Ask a Mormon! (Part Two)

[Bishka]

That would do it. Thanks

Do you have your own thoughts as to why you believe it? Scripture is one thing, but what about personal philosophy?

My own belief is, what kind of God would break up a loving marriage? If God ordains marriage and it is a sacred sacrament in His eyes, why would He break it up at death? Doesn't make much sense for God to do that.

 

[Gentoo]

My own belief is, what kind of God would break up a loving marriage? If God ordains marriage and it is a sacred sacrament in His eyes, why would He break it up at death? Doesn't make much sense for God to do that.

I completely agree, the 'til death do you part' thing never sat right with me, and I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one. The sad thing is, GC and I got into a small argument last night about it....

Thanks

 

[PHOTOTAKER]

That would do it. Thanks

Do you have your own thoughts as to why you believe it? Scripture is one thing, but what about personal philosophy?

after bulding up my own testamony i find that without marrage or being part of an eternal family, there would be alot missing from life. to me it seems that life takes on a new purpose, that there are some things that we can take with us and one of those things is the love that we have for each other as a family...

 

[Katzpur]

I completely agree, the 'til death do you part' thing never sat right with me, and I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one.

The strange thing to me is how often I hear people say, "In heaven, you won't care. You'll be with God and your family relationships will be of no importance whatsoever to you." To that, I say, "Nonsense. If these relationships are important to me here and now, they are going to continue to be important to me forever."

 

[Gentoo]

The strange thing to me is how often I hear people say, "In heaven, you won't care. You'll be with God and your family relationships will be of no importance whatsoever to you." To that, I say, "Nonsense. If these relationships are important to me here and now, they are going to continue to be important to me forever."

I know, it seems absurd to me, to think that I'll magically stop caring about people because I'm in the afterlife? I find that really hard to swallow.

 

[XAAX]

So you don't think that humans evolved from single celled organism?
If not, do you believe in the biblical type answer of poof, there is man, poof, there is woman, poof, there are animals??

 

[nutshell]

So you don't think that humans evolved from single celled organism?
If not, do you believe in the biblical type answer of poof, there is man, poof, there is woman, poof, there are animals??

I do not think humans evolved from a single celled organism and I don't believe in poof either.

 

[Katzpur]

I do not think humans evolved from a single celled organism and I don't believe in poof either.

That would be pretty much how I was going to put it, Nutshell.

As far as what "the Church" believes, XAAX, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been an authoritative statement beyond something along the lines that God created our universe. As individual members of the Church, our opinions are varied.

 

[XAAX]

That would be pretty much how I was going to put it, Nutshell.

As far as what "the Church" believes, XAAX, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been an authoritative statement beyond something along the lines that God created our universe. As individual members of the Church, our opinions are varied.

So the church does or does not rule out evolution as an explaination to the creation theory?

 

[Katzpur]

So the church does or does not rule out evolution as an explaination to the creation theory?

I'm not sure how to put this any more clearly than I already have. The Church is not in the business of trying to disprove science. As a matter of fact, according to www.adherents.com, Utah (which is 70% LDS) leads the nation in the number of scientists per capita. We believe that God is the Creator of our universe and all life. We don't claim to know how He did it or how long it took him.

 

[Bishka]

So you don't think that humans evolved from single celled organism?
If not, do you believe in the biblical type answer of poof, there is man, poof, there is woman, poof, there are animals??

The type of evolution I believe in isn't that we evolved from a single-celled organism, but that perhaps God used evolution to create this earth and it's other organisms. I fully believe we were created in God's image, by God.

 

[Comprehend]

The type of evolution I believe in isn't that we evolved from a single-celled organism, but that perhaps God used evolution to create this earth and it's other organisms. I fully believe we were created in God's image, by God.

I don't believe in macro-evolution at all, and I believe that God created mankind in His image (meaning mankind did not evolve from a lower order of species).

Ezra Taft Benson said this:

Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, October 1970, First Day—Morning Meeting, p.23
If your children are taught untruths on evolution in the public schools or even in our Church schools, provide them with a copy of President Joseph Fielding Smith's excellent rebuttal in his book Man, His Origin and Destiny.

