So you think God will do your math homework for you? I don’t think so. And I doubt He will sound off on whether to buy or lease a car. The signals aren’t for matters of preference or opinion. For instance, I can eat a piece of cake and say, “God? Is this cake good or evil?” See, it doesn’t work on that type of question.
So let me get this straight. Your god tortures you whenever you follow and evil spirit? You believe that god does this to everyone and yet there are clearly people still following evil spirits. So either god is not torturing them until they stop following the spirit or he only communicates to you this way.
By the way how often do you follow evil spirits to draw this conclusion?
Preliminary studies seem to indicate that somebody loves me, and wants me to be happy.
That book happens to be a biased anti-Mormon work (from what I’ve heard–I don’t waste my time reading dishonest, sensational polemic filth). All Mormons (actually, all mankind) are entitled to personal revelation, even us “liars” who make up stories about talking to our bishops. Personal revelation is nothing more or less than the Holy Ghost speaking in our hearts.
Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, etc. all received personal revelation. If you’re going to accuse Mormons of the same, what about the story of Abraham and Isaac? God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son (Isaac). God only revealed that this command was just a test of Abraham’s obedience after Abe proved that he was loyal.
So if you’re going to accuse the Mormons of this sort of thing, just accuse all the People of the Book of the same. That’s the kind of hypocrisy and double standard that you’ll find if you read crap like UtBoH.
I’m getting a strong phrenology vibe from this.
I almost listed Abraham among those who are willing to commit violence as of a result of “personal revelation”. The guy’s faith is so strong that he’s willing to perform a child sacrifice as a direct result of personal revelation. Believe it or not, some people today actually feel that such willingness to do harm to others is admirable. Your post above, for example, describes Abraham as obedient and loyal. Harming people as a result of personal revelation IS NOT OKAY, and your defense of Abraham makes me wonder whether you fully understand this concept.
I’m sorry if I was unclear above. I’m not accusing Mormons of being violent. And in Under The Banner of Heaven, it’s not the mainstream Mormons who are violent; it’s the people who discover that they are receiving personal revelations. I am pointing out that personal revelation often tells very sincere believers of many faiths to commit horrific acts of violence. If Krakauer is “anti-Mormon,” that doesn’t justify the actions of the Laffertys, Brian David Mitchell, John D Lee, and Abraham.
Devil’s Food Cake is inherently evil, though, whilst Angel Food is the opposite.
Sure you dint mean pie?
The more you know, the greater God’s condemnation for your sins is. Most people don’t know enough to be severely punished for sins.
My mother reports that she gets the side stitches sometimes, too, so it’s not just me.
Rarely–only when I’m deceived. The side stitches hurt too much. :eek:
Rhodes (paraphrasing): I hope your personal revelations will never tell you to harm someone. It never turns out well.
Snark Hunter (paraphrasing): Look at Abraham. His personal revelation to commit child sacrifice turned out well.
Rhodes (thinking): shit.
By definition, pie is not evil.
I agree about the first three, but Abraham must have done something right, because he’s now a god.
If God told me to kill someone, I wouldn’t do it.
That’s a relief. Thanks.
But what if you had an itchy trigger finger?
Okay, so there is no way that these sensations can be falsified. No matter what the signals tells you, you have a circular argument that they help you make the right choice. You know that you chose correctly because the signals told you to, and you know the signals were correct because you chose to do something that was good. There’s no way to verify that you chose correctly, because “God won’t do your math homework for you,” or provide direction that would lead to an outcome that proves the decision was incorrect.
In fact, if you did the exact opposite of what the signals told you, there would almost certainly be no impact on your life or decisions. That’s because I’m sure you aren’t wondering whether you should, say, murder a child or not, in which the tickling affirms that you shouldn’t. I can only imagine how you use this power or phenomena, but it can only be on pretty mundane stuff.
That is, unless you bestow mundane issues with supernatural importance - like, telling Cathy in accounting to knock it off with all her noisy snacking in the afternoon gets elevated into a matter of doing the Lord’s work or submitting to the Devil.
Maybe I haven’t been clear: The body signals are not meant to replace personal communication with or revelation from God. They are supplementary only. Without God telling me in my heart what they mean, I wouldn’t have a clue that they mean anything at all.
Well you’re offering god a binary choice, but he might think the third option which is “so-so”. What if it’s a layer cake, and the top half is fluffy, light and angelic and the bottom part is full of sin and corruption ? God can’t reduce Himself to inadequate questions about the sweet trolley now, can He ?
I apologize – I have been reading this thread closely but I must have glossed over that explanation. Because that explaination of your views appears to be at odds with this statement you made:
So you’re saying that militant Muslims need to listen to body signals, but those signals are not meant to replace communication with Allah in their hearts.
So, does that mean that they have Allah in their hearts but they aren’t listening to him? Or is Allah telling them the wrong thing? If they are supposed to listen to their hearts, what relevance does being physically prodded by a higher being have to anything?
Yes. Maybe this thread can be a catalyst for them, or a key or map of human spirituality. It’s admittedly a long shot.
Anyone who commits the atrocities ISIS is committing can’t possibly be listening or submitting to Allah, IMO. Maybe the signals can lead them to do so.
Maybe the “signals” you get from God are meant for you only. Maybe God doesn’t send them the same body signals. Maybe he doesn’t have time.
Could be. The medications I take give me “pseudo-Parkinson’s disease,” which produces weakness and tremors.
I doubt it.
He exists outside of time; thus, He has time enough for all of us, and to spare.