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The Origin Of (Our) Species


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I've never claimed it was genetic, as I have no idea as to the genetics of any omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, immortal, indestructible, being.

At what point does man call man a man, and at what point does God call a man a man?

The more I discuss LDS theology, the harder it is to buy in to the concept that Mormonism view of diety is that He is omnipotent or indestructible. There are several exceptions to his all-powerfulness... things that God "can't" do without ceasing to be God. That belief surely seems to nullify his omniscience and indestructibility.

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The more I discuss LDS theology, the harder it is to buy in to the concept that Mormonism view of diety is that He is omnipotent or indestructible. There are several exceptions to his all-powerfulness... things that God "can't" do without ceasing to be God. That belief surely seems to nullify his omniscience and indestructibility.

 

Omnipotent does not mean indestructible.  It means that he can do anything that can be done, including breaking laws that would would nullify his Godhood.  Everything has consequences so he chooses not to do everything but it's not because he "can't" do everything. 

Edited by pogi
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The church official teachings-1. Adam was the first man on the earth. There could have been no pre-adamites as they would have been classified as "man"(see 1909 Origin of man and reprinted in 2002 Ensign by the first presidency as official doctrine)2. There was no death on the earth before the fall of Adam and Eve. (see Gospel Principles)3. The temporal age of the earth is 7,000 years. This is the age of the earth since the fall till the end of the millennium. Because there was no death on the earth before the fall then none ofour earths life is older than the 6,000 years approximately.Those three points represent the official doctrine of the church.

Well then there is a major problem for the LDS church .

1: Adam and Eve as the original humans whonoriginated all humans some 6000 years ago with no others before them is demonstrably false

2: death on planet earth clearly has been going on for billions of years.

3: the earth is at least about 4 billion years old. Science has proven this beyond dispute. Life and death on this globe has been going on for a very long time. Homosapiens very much like us have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. Civilizations started springing up about 11,000 years ago.

Edited by Teancum
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Well then there is a major problem for the LDS church .

1: Adam and Eve as the original humans whonoriginated all humans some 6000 years ago with no others before them is demonstrably false

2: death on planet earth clearly has been going on for billions of years.

3: the earth is at least about 4 billion years old. Science has proven this beyond dispute. Life and death on this globe has been going on for a very long time. Homosapiens very much like us have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. Civilizations started springing up about 11,000 years ago.

Your points are all conjecture unprovable by science.

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Omnipotent does not mean indestructible. It means that he can do anything that can be done, including breaking laws that would would nullify his Godhood. Everything has consequences so he chooses not to do everything but it's not because he "can't" do everything.

And that explanation proves my point: God is not "all powerful" if God cannot do everything and/or anything without subsequently losing His alleged all-powerfulness.

I mean... I'm familiar with the BoM passages about this subject, but they are rather vague on the specifics. What type of act is there that God could commit that would possibly justify his losing his power?

The scripture says He cannot let Mercy rob Justice, or vice versa... but given that the Atonement is "infinite and eternal," Jesus's sacrifice ALREADY covers the human collateral damage on this world that results from ANYTHING heinous God could possibly do... Absolutely the worst crimes I could possibly imagine would be gratification of rampant lust (offering alleged men called as His prophets numerous women to marry and 'know,' numbering anywhere from handfuls to hundreds), OR the slaughter of entire populations of men, women, children, and cattle, OR even almost complete genocide of virtually the entire planet (save eight souls out of millions or billions), and still come out looking justifiable on the other side of it (they "were too wicked" and "deserved God's wrath," etc).

Nope... none of those count. God really can't do anything wrong, even when it violates the most sacred laws He's given us (at the minimun worst: to avoid killing or murdering others; at maximum best: to cleave unto one's spouse and forsake all others, to do unto others as we would have be done unto us, and to love one another as we love ourselves).

Unless, of course, you don't count slaughtering babies, children, women, and animals as killing, or somehow spin such acts of genocide into a compassionate act of 'love' or a warrented act of punishment (despite any age of accountability).

God's position is depicted as a no-lose scenario, since the scriptures rationalize horrific actions that He's ordered, because Mormons believe that "whatever God requires is right." When we try to visualize something so terrible that it could warrent God violating some ultimate law so bad it would merit Him losing all His power, it seems He's pretty much already done about the worst I can think of, yet we dismiss it because The Atonement ALREADY covers the enormous loss of life from extensive acts of genocide or the virtues of some men having numerous sexual partnersin simultaneous relationships. God literally gets away with murder.

