I know I'm a couple days late, but I had to go back and find out who said what so that I could say it accurately. Once the official word comes out in the conference report it will be more concrete, but I thought you'd enjoy my take.

Dieter Uchtdorf made some very astute statements about not judging others because they are different. He quoted a bumper sticker that read "don't judge me because I sin differently than you!"

Russel Nelson then went on to make fun of the Big Bang Theory, using the intellectually painful analogy "could an explosion in a printing press create a dictionary?"

Todd Christofferson, perhaps not aware that he was going to be preceded by anti-science talk, gave a lengthy talk about how not everything spoken by church leaders is revelation. He quoted Joseph Smith who said that a prophet is only prophet when he speaks for God, and that he could say many things that are not actually true when he's not. He used the example of Brigham Young preaching to the saints that they needed to avenge themselves with violence or some such, then later that day getting up and saying "this morning you heard what Brigham Young had to say... now you will hear what the Lord has to say."

President Monson then taught us how most things we worry about in life are of little importance compared to the big questions we ask, "Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?" He said that the answers can't be found on the internet or using a Google search, but only from he who has all knowledge. He told us we have the power to think and reason, and that we should use these tools to steer our lives, ie. answer those questions (which are the most important part of life).

M. Russell Ballard showed us the correlation between education and likelihood to have children in wedlock, and assumed everyone accepted that this meant that people who have higher education live higher morals. He then said something to the effect of "it has been asked whether the morals are the result of the education or the the education is the result of the morals. As members of this church we know it is the latter." He also talked about the GPS in his phone and what a mysterious, amazing and useful thing it was.

Larry Wilson gave a very interesting talk about teaching children to govern themselves. He used the example of a girl that asked her parents if she should play in her team's softball game on Sunday. Her parents taught her that it was bad, but told her that it was up to her. To their dismay she chose to play the game. However, being the good and wise parents they were, and staying true to their word, they let her do it. After the game she came to them and said "that felt awful! I'll never play a game on Sunday again," and she never did.

I really couldn't take much more after all that, so I zoned out for the rest. I didn't catch any of Saturday. I'm sorry if I missed some other really juicy stuff, but that's my report.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2012 02:56PM by kimball.

"He said that the answers can't be found on the internet or using a Google search"

So why is the church spending so much money on it's own website and google Adwords? Ah, of course, it's only the non-church authorised Internet that's the problem.

"He said that the answers can't be found on the internet or using a Google search"

Oh yes they can. Google is another word for armageddon -- these are the end times (but only for the cojcolds).

Apparently he's never Googled Book of Abraham.

"Larry Wilson gave a very interesting talk about teaching children to govern themselves. He used the example of a girl that asked her parents if she should play in her team's softball game on Sunday. Her parents taught her that it was bad, but told her that it was up to her. To their dismay she chose to play the game. However, being the good and wise parents they were, and staying true to their word, they let her do it. After the game she came to them and said "that felt awful! I'll never play a game on Sunday again," and she never did."

That may be the dumbest example that has been made up in the history of all examples ever used. Seriously.

A girl goes out and plays softball on a Sunday and because it's Sunday, she had a bad time? Are you joking? Maybe she had a bad game, maybe she threw her back out, maybe she dropped the world series winning out - who knows? But I guarantee it never had anything to do with the day of the week that the game was played. (even if the example was made up)

It could have been because it was Sunday, but it would not be because of it being Sunday per say, but because of all the 'brain conditionning' about not doing that kind of things on Sundays (aka guilt). And of course that would have had an impact on how she played or how she felt while playing.

So either way, it is indeed a stupid example (real or not).

If this did indeed happen, perhaps the guilt was induced by parents who kept frowning and looking at her disapprovingly and worriedly, talking about how bad choices risk your salvation.

I get so sick and annoyed at these stupid "don't do this or that on Sunday" stories!
Not to mention how many times someone in TSCC tells (makes up) a story about how something bad happened on Sunday and it was BECAUSE they were doing something they shouldn't have been doing on Sunday!

P.s. It's "okay" to make up these stories bcuz it's 'lying for the Lord' *gag*

I hated the "Sunday" stories too. There's the international date line, so somewhere it's either Monday or Saturday. And what about people that have to work on Sundays? If your house was on fire, would you want the fire department to say, "Sorry, can't. It's Sunday".

TSCC would argue that your house was on fire on Sunday because you must have been doing something bad inside. RIGHT? So dumb haha

mothermayeye Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I get so sick and annoyed at these stupid "don't
> do this or that on Sunday" stories!
> Not to mention how many times someone in TSCC
> tells (makes up) a story about how something bad
> happened on Sunday and it was BECAUSE they were
> doing something they shouldn't have been doing on
> Sunday!


So if I lose the game or get hurt playing on a Tuesday, it's because I shouldn't be playing on Tuesdays! Damnable Tuesdays.

"He used the example of Brigham Young preaching to the saints that they needed to avenge themselves with violence or some such, then later that day getting up and saying "this morning you heard what Brigham Young had to say... now you will hear what the Lord has to say."

Fine then Todd. We'll ignore what Breedom Young said prior to his being a profit of the Lawd. However, that does not excuse what he said when he actually was a prophet, seer, and revelator. Thanks to the JOD, we know exactly what that idiot said, and it's some pretty scary stuff, Todd. Yes, Breedom, was speaking as a prophet in the JOD, including blood atonement, racism, men on the moon, Adam-God, etc etc. So what of all that, Tod?

Wait, so was Brigham Young only speaking as a man when he said that every word out of his mouth was from God?

Does the audience ever do the wave during commercial breaks, and were there any vendors selling snacks?

I was as amazed at Ballard when he held up a dumb cellphone as an example of GPS.

Only smartphones have mapping for users, right?

Do these guys have speechwriters to keep them all correlated?


Anagrammy

Actually, the characterization of GPS as mysterious is quite amusing.

It is quite understandable; it seems some speech writer didn't bother researching rocketry, telecommunication, electronics, computation / mathematics, and all the other technologies that went into the Global Positioning System and the devices that make use of it.

Hmmm...wasn't there an edict a few years ago that visual aids were not be used in Sacrament talks?

Yes! And the GA's use them all the time in gen conf.

"He told us we have the power to think and reason, and that we should use these tools to steer our lives."

Unless those tools steer you out of the church, of course. Then it's time to shut down the brain and just obey.

+100

My observation on General Conference is that, once again, it has not made one iota of difference.

Yes, same old preaching to the choir, who hopefully will google things anyway.