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Very sorry to hear this. I did have some interaction when I first joined here years ago. I hate to ask but did he have a long term thing? If so, I hope he is in a better place. One thing can be said for coffee. It smells good. At least the proper version made from beans. I don’t miss it otherwise. Minyan Man wrote:
The core message was: does man have the right to think for himself & to teach ideas that are contrary to the teachings of the bible?
There is one school of thought that the Scopes Monkey Trialn was a publicity stunt to brimg attention to the town.
Personally I think religion is the McGuffin when it comes to education around the world. Children get taught illogical and harmful ideas, not to mention useless ones, in many secular settings.
On one level schools teach things which neither improve children nor are any use to them in the workplace. Some of these ideas are traditional and should have died the death long ago, and others are new but politically motivated and highly suspect.
Coffee was very bad for me. It definitely increased my stress and anxiety levels and also gave me arrhythmia (sp?). Oh and I sleep properly now. Vaccinations do not stop the transmission of Covid. I really think this is all just gearing us up for the nightmare of digital ID and tracking via smartphones. I am a lot happier with our chapel than a lot of other places out there. We make a lot more effort than most places.
If people get stuck in darkness for more than a few hours, their body rhythms get out of whack. The first night they may sleep at the right time but even then they’ll be losing count. There really is no way to count three days of darkness without light. Old-Timer wrote:
Well said, Sam.Thanks for stating it so clearly.
:thumbup:
Thank you. I fear I waffle though!
Katzpur wrote:
DarkJedi wrote:I think most of us do exactly what OON suggests and mentally compress that timeline. The aforementioned muddiness doesn’t help us not do that. Maybe not on exactly the same scale as “What!? Joseph was a polygamist!?” but nonetheless something that most have believed all their lives and have been taught in Primary and SS (and likely even seminary).
I can’t remember where I picked up that idea. I’ve just always been told that the sky became like night in the Holy Land, even though it was mid-day, and that in the New World, the darkness lasted for three days and was followed by Christ’s appearance. And of course, I didn’t bother to question it.
I know this is a stupid question, but how would they know it was three days? People didn’t have good time keeping in those times.
Not only that but we read no one could light fires, lamps etc. After a day in complete.darkness people will begin to hallucinate.
Old-Timer wrote:
Amen, Sam. I baffle people regularly who assume I believe one thing just because I believe another thing.
We see this stuff all the time. People have assumed from my accent than I am uneducated and untraveled, and then when I tell them that I’m involved in the arts world (peripherally admittedly), some of them assume I’m a gay man. When I tell them I follow rugby and used to play myself, they can’t square that with the arts thing, because they think one is macho and the other isn’t. When I tell them I’m a church goer, some of them assume I don’t like gays, even though I’ve worked alongside openly gay and trans performers and have been involved promoted their work…. And some of them think that I’m uneducated and of low intelligence because I’m a Christian (like my original point), or some raving hypocrite who is unaware of his own shortcomings.
And so on and so on. It’s all so very contradictory.
I’m sure most of us could come out with a similar string of such trashy thinking we’ve each been exposed to. I really liked the “I’m a Mormon” campaign since it busted apart a lot of stereotypes.
I’ve been quite open about the fact I like some aspects of the church, but there is room for improvement. I’ve also stated that I regret the Priesthood Ban and think it should never have happened, yet I get people assuming I support that stuff. Because I’m a long standing member of the church, I have a pretty good idea of how many of us think, and the variety among LDS people, and it’s not what many outsiders think – or even some people inside the church.
General Authorities have definitely encouraged such stories. How often have we heard them tell stories where those involved are unnamed and there are little or no specific details? I suspect some of this is damage control. If you tell a story about John/Jane Doe and they apostasize or do something terrible, then it doesn’t turn round to bite them.
It has been better recently, but yes, GAs are part of this.
I think the problem nowadays is that we are beginning to see people as “packages” not as individuals. Party politics is one factor, plus the “social justice”/intersectional movement. I am frequently suspected of holding views that I don’t. That is because some of those people see me as a type not an individual. They think if I say A, I must believe B, or if I oppose C, I must agree with D. I can see some of them visibly confused when they realise that I have combinations of views that they never expected.
DarkJedi wrote:
Psychologists will tell you that pornography is not an addiction but can be a compulsory behavior.Psychologists go with prevailing trends, in this case sexual license. As I always remind people, they used to class being gay as a mental illness, now they class homophobia as one. All to do wth societal fashions. Promiscuity used to be classed as satyromania and nymphomania, now you’re classed as abnormal if you don’t lean in that direction, and marriage is almost seen as aberrant. Soap operas and music push that message too. So I don’t even see their claims as very scientifically based.
I’ve seen and heard evidence that the Big P is indeed an addiction for some people. Even if we see it as a “compulsive behavior”, that sounds like a bit of a euphemism for borderline addictive behavior in this case. The problem is that the LDS use the addiction label too widely.
