Russel M Nelson popped out this turd of "Mormon folk wisdom" today. I thought he was smart. He claimed that the Big Bang could not have produced our world. "it would be like an explosion in a print shop producing a dictionary."

D'oh!

When will scientifically minded Mormons wake up?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2012 01:00PM by captainmoroni.

*facepalm*

My response would be that whatever came out of the bang, if it worked out differently, would say the same thing.

Think of how bizarre existence is. We just don't have anything to compare it to!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2012 01:03PM by Lost Mystic.

I woul think that at least some of those hardly burdened with scientific facts may be relieved...

It is definitely what got JS arrested and killed...

Burning the printing company that was about to expose him.

Give. Me. A. Break!!! Lol. Not even a good analogy. But im sure to all the TBMs tuned in, it eased their closed minds. *rolling my eyes*

...that people like this have an audience.

There is so much more wonder out there for those who choose to look for it. What about the events that followed the Big Bang? What about hydrogen slowly being pulled together over millions of years to create stars? What about the fusion process that creates helium for fuel in those stars? What about the the eventual collapse of those stars which creates the heavier elements and the inevitable explosion that throws those ingredients across the universe?

To lead your audience away from truth through intent or through ignorance is irresponsible at best.

Humanity should be past this....

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_analogy

Good grief. This stuff just writes itself.

At least I don't have to imagine the nonsense I'm gonna listen too for the next week.

So, what's the problem here? The Earth is 10,000 years old. Tops. Dinosaur fossils and scienc 'were placed on Earth by Satan to fool us. True story.

the dirt in the garden is probably less than 10Kyo, the Earth, if that is the one we're living on, has a scientific age, miraculous maybe, but not particularly biblical.

Im confused. TBMs believe that God was just... where before he created all this? was he just exsisting? And then one "day" decided he would create things? Do they believe he was/is on a planet? Created by who? Did he create the place he is now? If he did, where was he before that?

Now that I think about it.... what was God doing before he created anything? Before he created us to constantly watch over? Was he just chilling? Wtf? Haha. Where do they believe he came from.... a big bang and POOF... there was God? Lmao!

Anyone know what they believe about that?

They believe that the universe has always existed. That God was once a man like us who lived a mortal life and managed to rise to the position of deity. His Heavenly Father created his spirit and the planet he lived on. As the Hie to Kolob song says there was never a time without Gods or matter.

"If you could hie to Kolob In the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward With that same speed to fly,
Do you think that you could ever, Through all eternity,
Find out the generation Where Gods began to be?

Or see the grand beginning, Where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation, Where Gods and matter end?
Me thinks the Spirit whispers, “No man has found ‘pure space,’
Nor seen the outside curtains, Where nothing has a place.”

Why do the religious have to go after the Big Bang? Why couldn't it be the method used to disperse matter throughout the universe? Why not accept that the laws of physics are the methods used by God to "Go Down" and organize matter?

I wonder if Mr. Nelson, the heart surgeon, would similarly dismiss modern medicine in favor of faith healers? Why do we never hear talks about how silly it is to believe in medications, immunizations and surgery when the bible clearly says that all sicknesses are caused by demons or as a punishment from God. Why isn't LDS or Primary Children's Hospital only staffed with priesthood holders who give blessings all day?

Christ never performed heart surgery. He never handed out pills to cure the sick. He could cure someone simply with a touch of his clothes! How weak the faith must be of these prophets and seers who rely on modern medicine rather than using their priesthood power to cure their ailments!

+1 helamon. If there is a God. Don't know why this is so inconceivable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2012 02:59PM by sdee.

Um... that's silly. It doesn't really make sense to me. So he was like a homosapien in some other "place" and his God (who came from where? His God?)I there has to be a beginning... they make less and less sense by the minute

That is the problem with creationism. They claim that something so complex as life must have had a creator, but the creator, the most complex thing imaginable, was not created. The Mormon view at least has an eternal chain of progression, but yeah, there would still need to be some beginning you would think.

He is correct...because what existed at the moment of the Big Bang is exactly like exists in a print shop with pre-formed metal characters, paper, ink, etc.

But simple explanations for complex problems is what yields us a Urim and Thummim for translating from a non-existent language.

