Ask A Mormon (LDS)

[Prometheus]

I start this at the behest of another member. We'll see of there is any interest. There are a lot of misconceptions about my faith.

I am not a very mainstream mormon, but what I say does not technically diverge from official church doctorine. I consider my interpretation of the faith to be the more intellectual one. Maybe flip will join in for the more mainstream viewpoint.

Any question goes. I never get offended.

[Mia]

I'm glad you started this. There are misconceptions. I dated a morman in high school and college. I read a bunch of horrifying books that scared me, but I came to learn that while those mormans do exist, they don't represent the whole religion. Just like any religion, there are the cults.

My friend had not ever even heard of the stuff I read about, and his family and his church were certainly nothing like that.

*whew!*

[Jack]

My dad's side of the family are almost entirely "jack mormons". Your views couldn't be less mainstream than theirs. :)

[Morgan_Freeman]

I have a question with 2 facets:

The first is, why is coffee evil?

The second is, how do you live without coffee?!

[YourTokah]

Mormonism is the religion with the guy that found the thing in the field, right? Could you relay that info to me again, my religion class in high school was all about Jesus and the Bible (Southern girl, go figure).

[YourTokah]

Do you think you'd be a mormon if you'd not been born into it?

I'm assuming you were. Or that your parents converted first. Either way.

[SoccerfreakAB2]

If you're going to believe in religion, it makes no sense to me whatsoever to have your own little interpretation of the religion itself. That is, making sense of portions of the religion different from the mainstream, or refusing to believe in part of the religion, or maybe adding your own extra detail that you wish could happen. In any case, the religion you're believing in already has a slim enough chance from being the true religion, and I mean slimmmm. Having your own interpretation makes the odds too high to imagine, also keeping in mind that there are probably thousands who have their own interpretation of religion.

[Mia]

Quote by: Morgan_Freeman I have a question with 2 facets: The first is, why is coffee evil? The second is, how do you live without coffee?!

Lol...it's not evil. But your body is a temple, and caffine is not good for it. But I wonder how to live without coffee and pepsi too!

[YourTokah]

Is sex good for the temple?

[Mia]

Quote by: YourTokah Mormonism is the religion with the guy that found the thing in the field, right? Could you relay that info to me again, my religion class in high school was all about Jesus and the Bible (Southern girl, go figure).

Oh, boy. That's the tough part. Joseph Smith was not the most, how shall I put it 'reliable' guy? THe way I understand it, he was a con artist. He used to lead treasure hunts, charging money, and of course there was no treasure.

Then, he 'found' these tablets......

Sorry, Prom, but that story has never been rationalized to me by any Morman.

That, and how you follow the Book of Mormon, unless Joseph Smith said differently. Unless the current prophet says differently...that's hard for me to swallow.

I also think it's interesting that the porphet of the day coincidentally said polygamy was a sin just when they were getting in trouble for it in Utah.

I don't feel God works at the whims of humans.

Quote by: Isherwood My dad's side of the family are almost entirely "jack mormons". Your views couldn't be less mainstream than theirs. :)

I forget - what is a 'jack morman'? Are they the type that built the compound in Texas recently?

[SoccerfreakAB2]

Evidence of God

Tokah, go here! Me flip and prometheus went on and on and on and on...all about mormonism. I think the conclusion we came to was the expected one: Mormonism, being a religion, has a small chance of being completely true, and even smaller since it breaks off from Christianity, but there is a possibility of it being true (small as it seems).

[Mia]

Quote by: YourTokah Is sex good for the temple?

When you're married, enough to have lots and lots of babies!!

[Jack]

I forget - what is a 'jack morman'? Are they the type that built the compound in Texas recently?

No. Even that would require more devotion than they have. Jack mormons are the LDS version of Sunday christians. They want to appear to belong, but they don't bother to follow most of the rules. In many ways, they're about as mormon as I am.

[Prometheus]

Quote by: Morgan_Freeman I have a question with 2 facets: The first is, why is coffee evil? The second is, how do you live without coffee?!

This is an interesting issue. I don't like the way that "the body is a temple" scripture in the bible is twisted. It is normally taken out of context.

Our dietary law was given to JS as a "word of wisdom" to the saints. It came with promises of health and long life, as well as promises of knowledge and learing. At first, the dietary stuff was a reccomendation that you could follow to gain said blessings. Now adays this is common knowledge - if you don't smoke or drink etc. you will live longer and have a clearer mind. It wasn't till much later that the "word of wisdom" was institutionalized as a commandment.

As far as coffie goes - it basically comes down to the drug in it. Caffiene is an addictive substance that is not good for your body. At the time the WOW was given, the only caffene was from tea and coffie or "hot drinks". Because of this the dietary restriction only applies to toe and coffie, but many mormons don't drink caffenated soda either. They try to live the "spirit of the law" as oppossed to the letter. This is probably the more accurate interpritation in my mind.

[Prometheus]

Quote by: YourTokah Mormonism is the religion with the guy that found the thing in the field, right? Could you relay that info to me again, my religion class in high school was all about Jesus and the Bible (Southern girl, go figure).

Well he didn't just stumble upon it. He was directed to the location by an angle.

[Prometheus]

Quote by: YourTokah Do you think you'd be a mormon if you'd not been born into it?

Honestly, no. I am a pretty proud person. I think I know a lot and have a lot of answers. My life is pretty comfortable and nice right now. I would probably feel no need to change my life to some crazy sounding religion. It takes a humble heart to accept the higher power of god.

My lineage is a bias, I admit. Maybe it has clouded my judgement. In my defence though, I went through a rebellious period (included some time behind bars) when I thought the church was rediculous. I thought that I had made up my religious experiances to make my parents happy. I worked through my problems and was "re-converted", so it's not that I have never critically examined the church. There is still a lot about the church that I think is rediculous. But I believe the core is true, so I stick with it.

[Flip Jackson]

Wow, I will really attempt to try to explain what we believe and how we live, but there is a lot being thrown out there right now. If you ask one question at a time per person It be easier for Prometheus and me.

First, coffe isn't evil, it just isn't good for us. Prometheus addressed that one enough. We live without it because we realize we don't need it. If you go to bed at a decent time it is easy to get up. If you have orange juice, the sugars in the fruit are supposed to perk you up pretty quickly, then if you ate cereal, it should sustain you when the orange juice runs out. Or at least I think that is what one of my high school science teachers said.....

Second, we think there is nothing wrong with sex in the confines of marraige. It is a way to bring kids into thw world and show love for your spouse.

[Prometheus]

Quote by: YourTokah Is sex good for the temple?

Sex is definitely a good thing. I don't believe that promescuity is however. Currently we are instructed to only have sex in wedlock, but the purpose of wedlock and monogamy is to keep a stable family and sociotal dynamic. There have times when god was not so strict about marriage so much as the commitment to form a stable family.

But the moron view is opposed to the catholics. The catholics see sex as a nescessary evil. Mormons se sex as a profoundly spiritual (and sometimes spiritual) thing that is to be celebrated in the right context. Mormons are thorughly encouraged to enjoy thier spouses. Although I think oral and anal is frowned upon. I haven't researched those topics thououghly.

The term "omnipotent" when taken to laten means the ability to have lots of babies. Mormons believe that having children is a profoundly godly charictaristic. Sex is very central to thate.

[Prometheus]

Quote by: SoccerfreakAB2 If you're going to believe in religion, it makes no sense to me whatsoever to have your own little interpretation of the religion itself. That is, making sense of portions of the religion different from the mainstream, or refusing to believe in part of the religion, or maybe adding your own extra detail that you wish could happen. In any case, the religion you're believing in already has a slim enough chance from being the true religion, and I mean slimmmm. Having your own interpretation makes the odds too high to imagine, also keeping in mind that there are probably thousands who have their own interpretation of religion.

I understand your point fully. You are saying that there are 2 degrees of arbitraryness. I will only adress the second one becuse the general arbitraryness of religion is an ongoing and not unique debate.

If you give a complecated science lecture to a bunch of 8 year olds, they will not all get the whole story. Each kid will have bits and peices. They will interprit those bits of truth differently.

I believe that the LDS church has the most truth, and has gotton it from the most direct source. What people do with truth is up to them. The LDS socio-economic church has been formed around truth. I try to go after the pure truth (such as we have it) discarding the rest. It is not arbitrary, just flawed humans trying to make sence out of truth.

[Flip Jackson]

Next, the Joseph Smith story.

When Joseph was about fourteen, he was having a hard time decidng on a religion. None seemed to really follow the Bible and all interpreted the passages differently. One day Joseph read a passage that if he asked God in faith, nothing wavering, the truth would be given to him. (That is the idea at least.) He went to a grove to pray. When he did so, a power tried to keep him from doing so. As he prayed, a pillar of light shined above him, and two "personages" appeared. One introduced the other as His Son. Joseph asked which church was true. and he was told none were. I may be mistaken, but I believe at this point Joseph was also told that he would be the means of restoring the true church of Christ.

Later, an angel named Moroni appeared to Joseph and told him of the gold plates. My history is rusty, so to make the story short, after a few years Joseph received the plates and was given the ability to translate them. The plates were a record of an ancient people on the America's who were the ancestors of some of today's Native Americans, maybe all, I don't know. This record is now known as the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon led to the title from other people who call us Mormons. The proper name of the church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often shortened to LDS. Prometheus said this already, but it was in another thread.