Baptist high school and I remember watching a similar video in one of my classes (not sure why exactly). When they got the bit about those who stayed neutral becoming black, the one black guy in the class let out a big "WHAT?!?!?!". I've asked ex-Mormons about that before and they've confirmed to me that that is in fact what Mormons believe.
Eh the entire old testament. Nothing about faith and religion is based on logic. It is about Faith in the supernatural, and whether that is a almighty god or an alien life form it doesn't matter it is based on faith that that supernatural life form exists. That being said I always find it funny when Christians (or people from a other religion) are so negative about other peoples faith. like their religion is the only one that makes sense and might be right.
I'm trying like hell to stay out of these discussions...but I had to respond to this simply to say: this has not been my experience. I think we can all talk about religion as if it's an animal behind a cage. We can study and inspect it. Criticize it or laud it. I think that's where the discussion on this topic begins and ends on this messageboard. But when you talk about faith, you're talking about something much more personal to each individual. We don't all arrive at faith in the same way or for the same reasons...or with the same experiences. In truth, it doesn't matter much if you agree or disagree with what I'm saying...but if you're interested in exploring it further, I'd suggest you ask someone in your life who claims a faith, WHY they claim it. Then ask 5 others who do as well....my guess is you'll get different responses from them. That's been my experience. And, for some, logic is a huge part of it. And even though it might not make sense to you, it doesn't make it less true. As for the last part...I don't think that's a problem exclusively for Christians. Human beings tend to find themselves in groups...identifying themselves that way. And part of doing that is to then point at "others" and note how they're different from their group. Not coincidentally, Jesus' inclusion of all, and admonition against dividing into this group and that, is part of what I find so irresistible about him.
+1 arno_ed, you paint with too broad and cliched a brush in this thread. By the way, I don't think this thread will end well. Just a hunch.
I'm not Mormon, but I can say that I've heard from Mormons before the part about Jesus coming to the Americas, becoming gods of other worlds after death, and that black people have dark skin as a punishment from God (although I was not familiar with why they were punished).
From the first dictionary definition of "faith" I googled: 1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability. 2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact. 3. belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims. I understand that you are referring to meaning 3, but I always thought that even in meaning 3, it is implied that having faith requires a certain leap in the absence of having all the proof (meaning 2), otherwise we wouldn't call it faith, we would just call it knowledge/acknowledgment. Is this an unfair definition of what it is to have faith? (If you don't think it is unfair, then the next question would be, "is it logical to believe in something despite the absence of proof"? And I'm not asking it rhetorically either.)
I concur, but it is a deep rabbit hole when you start naming them. Logic has very little to do with faith. Faith, by it's very nature is illogical. DD
While true that faith is not scientifically logical, I wonder why the same amount of scrutiny is not applied to a popular ideology like "The Secret". IMO, as far as I'm concerned, God can be a word used to define the universe, or the big bang theory, or evolution, or science, or nature, etc.. I'd rather NOT define it personally but I do believe that whatever was the cause for existence deserves for us to try to find out more about it. That's the maximum I'm willing to be certain about, and I'm not willing to only limit myself to possibilities that are valid in the scientific sphere. I think it's more likely that science has not and will not be able to completely define "God" for me, whatever or whoever God is so I'm not going to put all my eggs in one basket.
