Yong Xi wrote:Are you saying he has unlimited bandwith? Does He process in a linear fashion? FIFO, LIFO?
I'm thinking some kind of priority queue, but a multitasking one where priority can be temproarilly increased so that no one partuclar thing will go without attention for very long. I hear that some operating systems do this for processes and threads in order to multitask. If God can process information infinitely fast, then He could certainly do some amazing things with multitasking.
I think God has unlimited bandwidth, but perhaps there are physical limits (entropy, information, and black holes.). Maybe God gets around this by existing in an infinite dimensional multiverse.
That's General Leo. He could be my friend if he weren't my enemy. eritis sicut dii I support NCMO
The Nehor wrote:God's resources aren't limited. How many fish can God fry simultaneously? I'm pretty sure that when I pray he's not listening to 1000 other prayers (many probably of much greater urgency) and ignoring mine.
Yeah....sounds like a great Guy (in the sky). Ignoring urgent prayers....but helping people find car keys.
I don't think he has ever ignored a prayer. Prayer is not magic though. It doesn't work immediate results and sometimes God does nothing. Perhaps it would help if I mentioned I have prayed to find my car keys and not found them for over a day. My faith was not utterly destroyed.
I have also prayed that a child I loved would not be taken....he was taken.
I prayed that a girl would see me in a way that she could love.....she married another.
I prayed that God would take me and let me die....I'm still alive.
I prayed and told God that he was a horrible bastard and that his management of the Earth was a joke and I was sick of being used by him to work good for others while I was left with ashes.......he forgave me.
I begged for hope in despair.....I got it.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
dartagnan wrote:I don't see this as justification for making kids go up and bear a testimony they don't have.
Our youth and our struggling missionaries are counselled that "a testimony is found in the bearing of it". How can anyone stand behind that methodology?
dartagnan wrote:I don't see this as justification for making kids go up and bear a testimony they don't have.
Our youth and our struggling missionaries are counselled that "a testimony is found in the bearing of it". How can anyone stand behind that methodology?
Because it works.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
dartagnan wrote:I don't see this as justification for making kids go up and bear a testimony they don't have.
Our youth and our struggling missionaries are counselled that "a testimony is found in the bearing of it". How can anyone stand behind that methodology?
Because it works.
Could you honestly say that this methodology has no relation to self indoctrination or brainwashing?
Maxrep wrote:Could you honestly say that this methodology has no relation to self indoctrination or brainwashing?
Having experienced the spiritual power of testifying I can say yes.
I also self-indoctrinate all the time. It's why I don't rape every woman I find attractive, don't speed through red lights, don't sound like as much of a moron as I did in Middle School, forced myself to work out, perfected my kissing technique, learned to water-ski, and many other things.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
Maxrep wrote:Could you honestly say that this methodology has no relation to self indoctrination or brainwashing?
Having experienced the spiritual power of testifying I can say yes.
I also self-indoctrinate all the time. It's why I don't rape every woman I find attractive, don't speed through red lights, don't sound like as much of a moron as I did in Middle School, forced myself to work out, perfected my kissing technique, learned to water-ski, and many other things.
If one doesn't "know", then one isn't testifying.
What hubris it is to emphatically make a statement to another person, assuring them of the statements reliability and truth, all the while not having the foggiest clue yourself. Backwards? Dishonest?
The Nehor wrote: I also self-indoctrinate all the time. It's why I don't rape every woman I find attractive
Are you confusing the term "self-indoctrinate " with "self-abuse"?
P.S. I slalom ski and lifted weights for some time - I'm not seeing the connection!
The Nehor wrote:I don't think he has ever ignored a prayer. Prayer is not magic though. It doesn't work immediate results and sometimes God does nothing. Perhaps it would help if I mentioned I have prayed to find my car keys and not found them for over a day. My faith was not utterly destroyed.
I have also prayed that a child I loved would not be taken....he was taken.
I prayed that a girl would see me in a way that she could love.....she married another.
I prayed that God would take me and let me die....I'm still alive.
I prayed and told God that he was a horrible bastard and that his management of the Earth was a joke and I was sick of being used by him to work good for others while I was left with ashes.......he forgave me.
I begged for hope in despair.....I got it.
Isn't that about the same hit-vs.-miss ratio one gets if one prays to a lucky rabbit's foot?
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
beastie wrote:God answering someone's prayer about lost car keys and yet ignoring the prayers of others in dire circumstances is just one of many examples of how it all makes sense only if there is no god in the first place.
It's kind of like trying to work through the Mormon controversies when still a believer. Why did God allow Joseph Smith to marry other men's wives? Why is there no archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon? Why does the Book of Abraham papyrii not match Joseph Smith' "translation". You keep beating your head against a wall trying to find a way for all of this to make sense within the context of "the church being true", and suddenly one day you realize that only context that allows it all to make sense is if the church is NOT true.
There are many of us (some far more intelligent and rational than us both) who have found ways to sensibly answer the "problem of evil" (in its various forms--such as the lost keys vs starvation in Africa disparity bantied about here), and who have found faith-retaining, sensible answers to the questions you just posed about the Church.
OK, then, what are the "faith-retaining, sensible answers" to the questions?
Why was it OK for Joseph Smith to marry other me's wives?
Why is there no archeological evidence for the Book of Mormon?
Why does the Book of Abraham papyrus not match the "translation?"
Why does DNA evidence indicate that all the American Indians came from Asia, not the Middle East?
Where did the steel come from?
Etc. Etc. Etc.
I would really like to hear how you can rationalize this in your mind.
In other words, rational people can rationally differ (in diametrically opposing ways) on these issues.
Now I realize that soliptic thinkers (those that believe their reasoning to be the only reasoning that is sensible) may balk at the very thought. But thanfully the rest of us are not bound by that articificial limitation. ;-)
Thanks, -Wade Englund-
"What does God need with a starship?" - Captain James T. Kirk
Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. - Robert Orben
The Nehor wrote:I don't think he has ever ignored a prayer. Prayer is not magic though. It doesn't work immediate results and sometimes God does nothing. Perhaps it would help if I mentioned I have prayed to find my car keys and not found them for over a day. My faith was not utterly destroyed.
I have also prayed that a child I loved would not be taken....he was taken.
I prayed that a girl would see me in a way that she could love.....she married another.
I prayed that God would take me and let me die....I'm still alive.
I prayed and told God that he was a horrible bastard and that his management of the Earth was a joke and I was sick of being used by him to work good for others while I was left with ashes.......he forgave me.
I begged for hope in despair.....I got it.
Isn't that about the same hit-vs.-miss ratio one gets if one prays to a lucky rabbit's foot?
Nope, because the one he answered he answered immediately and overwhelmingly.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo