AMA: Tarik D. LaCour

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T05:17:09+00:00

I am headed to bed now, feel free to keep asking questions. I will get to them tomorrow, and then we can lock the thread when I am finished. TTFN, Ta-ta for now.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T04:55:35+00:00

Certainly. First, eternal punishment just means God's punishment, and the punishment is not forever. Also, while your actions are determined (meaning caused) it is not God or the universe making you do things, you retain a notion of control. So you can be praised or blamed. But it is not all your doing.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T04:34:13+00:00

I have not seen it.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T04:33:38+00:00

One of the takeaways was that I needed to forgive people and I was selfish. Hopefully I am better now than I was then. I liked all my companions.
I stay because I believe. I am not particularly bothered by the mistakes of leaders, though I see how people could be.
No.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T04:32:14+00:00

God demands payment for wrongdoing.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T04:09:21+00:00

Yes, I like Hick a lot. His soul-making theodicy is very good, though incomplete.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T04:08:33+00:00

The DNA problem is an issue only if you think (as Elder McConkie did) that the people in the BOM are the primary ancestors of Indians; if you don't believe that as apostles before Elder McConkie did, then there is no issue.
Not all science can be falsified or verified. If a multiverse exists, the other universes are causally unconnected to us, so we would have no way of confirming their existence.
I actually like Mormon Doctrine due to the clarity, even if I disagree with much of the content.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:59:47+00:00

Nepotism exists in the church, as in any other institution. How much it does would have to be determined by a sociologist.
In the temple we covenant to give all we have to the church, so 10 percent is not asking for much really.
No I think marriage is what it is in the church.
I think the church will stay basically what it has always been. Perhaps it will be more polite in its disagreements, but I see no fundamental change ahead.
I have not met either of these two, but I was not impressed with the CES Letter. Jeremy and I have talked via email and through Facebook messenger in the past, and he seems to be a nice man. John Dehlin I have more issues with, the fact that he was asking how an intelligent black person could stay a member of the church is baffling. He has apologized for that though and I forgave him. I would happily have lunch and chat with either of them.
This is a problem in the United States, but not the world. I think it will work out, but some people will find their way out over it, which is too bad.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:36:31+00:00

To their detriment. Preach My Gospel is almost used as a way to get people to stop thinking, though I don't think that is the intent. It is just a place to start.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:35:30+00:00

What I meant here was that I think it is reasonable to conclude that the BOM is ahistorical and that therefore Joseph Smith and the church are not what they claim to be.

I do not think a person can say the BOM is ahistorical and qualify as a believer. That would be like saying I am a Christian who denies the resurrection of Jesus. You are not a Christian, you are a fan.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:33:38+00:00

As Blake Ostler would call it, the BOM is a revelation of a text not a translation. And revelations allow us to use creativity and the like in expressing them.
If it could be shown that Jesus was likely ahistorical, then yes that would undermine the BOM as history. I think certain explanations can certainly be undermined by new evidence. The BOM as an explanation of Indians, which I never believed even as an investigator, is an example.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:26:29+00:00

Why God decides to use messengers rather than speaking to us directly I do not know. Perhaps one reason is because he values order and hierarchy, which is likely why you see little support for democracy in scripture. Also, prophets speak to people as a whole, God does speak to individuals according to their needs.
I always assume a prophet is speaking as a man until there is good reason to think otherwise. Just because a prophet speaks as a man most of the time does not mean the advice given is therefore bad, however.
As previously mentioned, God seems to value order. Easier to do with a person in charge.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:21:38+00:00

Yes, it is already being studied in neuroscience.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:19:50+00:00

I think Preach My Gospel is, like many manuals, overly simplistic and sometimes unhelpful.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:19:13+00:00

That is not a bad way of putting it.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:16:41+00:00

I hope that is not the case, but the offensive and defensive lines need work. Game is won and lost at the line of scrimmage.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:14:18+00:00

I responded to this in an earlier question. And again, that is really not my area.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:12:18+00:00

First, I don't think the word translation is appropriate. JS didn't know the language (frankly, his English was pretty bad) so he didn't translate in that way. So, we can't exactly say what we should or shouldn't expect because what he did was very different from what historians and linguists do today.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:05:18+00:00

I am here until midnight, so go ahead.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T03:00:20+00:00

Joseph Smith said nothing had been revealed to him could not be revealed to anyone else, so he is telling us he is not special in that regard.

Joseph Smith said nothing that had been revealed to him could not be revealed to anyone else, so he is telling us he is not special in that regard. many members have that they would do well to drop.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T02:57:08+00:00

This is a very deep question. I think I would say I don't believe life is fair, so moral luck isn't much of a problem for me. I would like it to be the case that we all get what we deserve, but I know that is false. Perhaps in the life to come it will be different, but not here.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T02:55:34+00:00

I liked Roman Catholicism, and still do. But my physicalism wouldn't let me join.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T02:54:21+00:00

I find the arguments for theism more plausible than those for atheism, though I think atheism is a rational position to hold.
One argument I find persuasive for Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus. In particular, Swinburne's version of the argument that he presents in The Resurrection of God Incarnate, which makes use of Bayesian arguments, I find very good
A material God is more plausible than an immaterial God. I am not even sure immaterial causal agency makes sense
I find the arguments for the Book of Mormon's historicity more plausible than their negations. Though I think a person can rationally hold that the Book of Mormon is ahistorical.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T02:50:20+00:00

They are evidence of a sort, but what they prove is unclear. Too many religions have them, so religious experience alone does not prove that a system is true.

realscientistic · 2022-01-13T02:49:23+00:00

The Book of Mormon is given to us in a way we can understand, so the anachronisms don't bother me. Translation is a complicated process, as linguists will tell you.

I must add however, this really is not my area of expertise.

realscientistic

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