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Author Topic: The new Mormon.org
Tatiana
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I just saw it for the first time today, the newly redesigned Mormon.org. It won some sort of web design award, which is what made me check it out, and I LOVE it! The design lets the message shine through so clearly. It's clean and it doesn't get in the way, but seems to leave the focus on what matters. I watched all the videos and read the text and just felt newly-converted myself by all of it. There's a place where you can chat live with a missionary online. I would love to do that part time, to be a chat missionary. I wonder if there are any plans to let members do that? That would be so awesome if there were! [Smile]

Has everyone else seen it? What do you think?

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TomDavidson
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I actually found the questions they identified as "Life's Great Questions" to be very interesting, since they clarified a certain difference in perspective for me. There were a few isolated cases of overlap, but not as many as I would have expected.
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Occasional
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There used to be all kinds of member chat rooms at one time. I remember several years ago visiting some and talking to a lot of people. As I grew older and got married there was no reason to visit them.

There are some fond mini-memories (less important to other things) I still have of interesting conversations related to myself and the Church. However, I tried to find them again and they all seemed to have gone away. Considering the increase in questionable people in large chatrooms I am not surprised.

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Tatiana
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Occasional, what I'm talking about is one-on-one chat between missionaries and investigators. It seems like a really great idea to me, and something that people could do part time as a calling. One wouldn't need to be serving a full-time mission to do it, I wouldn't think. I would really love to do that.

The main questions I would categorize as "Life's Great Questions" are the purpose of life and the problem of pain, both of which are mentioned. I think many people would add "Is there a God?", "Is there anything after death?", and probably "How can we find happiness/self-realization?", which are addressed indirectly. The biggies that I see missing are things like "Is there other life in the universe?", "Are there other universes?", "Is time travel possible?", "Will the human species survive the next thousand years?", "What will technology be like then?" and a bunch of what basically are science questions. I guess it's a good thing Mormon.org doesn't try to tackle those. [Smile]

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porcelain girl
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It seems very clean, simple, and well organized. Very to-the-point, and welcoming.

Cool [Smile]

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Scott R
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quote:
"Is there other life in the universe?"

It depends on what you mean by "universe." We know that this Earth isn't the only place Heavenly Father created that can support life. Moses 7:30.


quote:
"Are there other universes?"
See above.

quote:
"Is time travel possible?"
CS Lewis theorized that after the judgement, all those who had accepted Christ and been forgiven for their sins would have all the wrong choices they made literally repaired-- so that historically, they never committed that sin.

I'm not a fan of this particular theory, but there you go.

quote:
"Will the human species survive the next thousand years?"
Yes. The human species will survive until the end of the Millenium, which will last 1000 years.

quote:
"What will technology be like then?"
Hmm...several prophets have noted that during the Millenium, life will continue on as it ever has. There will be industry, agriculture, arts, etc, but they will take place in a world where there is no corruption. There will be no external force halting human genius or potential.

So I imagine that the technology's going to be pretty neat.

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Occasional
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The last comment by Scott R made me wonder if God has any need for techonology. That is, if technology is defined as outside tools used to act or create. We often hear that God uses Faith and Words, but at the same time he is sometimes thought of by Mormons as a scientist.

Hmmm . . . there is the Urim and Thummum, and personal seer stone. I guess you could consider those as tools. Not that we have any idea what they are beyond vague mentions.

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Tatiana
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Occasional, I definitely think of God as having all the science and technology he wants to take advantage of. I think when we have our perfected eternal bodies, it's because we're going to learn how to build them that way. I think when the resurrection occurs, it's going to be because we learn how to build these bodies for the dead, and restore them to them. I'm personally planning to live to be at least 75,000, and any of my friends who don't make it that long, I will personally see to it that they're resurrected.

