- ji on Fully Divine and Fully Human: ““They are good questions to ponder as we strive to understand Jesus Christ and God.” They are good questions to ponder, but such pondering won’t necessarily lead to understanding. And even if some understanding is achieved, is that good? If such understanding seems right to me right now, it would be unfortunate if I dogmatized it so that it blocks future developments in understanding. I agree that we are more alike than we are different. I am dismayed when fellow Latter-day Saints dogmatically pontificate about how wrong other Christians are. I have read a lot about the early councils and their debates, and sometimes I am unable to understand the points. More and more, I tend to feel it doesn’t matter — and to the degree that it does matter, it is important for me to be as charitable as possible. Any truth, pushed too hard, becomes untruth. Any virtue, pushed too hard, becomes vice. Dogmatism is bad (but I don’t want to be dogmatic in condemning dogmatism).” Mar 23, 08:09
- on The Church in 2080, Part III: Scandals and Extinction Threats: “Not a big deal, but the APA disagrees that personality ever stops changing: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/05/personality That said, I would also be surprised if an apostle publicly share disbelief in some core doctrine. Even if one does not believe the Church is true, the selection filters are demonstrably effective.” Mar 21, 10:19
- on Who was Mary Magdalene?: “It would be great if we knew more about Mary Magdalene. It would be important if she was one of Christ’s apostles. Didn’t BY speculate that perhaps Christ and Mary were married. While on earth, wouldn’t He have wanted to experience all aspects of being human. Sexuality is certainly an important part of life. I assume by now that the image of Mary as a prostitute has been dropped. Mary was an important figure in the early organization of Christ’s church. Too bad we don’t know more.” Mar 21, 08:04
- on The Church in 2080, Part II: The Kids Are Not All Right, or the Post-Post-Gen Zers: ““in the last class I taught about a third of my students had mental health requests from the disability accommodation office, hardly anyone could get basic assignments in, and I’ve heard similar stories across a wide variety of domains.” The mental health crisis of Gen Z has little to do with depression stemming from any disconnnect between religion and society (any more than existed in the 80s, when I was a teen); the current mental health crisis stems largely from metabolic dysfunction. The sharp rise in the rates of autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, childhood diabetes, childhood fatty liver disease, and childhood obesity drive exactly what you mention in the quote above. There is insufficient causality between religion and the mental health of Gen Z-ers to make their mental health struggles about religion, or, heaven forbid, about laziness or bad attitudes. There are health-based reasons for the rise of all these conditions, but that is a discussion for another platform. Google it if you’re interested.” Mar 21, 05:58
- on Who was Mary Magdalene?: “> By a combination of such associations, Martin Luther in the sixteenth century asserted that Jesus and Mary had an adulterous relationship. Chilton is badly misreading the documents in this case. We have lots of evidence of Luther’s thoughts about Christ and his sinlessness. Against this, we have one entry in the Table Talks from 1532 – recorded in 1567, 35 years after the fact, and 20 years after Luther’s death. Also, a couple of key words are difficult to read. (See the manuscript page here. A PDF of the Weimar edition is here; the text in question is number 1472 on p. 107.) Here’s my best effort at a translation: Christ, adulterer. Christ first became an adulterer (John 4) with the woman at the well, since they said… [Here’s the obscure part: Is it numero stat, or nemo significat? And what would either of those mean? It could be something like “according to number he stands, according to frequency he stands, I reckon he stands, he stands quickly, he stands too soon,” or “nobody indicates.”] …what is he doing with her? And then with Magdalena, and then with the adulteress (John 8) who he let go so leniently. In such a way did righteous Christ have to become an adulterer before he died. I think it’s 100% certain that Martin Luther did not think that Jesus had adulterous relationships with three women in the Gospels. I think the far more likely interpretation is that Luther (assuming the text is halfway accurate) was talking about rumor and baseless allegations: people would accuse even Jesus of being an adulterer if they saw him talking to a woman.” Mar 20, 20:32
- on The Church in 2080, Part III: Scandals and Extinction Threats: “I sometimes wish this site had a vote feature, both for the OPs and for their comments. In this case I would heartily up-vote jader3rd.” Mar 20, 10:11
- on The Church in 2080, Part III: Scandals and Extinction Threats: “I think I’ve got one. What if the President of the church has a medical background, and in General Conference advices women to not attend University in states with anti-abortion laws, because they deserve to have medical professionals who can give them modern standards of care? Would that cause any fractures in the church?” Mar 20, 07:30
- on The Church in 2080, Part II: The Kids Are Not All Right, or the Post-Post-Gen Zers: “I’m not going to try to respond to the whole thread, but I do want to point out that there’s nothing inherently liberal about Haidt’s “three great untruths.” That they’re currently associated with liberalism and believed by liberal young people is a side effect of liberalism’s project to try to prevent speech that is racist/sexist/etc. The right seems determined to catch up. The right-wing project to try to prevent serious discussion of past and presentracism, lest it make white people uncomfortable, uses the same justifications and sends the same messages. The project to prevent open discussion of LGBT issues also rests on the assumption of fragility, though it’s not the same kind of fragility. My hope is that both sides will realize they’d rather have free speech for everyone than the other side dictating what’s acceptable and what isn’t, and rededicate themselves to the first amendment. The message to kids that they’re tough enough to take listening to people who disagree with them would be a beneficial side effect. But I’m not optimistic.” Mar 20, 06:59
- on The Church in 2080, Part III: Scandals and Extinction Threats: “I think the Snufferites are kind of an example of that.” Mar 19, 17:23
- on The Church in 2080, Part III: Scandals and Extinction Threats: “jader3rd, I worry that the FIRM Foundation (Heartlanders) might have that kind of potential–only there’s a strong underlying political component to their philosophy that draws likeminded people to their organization.” Mar 19, 17:05