Gunnar wrote:Really? Seriously? When has God ever done anything like that? Do you seriously think it is at all likely that he ever would? If I ever experienced anything like that, I would have to conclude that I was having some kind of hallucination or mental breakdown!
Don't forget that there is a well established and very strong correlation between mental illness and strong religiousity, especially when visions of Divine apparitions and manifestations are involved.
For some reason the intervention by God into the affairs of man offends you. That feeling is shared by many. I have had visions and had manifestations but have never been told to slaughter anyone. I am also not mentally ill. In fact my sense of reality is much better than the man on the street. But my world view is not a common one. I live in this world yet seek another. But that seeking does not stop me from learning all I can in this life of flesh.
Thank you for sharing your views on these matters.
I grant that you are probably not mentally ill, but it still remains a fact that there is a strong correlation between extreme religiousity and certain kinds of mental illness.
It is not the intervention by God into the affairs of man per se that offends me. It is the fact that at least the vast majority of claims of Divine intervention are so obviously bogus!
Last edited by Guest on Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
“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
Gunnar wrote:Really? Seriously? When has God ever done anything like that? Do you seriously think it is at all likely that he ever would? If I ever experienced anything like that, I would have to conclude that I was having some kind of hallucination or mental breakdown!
Don't forget that there is a well established and very strong correlation between mental illness and strong religiousity, especially when visions of Divine apparitions and manifestations are involved.
For some reason the intervention by God into the affairs of man offends you. That feeling is shared by many. I have had visions and had manifestations but have never been told to slaughter anyone. I am also not mentally ill. In fact my sense of reality is much better than the man on the street. But my world view is not a common one. I live in this world yet seek another. But that seeking does not stop me from learning all I can in this life of flesh.
Thank you for sharing your views on these matters.
How do you know you aren't mentally ill?
“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
Gunnar wrote:..... and failed prophecies in the Bible,.......
If you could list them I would appreciate it.
Just google "failed Biblical prophecies" or "contradictions in the Bible." If I were to try to list them all here, it would take me hours, if not days of typing! One of the most interesting is found in Ezekial, wherein Ezekial himself later admits that his prophecy failed, only to immediately make another prophecy that also failed. See http://etb-biblical-errancy.blogspot.co ... ailed.html
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Franktalk wrote: If you could list them I would appreciate it.
Just google "failed Biblical prophecies" or "contradictions in the Bible." If I were to try to list them all here, it would take me hours, if not days of typing! One of the most interesting is found in Ezekial, wherein Ezekial himself later admits that his prophecy failed, only to immediately make another prophecy that also failed. See http://etb-biblical-errancy.blogspot.co ... ailed.html
Yes...but...apart from all those I bet you can't find any failures...
“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
Frank, didn't we have this discussion the other day? You know, where errors in the Gregorian calendar blew your fulfillment of the Daniel math prophecy all to hell?
It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener at war.
Some of us, on the other hand, actually prefer a religion that includes some type of correlation with reality. ~Bill Hamblin
Franktalk wrote:I have had visions and had manifestations but have never been told to slaughter anyone.
What if you did receive a vision or manifestation that told you slaughter someone. Would you doubt that God was the real source of that prompting, or would you unquestioningly try to obey it like the Lafferty brothers did?
Last edited by Guest on Fri Sep 07, 2012 3:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Gunnar wrote:I grant that you are probably not mentally ill, but it still remains a fact that there is a strong correlation between extreme religiousity and certain kinds of mental illness.
It is not the intervention by God into the affairs of man per se that offends me. It is the fact that at least the vast majority of claims of Divine intervention are so obviously bogus!
There are people out there who strap bombs on their children and send them out to explode in crowds. There are billions of people who do not see this as bad. Does this make them mentally ill? In this country we would define mentally ill one way and another country would define it differently. Such is the nature of the world we live in.
I agree that there are people who say they hear voices that tell them to do terrible things. I am sure that some of them are telling the truth. But we all have terrible ideas at one time or another triggered by anger or a situation. But in large part we don't act on those thoughts. The real question must be asked as to why some listen and some don't. I only live in my head so I find it impossible to speak for another. And the field of science that tries and deal with these issues has given up and now drugs everyone. People come in many flavors, some blame God. Such is life.
Franktalk wrote:I have had visions and had manifestations but have never been told to slaughter anyone.
What if you did receive a vision or manifestation that told you slaughter someone. Would you doubt that God was the real source of that prompting, or would you unquestioningly try to obey it?
How about killing your own child?
You [personal attack deleted]?
PrickKicker: I used to be a Narrow minded, short sighted, Lying, Racist, Homophobic, Pious, Moron. But they were all behavioral traits that I had learnt through Mormonism.
Franktalk wrote:There are people out there who strap bombs on their children and send them out to explode in crowds. There are billions of people who do not see this as bad. Does this make them mentally ill?
I very seriously doubt that the people who do not see this as bad truly number in the billions. There is not much hope for humanity if that is true. But yes, I do think it takes a kind of mental or moral illness to not see that as bad.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
