Bushrat

Update: I had the cataracts surgery done on my left eye last week. My father covered the balance that I was short of. Several friends and strangers helped with the expense and I am grateful for all who contributed. I am waiting to heal so I can get the other eye done soon. Still raising funds.

ok... I don't know how i helped you, but thanks.. whats your project?

I asked the doctor why I was getting the retinal detachments... he said it was simply bad genetics. My former career had nothing to do with it. I just wanted to explain how I've been struggling trying to start a new career.

Hello all, I hate to do this, but I have no pride left. My career is in mineral exploration, and I am good at what I do. Since about 4 years ago my industry has collapsed and I've had to renew myself in another career. I opened an Army Surplus store in Kelowna BC Canada. Its a tough slog, but its getting better all the time. My store in not profitable yet, and so I work 4hrs per day as a security guard starting at 6am then I go open my store at 10am to 6pm. I do this 5 days a week and then i work the store Saturday 10-6 and work 11pm Saturday to 7am Sunday doing more security work. I am closed on Sunday, so that's my day off. I had a several partially detached retinas last year and they were repaired with laser surgery, but one complication resulted in me getting cataracts in one eye. so... I need surgery.... BC medical (socialized medicine) covers one eye and has a 6 month plus wait time. I will also have to have my other eye repaired with PRK laser at the same time to get normal vision again which is not covered by the government. Even with all my jobs and working I am not able to afford this surgery. It will cost $2850 CDN. I am attaching a link to my gofundme page so if anyone wants to help they can.. If you don't want to or can't its all good. Best wishes to all and thanks for reading this. https://www.gofundme.com/eye-surgery-to-fix-cataracts Best Regards, Brian

The Brits used to be very good at orchestrating a regime change, the CIA not so much. Iraq should have been handed that way too if they really wanted Saddam gone. They are the lapdog of the Chinese, make no mistake about that, it will be China who brings them to heel under US pressure. If they don't do it, and US does it, it will be a aggressive act towards the Chinese, does that matter to Trump, I'm not sure. I do think one way or another the Trump will bring NK under control as they are too big a risk for the region... and the Japanese and SK will pay for the whole thing, whatever happens.

Thanks for sharing the article. I find this kind of realization quite compelling. I think my wife has realized this already, but she lives in a country where whites are an extreme minority and hasn't has the exposure to the US racial experience as African-Americans have.

What was amazing to me was that they had ALL bought into this ridiculous lie. This collective cult of the sjw is amazing in its reach and ability to induce otherwise normal people into its fold. Even more amazing was that not one reasonable person thought I was NOT a racist. But rather than believe in direct evidence and my own statements, they rushed to judgement based on an extremely narrow point... Trump. I agree... we must start treating these people like they are in cult.

Ofc I know I'm not a racist. I said I was a Trump supporter because I am. Basically, I agree with everything Stefan has said about Trump.

Earlier today I saw a re-tweet by Mike Cernovich for a poll posted by @freeyourmindkid asking if a person was a racist if they voted for Trump for any reason. At the time I saw the poll it was 75% racist yes, and 25% racist no. I voted no ofc and posted a picture of me and my wife, and then I stated I was Trump supporter and asked if I was a racist and if my wife was one too. Unanimously the tweets came back stating that I was indeed a racist, and a fascist. That I was like Jefferson and Strom Thurman. I was respectful to them and said how I loved my wife and their logic was flawed because how could I love somebody as my wife and racist to her and our children. Again, I was told I was racist, and indeed the worst kind of insidious racist. Later checking back on the thread I saw that the no vote was quickly gaining on the yes votes and was near parity. I suspect that Mike Cernovich's attention brought unwanted attention to the post by reasonable people who began to swing the vote. Not one single person on the tread told me I was not a racist. NOT ONE. This is where the left has taken many people in the black community and guilt ridden progressives. I thought maybe a couple of people may have had some reason in their heads, but they not only thought I was racist, but most seemed to hate me, and hate me even more for marrying a black woman. This massive and collective disconnect with reason and understanding is symptomatic of the utter brain-washing the left has induced into the progressive/democrat side. I have no idea how we are ever going to correct this insane ideology. I suppose all I can do is live my life and teach my children not to fall into the trap these poor people have. I was shocked and surprised by the crazy racism that was confronting me. They were collectively propelling this madness forward. inevitably it will come to a terrible end somehow or just fade away as this ideology is proven false over time. Later checking back I was blocked by @freeyourmindkid I suspect the poll he posted did not go the way he wanted and he deleted it. Anyway, i thought I'd share this crazy experience with everyone.

These are great points, and I agree with them whole-heartedly . I agree about the insight pointed out about preistcraft. I do think that not everyone who went into the ministry then or now is decidedly and intentionally deceiving people for their own gain. Its not the case nor, and its probably not the case then. People who are trying to do good may not have all the truth or may have some part of the truth and try to do the best as they can. However, as Stef has pointed out there are some who use religion as means to oppress and exploit others. I guess I am not convinced that all or even most of those practicing religion as preists in the past were behaving with sinister motives.

I have to say I was not a fan of this video..... here's why: 1. I think its a bit of a straw man argument, you constructed 'linguisite' is accurate on some ways but not entirely accurate. I think there was a place in society for people who were not able to hunt per se. There would have been many other activities scrawny men could engage in to contribute... even in a hunter/gatherer society. gathering, becoming a healer, crafting useful items etc. There definitely were items that could heal people, it was not all deception. many herbs and natural remedies are quite effective. 2.Nature is neither good nor bad. it is not abusing us as you say. The sun shines on the just and unjust. Ancient man lived in nature much easier than any of us could now. I worked in mining exploration for over 25 years... most of it in remote camps far from civilization. I loved it. One can make themselves quite comfortable in nature, even in the winter time. Some of the most incredible camps I was in were winter camps. Nature does not have any kind of personality or aim to destroy or hurt anyone. It just is. Perhaps some people tried to make sense of the arbitrary effects of nature.... similar effects took place in the beginning of modern warfare because death could occur randomly from artillery or random rifle shot even though you were a strong powerful man. Soldiers began to carry good luck charms, believe heavily in luck and destiny because death came not from any weakness but randomly. Indeed nature has a similar randomness, people without understanding in science at time created 'gods' to describe what they observed, but we have records that even anciently some people did not believe in the so called 'gods'. Violence has always been more prevalent from other humans to a larger degree than from nature. I believe this was what people were probably trying to understand... not nature. The priest class was probably trying to minimize violence and oppression between humans, not nature. 3. Indeed there was a strong priest class at many times in history up until now. However not all of these people were trying to 'fool' the people. Many were earnestly trying to help and to find peace in a world full of violence and hatred. History is full of honest loving people in the priest class who honestly tried to help people. There is goodness in helping and serving people, trying to heal the sick, comfort the sad and downtrodden. These are good activities and were the majority of the activities for the Christian priestly class in any time. They did not always have a perfect understanding of nature or God, but many did their best with what they knew. 4. Your mention of 'magical Mormon underwear' shows that you have a misconception of how us Mormons feel about our 'underwear'. We don't believe in magic, but believe that Heavenly Father will bless us in this world or the next by keeping his commandments. The 'underwear' will not stop bullets, or prevent illness, or be some kind of magical armour. It is an inward sign to ourselves and God of the covenants we have made to God to keep his commandments. We wear them to remind ourselves of these covenants. They are worn under our clothes so as to be humble and contrite in our commitments not ostentatious or showy of how we feel. 5.Science and religion are not mutually exclusive. Ancient culture had many advancements at times... many of their engineering feats reveal to us of their intelligence. You would be good to remember that many of the early scholars making some excellent discoveries were priests or Christians whose discoveries only revealed more about God than disproved him. I have no problems with science, with evolution, with many of the scientific discoveries and theories that are prevalent today. Most of them only make me have more faith in God and understand him better. Indeed it did take time for mankind to discover better agricultural methods. Its not an indication that we abandoned religion to make those discoveries. 6. There are some people in society who want to have influence or power over others, there always have been, there always will be. Some indeed were attracted to the priest class, some to other areas such as military service or politics. But just because some were priests does not mean all the priestly class have been or are now interested in controlling others. I don't mean this only in an anecdotal fashion but overall. Many have been and still do strive to sincerely help others and bless those around them. We cannot nor should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because some of the Christians have tried to oppress others. There were many good people in history who were priests. 7. Many of the terrible practices of Christians were not the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ taught that he did not bring peace into the world as the world knows it but peace of the soul. Proper disciples of Christ do not try to fool people to have power over them, they to bring peace to the persons life through inner peace and through spiritual peace. A knowledge of God should bring peace into ones life. We sometimes have a saying 'act as if everything depends upon you, and pray as if everything depends upon God'. This belief is not admonishing people to do nothing and abandon reason, but to do all that is in ones own power to help oneself. True Christianity is not abandoning reason, but using it as much as possible, as it always has been.

'Sraven Dogs Bite' I heard this saying when I lived in Guyana, South America. It basically means that you can try to take in a stray dog and care for it, feed it etc.... but it will likely bite you in spite of your kindness. * How the Guyanese use this in their common vernacular is to illustrate how you should be careful whom you help and take into your circle of trust. I think this sums up whats happening with most of the Islamic immigrants and refugees being forced upon the western countries at the moment. We can be kind to them, take care of them and try to treat them well.... but they will eventually bite us... and they have already. People in the developing world where the political correctness has not reached yet clearly know all of this because they are not taking any refugees or immigrants, nor do the people who are trying to get out of the middle east want to go other developing countries because they want the free money from the western rich countries. They are not running from war, because most of them are fleeing relatively stable countries. They are seeking free hand outs. People in Guyana used to scratch their heads in disbelief at how naive us westerners were about what people in the world are really like. I learned first hand by working in Africa, Haiti, and Guyana just how cruel and deceitful people can be. Some of these people coming over are not good people and never will be. People need to understand that no matter how nice we treat the immigrants and refugees, they will likely bite us. Cheers, Bushrat

its so transparent that the media hates Trump.... and the establishment hates trump.... anyone ask why this is? Stefan admirably connects the two and shows the bold hypocrisy and blatant favoritism of the media. so transparent, so pathetic.... I hope FDR does a video about Romney.... who has now shown himself as part of the establishment. Trump is the only anti establishment candidate we have chance with.

I stopped watching John Oliver some time ago. He is funny, but I couldn't stand his politics, just way to lefty for me. And usually very wrong about his criticisms of people who don't share is his commie beliefs. The people on the left will continue to argue about non-issues as they keep falling into the traps that Trump himself sets..... the best thing for him is to be underestimated by the Democrats as he continually is.

As a Mormon (LDS) my attitude is that if you want to come have fun that's fine with me. I say the more the merrier. Sports activities is a time for us to have fun, if we talk about religion its only because we are from the same church not because we are trying to recruit anyone. We like to have fun activities just for fun with people (as long as they respect our values and don't swear or be crude.... nobody gets offended). Just go and have fun.

Hey guys, thanks for the great posts on this thread. I found this video that sums up almost exactly my views on government. It was talk given by Ezra Taft Benson in 1968 while he was an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Have a look: Also, for those who have not read this about Mormons, once Joseph Smith was asked what we believe, here is what is response was, we call them the 13 Articles of Faith: We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I believe that we are children of God. We are created in his image both physically and mentally as you say.

I am trying to answer all questions that are asked that are on topic to the best of my knowledge.

I think this thread on this topic is going onto another tangent. I wrote this post to clear up misconceptions about Mormons. We can have a discussion about the existence of God on another topic if you like.... i can start or you can, but lets put this question to another topic thread.