So really... what could God not do that would be so horrible?

I know one answer that has been given in another thread, where it's alleged that God couldn't procreate in a certain way... that a male and a female would be absolutely required in the act of procreation of the human race (which, of course, is the topic of this thread).

So, apparently, if God cannot create children on His own, either he is a) not all-powerful, or b) we have to redefine the term "God" to include more than one entity--one that would include at least two people... There is some precident for that--after all, "God" can sometimes be used to refer to at least three entities (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost).

Problematically, the Godhead excludes a female corporeal figure... so if the term "God" includes at least one or more divine females, then "God" isn't a person at all... He/It is a cluster of people, some male, some female... some of whom are married to one another and who's couplings are procreative, and some who aren't married to one another and therefore aren't procreative... and then we're left with a very diluted version of what/whom the personage of "God" is, and who's "all-powerfulness" depends on the inclusion of at least four individuals (Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Mother)--none of which would be all-powerful on his/her own.

Dunno if ANYONE could follow this rambling... lol. It's 3:20 a.m. and I can't sleep, so maybe I'll wake up and laugh at how incoherent I was typing on MD &D... maybe it will put you all to sleep as I'm hoping it does me! ;)

Edited by Daniel2
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Also: I find it so usual that some people are repulsed by the idea that God could have created the corporeal bodies of people through the process of evolving in and through the rich tapestry of all of God's living creation.

Why do we view then flora and fauna of our shared home as something "beneath" or "lower" than us? While we have typically interpreted Biblical passages to suggest that animals and plants are "lesser" forms of life in terms of intelligence or subservience, aren't they created from the same lifesource--the spark if creation, the power of the divinity--that binds and sustain all things? Is the "light/power of God" (whatever that animating force is) that imbues animals and plants any "less light" than that which animates our own crude bodies?

I wonder if God chuckles that humanity has misinterpreted the concept that "Man has dominion" to somehow mean we are so much different or better than the rest of his creation.

Instead of debasing the human race, what if acknowledging our mutual divine source with the rest of the universe elevates all of and everything into one cosmic and divine creation, of which we are God's crowning and most personal achievement?

Couldn't it be that we should celebrate and marvel at the intricate pattern and marvels of DNA, genetic "mutation" as an act of creation, a divine force that ingeniously unfolded as each new life advanced in its proper and appropriate time, as the earth and air and water and temperature and energy and light increased, and God's creation brightened, line upon line, precept on precept, here a little, there a little, a cultivating, tilling, budding, flowing, growing, birthing into existence the beauty and majesty and interconnectedness of ALL of his creation?

Now, excuse me... I have to go tend to the creative beauty of my 'evolving' town in Clash of Clans.... :D

Edited by Daniel2
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And that explanation proves my point: God is not "all powerful" if God cannot do everything and/or anything without subsequently losing His alleged all-powerfulness.

 

God cannot do the intrinsically impossible.  This does not imply any imperfection on his part, since a power that extends to every possibility must be perfect.  The intrinsically impossible is self-contradictory, and its mutually exclusive elements could only result in nothingness.

 

Let me make this clear.  To break certain laws and remain God is an intrinsic impossibility.  What you are saying is in effect the same as saying that God is not omnipotent because he cannot lift a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it.  The intrinsically impossible does not take away from the omnipotence of God.

 

You can judge the Almighty God for his actions that you pretend to understand from Biblical stories, but I would caution against it.  There are too many unknowns about those stories, and our perspectives are far too limited to make any sound judgment on the matter.  Trust that God's actions are ALWAYS perfectly merciful and perfectly just.  Our limited mortal perspectives might not always understand how, but his omniscience does.  You can trust, that in the eternal perspective, every living soul will get a square deal and fair shot and is perfectly loved by God.  You cannot make eternal judgements of justice and mercy from a mortal perspective.     

Edited by pogi
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Also: I find it so usual that some people are repulsed by the idea that God could have created the corporeal bodies of people through the process of evolving in and through the rich tapestry of all of God's living creation.

Why do we view then flora and fauna of our shared home as something "beneath" or "lower" than us? While we have typically interpreted Biblical passages to suggest that animals and plants are "lesser" forms of life in terms of intelligence or subservience, aren't they created from the same lifesource--the spark if creation, the power of the divinity--that binds and sustain all things? Is the "light/power of God" (whatever that animating force is) that imbues animals and plants any "less light" than that which animates our own crude bodies?

