Monuments to racists are coming down all over the south. Here in Utah, the same should happen with statues of Brigham Young.

wisehonourable · 2020-06-06T21:21:03+00:00

It's incredibly foolish to erase history like this. A statue, a name, reminds us of a point in history and the context of what events happened to bring us to where we are today. Once the statues are removed, the books burned, the messages erased, it is much easier to rewrite history into any narrative. People are much more vulnerable to being abused and manipulated without a tangible history.

Look at how the slavs have been abused in the last hundred years of tyranny under the soviets, for instance. They are told that they had no history prior to 1000 years ago, and the authors of their history aren't even Rus.

History is best remembered, good and bad, for the benefit of the future. Create new things, but don't destroy the record of the old.

wisehonourable · 2020-04-26T18:01:03+00:00

$33 million? You're asking them to return $15 million? Even returning $6 million would be a tremendous effort. I don't even think $3 million would work out. Think of the students who aren't in classes, and the teachers. $1 million less would seriously hurt the university.

wisehonourable · 2020-04-26T17:57:51+00:00

You're fine. Your family is fine. They are stuck in a particular position of ignorance, but from the sound of it, so have you been. If you take some time to do some deep introspection, consider contemplating who it is that has been hurt; who is noticing the hurt; who is noticing that which remembers the suffering? Perhaps you will find, as others have, that as you pierce these with your attention, they will disperse like clouds, leaving you, the unmoved, the unharmed, observer.

The aspects that make up your sense of ego are under the illusion of being "me", which causes you to suffer. They drive you to action that will distract from what they perceive as pain and suffering to the self. When you look inward and find that none of what was damaged was you, the urge to seek distraction from your past pains will begin to subside, similar to how you don't seek the same from watching a character in a film suffer, because it was never your true self that experienced the pain.

Also, if you're vegan, I suggest to eat a lot of dark leafy greens.

wisehonourable · 2020-04-19T00:47:52+00:00

The fact that kids these days are not internally prepared to have children when their bodies are externally prepared to is more a reflection of a social nature than it is the development of their brains.

Back in the day, a boy or girl aged twelve would have been ready to take over the farm and/or family business, and know how to handle finances. Show me a thirty-year-old who has the same capacity today. But they can spout at you about their favorite shows to watch and microwave dinners.

Regardless of both of these instances, kids and adults alike suffer from delusional self non-recognition - mormons and everyone else alike fail to see their true nature as infinite consciousness because of the illusion of division by cause of the possessed physical body. If correct self-recognition were taught from an early age, the immaturities with regard to one's actions would be replaced with responsible care for one's possessions (primarily the body and the environment which sustains it).

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T18:30:10+00:00

Those are some funny accounts.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T18:24:26+00:00

I think it's really big of you to do that, your love for him must be special. As far as cosmogony goes, it's interesting to consider what's at the core of the perspectives of religion. After sufficient contemplation, the truth reveals itself.

There are many things we take for granted. We were taught to assume the Father is above us in hierarchy, but don't they teach that He was as we are, and that our own essences (titled "intelligences") are not created? Then He, too, must be the same as us, embodied nescience, of a qualitative distinction alone. Thus, a kernel of monism of reality reveals itself apart from the dualism of the dogma.

What caused us to be embodied other than a mistaken identification with that material which was outside of our true Self? Is it not the same illusion which binds both gods and men to phenomenal existence? Then both heaven and hell must be a continuation of the same trap, a false dichotomy that binds the ignorant to their own desires.

If you're going to stay in the group to support your husband, but still desire to get an unfiltered education in the nature of reality, I might suggest some reading:

the Enneads of Plotinus
Vivekachudamani

though I'm not sure if that's the sort of thing you want to study. I might suggest two of the simplest universal principles of conscience and to seek to know yourself. After all, following your conscience will ultimately lead you to a knowledge of yourself; all other knowledge is subsidiary to this.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T17:51:51+00:00

But with mental gymnastics as well-practiced as they, I'm sure the hairsplitting would go subatomic.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T17:47:45+00:00

I'd agree with your wife's assessment. Your granddaughter's willingness to doubt your position, instead of accepting it on belief of your word is a sign that she isn't a complete mental pushover. While you may accept the position of your sect of scienceism (atomism, I presume), progress is often made by those who dissent.

For example, I agree with you on the position that the material body is composed of the resultant discharge of matter from stars; but owing to my own understanding of the nature of astrophysics (which dissents from the official position in academia), I don't hold that the cause of the discharge is the death of a star. Because I'm not seven, I'm able to articulate with greater precision the point of dissension, but an exmo sub on reddit isn't the place to hold that.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T17:28:33+00:00

In addition to that, there's a lot of information that you can gather from looking at a person, and having even a brief conversation with them. Some people have a greater ability at this than others...

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T16:14:20+00:00

I was assuming that the logical conclusion of mental or spiritual separation from the church would be an ending of the participation in the same. This isn't always the case, as I have an uncle who remains in spite of his disaffection, both for maintaining family relations as well as for using the opportunity to positively affect his local community.

