Society & Culture - 9 November 2007

2007-11-09 09:11:06 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Etiquette

2007-11-09 09:10:38 · 9 answers · asked by Ace of Spades 5 in Religion & Spirituality

2007-11-09 09:10:27 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Etiquette

In a nutshell, we are Christians, with the same bible as "other" Christians. (We use the King James version). However, we believe that Jesus also took His ministry to the American continent after His resurrection. The record of that is in the Book Of Mormon (where our nickname comes from).It does not replace the Bible - it enforces and testifies of the truth of the Bible in fact.
We also believe that His gospel is still alive today - in it's fullness, with prophets and the priesthood and revelation, but that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, in His principles and laws.
We also believe in the Eternities and that families are eternal.
Obviously, a religion cannot be explained in a few words.
I am not going to go on the defensive about issues people have with us. We have many millions of members worldwide - we all have a testimony of the Gospel and of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost as 3 separate beings.
What do you think of Mormonism?

2007-11-09 09:08:45 · 12 answers · asked by jo :) 5 in Religion & Spirituality

I just saw a question where someone complained that Atheists are know-it-alls. Just wondering.

2007-11-09 09:06:32 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

just wondering if you need to tip when you get something pierced or if that's just for when you get a tattoo.
i'm not really sure.

2007-11-09 09:06:29 · 5 answers · asked by jae bee 2 in Etiquette

You walk into your home.
No one else is there.
You drape your jacket over a coat rack,
and walk toward the kitchen.
As you step through the doorway to the kitchen,
a hand goes over your mouth.

You walked into your home while it was being robbed.
The intrudor clearly intends to kill you.
But, before he pulls out a gun, you have a moment to pray to God.

Do you pray for your life to be spared, or for the salvation of the soul of your assailant?

2007-11-09 09:05:43 · 25 answers · asked by [[Princess For The Day]] 2 in Religion & Spirituality

The US Constitution gives us all freedom of religion...so why are we now being denied this right. A very few people find it offensive to see GOD anywhere...well many people left the other hemisphere due to religious persecution...so what now we too will be persecuted for displaying GOD in our lives...So let us who do want GOD displayed let it be so: put the sign of GOD for you on your car, front door, windows, or wherever...our forefathers faught for it and our service men are fighting for our freedoms as we sit at home in peace...so wave GOD to your hearts content...do you agree?

2007-11-09 09:04:48 · 20 answers · asked by teri 4 in Religion & Spirituality

The God Delusion
The Bible
The Da Vinci Code
Harry Potter


which was the most disturbing, insulting or influential on how you answer questions here, and which are you?

2007-11-09 09:04:36 · 34 answers · asked by GEISHA 3 in Religion & Spirituality

2 Nephi 5:21 says,

"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, and they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."

2007-11-09 09:04:17 · 8 answers · asked by Jesus Cake 3 in Religion & Spirituality

In the Garden of Eden, humans disobeyed God's command and ate of the "Fruit of Wisdom", but what if they had eaten of the "Fruit of Life" instead?

2007-11-09 09:03:31 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

The Church accompanies its faithful from even before birth, through all the steps of life to death and beyond, with its prayers, rites, sacraments, preaching, teaching, and its love, faith and hope. All of life, and even death itself, are drawn into the realm of the life of the Church. Death is seen as evil in itself, and symbolic of all those forces which oppose God-given life and its fulfillment. Salvation and redemption are normally understood in Eastern Christianity in terms of sharing in Jesus Christ's victory over death, sin and evil through His crucifixion and His resurrection. The Orthodox Church has a very strong pro-life stand which in part expresses itself in opposition to doctrinaire advocacy of euthanasia.

Euthanasia is understood to be the view or practice which holds that a person has the right, and even the moral obligation, to end his or her life when it is considered to be - for whatever subjectively accepted reason "not worth living." Euthanasia advocates nearly always include in this assertion the right and duty of others, including medical personnel, to assist the person in fulfilling this purpose. Needless to say, the Orthodox Church rejects such a view, seeing such behavior as a form of suicide on the part of the individual, and a form of murder on a part of others who assist in this practice, both of which are seen as sins.

Thus the Orthodox Church, in the words of 1976 Christmas encyclical of former Archbishop Iakovos, considers "euthanasia and abortion, along with homosexuality ... a ... moral alienation." Modern medical practice, however, has affected another part of the Church's perspective. The Church does not expect that excessive and heroic means must be used at all costs to prolong dying, as has now become possible through technical medical advances. As current Orthodox theology expresses it:

"The Church distinguishes between euthanasia and the withholding of extraordinary means to prolong life. It affirms the sanctity of human life and man's God-given responsibility to preserve life. But it rejects an attitude which disregards the inevitability of physical death."

