I've had religious discussions with Catholic priests that touched on secular sources and Church Fathers and pulled resources from 2000 years of history. Neither of us changed each other's mind but we both enjoyed the debate, and my brain felt wonderfully exercised. Religious discussions with Mormons willing to have them hinge on "I know it's true" and "they don't have to acce
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It's held as a miracle from the Provo Tabernacle fire that the picture of Jesus on the wall was not touched by any flames or smoke.
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The *first* resurrection? How many are there going to be?
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My profile is either Madame Blavatsky of Theosophist fame or Maureen O'Hara in Sinbad. They can have it.
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A family I'm aware of has several children with Down Syndrome. They said they were compelled to keep having children so that the warrior spirits in heaven could have physical bodies. They wept at the idea that they may not be able to have enough children who had been warrior spirits. Truth.
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So telling your sister that you've forwarded the email to the FBI telling them she knew of an act of terrorism that apparently hasn't been investigated, and you're sure she would be delighted to provide them will all the information they need, would not be well-received?
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While there are scumbags out there exploiting the actors, there are also a lot of more aboveboard producers. Apparently a lot of women produce porn these days. And no one has ever adequately addressed what's wrong with man-on-man porn. I know a man can be as exploited as a woman, and through the same means, but it's an argument I throw out to people whose main argument against porn is the ex
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I wonder if Kolob got de-emphasized because the original Battlestar Galactica used it as the planet where the human civilization had come from.
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re: praying at the theater Nearly 30 years ago, at the old Fox Theater--glorious movie place in Provo--it was standard for the management to ask for a volunteer to lead a prayer before each showing. My not-yet-Hubby was there with a date, and she volunteered to lead the prayer. She got up front, pointed and said "Mecca is that way," then bowed and began the proper Islamic prayer.
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Huh, a friend in Australia sent me a bottle of wine a couple of years ago. It took six months to get to me, and I figured the crew of the freight ship had enjoyed it. Maybe the postal people in Utah were staring at it, listening to the slosh, and trying to justify opening the package.
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And the lesson being--Don't pay tithing on your illgotten gains. I heard that story when I moved to Provo in '83.
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The pregnant Mormon women I see don't seem smugger, they seem empty. No one at home in their eyes. Of course, most of them are pregnant, pushing a stroller, with toddlers hanging on. I love my friends on other boards, who celebrate their pregnancies as special occasions, not a duty.
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I have a religion because the universe spoke to me, and I spoke back. If someone has to create a religion for people to believe in instead of people finding their own way to relate to the cosmos, I'm sorry. Me and my diety, we're cool, and I feel no need to share it with anybody.
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I keep hearing rumors that they've cleaned the more outrageous items out of the IGI or whatever it's called now. Because I've got a printout that shows the dates of the ordination work down for the god Thor and his parents, Oden and Frigga. This was part of the traditional family history for the Danish noble family I found. I like to pull it out and show people who claim the genealogy records
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I'm in Provo, so I hop the train and go to the main library. I may not have gotten as far with my research without access to that library. I think the appeal of the stake centers etc. was in Internet access to the LDS databases, plus access to the microfilms, but I bet that has died down now that the church has better websites. When I finally pull together everything and publish, I will have
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My Mormon roommate was shocked when I started doing genealogy. I said, "Hey, heathens have ancestors, too." However, I quickly ran into the problem of unsubstantiated connections as well. I was quite sad to have to prune the entire noble Danish branch when I double checked the connection and discovered the key link died childless and it was the sibling who married the Danish nobleman
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I've often thought that the early church made suicide a sin because they knew the poor and downtrodden would be thinking, "Why should I put up with this? I could be in heaven." Can't have a labor pool if all the laborers are saying, "*bleep* this, I'm going home."
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A friend in Australia sent me a bottle of wine a couple of years ago. The box was just labelled Gift. Though it did take 6 months to get to me. We always assumed that someone on the freighter had enjoyed the bottle, but it eventually got to me.
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Miss Manners is weeping gently into her linen handkerchief because she's not dead yet. :)
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There are places in Utah County where you can get them. I doubt it was Provo itself, though.
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Occult items--no tarot decks are allowed to be sold in Provo--and "objectionable" items. The powers that be will let you know when they object.
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Orem has more mainstream stores than Provo, because Provo has controls on the kind of merchandise that can be sold in the city limits. That's why the Barnes & Noble and Target and such are in Orem. (Hubby was a store manager in Provo, he had to deal with the City Council watchdogs coming in to judge the inventory on a regular basis.)
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I remember how shocked a Mormon neighbor was when I said I did genealogy. "Heathens have ancestors, too," I told her. I've got lots of Colonial ancestors, so it's a great deal of fun to research.
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Adult people with the ability to make sensible decisions can do whatever they like that doesn't harm anyone else.
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According to the beliefs of the Preterists, the apocalypse was in AD 70, when the Romans burnt the Temple in Jerusalem. Everything since then is just trying to do as well as we can in the aftermath.
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Just last year a neighbor was proud to say he wasn't a Christian.
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I had an argument with a TBM many years ago about the hierarchies of heaven. He said "But there are hierarchies on Earth, not everyone attains the same level." I said, "But Heaven isn't Earth. All injustices are made right, and Jesus only said that in my father's house are many mansions, he didn't say anything about which ones were the good ones." He only blinked at me and
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We've received anonymous plates of cookies and bottles of jam. Needless to say, we do not eat food that we do not know the provenance of.
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Building a bomb requires knowledge--easily found, granted--then the initiative to track down all the parts, then the patience to assemble it all, then the skill not to blow yourself up while doing it. A disturbed mind might not have the follow-through to go through all those steps. But if the idea pops into your head and, voila, many powerful guns are within a few steps of where you are . .
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Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. Get thee behind me! Of course (looking at butt) they're already there.
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