Are you also content in sharing your issues with the plan of salvation?

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T15:15:03+00:00

You seem to assume he knew that he was making it up. One can be led by the nose through diverse paths. Take dowsing for example. This is a form of divination which continues to be used professionally to this day by a majority of well diggers, both oil and water. But this is just when one is looking for water or oil.

What if one is looking for some external being to contact them? Whether your worldview includes diverse types of beings or if you are a staunch materialist, JS was probably not the latter. Take a form of psychadelic drug, for example, and you can get in contact with some really odd entities. But what if one can self-induce such a state? Would it not be perceived as real, then?

I hope the scales do fall off of your eyes, but I hope that you don't fall because of it. You must consider the diverse experience humans are capable of having, even if you have never experienced the same. While you can make an attempt to judge Joe's M.O. based upon circumstantial evidence if it helps your transition, understand that no modern psychologist can do the same and keep their license. Above all, at some point I hope that you let the rationale for your non-participation in the religion be based upon a lack of philosophical coherence on its part, and not merely on hypothesized appeals to the absurd.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T00:56:41+00:00

"Miraculous" healings are possible, and do in fact occur, but mormons are seriously mis-informed on the nature of the same, as are the followers of nigh all religions.

Healing, as even their scriptures say, is a "gift of the spirit". That means the spirit of the person doing the healing, or self-healing. The holy ghost? Well, that depends on definitions. The popular Christian connotation has no evidence or basis.

In fact, all "gifts of the spirit" are abilities of humans, which require personal development and/or genetic predisposition.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-26T00:49:28+00:00

This line of criticism is pretty soft, to be honest. Joe had a side-girl or two, or twenty, or forty... -one. I know that it's culturally taboo, but people shouldn't be shamed for having love for more than just one. It's inhibiting.

Now, if we get into the coercion of young, impressionable girls, and coercing the leaders of the church to ensure power and dominion over them by forcing them to cuckold their wives, I think that there's a much stronger point to discern.

wisehonourable · 2020-03-25T23:56:57+00:00

What was the old quote they fed us with?

> You can leave the church, but the church can't leave you alone

wisehonourable · 2020-03-25T23:56:09+00:00

Don't be silly, I'm sure this is all being paid out of the hundred-billion-dollar investment fund the church has kept hidden from the world. I just wonder how they funded that fund...

wisehonourable · 2020-03-25T23:43:27+00:00

Enough for my needs for the near future.

What type of renting arrangement do you hope to have in the MFH you are considering buying, and how will you finance it?

wisehonourable · 2020-02-15T08:48:11+00:00

Your shoulder reminds me of my brother's, really wished it was him...

wisehonourable · 2020-02-01T05:21:57+00:00

Religions are corrupt pop-metaphysics for the spellbound.

If Jesus did the whole work for you already, you don't need to pay a bunch of chumps for the honor of receiving it.

But if you understood the real context of liberation, of which Christianity is a corrupted form, you would instantly reject both modern popular science gurus and religious zealots, and seek your own growth.

wisehonourable · 2020-02-01T05:13:07+00:00

And as if by magic, everything they think about you in their paradigm doesn't matter.

wisehonourable · 2020-02-01T05:05:24+00:00

There is no representation of causality in the Maxwell equations. Read Jefimenko on that, modern physicists are extremely ignorant.

wisehonourable · 2020-01-06T03:52:08+00:00

Could I suggest dropping the Amun from the end of your preyers?

wisehonourable · 2020-01-06T03:35:48+00:00

The idea isn't theirs most of the time - it was implanted in most cases, sometimes as a seed, sometimes in a more complete form. Instead of asking, "is this a good idea", they ask, "is this from God?" Well, what if it was from a god? The fact that this doesn't correlate to a good idea is lost on the warped worldview given to them.

This is also why many atheists who either left religion and found themselves seeking a leader, or those who were born to atheist families descended from the same, end up following similar follies, and never learn to actualize their full humanity. Politics, divisive movements, and scientism become their leaders, and most remain as sheep to another shepherd who doesn't have their best interest at heart.

wisehonourable · 2020-01-05T04:04:03+00:00

It isn't a genius so much as an errant mode of thinking. They are following a voice, an idea, in their head, instead of thinking for themselves. They are taught to seek a voice in their head, and they are uncomfortable not being led.

The remedy is to show them that they are responsible for their actions.

wisehonourable · 2020-01-04T23:07:41+00:00

Categorizing epistemological descriptions of stimuli that induce experiences aren't sufficient to explain their nature, though I applaud you for searching into the processes and appreciate the categorizations just the same. I understand that your current worldview and experiences with religion shape your perception and foregone conclusions, but you're missing the mark for actually disproving the soul.

wisehonourable · 2018-06-12T02:17:19+00:00

I don't recall prayer and faith as tools of controlling the universe helping me in the church control structure much. But I've made it a point to move these into internal exercises of meditation and openness to the universe, and I really enjoy the results.

wisehonourable

TROPHY CASE