Just James

@Samuraijrussell Why is that important? Even if you could fully prove the historical events of the BoM or the Bible, no one can prove the supernatural elements. Faith is a requirement. Prayer, personal revelation, and other elements of walking with God are required for belief to be true.

@Samuraijrussell Interesting. If you were atheist, I would more easily understand your need for hard evidences. I'm not sure if deists/pantheists have a way of understanding faith. I'm not sure if you have a framework for prayer, receiving revelation, or other epistemological reasons to believe.

Mormons — when you ask them to provide credible evidence for the supposed massive battles, civilizations, and other events described in the Book of Mormon.

@Samuraijrussell Sorry... I did have 1 question for you... are you an atheist or a person of faith?

@Samuraijrussell The people with the specific genetics in question are certainly a minority group and... "It is common for the genetic records of minority populations to diminish over time when they merge with larger populations..." share.google/aimode/9dBkGed…

@LDSBoomstick Reading Isaiah in OT right now... I think it's helpful to step back from trying to nail down individual words / phrases and try to understand the high concept being communicated. Aside from that... just keep going. Don't get hung up. The Spirit well reveal what you need to know.

I'm about to dive into the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon. I've heard people call it the Isaiah Sandbar because that's usually where folks slow way down and lose all their reading momentum. I can't even count how many times I've hit these chapters, gotten stuck, and just quit reading completely... only to pick up my scriptures again months later and start over from the beginning. Now we've got so many solid resources to help us learn and understand it better. It's made going through these chapters way more enjoyable. I've also decided not to let the struggle stop me from pushing forward. Sometimes I'm just not ready to get it yet.

@Samuraijrussell Civilizations prior to BoM time- earliest people described coming to Americas were time of the Tower of Babel approx. 2200+ BC. DNA evidence. lol... BoM doesn't claim ancestry for all inhabitants of the Americas. The primary 'people' describe in the BoM were hunted to extinction.

@Samuraijrussell "supposed massive battles, civilizations, and other events" civilizations and massive battles, check. 'Other events' is vague. Reformed Egyptian... not the common written language, just of those who kept the scriptural record. 1/2

@Samuraijrussell Why not?

@NoMassAppeal Are any of these civilizations credible evidence for the Book of Mormon? Nope.

@TeeplesCY Are you saying we should get another LDS Presidential candidate in the mix?

The New York Times coverage of Latter-day Saints, by year (2000-2025).

@stackerco How many instances of erroneously speech as a prophet does it take to undo the 100s or 1000s of instances of speaking and revealing truth as a prophet? We are also always reminded to pray and get testimonies of truth for ourselves. All things work together, not in silos.

A doctor: “I went to med school.” A prophet: “I speak for God.” This not about whether fallible people who are trained in medicine can know more than me. This is about why someone should still be treated as speaking for God after being wrong in God’s name.

@stackerco That said - our true struggle is not with comprehension of deep doctrines. Our struggle is with salvation. It's fun to discuss, learn, and speculate about worlds and Gods ad infinitum, but it is far more important to build the faith to repent unto Christ.

@stackerco It's probably misrepresentative to pull out singular quotes from a lifetime of teaching which is without doubt more focused on "just follow Jesus by obeying the prophets and staying on the covenant path". 1/2

What happened to LDS prophets? They used to be so bold and deep and mystical. Today it’s just follow Jesus by obeying the prophets and staying on the covenant path.

@SocialistMormon Think I get where you're coming from. HOWEVER... I think to address it we start from a position of absolute ban and then work in the exceptions. This is what I think Saints ought to advocate for. A largely irreligious democracy will do the rest.

There are members of the Church who don't seem to understand opposing something on spiritual grounds while allowing it on political grounds. I believe abortion can be a serious sin. That doesn't mean I think an absolute nationwide ban on it is a good idea.

@sister_slay Well... don't know/care about a lot of that but I can definitively say that #12 will take care of itself and the answer to #14 is no. Sorry, people love people, not worms. I also should be doing something other than writing this.

Unrelated topics that are pissing me off. Not religious. This is my safe space. No order: 1. They need to put an end to all the Avatar: The Last Airbender leaks. STOP. 2. Utah… LET PEOPLE MERGE. 3. Ask people about themselves. No one wants to interview you the entire activity. You are not that interesting. 4. FOUR WHOLE DOLLARS FOR A SODA. ??????!!!!!!!!!!! 5. My marketing classes have been too easy. I’m graduating. I already know what a buyer persona is and a marketing funnel. PLEASE help me be prepared for an actual job. 6. “Let My People Go Surfing” is a BORING BOOK. 7. We need to start gatekeeping again. Not everyone needs to know where each location they see on social media is. Humans are ruining nature. I’m not sorry if that’s really woke of me to say. 8. It’s snowing this week. 9. If I scheduled an appointment with you, I expect it to be in your calendar. I get that things happen, but not multiple times in a row. 10. Dogs shouldn’t get old. We need to put an end to that. 11. One of my fake nails is longer than the other one on my hand. 12. What if I don’t want to be 25? 13. Micro-needling is expensive and I’m not convinced it’s working. 14. I’m not convinced my husband would love me if I was a worm. 15. I have no free time. I should be doing homework and not writing this. I’ll probably play video games anyways. 🤍✨Thanks for reading ✨🤍

@stackerco Him saying he doesn't know something is his own expression of fallibility and limitation. If you're trying to identify this as something he is expressly wrong about, I think it's a bad pic because it's not a definitive statement. It's more like food for thought...

How about this one?

LDS faithful: If you believe in fallible prophets (including fallible revelations), where is Dallin H Oaks fallible? What is he wrong about spiritually, doctrinally, with church policy and direction?

@stackerco This is kind of presumptive. Fallibility is our nature and his nature, but identifying a specific instance of a mistake is a different project. I'm sure if I had all of his speeches and quotes in front of me, I could find some things that I'd be like 'not sure about that'.

@stackerco A secularist might suggest it's more the meds or therapy and prayer serves a meditative function. I say, the Spirit of God magnifies all efforts for self repair and improvement and bit by bit can have a lasting impact on the heart as long as our sight is set on the Savior.

@stackerco Lastly, I think it should be reinforced how powerful it is to pray regularly and meaningfully. I am in the middle of my own mid-life issues and challenges. I went back to therapy, got appropriate meds, and have spent much more time in prayer and scripture study in the last months

My wife’s friend just told her of a member of her bishopric who ended his life today. Late 40s, family, etc. This is happening too consistently in my world. What can we do to help men?