Exiled wrote:Yes. If anyone were as smart as God supposedly is, they could have done a better job.
KevinSim wrote:Then, Exiled, what' stopping you? If you think you can do a better job, why don't you step in and take over and do the better job?
What job does your make-believe deity called “God” do, that you think Exiled couldn’t do at least as well?
He is in the process of preserving, forever, some good things. Maybe Exiled could do that too, if he put his mind to it; I don't know. If he takes me up on my proposal and tries it, I'd be interested in finding out how he did.
KevinSim wrote:Why do you think God can read everyone's mind, and why do you think God knows everything?
The concept of God that Mormonism puts forward is of an all-knowing, all-powerful deity.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
SteelHead wrote:... who were called by God via revelation to minister to a specific set of people,....
That is just a folk tale. There is seldom any rhyme or reason involved. Consider the case of kids studying a specific foreign language for years and then being sent to another country whose language is totally different. They are simply filling vacancies when they become available, except when the kid's relatives have some special pull with Church leaders, so their kid can be sent to the Chateau Romney or Court of St. James Missions. Using the term revelation or inspired in this sense seems highly superstitious and a tad blasphemous.
It makes perfect sense to get them out of harm's way. Send them to Duluth or Peoria and keep them safe.
SteelHead wrote:... who were called by God via revelation to minister to a specific set of people,....
That is just a folk tale. There is seldom any rhyme or reason involved. Consider the case of kids studying a specific foreign language for years and then being sent to another country whose language is totally different. They are simply filling vacancies when they become available, except when the kid's relatives have some special pull with Church leaders, so their kid can be sent to the Chateau Romney or Court of St. James Missions. Using the term revelation or inspired in this sense seems highly superstitious and a tad blasphemous.
It makes perfect sense to get them out of harm's way. Send them to Duluth or Peoria and keep them safe.
All of my friends who had G.A. dads or G.A. grandfathers magically went where they wanted to. Maybe they were just in tune with the spirit?
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
Exiled wrote:All of my friends who had G.A. dads or G.A. grandfathers magically went where they wanted to. Maybe they were just in tune with the spirit?
An interesting piece of research would be a comparison of mission postings between GA related and non GA related young people across the last ten years.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
moksha wrote:It makes perfect sense to get them out of harm's way. Send them to Duluth or Peoria and keep them safe.
Are you kidding? If these young people were specifically trained to be Turkey missionaries, then continuing the remainder of their mission in San Pete County, Utah would make even more sense.
Punacious Penguin wrote:If these young people were specifically trained to be Turkey missionaries, then continuing the remainder of their mission in Sanpete County, Utah would make even more sense.
Sanpete County, Utah? I heard that place was for the birds!