As for the millenium, I believe in that, but I think we have to learn how to bring it about. When Christ rules it won't be by force, it will be because we PUT him in charge, willingly, voluntarily, all of us. So we are the ones who have to figure out how to make that happen, one heart at a time. I think that the human species will almost go extinct, and WILL go extinct if we choose that. Just as the Nephites made that choice. I don't think God is going to contravert our free agency in this. I think that if we do survive, then those who are left will undergo a mighty change of heart. We'll learn things we don't know now, about society, about economics, and developmental psychology, education, social welfare, medicine, etc. And we'll learn how to build a sustainable and healthy society in which human potential is actually free to flower in a million different ways. This is the millennium.

But since the purpose of our being here is to learn and grow, it's unlikely that it will be something imposed on us from without. Instead, it makes a lot more sense that we have to learn how to bring it to fruition ourselves (with God's constant help, of course, the same sort of help he gives us today). That's what I see. [Smile]

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Tatiana
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It's like the Scouring of the Shire. The hobbits get home and they think Gandalf and Elrond and people are going to fix what's wrong there. Only they get there and they realize, no that's their job. That's what they've been trained for. That was the actual purpose of the whole war of the ring and everything that happened, just to prepare them to make their own homes, their own world, into the beautiful and happy place it should have been and could have been all along. [Smile]

I swear, Tolkien is scripture. I honestly believe that man was divinely inspired.

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Puffy Treat
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Why, you'd almost think God wants us to build up stakes of Zion or something. [Wink]
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pooka
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I was disappointed by the segment on "Jesus Christ, Our Savior". In particular the statement :

"If you follow His example as closely as possible, you will not only find joy in your life, but you will someday return to live with Him and your Father in Heaven."

I did try to send them constructive comments along these lines several weeks ago, recommending they use the scriptural words that Christ himself used to announce his ministry, you know, the ones that made the people in the synagogue try to throw him off a cliff.

Oh well, just this morning I realized the applicability of "the first shall be last and the last shall be first" in my own search for the balance between faith and works.

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Tatiana
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Puffy Treat, I *know*! [Smile] What a concept!
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Scott R
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I don't know that God needs or uses tools. All of the implements we know of are created so that mankind can use them to come closer to God; and in most cases, there are examples of the same purpose being accomplished without the tool. (Thinking specifically of the Urim and Thummim and the Liahona.)

I think the Millenium is a special case scenario. We'll still be mortal during the Millenium; there will still be an opportunity to sin and repent. Afterwards, is the final judgment and eternity.

I admit, I'm having a hard time imagining God in a kind of celestial bulldozer.

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katharina
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quote:
CS Lewis theorized that after the judgement, all those who had accepted Christ and been forgiven for their sins would have all the wrong choices they made literally repaired-- so that historically, they never committed that sin.
As a complete sidenote, wow, I really do not agree with C.S. Lewis there.
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Dagonee
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Scott, do you recall which book Lewis theorized that in?
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lem
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quote:

I admit, I'm having a hard time imagining God in a kind of celestial bulldozer.

A bulldozer seems...odd, but Jesus was a carpenter. I think since God is all knowing (assuming there is a God in the Christian sense) He has access to pretty awesome tools.

My mom once told me that the idea of having the whole world witness something seemed impossible. Lot's of people had a problem with the concept of a virgin birth.

Now we have CNN and in-vitro-fertilization. What once seemed like miracles now are very believable as far as being in the realm of possibility.

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Brian J. Hill
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quote:
A bulldozer seems...odd, but Jesus was a carpenter. I think since God is all knowing (assuming there is a God in the Christian sense) He has access to pretty awesome tools
My personal image of God is someone who would be equally as comfortable in the cab of a bulldozer as He would in a corporate boardroom, or any other variety of profession. My idea of His perfection says to me that He's excellent at every endeavor. Since I'm an actor, I always see Him as the perfect actor, capable of delivering the most moving performance of Willy Loman ever seen; but also the greatest stagehand, working seamlessly with others to make the show go smoothly. And as a lighting designer, well, there's no beating His sunsets.

