Dealing with Anti-Mormon Literature, p. 14

[_truth dancer]

Hi Liz...

Does Mormonism have to be all true or all false? Can we not take truths from Mormonism as well as other religions as part of that "infinity of possibilities"?

in my opinion, the church has clearly set itself up to be either true or false. I see no middle ground based on its own declarations, teachings, doctrine.

Its claim to be the one and only true church upon the face of the earth, directed by Jesus Christ himself, given the power of God, with men who commune with Christ either is true or it isn't. I don't know how you can get around this.

Of course anyone can take good from anywhere ...

:-)

~dancer~

[_Tarski]

in my opinion, the church has clearly set itself up to be either true or false. I see no middle ground based on its own declarations, teachings, doctrine.

Its claim to be the one and only true church upon the face of the earth, directed by Jesus Christ himself, given the power of God, with men who commune with Christ either is true or it isn't. I don't know how you can get around this.

Of course anyone can take good from anywhere

Yeah. The church takes a set of supposed truths and tries to apply psychological glue to bind them them together so you feel like you have to take the whole of it. It's a package deal --(Or that is the way it is presented.)

[_Tarski]

PS. I'm sad that Dan ignored one of my replies to him above.

[_Daniel Peterson]

Life is full of sorrow . . . and then you die.

You offer an interesting perspective. I can't think of anything urgent to say about it, though.

[_KimberlyAnn]

Hi Liz...

Does Mormonism have to be all true or all false? Can we not take truths from Mormonism as well as other religions as part of that "infinity of possibilities"?

in my opinion, the church has clearly set itself up to be either true or false. I see no middle ground based on its own declarations, teachings, doctrine.

Its claim to be the one and only true church upon the face of the earth, directed by Jesus Christ himself, given the power of God, with men who commune with Christ either is true or it isn't. I don't know how you can get around this.

Of course anyone can take good from anywhere ...

:-)

~dancer~

I concur, though that's probably no surprise to anyone! It's black or white on the issue of the Mormon church being true. It's either true or it's not. But like you say, good can be taken from anywhere.

KA

[_Dr. Shades]

I think one of the most shocking moments for me in dealing with "out there" LDS points of view happened when I was attending a Pearl of Great Price class at BYU.

We were discussing the creation story, and the professor got off on a tangent about how God the Father and Heavenly Mother came down to earth and had a little "honeymoon" and that's how Adam and Eve came into being.

I was appalled, and dropped the class.

You do realize, do you not, that that's precisely what Brigham Young taught for over a quarter of a century--the infamous Adam-God doctrine?

[_Tommy]

While I was sitting on the couch today listening to our home teachers retell Pres. Monson's story about the wedge that was left in a cleft of an oak tree, and caused the destruction of the tree a few years later

A lesson I think we should all take to heart, don't you, Sethbag? Who'd want to scar a young sap of a tree ordained one day to become a magnificant oak? We do know the answer to that question, they are those who write poisonous rhetoric, lies, and deceits about Christ's true church.

read King Benjamin's address, on the one hand, or, on the other, an equivalent amount of religion-related prose from Some Schmo or Mercury, or whether she would rather live in a society whose tone is set to some degree by the Sermon on the Mount rather than in one for which the dominant discourse is framed by Ed Decker or John Ankerberg,

Oh how I agree! King Benjamin's marvelous address is so much better than what Mercury and Some Schmo say. I am so thankful that the Lord sees fit not to jettison the teachings of ancient prophets such as King Benjamin in exchange for the modern (sinful) teachings of cowardly and anonymous hecklers that we find on internet forums such as Some Schmo and Mercury.

I am also delighted that you prize the Sermon on the Mount as highly as I do. I'll let you in on a little secret: I find it a most delightful evening treat to sup from the Sermon of the Mount as it is found within my children's edition of the Bible while I drink a cup of milk -- just at the right temperature -- before I retire at night. On occasion, and I would refrain from relaying this to brother Packer, I'll find myself dipping a cookie.

So much better are we for having our roots firmly grounded in the most famous discourse of Jesus Christ than what some guy named Ed Decker wrote in a self-published pamphlet. John Ankerberg is less than an ant when compared to Jesus. He'll never set the tone for western civilization. Rightfully has the Sermon on the Mount framed western religious tradition over the last 2,000 years rather than anything Ankerberg has written.

[_Tarski]

..... young sap of a tree.....

"sap"
LMAO

[_Yoda]

I think one of the most shocking moments for me in dealing with "out there" LDS points of view happened when I was attending a Pearl of Great Price class at BYU.

We were discussing the creation story, and the professor got off on a tangent about how God the Father and Heavenly Mother came down to earth and had a little "honeymoon" and that's how Adam and Eve came into being.

I was appalled, and dropped the class.

You do realize, do you not, that that's precisely what Brigham Young taught for over a quarter of a century--the infamous Adam-God doctrine?

Yes...I realize that now. I didn't realize it then when I was a naïve college sophmore. And it still shouldn't have been taught in a classroom setting like that as fact.

[_barrelomonkeys]

For example, perhaps consciousness is an eternal connected reality in which we participate in a way that if understood would make death seem more like an ascent to a higher Self than descent into "oblivion" (whatever that is).

I should mention that my view of time (inspired by spacetime physics) make death a bit less monstrous.

Could you elaborate on that? Or start a new thread?