This means that the Church may even pray that terminally ill persons die, without insisting that they be subjected to unnecessary and extraordinary medical efforts. At the same time, the Church rejects as morally wrong any willed action on the part of an individual to cause his or her own death or the death of another, when it otherwise would not occur.

2007-11-09 09:03:24 · 4 answers · asked by Jacob Dahlen 3 in Religion & Spirituality

2007-11-09 09:03:04 · 7 answers · asked by ? 7 in Other - Society & Culture

It seems to me that most religions - when you strip them of all the stuff that we imperfect beings have added - have the same basic truth. Surely If we could get rid of all the historical nonsense and social rules that constitute religion, and strip it back to a simple spirituality we'd all get along together with love?

2007-11-09 09:02:56 · 20 answers · asked by pippi 2 in Religion & Spirituality

The teaching of the Orthodox Church on sexual questions is strongly determined by the Church's attitude toward marriage and the family. A representative Orthodox statement which shows the centrality and importance of the family in Orthodox thinking is found in an encyclical letter by former Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, issued on the occasion of National Family Week in 1972. He stated:

"Home and family life is the bedrock of our Greek Orthodox life-style. The spirit that binds us together as a people finds its deepest roots in the home where the tenderest values of human existence, love, compassion, forbearance and mutual helpfulness thrive in abundance."

Over the centuries and throughout most cultures and civilizations the family has been proven to be the unifying unit of society. Today we find the family under attack both from within and from without. Outside forces would have us believe that the family as we have come to know and cherish it is no longer necessary. From within, the erosion of spiritual values and emphasis upon materialism has created for many families confusion and uncertainty where commitment and dedication once reigned. Marriage is holy. The home is sacred. Birth is a miracle. In these we find the very meaning of life itself.

One aspect of the "commitment and dedication" of the holy state of marriage and family is cast in terms of sexual behavior. Most moral questions relating to sex are generally best understood in the light of this high regard for marriage and the family. Some of the questions on sexual issues addressed by the Orthodox Church are the following:

The Orthodox Church remains faithful to the biblical and traditional norms regarding premarital sexual relations between men and women. The only appropriate and morally fitting place for the exercise of sexual relations, according to the teachings of the Church, is marriage. The moral teaching of the Church on this matter has been unchanging since its foundation. In sum, the sanctity of marriage is the cornerstone of sexual morality. The whole range of sexual activity outside marriage - fornication, adultery and homosexuality - are thus seen as not fitting and appropriate to the Christian way of life. Like the teaching on fornication, the teachings of the Church on these and similar issues have remained constant. Expressed in Scripture, the continuing Tradition of the Church, the writings of the Church Fathers, the Ecumenical Councils and the canons, these views have been restated by theologians, hierarchs and local Orthodox churches in our own day. For example, the Decalogue prohibits adultery. In the tradition of the Church, the second-century Epistle of Barnabas commands "Thou shalt not be an adulterer, nor a corrupter, nor be like to them that are such." The fourth-century Church Father St. Basil wrote against the practice (Canons 35 and 77); and the Quinisext Council (A.D. 691) repeated the same condemnation in its eighty-seventh canon. All major Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States have had occasion to repeat the condemnation of adultery.
Generally stated, fornication, adultery, abortion, homosexuality and any form of abusive sexual behavior are considered immoral and inappropriate forms of behavior in and of themselves, and also because they attack the institution of marriage and the family. Two representative statements, one on abortion and another on homosexuality, from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America follow. They are from the Twenty-Third Clergy-Laity Congress held in Philadelphia in 1976. The Orthodox Church has a definite, formal and intended attitude toward abortion. It condemns all procedures purporting to abort the embryo or fetus, whether by surgical or chemical means. The Orthodox Church brands abortion as murder; that is, as a premeditated termination of the life of a human being. The only time the Orthodox Church will reluctantly acquiesce to abortion is when the preponderance of medical opinion determines that unless the embryo or fetus is aborted, the mother will die. Decisions of the Supreme Court and State legislatures by which abortion, with or without restrictions, is allowed should be viewed by practicing Christians as an affront to their beliefs in the sanctity of life. The position of the Orthodox Church toward homosexuality has been expressed by synodicals, canons and patristic pronouncements beginning with the very first centuries of Orthodox ecclesiastical life. Thus, the Orthodox Church condemns unreservedly all expressions of personal sexual experience which prove contrary to the definite and unalterable function ascribed to sex by God's ordinance and expressed in man's experience as a law of nature. The Orthodox Church believes that homosexuality should be treated by religion as a sinful failure. In both cases, correction is called for. Homosexuals should be accorded the confidential medical and psychiatric facilities by which they can be helped to restore themselves to a self-respecting sexual identity that belongs to them by God's ordinance. In full confidentiality the Orthodox Church cares and provides pastorally for homosexuals in the belief that no sinner who has failed himself and God should be allowed to deteriorate morally and spiritually. Psychiatric reconciliation is bound to prove short-lived.
The possible exception to the above affirmation of continuity of teaching is the view of the Orthodox Church on the issue of contraception. Because of the lack of a full understanding of the implications of the biology of reproduction, earlier writers tended to identify abortion with contraception. However, of late a new view has taken hold among Orthodox writers and thinkers on this topic, which permits the use of certain contraceptive practices within marriage for the purpose of spacing children, enhancing the expression of marital love, and protecting health.

