Recovery Board  : RfM
Recovery from Mormonism (RfM) discussion forum. 

Results 1411 - 1440 of 1733
8 years ago
blindguy
elderolddog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Again, a presumption, but fueled by my failure to > have bloviated sufficiently. > > Note that 'wrong' was in quotes. Because I agree > that my 'wrong' may not be your 'wrong.' > > But JW (JDub) parents who believe that > transfusions are wrong can kill their kids. > That's a
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
I wonder just how many of us will be around in 2050 to see if either the first, second, or some other projection actually comes true.
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
elderorlddog: My assumption was based on the following statements from your first response: "Because people who are 'wrong' get into positions of authority and their 'wrongness' can cause injury. As is obvious here, many of us are NOT trying to win friends nor influence people. Most of us are not trying to promote personal truths, but to preserve personal freedoms. I literally do n
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
elderorlddog: The problem with your analysis is that whether something is "right" or "wrong" is purely a judgment call by the person making that call based on his/her own beliefs and/or interpretations of factual information. As Shummy and the article at the link I forwarded point out, trying to change a person's mind about something upon which he/she has a strong conviction
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
ificouldhietokolob Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > First, if you're dealing in "belief" with regard > to science, you've missed the point entirely. No, because people react to what they believe to be true, not necessarily what is actually true. > > Second, challenging the Pew projections had > nothing to do with being stubborn or
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
While I posted the below two years ago, I think it fits in perfectly with recent posts by Tal Bachman and responses, especially by Brother of Jerry, about recent predictions by Pew concerning the growth of religion in the universe. While Pew's research involves predictions and while things could change, the below article gives some pretty good reasons why Pew's research might well be on the mark.
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
http://www.contracostatimes.com/health/ci_11400038 This is a very interesting article about a problem that is not as often seen in the rest of the developed world. It also raises some very deep and troubling questions about the role of religious beliefs in U.S. society.
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
ificouldhietokolob Wrote in part: > > High birthrates aren't sustainable, and they fall > rapidly as regions stabilize politically. Saudi > Arabia, for example has a birth rate of 2.7, > Qatar, 2.0, Dubai 1.8 -- lower than the US's 1.88. Actually, it is not the stability of governments but rather access to birth control, particularly for women, that slows down fertility r
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
ificouldhietokolob Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > April last year is the "latest" data? > > "If current trends continue, by 2050..." > > That's a big IF. Especially given another quote > from the article, "The religious profile of the > world is rapidly changing..." In other words, > "project
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Don't look now, but governments, including the one in the U.S., have figured out ways to control the availability of Internet information in their own countries, especially to the less technically savvy. While the People's Republic of China is leading the way in this regard, a lot of other countries are not far behind. And you may wish to google the effects of the just-negotiated TPP agreement on
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
I also heard the NPR story this morning and told my neverMo mom and sister about it. When I explained the significance of Moroni to Mormonism, both of them broke out in laughter. Frankly, the Bundys and their ilk are really backwards people, and the Mormon church and others encourage this kind of thinking.
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Interesting that the article doesn't mention the criticism from within the Catholic church itself that Mother Teresa couldn't be a saint because she didn't dress modestly enough (this came from a person who Pope Benedict was trying to get back into the Catholic priesthood). And, to be blunt, most of the criticisms I read in this article, especially the one about her proselytizing (from a Hindu, n
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
While I can't answer your last question (I was never Mormon), I can say that the concept of terrorism as we know it today was of a more recent origin. That is not to say that what the Mormons actually did in missouri, Illinois, and later, even in Utah and Colorado, couldn't be considered terrorism by today's standards, but rather that those standards didn't exist at the time of the religion's fou
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
While the OP's story was aimed at pointing out how Mormonism shortchanges its adherents, it reminded me of one of the jokes I read in the first braille edition of Boys' Life I received many, many moons ago: A witch found that a lot of people liked her tea recipe so she opened a business and began selling her tea and making a large profit. She soon discovered, however, that she could make even
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
The Bible's providence occurs *only* because people believe it to be true. As Steve Benson and others on this Board have pointed out, the book has very little historical significance beyond its being the foundation for two major belief systems. As for the NT's fulfilling the prophecies of the OT, given how the book was written, I'd say that those prophecies were self-fulfilling. I'd argue that
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Interesting response. I do not view mythology as a separate category from fiction.
