ZealouslyStriving

I'm not entirely sure that is an unintended consequence. 🙂 Pres. Oaks did just reemphasize us being a family church and with dating getting harder to navigate, what better place to find a faithful potential future marriage partner than while serving the Lord? I think Mission Presidents should encourage making connections, but reserve dating until finished. Early Latter-day Saint missionaries found wives in missions all the time.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/women-missionary-service-age-18?fbclid=IwdGRzaAONfbZjbGNrA419qmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHvpoQM6uxiZtAT2u5fS9bIWXCld9UKeCzEvIPCq8OR0I7GikwS5n-3rrVHgK_aem_TnRcpLlkzOkCQLe_D9m_nw Great news!

What I posted has be my clear position from the outset of this fiasco masquerading as a conversation that we are having. I'm walking away now- I believe you to be disingenuous.

In case I wasn't clear: ALL human beings have a divine heritage- but I suspect you already know our teachings on the subject. "Uncontacted" tribes have the potential to learn and grow intellectually when coming into contact with information. When you can teach a group of apes or monkeys to build a civil society, build buildings, discover the mysteries of science... Come and we will talk.

You nailed it. (Not sports. 😄)

They hate us because they can't beat us. "Whenever they kick Mormonism, they kick it uphill." - Brigham Young (?)

I'm curious what the "renewed focus" on the other sessions mean/entails? How did having an evening session take away focus, as seems to be implied?

So the newest species (according to evolutionary theories) is the only one to accomplish civilization building? I'm not avoiding the question - you are avoiding the obvious difference between man and beast.

I clarified a supposition, you shot me down, then about an hour ago agreed with the idea behind clarification that you had shot down. 😵‍💫

Name another species that has built civilizations, established laws, unlocked the mysteries of science, etc... We are different and that difference is our divine heritage.

The issue isn't that he uses official materials, it is that he categorically denies the ideas of others because they are not expressly written in official materials that try their hardest to not get into deeper theological issues, even if the commenter uses quotes from past leaders that speak of the matter. He leaves no room for good natured, and well thought out, speculation. He's like a dark academic rain cloud sometimes.

If you don't know the difference between the human ability to make moral decisions and that of a dog, I honestly don't know how to help you.

You very well know the difference between humans and any other creature. I refuse to play this game.

I don't really care about the whole evolution debate... We human beings endowed with moral agency (the ability to choose to act) are the same <whatever you want to call it> as God- He is just incomprehensibly more advanced in all areas than we currently are. But He invites us to make the choices that will allow us to continue to advance.

@Calm The above is what I was referring to in our former conversation from a few days ago concerning scholarly arrogance. I can't take such pomposity seriously. 🤷🏻‍♂️

So you agree that arranged marriages run the gambit and are not just automatically oppressive- just like western free-for-all dating. That was my main point.

Just as having your marriage arranged does not equal oppression.

Not all arranged marriage system are inherently oppressive to women. In arranged marriages in Hinduism, for example, it is just as much arranged for the groom as for the bride. Also, arranged marriages show lower incidences of separation and divorce- showing the Western concept of a dating free-for-all doesn't guarantee a better outcome.

I think people are more "upset" that McGhee's general mindset is that the claims of "Mormonism" are such a universally agreed upon load of ridiculous tall tales that his lame joke would actually land.

Elkanah (Samuel the prophet's father) King Josiah any man that faithfully followed the mandates of the Mosaic Law concerning men with multiple wives.

That's random.

Teddy can come off a little brash, I admit. Longview is confident in his opinions, but more diplomatic. But there is an air of scholarly arrogance in McGuire's posts that totally rubs me the wrong way.

And that's fine. The issue is that he treats ideas with borderline contempt and attempts to show that there is no way in God's green earth an idea he disagrees with is even possible according to "authoritative" sources. So, he may not believe the opposite, but he certainly doesn't believe the idea has any merit whatsoever.

If you review my comments, I have never not been open to an Oster-like understanding of the sameness of intelligence and spirit. McGuire rejected the idea that I posited that we are all of the same species as God, thus gods, and we are here to prove whether we will live worthy to continue to grow in our godhood (gain more power and intelligence). I currently reject his idea that at some point we were non-sentient beings with some sort of individualism. I believe we are co-eternal with God, and have existed as long as He has existed- eternally.

So that people who live to obsessively find fault with the Restored Church will never run out of fun things about which to nit-pic. It's a public service.