Tag Archives: Mormon

Guest Post: What Goes Around…

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Another guest post from E. Paul Whetten. You can read Paul’s previous post here.

Several days ago I was having a real heart-to-heart discussion with my teenage daughter about obedience. During the discussion I explained to her that my demand for obedience was not a power trip for me. I am larger and stronger than her and, if it came down to it, I could force her to comply with my requests by brute strength (at least until the cops came). My desire for her to be obedient was much more important than my personal ego. I explained that her mother and I have been around the block a few more times than she has and can see things that are beyond the horizons of her personal experience. More importantly, if she learned to be obedient in the small things that we asked of her (i.e. pick up your room, do your homework, stop beating your sister with a board, etc.) then obedience would be easier for her in the big moments of decision. (i.e. – chastity, word of wisdom, tithing, no dating till your 16, etc.)

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Random Mormon Poll #7: Healthcare Debate

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Photo credit: USAToday

Photo credit: USAToday

In a recent OP/ED published in USAToday, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, D-Calif., and Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader, D-Md., said that ‘‘Un-American’ attacks can’t derail health care debate.

This week’s poll focuses on the so-called uprisings at recent health care town halls around the country.

M* is interested in your thoughts and opinions on the health care debate. Be sure to register your vote in the poll and share your comments.

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Friday Forum: Gospel Throwdown!

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On a recent visit to the temple, you happen to encounter a professional anti-Mormon (aka, card carrying member of the Fluffy Bunny Nice Nice Club) standing outside the temple gates. As you walk to your car, he calls out to you and asks you to go to Denny’s with him for a Bobby-Flay-style gospel throwdown.

He pulls out a triple combination and proceeds to read D&C 71:7-9 to you:

7 Wherefore, aconfound your benemies; call upon them to cmeet you both in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their dshame shall be made manifest.

8 Wherefore, let them bring forth their astrong reasons against the Lord.

9 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you—there is no aweapon that is formed against you shall prosper;

How do you respond to this request?

On The Arrogance of Circumscribing God With Man’s Logic

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[Thank you to the folks at the Millennial Star for inviting me to participate here by cross posting some of the content from my own blog.  It has been several years since I last participated here and I look forward to contributing in a small way. – J. Max Wilson]

One of my favorite definitions of logic comes from Ambrose Bierce’s satirical Devil’s Dictionary: “Logic: n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.”

History is a testament to the nearly limitless incapacity of the human misunderstanding. And while each generation reserves a regular chuckle for the naiveté of its ancestors, it is often just as blind to its own errors.

I believe that our minds are not only limited by lack of experience and information. They are fundamentally limited by mortality. Our two eyes can only extrapolate three dimensions, though with some effort we can conceive of a tesseract even if we cannot visualize it in its true form. We can only perceive colors of light within about 380 to 750 nanometer wavelengths, and as a result plants and flowers that exhibit intricate ultraviolet patterns and designs appear to us quite plain and ordinary to our limited vision. Technology allows us discover their patterns by translating the ultraviolet into our visible spectrum, but we are incapable of actually seeing them as they really are.

Reality is not circumscribed by your or my ability to comprehend, conceive of, or perceive it.

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