The wide free availability of the Big P online ensures that certain aspects are well hidden. Twenty years ago, some people spent serious money on it – that’s a sign of addiction, as is the amount of time some people spend with it. (You’re talking hours and hours here in some cases.) So there’s a difference between someone who occasionally sneaks a peak at it, and someone who is spending thousands of dollars or hours on it. Lockdown isn’t helping.
There definitely are people for whom the Big P can become an addiction, it’s a question of how many. Some people have spent an obscene amount of money on it (pun intended) or time. I think it can definitely warp your appreciation of other people especially if you get into dating. We see the pendulum effect in many areas and this is one – the world makes it too freely available now, and accepts its culture. Many people who are involved with it end up binge watching it can become an obsession.
Like eating disorders, it is something tied in with your natural needs, so it doesn’t quite fit like some other supposed addictions can.
Over43 wrote:
Kipling knew Masonry was not a religion, but for some it became religion.
There are definitely quasi-religious aspects to it, from the symbolism to the nature of the ceremonies. Much of the symbolism has obvious parallels to other religions, with a masonic twist.
Quote:
Nor “secret”. Again as stated above dates and times for meetings are posted. Masons are often prominent in their communities. They wear rings or other jewelry/clothes saying to the world: I am a Mason! If people get that curious I imagine you watch the degrees on YouTube.
Well, we know about the Pentagon, Langley and that place in London James Bond works out of. People from these organizations have written books and given talks. But they are still secret in what they do.
You’re right, in one sense they do publicise themselves but that was not always so. They have also repeatedly been exposed, from the likes of Tolstoy to Stephen Knight etc that many of their symbols are out in the open.
It is “sacred not secret” all over again. There is basic masonry which many people are aware of, but also a whole bunch of other ceremonies that are not well known and little described if at all, since hardly anyone ever gets raised to that level
But there are still things many of the public would be uncomfortable with. Not all masons do these things. Some of these include drinking out of skulls, being lightly branded with a pentagram, having a dagger pointed at you etc. Even in the first degree (and in the old pre-1990 endowment) you are told your throat would be slit and you could be disembowelled if you exposed these things which are supposedly not secret.
The Masons have very strange offspring. On the one hand, you have the Shriners and the Buffalos (and a number of other minor fraternities which have become extinct) – these tend to be unobjectionable in most ways. Then at the other end, you have the likes of the KKK and Orange Order (whose black and purple preceptories are more obviously Masonic). The object of the last two organisations is to harass. The picture below is of Orange banners (which are paraded in public through Roman Catholic areas in Northern Ireland)
Two very big extremes – Shriners at one end, Klan at the other. I like to think the LDS are more towards the Shriner end when it comes to Masonic offspring, but we have excluded blacks and included brutal penalties within living memory. (I’d suggest many frats are in between, but some such as Yale’s Skull and Bones have wielded undue influence in American politics.) I’d suggest the LDS are in a similar portion of this spectrum to the Elks maybe.
See how many symbols you can recognise from these Orange banners.
[img]https://christian-restoration.com/fmasonry/images/sash%20symbols.jpg [/img] My answer (from an LDS POV): The square and compasses (albeit modified); Sun, Moon and Star; all seeing eye (to be seen ?formerly on SLC Temple); pillars (but disguised in modern Temples); the pentagram; and possibly the triangle.
One thing which is missing is the bee or beehive. Widely used in both traditions as a symbol.
The serpent wrapped around a stick can be found on the WHO logo we have seen so much of recently but I have not seen it in LDS use. Depending on your take this – a medical symbol dating back to ancient Greece; the serpent raised in the wilderness; the serpent in the garden or the Kundalini serpent which in Indian belief is wrapped around the spine. Some people say it comes from a practice of removing worms by wrapping them round sticks.
Roy wrote:
Sheldon wrote:
They are thinking you will stop coming to church if they don’t load you up with activities. But as I’ve seen, sometime it will drive people out.
The good news is that one of the biggest benefits of the church is the community. The more that you are active in participating in these things the more integrated into the community you will become. The people trying to get you “involved” are doing so with positive intent. However, despite these intentions, some basic and friendly boundary setting is always appropriate.
People can be very contradictory on the matter… Some visitors have complained to me that no one talks to them, while others are overwhelmed… Often with similar levels of attention.
It is annoying when I am at another ward. People’s prime motive is to establish who you are and where you are from or which ward you are from. It’s not unfriendly but it is a predictable pattern.
But I have heard people who talk to almost no one and are inactive/semi-active complain no one talks to them and that they are not involved. It is a two way process.
There is one guy in our ward who has a lot of health trouble and is mostly a shut in, even before the quarantine thing. He is very argumentative which is partly why I avoid dealing with him, but he keeps offering to do things, like teaching a lesson, work in the temple or even home teaching… Only to cancel last minute. He did manage to give a talk last Sunday, but the amount of times he doesn’t, because of headaches and other things… There is no point in asking him to do much, but he keeps on insisting.