2007-11-09 09:01:34 · 5 answers · asked by Jacob Dahlen 3 in Religion & Spirituality

I cannot find a Hebrew to English dictionary online. The word is bet, ayin, lamed, yud, mem. If anyone knows what it means, please tell me!

2007-11-09 09:01:16 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Languages

Did your parents force you into it? Peer pressure? All of the "cool" people are into it? Ignorance? Lost a bet? Just wondering.

2007-11-09 09:00:14 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

every week about now?

Here in Austin TX USA, it is 4pm on Fri afternoon before a long weekend and time invariable slows down to a thick, imperceptable ooze.

Why does God do that?

2007-11-09 08:59:34 · 8 answers · asked by Acorn 7 in Religion & Spirituality

Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 24 has the following to say:

"So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.sword, to guard the way to the tree of life."

Does anyone have any idea why the Cherubim are now shirking their guard duty? Did the Entrance to the Garden of Eden simply vanish later in history? Why is that "fact" not in the bible too? Seems relevant to the credibility of it.

Why isn't there a "Fiery Sword" International Park? People could stand next to the sword or the Cherubin and have their pictures taken, just like the changing of the guard in London.

Nothing in "God's Holy Word" ever said that the entrance became invisible. But, since that would be the simplest way to protect the area, why not do that to begin with instead of posting angelic guards with a flaming sword?

Hmm, seems kinda fishy, like the Bible's a bunch of crap afterall.

2007-11-09 08:57:58 · 7 answers · asked by coralsnayk 3 in Religion & Spirituality

I allowed the Yahoo Community to pick what they thought was the best answer to my question regarding the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and they chose an answer that is absolutely wrong, according to even the most liberal interpretation of the term:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20071101015044AAYWXZc

The complete and correct information on the matter is available here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm

How can anyone claim faith alone and scripture alone as their dogma, appeal to the power of the Holy Spirit for guidance, arrive at numerous incorrect and widely divergent answers (like they did on this one) yet still claim to know the truth?

2007-11-09 08:57:13 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

I mean no disrespect to Muslims, in fact, I would like to encourage them to speak out more frequently and clearly about their beliefs, because some have claimed it to be a "religion of peace". So if it is, then why do we never hear the condemnation from the general Muslim communities whenever people claiming to be from their religion kill and maim people in terrorist type insurgencies and attacks? I pay attention to the news and I sincerely almost never hear Muslim leaders speaking out on a daily basis against violence in the form of terrorism. It seems that if Muslims want to be taken seriously and accepted as a religion of peace, they should be the LOUDEST in speaking out after every single act of violence committed in the name of Islam. Please, once again, accept this as my opinion and not an attack.

2007-11-09 08:54:46 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

In which to meditate/pray/whatever you do...

2007-11-09 08:52:44 · 22 answers · asked by Armless Joe, Bipedal Foe 6 in Religion & Spirituality

2007-11-09 08:52:11 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Other - Society & Culture

(Please don't answer by saying blithely that you *know* he does, just pretend that somehow proof had been furnished that he definitely did not) Would you then live your life differently? Would you be less kind? Would you experiment with homosexual desires? The crux of my question is, what have you "given up" for your faith? Or would you actually live the same as you do now?

2007-11-09 08:50:49 · 27 answers · asked by DavinaOpines 5 in Religion & Spirituality

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and withouthim was not any thing that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
John 1:1-4

Thoughts?

2007-11-09 08:50:19 · 14 answers · asked by strplng warrior mom 6 in Religion & Spirituality

I am honestly interested in how many Christians have read the Bible.

2007-11-09 08:50:14 · 24 answers · asked by ? 6 in Religion & Spirituality

I've seen several people state that they don't follow any religion, they just go by God's word. Where do they get God's word if not from their religion? Is God speaking personally with all of these people or did they read what they believe to be his word in the holy book of their religion?

2007-11-09 08:49:58 · 13 answers · asked by Sun: supporting gay rights 7 in Religion & Spirituality

There's a huge spiritual convention this weekend, and I'm wondering if I should go see a pyschic.
Would you spend money to see what they have to say?
How would you choose one from the dozens they have?

2007-11-09 08:49:05 · 15 answers · asked by lojix 3 in Religion & Spirituality

2007-11-09 08:49:02 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

Even this one has been asked more than once.

2007-11-09 08:49:00 · 7 answers · asked by Nels 7 in Religion & Spirituality