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
If you're Roman Catholic or you live mostly among Catholics, then you probably won't think that what they do is weird--it'll just be pretty normal to you. On the other hand, if you live in areas where there are not a lot of Roman Catholics (parts of the deep South of the U.S. immediately come to mind), then yes, you would probably think that Roman Catholics were weird. I think that one of the
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
That's what a supplier did for a Costco store in southern California. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/21/1257374/-Costco-labels-Bible-as-fiction-in-this-store-Pastor-goes-viral-for-wrong-reason?detail=email While the editorial at the above link is critical of the unchristian behavior of a local pastor (and I'd agree with that), my personal view is that regardless of whether or not it
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
I think that one should keep in mind the limits of the LDS case as pointed out on this very board some time ago by ex-Mormon Odell Campbell. 1) The ruling applys only inside the U.S. 2) Legally, it only really applys to the western district where the case was heard. Probably because it was easier (and cheaper) to do, the LDS church decided to expand the court-mandated process both outside o
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Many members of the disability rights movement would disagree with your statement that people with disabilities could not have a "normal" life and would be therefore worth aborting. In fact, for many disability rights activists, having an abortion because the child would be significantly disabled reminds them of the actions that Adolf Hitler took against people with disabilities prior t
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Having been a person who has been on both sides of the issue during his lifetime (I'm now pro-choice), I find myself in agreement with those posters who have stated that this argument has more to do with the role of women in society than the life of the fetus. That said, Dagny is also correct. In fact, it was when I realized that the majority of right-to-lifers supported the death penalty and
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Sekyr: I agree with the proviso that he wanted sex as well.
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
A lot of religions start out with the stated intention of serving the poor but wind up, as the Mormon church has, serving the wealthy. The reason is that religious leaders, even those with the best motives, discover they cannot do the kind of work they wish to do without money. And, to get the money, they must ask the rich for it. The wealthy agree to donate the money with one condition: church l
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
While it is true that the Roman Catholic church and a whole host of other churches disapprove of homosexuality and homosexual relationships, the LDS church is the only church as far as I know that actually forbids the children of homosexuals from being baptized. So, yes. The Mormons are going out on a limb here and have introduced a policy that other churches, including those that oppose homos
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
This one may seem strange to what the Board is about, but... "Before you abuse, criticize and accuse: Walk a mile in my shoes." --Joe South, "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," (peaked at #11 on Billboard in January of 1970)
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/24/457277916/mormon-woman-grapples-with-new-church-guidelines-on-same-sex-relationships The story ran this afternoon on NPR's All Things Considered. The quote from the Todd D. Kristoferson video is priceless! The LDS church is getting a lot of egg on its face for this one and deservedly so. I can see why church spokesmen didn't want to comment on the policy to the ne
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Regardless of the LDS church leadership's obsession with higher education, it still remains an excellent idea to get one *if* you have the desire, intelligence, and funds to do it and if you can accurately predict your prospects of landing a good job after graduation in your field of study. Regarding the post mentioning foreigners being able to perform the jobs for less money, what that sugges
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
GC: There are two big problems with your analysis: 1) As pointed out elsewhere, the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of the freedom of religion. The U.S. government (and other employers) simply cannot use a religious litmus test when it comes to hiring employees, and it really doesn't matter what religious organization one is talking about. 2) The U.S. government (and other employers) cannot
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
GC: In the U.S., you cannot ask about religion during a job interview; it is similar to asking about a disability. Now, one might assume from looking at a resume that a potential employee might be LDs if he/she graduated from either BYU or BYU-Idaho, but I understand that there are non-Mormons who attend both universities so one has to be careful about one's assumptions. With regard to organi
Forum: Recovery Board
8 years ago
blindguy
Thanks for sending this. While it makes some interesting points, it should be noted that no other mainline church, including the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches that oppose homosexual marriage, has thus far followed the LDS church in not allowing the children of homosexual couples to be baptized into their religions (in fact, Pope Francis has made it clear that the Roman Catholic church wi
Forum: Recovery Board