I wonder if God chuckles that humanity has misinterpreted the concept that "Man has dominion" to somehow mean we are so much different or better than the rest of his creation.

Instead of debasing the human race, what if acknowledging our mutual divine source with the rest of the universe elevates all of and everything into one cosmic and divine creation, of which we are gods crowning and most personal achievement?

Couldn't it be that we should celebrate and marvel at the intricate pattern and marvels of DNA, genetic "mutation" as an act of creation, a divine force that ingeniously unfolded as each new life advanced in its proper and appropriate time, as the earth and air and water and temperature and energy and light increased, and God's creation brightened, line upon line, precept on precept, here a little, there a little, a cultivating, tilling, budding, flowing, growing, birthing into existence the beauty and majesty and interconnectedness of ALL of his creation?

 

Now this I like

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Another nail in the coffin of Irreducible Complexity.

SEE http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/03/researchers-may-have-solved-origin-life-conundrum

 

I know it isn't proof and not even if it crawled out of the test tube and shook Creationists hands they still wouldn't accept it.

Read your link. Not very impressive. I wouldnt call it nail in any coffin- your science hasnt even begun to answer how life inteligently assembles. All of the research right now is in creating scenarios that they think happened to create the common building blocks required for life to then assemble.

Call me when you guys actually do something truly novel.

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Atheism has been creeping into the church for some time. The teaching of Darwinian evolution has been just one of those atheistic teachings creeping into the church. One thing we can rely upon is the actual prophets and apostles to set us straight and tell us the lies of evolution and even print those beliefs in church publications making it out doctrine. The problem is that LDS continue to accept mans teaching over Gods.

How is the empirical evidence of the physical world man's teaching? As Thomas Paine said

"THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD: And it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man."

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I am not sure why you keep posting videos about YEC. I am not a young earth creationist. I believe the universe is extremely old, perhaps even endlessly old.

 

This universe is not infinitely old. This universe came into being some 14 billion years ago. A long time to be sure, but not infinite. Our planet is some 4.5 billion years old.

SEE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth

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How is the empirical evidence of the physical world man's teaching? As Thomas Paine said"THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD: And it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man."

"Empirical evidence" can indeed be nothing more than a well established series of tales, fairytales and fables.

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I asked you for a useful definition. What is "consistently gets published"?

 

The "no blood before the Fall" is no longer published in new church manuals. 

"Global Flood" is not mentioned by any general authority. 

 

What is official church doctrine?

Manuals, scriptures, first presidency statements, etc. (consistently published,,,)

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Believe what you want, I already know that matter is eternal and cannot be created nor destroyed.

 

Just what I am observing with you, not to focus on you, but to point out what I see about you, and others like you.

It seems that in order to be faithful, you think that you need to be in lockstep with every teaching that every proceeded forth out of the mouth of prophets and apostles.  The problem with that is, on unsettled issues like these, they are constantly changing their positions, and the Church as a whole is never really taking a position on such things.  I recognized this a long time ago, and decided to formulate opinions of unsettled issues on my own based on my own research and the research of others, yet have those opinions be things that can be let go of in an instant when better information comes my way, or when the brethren take some very solid position on something.  Just because Joseph Fielding Smith made a statement here, or Bruce R. McConkie there, it makes those things well thought out opinions by people that we admire and revere, and that such things out to be taken very seriously and not dismissed out of hand.  In the end of the day, however, since those statements were made on unsettled topics, they do not hold the kind of authority that means that we are going to be banished from the Church or have our temple recommends taken away if we do not have those things as our beliefs.  The exception to this is where local, untrained or opinionated authorities take action against you for beliefs that go against those statements from authorities on unsettled doctrine, and that is a problem where local authorities go beyond their bounds, but is an exception.  And in cases of exceptions, you can deal with that simply by submitting to whatever their demands are to maintain your membership and not going against them while they are in office.  It is true that that could be called "unrighteous dominion" but you can never go wrong by submitting to authority until such time that the person is released from the office he was abusing.

Edited by DragonLancer
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Believe what you want, I already know that matter is eternal and cannot be created nor destroyed.

 

Matter is not eternal. Though it is very longed lived. This universe is some 14 billion years old. Before then it was just an infinitely small and infinitely hot dot of energy. Some 100,000 Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion years from now entropy will have won and this universe will dissolve to uniformly diffuse enegy.

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