So says Lawrence M. Krauss, not to mention many others, of course. But the problem Krauss as well as many other atheists face (feel free to chime in here Dallin) is that their belief in a “no-God doctrine” is based on a faulty understanding of God. That is, their logical train of thought says “The Catholic [insert any other religion here] idea of God doesn’t jive with known science, therefore there is no God.” But what if the Catholic[again, insert any other religion here--I'm not trying to pick on Catholics] idea of God is incorrect?
Krauss claims that “Science is…
The best article from an LDS author on the topic of gay marriage is Homosexual “Marriage” and Civilization by science fiction writer Orson Scott Card. But it’s pretty long and you might have a short attention span so I’ll try to summarize some points from the article along with my own thoughts.
So, do Mormons hate gay people? No. If Mormons don’t hate gay people, why are they against gay marriage? Why are they forcing their religion on other people and taking away their rights? Why would they want to rob committed couples of the opportunity to legalize…
Wow, this Prop 8 thing in California has been quite the hot topic lately, and initially I was surprised at how much attention the LDS Church was getting, given that there were plenty of other faiths involved. But upon further reflection it’s not too surprising. The LDS Church is highly centralized compared to most other religions. Those who know virtually nothing about the LDS Church at least know that the headquarters of the church is in Utah, or that Mormons are generally associated with Utah. Mormon temples and churches are also highly recognizable and generally highly visible. The Los Angeles…
Speaking of evolution, I’ve got a question for those of you who believe that humans descended from apes or cavemen or whoever, in the same evolutionary process by which all other species appear to have originated. This isn’t a contentious, argument-starting, type of question. I really am curious to know if somebody has an explanation for this.
The thing about evolution is that it generally happens over millions of years, right? So theoretically, human beings, or the species that led to them, over millions of years would have gotten a little more intelligent here, a little more sophisticated…
First off, it’s helpful to define what is meant by the term “evolution”. If, by “evolution”, we’re talking about the process of natural selection by which species change due to certain members having advantageous traits, then yes, I think it’s safe to say most, if not all, Mormons believe in evolution. However, if evolution means do we believe that human beings descended from apes then no, Mormons generally don’t believe in that kind of evolution (although I know there are some out there who do).
There’s also the question of whether those Mormons who believe in natural selection believe that…
I just posted this last week, but in researching the LDS Church’s stance on abortion hadn’t found anything definitive about whether Mormons believe life begins at conception or at some other time. Coincidentally enough, the new edition of the LDS Church magazine, the Ensign, just arrived and what do you know, there’s a big article on abortion in it by Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
While Elder Nelson doesn’t make what I would call an “official church declaration” about when life begins, he comes about as close to it as…
This comment, from another post, is typical of what I have heard from other people:
In 1839, Joseph Smith was asked to describe the difference between his religion and the other religions of his day. Smith replied that the primary difference was primarily in mode of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands (HC 4:42). However, Smith neglected to mention that he believed that his visions were contrary to classical Christianity. He needed to tell them that, “God the Father and His son Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith in the…
Mormons use the word “testimony” so much that many Mormons don’t realize that nobody else knows quite what they’re talking about. Mormons will say things like “I have a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet” or “I have a testimony that this church is true.” But what do they mean? What are they saying? And what is this “testimony meeting” they have on the first Sunday of each month?
When Mormons say they have a testimony of something they are not saying they know 100% that what they are saying is true. On the other hand, they’re also not…
Mormons DO NOT dig up the bodies of dead people and baptize them. Perfectly live and healthy members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are baptized in LDS temples on behalf of people who have already died. Detailed records of baptisms are kept. It’s a very orderly and organized process that sounds strange at first but is much less sensational than it would appear. If you were to see it happening and understand everything about it you’d be likely to say “Oh, is that all it is?”
The practice is based on LDS doctrine that baptism is…
So if the church of the devil isn’t any specific denomination, is the church of the Lamb of God a specific denomination or not? I don’t know. Maybe somebody else has a reference, but I can’t find anything that states one way or another. But I would speculate that the church of the Lamb of God, at least the one referred to in 1 Nephi 14:10 is not the Mormon church, nor that it refers to any specific denomination, because Mormons certainly do not believe and are not taught that anyone who is not a member…
In the Book of Mormon it says “Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.”
Geez, Mormons are pretty harsh on other churches, eh? Well, there are multiple ways to interpret this. One is to say that the LDS Church is the church of the Lamb of God…
A former President and Prophet of the LDS Church, Joseph Fielding Smith, taught “The time of quickening is when the mother feels the life of her unborn infant.” In other words, the LDS Church has no official statement on when life begins, although obviously it is sometime between conception (including the moment of) and birth. If, as Mormons, we are to say “We don’t know when life begins” then we surely take the route of erring on the safe side and assuming that it might begin at conception. It is my belief that life does begin at conception and according…
Yes, in a sense. Mormons believe that we all lived with God before we were born on this earth. We believe that we were all “spirit children” of God (don’t ask me how God “begat” our spirits, I have no idea), and that among that population of spirit children was Satan, then known as Lucifer, and Jesus Christ, God’s firstborn spirit child. We believe that God presented a plan for how we could become like him. It involved all of us being born into this life, experiencing mortality and everything that goes along with it, and then returning to live…
Nope. Mormonism is not part of either Protestantism or Catholicism. We actually see Mormonism as being identical to the original church Christ established while on earth, with prophets and apostles, revelation, priesthood authority, temples, etc. We believe that after Christ, all the apostles were killed off, the priesthood authority was lost, and the church ceased to exist. Many gospel truths were preserved, and people tried to live the gospel, but they lacked authority to administer baptism or other ordinances, and they didn’t have direct communication with God.
We believe it was necessary for there to be a “restoration” of the…
This question was put to me by a friend of mine (no, not the one with all the anti-Mormon questions). The answer is a “not really…well, sort of, I guess…well, I guess I can see why people would say that” type of answer.
The quick answer is “No, we believe we get an entire universe” but even that would be misleading because the real answer is “We don’t know.” Allow me to explain, and prepare for your eyebrows to raise a little. Here it is in a nutshell.
Mormons believe that human beings are children of God, and…
Yes. Mormons believe in what we call a “pre-mortal existence“. We believe that prior to this life, we lived as spirits with God. As spirits we didn’t have a physical body like we do here, but we had consciousness, could communicate with each other just as we do here, could make choices and learn, and perhaps in many ways life wasn’t 100% different than what life is like here. We believe our spirits leave the presence of God sometime between conception and birth (I’m not sure and I don’t know whether anybody else in the church is sure…
The following is a recent conversation between me and my friend. While it wasn’t quoted in our conversation, the question arises because of a sermon delivered by Joseph Smith and first published on 15 August 1844 called the King Follett Sermon. In it, Joseph Smith teaches that God was once a man like us, and that man can become like God. Of course this doctrine is quite controversial to those who have never thought of such a thing, but Mormons believe this is what life is all about, and that when the scriptures talk of us being “children…
