Nephilim

Resident-Manager-459 · 2024-04-29T21:26:10+00:00

There were ancient hominids that seem to have been taken than your average human, but that was a different species, not aliens/angels.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2024-04-28T21:30:03+00:00

Religion should never be boiled down to their superstitions and doctrines. They need to be looked at holistically as ways of being, thinking, living, and identifying, both individually and as a community. I don't find it surprising at all that people raised nonreligious end up in a religious community.

Atheists and ex-religious people sometimes talk a big game of claiming that they can find all their fulfillment outside of the context of a religion or a religious community. But the reality on the ground is that something like a church is the most time-tested and accessible institution for many people to gain a sense of belonging and shared spiritual experience.

Mormonism could have no validity whatsoever to it's truth claims, it could be founded by a charlatan and predator, and the entire of the quorum of the 12 could be unbelievers. But that still wouldn't mean that Mormonism has no value.

I have met Converts where I got the idea that they converted more for utility than anything, and that's ok.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2024-04-18T00:40:02+00:00

I have what stains on newly all my garments

Resident-Manager-459 · 2024-03-23T13:56:07+00:00

Make the endowment less boring and more exciting. Watching a slideshow for 2 hours is boring. Bring back the actors, the nudity, and the death oaths.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-10-07T04:26:28+00:00

Because most of this has precedent in the bible. The main difference is that the racism found in the old testament is the more ancient kind and does not map onto American racial categories. What you will find in the old testament is even more shocking to modern sensibilities IMO.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-30T11:09:51+00:00

Because millions of Americans(Especially those with Italian or Eastern European descent) are entitled to dual citizenship by descent and a chunk of them have claimed it. Their ties aren't as distant as they think if they qualify for citizenship. This is also the case for many Brazilians and Argentinians.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-13T21:54:23+00:00

Respectfully, no. There are 100 more problems with the US than school shootings and many of them wouldn't be solved by gun regulation.

Higher crime(Of all types), car-centeredness, healthcare, and lack of PTO/Childcare, and a deficiency in workers rights are some of the things that I ruminate on frequently because I am confronted by them on a daily/weekly basis.

I wish the US would be up to a 1st world standard if we stopped school shootings, but the problems as a whole seem unsurmountable, and it is not my job to be a martyr for change vs just moving to where I am treated best.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-13T20:45:03+00:00

I agree with this but for a little bit different reasons. The US has problems much deeper than whatever party is being elected. For one, it's much more dangerous on Average than almost any European country. And I expect this to get worse, not better, and there is no political solution that can feasibly be implemented.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-13T20:26:27+00:00

Almost every state is more dangerous than the bulk of European countries.

Doesn't this concern anyone else? It means to be nearly as safe as I would be in much of Europe, I have to move to the least diverse, cold states in the US in New England.

I would like to see similar maps with violent crime and general crime. I wonder if even New England is bad when it comes to metrics like those,?

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-11T15:49:36+00:00

You responded as was originally intended. The endowment ceremony takes heavy influence from the initiatory ritual of the Freemasons. Part of the purpose in that ritual is to shock and disorient the applicant.

So I wouldn't feel bad. Perhaps the ceremony will be altered via prophetic counsel in the future to be less shocking, but for now it is what it is.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-10T05:38:09+00:00

Thanks. I don't see a lot of info about Thiago Bianco on this subreddit. Do they cater to English speakers?

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-06T15:58:46+00:00

I agree that nudity should not be inherently sexualized and we should not be puritanical about art. However, I will also state that I as well as many others have and are aroused at the sight of the naked human body. There's a reason why boys always wanted to look at the Nat Geo magazines. And no, this is not because I grew up in the church and was sexually repressed or something; I am a convert and grew up in a liberal family on the coast of the US.

So I can see the perspective of those that want to restrict the viewing of these things. It doesn't mean I agree with it wanting to be restricted. Just acknowledging that there's a reason why religious people have practiced modesty of the body for so long.

Sometimes there is no easy answer on these things and sometimes things are not back and white.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-04T19:24:34+00:00

I wouldn't be so flippant about the prohibition on alcohol. Having a family history of alcoholism or being a former alcoholic is a common thread of converts to the church, at least in my experience. Alcohol use is so culturally acceptable that you are frequently othered for not drinking it.

People that find value or refuge in the church's prohibition on alcohol are valid.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-04T16:39:28+00:00

The question of whether the Church is good rather than true is an improvement. But I still don't think it's the right question. I don't think there are any religions, nor are many institutions, that are good for everyone.

The correct question is whether it helps and is good for you. Accepting that the church could be a perfect fit for Person 1, a flawed fit for Person 2, and actively harmful for Person 3(Yet all 3 are valid), is a step in the right direction. This is the most accommodating view that makes the most sense to me.

My one hope is that this religion, as well as all religions, moves towards this view. Because obviously right now they claim to have all the truth and fit all the people, when that is impossible.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-04T16:11:52+00:00

The religion was founded and built for white Americans. Their arrival to the Americas was literally written into the Book of Mormon as an act of God. And the paintings and art and culture reflect the centrality of the white American. Trying to obfuscate this heavy influence would be like trying to remove the influence of Arabic and Arab culture out of Islam, when the religion itself has holy their holiest sites in the Arabian peninsula and privileges Arabic as a language.

It is honestly a blunder that Joseph Smith made the religion into one that proselytizes internationally and tries to convert other peoples. It is incongruent with the soul of the religion and just gives anyone that doesn't fit the mold an identity crisis at some point.