The latter makes perfect sense to idiots.

He might as well have announced he has no understanding of physics whatsoever.

It is wildly irresponsible for these "leaders" to stand up in front of the impressionable and gullible people and spout off statements like that. They clearly have no qualifications to be speaking about things like this. They display profound ignorance when they make statements like this that have mountains of physics and facts to disprove them.

This is one of the things that bothers me most about “authority” based organizations where the leaders can say anything whatsoever and there is no accountability.

Because of the intent to protect religious mythology from scrutiny, they damage minds and prevent an understanding of science to develop. Shame on them. Sadly, most of the time it isn’t done out of maliciousness but rather pure ignorance.

I’m with omen above. It’s sad these people get an audience. Stupid humans for believing without questioning.

I love your critique.

I really thought that we were making progress as far as excepting evolution and the Big Bang. I feel like we just lost 100 years of scientific advancement.

This subject is the main cause that woke me up from the cult. I don't care if you agree with the big bang or not...but one needs to deal with the evidence that brought our scientists to develop the big bang theory.

I wonder how R.M. Nelson explains away the red-shift of distant galaxies? It appears that he simply ignores the evidence. I wonder why he doesn't use his divine revelation and explain why distant galaxies are racing away from each other.

Why doesn't he just come out and say "bury your head in the sand and the gospel will make more sense"?

Idiotic man that "educated" Mr. Nelson.

Now it's all over FB from my TBM family and friends as a great quote.....I don't want to start a FB war and I am not conversant enough in the sciences...but, I wish I could shoot this down.

Just tell them you don't look to Nelson for physics lessons, just like you wouldn't want Stephen Hawking operating on your body.

To find out more about more about the evidence behind the big bang theory, read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. Dr. Hawking does a great job of explaining cosmology to common people like us. This is a wonderful book, and you will quickly be up to speed on understanding the evidence that supports this theory.

Most mormons do not know about the evidence behind the big bang. Now that I have learned more about the reasons why scientists support the big bang I came to the conclusion that the evidence is overwhelming and difficult to explain away. This book cracked me from the cult.


Don't argue from ignorance, read up and enjoy.

I almost cringed when I heard this. I told my family that it was an expansion and NOT an 'explosion.' According to my brother, it's the same thing. He then proceeded to call me retarded. *Face Palm*

Brother Romney needs every help he can get. I imagine the American press will pay more attention to this conference than normal, so why not sound a bit evangelical and creationist?

Guess which parts of conference will be excerpted in bite-size servings by the LDS newsroom in the following days?

I almost spewed my breakfast all over my computer screen when he said that lame line.

As long as you have 'religion' defining what Truth is, you'll always have idiotic/stupid/insane comments like this.

How would he know? Did he have a revelation?

If you agree with him it was divine inspiration, otherwise it was his opinion as a man.

Well see, here is my repsonse Mr. Nelson.

In the same way the LDS church has evolved from the imperfect organization it was in its early days to that of a better filtered and suppressed version of truth that cons and manipulates ppl into giving their lives and money to the morg.

The same way a print shop can explode into chaos, and over great time, through the process of evolution, human beings would evolve from microscopic life forms and develop language and communication that would in turn lead to the creation of a written language to a pen or pencil and into a dictionary.

How could he make such an idiotic statement?

How could a smart person not see this as nonsense?

How could anyone who knows a thing about church history not immediately be reminded that the founder of the faith destroyed a printing press?

This statement has to be him telling all the followers, "you have to choose whether you're going to be smart or stupid. If you keep listening to us, you choose stupid."

wow, trusting in the totally unscientific flesh gives freedom to move the faithful and bridge the gap between art and reality, is this world a fantasy, or is it a product of pure imagination, or is religion true. when science is rejected, there are so many possibilities...

What I posted to FB:

If you want to understand a physics theory, ask a physicist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wIKaLkvc4

What I wanted to post to FB:
If you wanted to understand a physics theory, you would not go to a physician turned faith healer, you would go to a physicist.
[link]

...with evolution theory. It's the complexity of life that can be compared to a dictionary, the complexity of let's say the sun or the solar system doesn't even compare. Besides that, given the hugeness of the universe very improbable things are bound to happen.