I happen to have read this book and like it very much. Anyone else read this?

 

[XAAX]

I'm not sure how to put this any more clearly than I already have. The Church is not in the business of trying to disprove science. As a matter of fact, according to www.adherents.com, Utah (which is 70% LDS) leads the nation in the number of scientists per capita. We believe that God is the Creator of our universe and all life. We don't claim to know how He did it or how long it took him.

So the church doesn't take a stance on one or the other? I can tell you the Baptist view on it...Poof, blamo.... there is the world and its entirety, humans, animals, birds, etc...Oh yeah, any proof of such things that may disprove this like evolution, geological data, etc...Is all work of the devil and we wont believe it...

 

[SoyLeche]

Here is a packet that is given to Biology students at BYU: http://whitinglab.byu.edu/PDF/Evolution%20Packet.pdf

Yes, in Biology we talked about human evolution. I also know that I felt the Holy Ghost durring the lecture - I'm not sure how to interpret the feelings though. In essence, I don't know how everything fits together, but I have no problem believing in both evolution and creation - it's just that right now I can't connect the two.

 

[Bishka]

Here is a packet that is given to Biology students at BYU: http://whitinglab.byu.edu/PDF/Evolution%20Packet.pdf

Yes, in Biology we talked about human evolution. I also know that I felt the Holy Ghost durring the lecture - I'm not sure how to interpret the feelings though. In essence, I don't know how everything fits together, but I have no problem believing in both evolution and creation - it's just that right now I can't connect the two.

That's how I feel about it as well.

 

[FFH]

So the church doesn't take a stance on one or the other? I can tell you the Baptist view on it...Poof, blamo.... there is the world and its entirety, humans, animals, birds, etc...Oh yeah, any proof of such things that may disprove this like evolution, geological data, etc...Is all work of the devil and we wont believe it...

There is evolution within species and that's it. God created each species and within each species there may be slight variations, for instance color, size, etc.,the general structure being the same.

Even Darwin recanted this teaching and admitted there is no such things as species evolving into another. A cat will always be a cat and a dog will always be a dog. A cat can never become a dog, or any other animal over time... This is nonsense to think we evolved from a primate. It's just another excuse to act like animals.

 

[FFH]

"Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law" ~Alester Crowley~

.....Becasse after all we are just animals anyway... ~ FFH~

This seems to be the evolutionists way of looking at things.

 

[jonny]

So the church doesn't take a stance on one or the other? I can tell you the Baptist view on it...Poof, blamo.... there is the world and its entirety, humans, animals, birds, etc...Oh yeah, any proof of such things that may disprove this like evolution, geological data, etc...Is all work of the devil and we wont believe it...

The LDS church embraces science for the most part. Some of its members don't, but we are allowed to reason and have our own opinions. You might be interested in this paper written by a pretty famous Mormon scholar. I used to be very anti-evolution. Now I'm in the category of "i don't know" and "it really doesn't matter."

 

[jonny]

There is evolution within species and that's it. God created each species and within each species there may be slight variations, for instance color, size, etc.,the general structure being the same.

Even Darwin recanted this teaching and admitted there is no such things as species evolving into another. A cat will always be a cat and a dog will always be a dog. A cat can never become a dog, or any other anima,l over time... This is nonsense to think we evolved from a primate. It's just another excuse to act like animals.

This is similar to my feelings on the subject. I have no problem with believing in evolution, but I have difficulties in believing that people evolved from another species. I really don't know.

 

[Katzpur]

The LDS church embraces science for the most part. Some of its members don't, but we are allowed to reason and have our own opinions. You might be interested in this paper written by a pretty famous Mormon scholar. I used to be very anti-evolution. Now I'm in the category of "i don't know" and "it really doesn't matter."

Don't you just love Hugh Nibley! By the way, I don't know if you're familiar with "Reflections of a Scientist" by Henry Eyring, but it's an excellent book.