Certain people can't ever get it right

[honorentheos]

Well said, Morley.

[mentalgymnast]

1. You write as if the choice as to 'where you set your viewfinder' in the matter of the truth or falsehood of your religious beliefs was to made independently of what you end up seeing through it.

Chap, my man. You seem to have a difficult time in translation. The metaphorical construction I posted is making a point. Well, at least one. In your everyday experience the earth, for all intents and purposes, is flat. Excepting for hills and mountains. Set your viewfinder on the surface of the earth and that’s what is observed. Go up in an airplane or orbit the earth in the space shuttle and spend any time looking through a viewfinder and your observations will result in noticing that the earth doesn’t appear flat. Same earth, different setting and position with the viewfinder.

See the correlation I’m alluding to?

by the way, literalists...black and white thinkers...have a difficult time looking at the world through a metaphorical viewfinder.

Regards,
MG

[mentalgymnast]

It is surprising that you have not noticed the circularity in your statements above: adopt the viewpoint that the Mormon religion is true, and then you will hold the view that the Mormon religion is true, and that MG is therefore a perfectly reasonable guy.

Again, I think you are not seeing the metaphorical comparison I’m attempting to make. You can see this as a circular argument if you are looking at it with your viewfinder set in a certain position from a given location. That of a strict rationalist.

The church and its doctrines can be viewed in various ways through different viewfinder settings and different positions. Just as the earth is both flat and round, so is the church. For those in whom the church appears flat, it remains observably flat because of their positioning and the settings on their viewfinder. For those in whom the church appears round, it appears so because of their positioning and the settings on their viewfinder.

The earth is both flat and round. The church is both flat and round.

Flat=______________
Round=____________

And they’re both true. But one more so than the other with greater perspective and finer tuning.

Get it?

Regards,
MG

[mentalgymnast]

How about posting on some less demanding topics instead?

That’s rather condescending.

Regards,
MG

[mentalgymnast]

You think mg was being 'open'? That's beyond naïve.

Talking about his information retention was a moment of openness.

As we age it is natural to have memory issues of one kind or another. Usually, for most of us, it’s short term memory. Where did I put my glasses kind of stuff. But that phenomenon can also carry over into areas that sometimes come as a surprise.That doesn’t mean that one cannot carry on an intelligent conversation.

Regards,
MG

[mentalgymnast]

The earth is round and flat at the same time.This is obvious. That it is round appears indisputable; that it is flat is our common experience, also indisputable. The globe does not supersede the map; the map does not distort the globe.
-Jeanette Winterson

It’s where we set our viewfinder that’s the key. I am the earth. I am round and flat at the same time.

It’s interesting to consider the fact that if any one or more of you had testimonies of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that Jesus is the Christ and that God lives, your viewfinder would capture me differently. And what a difference that would make.

As it is, your viewfinder is set differently.

Regards,
MG

Globes serve similar purposes to maps, but unlike maps, do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down.

Application?

Regards,
MG

[Chap]

The church and its doctrines can be viewed in various ways through different viewfinder settings and different positions. Just as the earth is both flat and round, so is the church. For those in whom the church appears flat, it remains observably flat because of their positioning and the settings on their viewfinder. For those in whom the church appears round, it appears so because of their positioning and the settings on their viewfinder.

The earth is both flat and round. The church is both flat and round.

Flat=______________
Round=____________

And they’re both true. But one more so than the other with greater perspective and finer tuning.

Mentalgymnast responds with a lot of smoke-blowing and hand waving. What does it mean? Nothing much.

The earth is not both round and flat, it is round (though oblate rather than spherical), but you may use the false assumption that it is flat over any distance small enough so that the resulting error is within a level of precision suitable for the activity you are pursuing. This is a straightforward matter of mathematical caculation. There is no parallel at all with the adoption or rejection of a given point of view about the kind of religious matters to which MG is attempting to apply his failed analogy.

If this is really the best MG can do, it would be considerate of him to cease wasting people's time and post on less demanding threads.

[Chap]

Talking about his information retention was a moment of openness.

No it wasn't. He was backed into a corner and used a technique to deflect. He's done that many, many times.

I think Lem is probably on the money here. Most of the time MG's modus operandi is to represent himself as being so much more subtle and insightful than the poor saps who point out that he just isn't making any sense.

In his response to one of my earlier posts, he evidently felt that option would not be plausible, given the point our exchanges had reached. So he switched to the stuff about 'I'm just a poor old guy with memory problems who gets a bit confused'. Then he huffs and puffs till he can once more soar up in his hot-air balloon and shower us with his wisdom from above (or is it something else that is raining down on us...?)

[mentalgymnast]

The church and its doctrines can be viewed in various ways through different viewfinder settings and different positions. Just as the earth is both flat and round, so is the church. For those in whom the church appears flat, it remains observably flat because of their positioning and the settings on their viewfinder. For those in whom the church appears round, it appears so because of their positioning and the settings on their viewfinder.

The earth is both flat and round. The church is both flat and round.

Flat=______________
Round=____________

And they’re both true. But one more so than the other with greater perspective and finer tuning.

Mentalgymnast responds with a lot of smoke-blowing and hand waving. What does it mean? Nothing much.

The earth is not both round and flat, it is round (though oblate rather than spherical), but you may use the false assumption that it is flat over any distance small enough so that the resulting error is within a level of precision suitable for the activity you are pursuing. This is a straightforward matter of mathematical caculation. There is no parallel at all with the adoption or rejection of a given point of view about the kind of religious matters to which MG is attempting to apply his failed analogy.

If this is really the best MG can do, it would be considerate of him to cease wasting people's time and post on less demanding threads.

Wow. Talk about hand waving. Nothing to see here folks, says the person who stands out as a literal black and white thinker extraordinaire.

I think your brain might explode if you tried to make any metaphorical application. So don’t do it.

Safety first.

Regards,
MG

[mentalgymnast]

No it wasn't. He was backed into a corner and used a technique to deflect. He's done that many, many times.

I think Lem is probably on the money here. Most of the time MG's modus operandi is to represent himself as being so much more subtle and insightful than the poor saps who point out that he just isn't making any sense.

In his response to one of my earlier posts, he evidently felt that option would not be plausible, given the point our exchanges had reached. So he switched to the stuff about 'I'm just a poor old guy with memory problems who gets a bit confused'. Then he huffs and puffs till he can once more soar up in his hot-air balloon and shower us with his wisdom from above (or is it something else that is raining down on us...?)

Back to the end of thread polemics now, are we?

Regards,
MG