On a side note, the Jesus-as-carpenter image always reminds me of my favorite scene in the Passion of the Christ, where He builds a modern-looking table and His mother gives Him one of those I'm-a-proud-mother-even-though-I-have-no-idea-what-you-just-made-looks.

quote:
Now we have CNN and in-vitro-fertilization. What once seemed like miracles now are very believable as far as being in the realm of possibility.
Sure, CNN has changed our culture immensely, but calling it a miracle on the same level as IVF seems a bit of a stretch.
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ketchupqueen
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I saw a bumper sticker on a car once that said, "My boss is a carpenter from Galilee." It took me about a minute and a half to get it, during which time my husband was laughing out loud at me. [Wink]
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BlackBlade
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At my nephew's birthday party his father got him a shirt that said on the front,

"Mommy is my 1st love."

I got mad at myself for letting that shirt tug at my heart strings, I think I actually let an, "awwwww..." escape my lips!

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Scott R
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quote:
Scott, do you recall which book Lewis theorized that in?
Dag:

No, I don't, and that annoys me. I'm out of town for the next couple days, but when I get back home, I'll see if I can find it.

It's a wacky enough quote that I should have been able to attribute it specifically.

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Scott R
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All right, so I found the quote and am a bit embarrassed. It has nothing to do with time travel, and more to do with perception. Here it is, from The Great Divorce, ch. 9, pgs 67-68:

quote:

"Ye cannot in your present state understand eternity... Bu ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. not only this valley but all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained will work backwards adn turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say 'Let me but have this and I'll take the consequences': little dreaming how damnation will be spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, 'We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,' and the Lost, 'We were always in Hell.' And both will speak truly."


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Tatiana
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Oh, I like that quote! I do remember that, and I think he's right.
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Mabus
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Fascinating discussion. I wish I could believe in it.

There are people in my church who believe something a little like that, though it's not by any means doctrine (and has in fact become much less common in recent years--I first learned of it from books written in the 1800s). And I thought that way for a time.

But now I look around me and I see the very things that I once believed were instruments of progress wrecking the world. And I don't see sufficient alternatives to those things to make a difference. It almost seems as though we were given the choice between enjoying our lives and destroying the planet in the process, or plodding on forever in the Middle Ages and misery.

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Puffy Treat
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I'm not sure what "The Industrial Revolution was pure evil!" has to do with the new Mormon.org. Just sayin'. [Smile]
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Mabus
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Puffy, I'm not saying that the Industrial Revolution was pure evil. I'm commenting on the numerous posts comparing technology to miracle and otherwise discussing human progress.

I believe in progress, and the form is not so very different from what seems to be expressed here. But I wonder more and more if I was mistaken in that belief.

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Occasional
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Technology is not evil. It is what we do with them that is evil. Perhaps there are some truely evil inventions (thinking of weapons), but that doesn't bring down the whole thing. Of course, this is especially the case with a fallen world. What has been talked about is the ideal.
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pooka
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quote:
The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, 'We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,' and the Lost, 'We were always in Hell.' And both will speak truly."
This goes along well with Moroni 7:3. Those who have a genuine hope in Christ enter his rest in this life. Though, as I have found, one can go in and out of the rest quite a bit, what with the hormones and the dramatic changes of circumstance.

I think that by the time the final judgement happens, that which was crimson will become white because all the wavelengths together form a perfect wholeness. Some of it will come from understanding of the seeds of our errors from generations past, but a mainly it will be Christ's virtue and understanding. [/theory]

Well, I thought it was a pretty good theory, but The Five People you meet in Heaven is a much better presentation of the idea, though it doesn't really acknowledge a personal God. But I guess it works as a presentation of the Terrestrial Kingdom. I mean, part of the point of the Terrestrial Kingdom is you won't really know there's anything better, or it would it be Heaven for you?

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