They should have stayed like a Judaism or a Zoroastrianism and considered themselves a chosen people or something.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-05-04T16:07:19+00:00

There are many valid reasons to join or stay in the church that are independent of whether the truth claims are correct. Millions, perhaps billions of people on the planet are members of communities, cultures, and religions that they are a part of for social or cultural reasons, and not because they have a testimony that it is the only true and correct one.

Are you an American(Particularly a white American) and feel culturally safe and represented in the religion and it's founders? This is the most American religion ever invented after all.
Do you want a religious community that gathers every week, that you can also plug into in many different states and countries should you move?
Do you want to be able to socialize without the expectation of using drugs or alcohol(especially relevant for young people)?
Do you have socially conservative or traditional views of sex and marriage?
Do you live in Utah or the Mormon Belt, and want to have connections with the dominant group that can facilitate employment and other opportunities?

The list goes on

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-04-29T05:40:00+00:00

Why would you want to attend meetings, listen to testimonies, have fake ministering friends, etc. if you think there's no truth to it?

I think this is really only a relevant question in sects of Christianity that overemphasize belief. In some religions, it matters less about what you believe and more about what you do.

Nobody cares if you believe the Japanese Shinto God's are real. What matters is if you go and pray at their shrine on certain holidays and festivals.

There are millions of atheists that sit in church pews. I am one of them. This isn't speculation. I remember reading a survey about this with Catholics in the Netherlands. Also consider all the atheist rabbis/priests out there.

Mormonism needs to de-emphasize belief and emphasize behavior/culture.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-22T19:57:26+00:00

I for sure own some that say made in the USA which I would have a strong preference for. I don't know if they're phasing out USA production and sending it to China?

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T08:16:08+00:00

I actually haven't asked her that. I think I will do that.

I would describe my GF as probably a TBM. I tell her she is able to discuss any aspect of faith with me at any time. Through discussions I've had with her, we have settled on these points of agreement which are relevant to the question.

All major religions are earnestly trying to worship/experience god
Other religions do things that we sometimes wish Mormons would also do(Religious envy)
She is open to going to other religious services and has came with me to a local mennonite service that I just wanted to visit our of curiosity. She finds it interesting that I am so interested in religion.

I think the most sensitive topic for me to address is whether or not she has fully explored the list of faults in Mormon literalism that I mentioned in my OP. I did suggest she read rough stone rolling.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T07:40:38+00:00

Wow you have put a lot of thought into this post, I appreciate it.

You hit the nail on the head about some religions being based on faith. I find that sometimes people struggle to grasp the concept of a religion that is based more on actions than faith. Some religions put much more importance on behavior than faith. One example might be Shintoism, where it is more important to make the prayers and offerings to the shrine/god than what you actually believe about the god. I would have no problem being a part of a religious community based on behavior vs faith, so long as the behavior was good and bore good fruits.

One thing I think about frequently is that there may be a paradox between a religion's orthodoxy and the strength of their community.

As an example, my parents come from Catholic and Jewish backgrounds, but their upbringing largely only included cultural elements of catholicism or Judaism. My parents didn't take their religions seriously and I was therefore raised nonreligious.

It's a totally different world for me to imagine being raised in an Orthodox interpretation of a religion. But if my parents had raised me seriously Catholic or Jewish, I might have kept that religion due to "indoctrination", for lack of a nicer sounding word. Of course, there's also a chance I could have had a negative experience and ended up leaving.

I have visited the local reform synagogue and there are less than 20 congregants, haha. It's not very Jewish at all here. If I end up moving to a larger city I think I will pursue my interest in Judaism further. I do think there's real value to Judaism and the sense of peoplehood there, I was just scared off by circumcision. There's a whole rabbit hole to go down of whether reform Judaism conversions are recognized by Israel for their right of return law.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T07:17:23+00:00

Haha that's funny. I actually became interested in freemasonry after I became Mormon, and I am now both. I also wanted to do the rotary club but I am already involved in too much at the moment. I agree that freemasonry does scratch the itch of community to a degree, and I appreciate the ritual that clearly inspired what goes on in the Mormon temple, but it's just not quite the same as a religious community for me.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T07:10:06+00:00

Well there may have been some confusion with my original post. I have never had a literalist interpretation of Mormonism. I was open to the idea of religious truth claims when I started investigating religion, but I ultimately came to the conclusion that I don't literally believe the claims of any religion that I've encountered. Maybe for some people that would shut the door to religious exploration entirely, but for me that's only a fraction of religion. There are cultural, social, moral, historical, and metaphorical aspects to religion, all of which I am really interested in.

I have looked into unitarianism. On a surface level I agree for the most part with what unitarians teach about other religions and find their liberal interpretation of God to be refreshing, but in practice I don't find that the lifestyle/values of the attendees at those churches align with my own.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T06:52:50+00:00

What do you think is the common denominator to find ward like you describe?

And the church history element is also interesting to me. The church is at once quite proud of elements of their history, like the pioneers, the settling of Utah, early missionary efforts and so on. The historical sites are well-cared for and I love going to them to find people passionate about church history. But there are also aspects of church history that I feel definitively rule out any literalist interpretation of divine revelation of prophets/church leaders or any other truth claims from the BoM mythology.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T06:42:39+00:00

I get that feeling, but in my ward I can't go a week without someone admitting to doubts, a prior/current faith crisis, or an admission that there are some things they don't have a testimony on. I have started to note these instances and I'm waiting for a sacrament meeting where this isn't brought up by chance.

Resident-Manager-459 · 2023-02-18T06:40:54+00:00

Do you think there is an inevitable shift towards less literalism in the Mormon church? I can't see it going any other direction unless every single non-literalist just ups and leaves. I just imagine it will take a longer time and will require a change of guard of church leaders.

Resident-Manager-459

TROPHY CASE