I think you are right, BUT having said that, being a Mormon I have a great deal of experience talking to other Mormons and am intimately familiar with the main teachings of the church.. (having taught at various levels in the church).. I can confidently say that most of the Mormons I have met would believe x or y. To be fair, I'm not the one who brought up science in this discussion, or proposed that it offered answers to life's questions, but was rather responding to somebody's question. I am somewhat new to the study of philosophy. So far its a very interesting topic and offers a refreshing rational discussion about reason and logic. I have found Stefan's logical conclusions mostly in line with my own conclusions, the existence of God being one of the few differences of course.

I've never said that science does not answer many questions.... I think science answers a lot of questions, but it can never answer the questions of 'why am I here?' or ' whats the purpose of life?'. As you say... many people feel they have the answer to these questions,and many are different than the answers I have found. Why do I believe my answers are the truth? Well, then I would get into my spiritual experiences mixed with some of the logic that I followed to get there. I am not sure I want to put all that out there in this forum because its very personal. I hope to be able answer peoples questions about Mormons. If I know you better and I feel some sort of mutual respect between us then I would probably share my experiences and tell you my deep thoughts on the matter on a one to one dialogue.

I think this would be a very long question to answer, but I'll try to be brief. When I was looking for answers about why we are here, where did we come from, what is the purpose of life, I found my religion. It answered all of my questions in a way that made an immense amount of sense to me. I have never found anything yet that makes me seriously doubt the conclusions I have come to. I think the path of each Mormon is very different and individuals. What gives religion authority?... well, if you believe that the source of wisdom and the source of truth comes from this set of beliefs or church for that matter, then you accept the teachings of that church.... and my church has a prophet and leaders at its head who I believe are divinely inspired. I accept their guidance on matters that are important to me. I guess I should have said that most Mormons believe that..... Or that I believe that. My mistake. The 'Salamander Letters' as they have become known, were proven to be forgeries and were perpetrated by a man who had a personal vendetta against the Mormon church, he created several forgeries and he later planted bombs and murdered people. It was discovered that he falsified all of these documents,

Most of the so called inaccuracies on the Wikipedia site have been provided with a short rebuttal by an 'apologist' (a term I find mildly condescending). I agree with most of the rebuttals. As far as the genetics, the Book of Mormon does not claim that the ALL of the people in America came over on the boat with Lehi and his followers, there very may have been other people here on the American continents when they arrived. Please keep in mind that the Book of Mormon itself does not claim to be a full historical text, but rather a text describing the descendants of Lehi and his followers dealings with God. Many people in and out of the church have tried to determine historical settings for the book, but I think these will ultimately not be able to be proven or dis-proven because the text admits that it is written by imperfect men who were recording the spiritual events over the historical events. I don't think the Bible answers a lot of those things, but is rather a good place to start. As a Mormon I rely on all available texts and teachings from modern day prophets. The Church has never came out with an official statement on where exactly the Book of Mormon took place except for that it took place here on America-- possibly North and South.We believe it was Moroni who buried the plates in New York state, but we don't really know where he may have lived before that. People, including Joseph Smith may have speculated on where it may have taken place without any full knowledge of the actual places. The Book of Mormon states that the Lamanites were descendants of Lehi who was from Jerusalem. When the Nephites ( also descended from Lehi) were being wiped out, some were given the choice to deny God and join the Lamanites or be killed, many of them might have chosen to deny God which also would have continued their gene line. Near the end of the Book, the difference between Lamanites and Nephites was more a difference in religious and political alignment rather than a racial or genetic line.

That link pretty much sums up our beliefs about spanking. I myself do not, and have not spanked my children (I have two daughters and 4 step sons). I was spanked as child and feel no ill will towards my parents about it. However I feel that there are far more effective ways to discipline a child without imposing physical force. Spankers should keep in mind that if they rely on spanking, the children will reach a certain age when spanking will no longer be possible or effective because the children are too large... what will they do then? Can you give me some examples of this? I have a history degree and have so far not found any inconsistencies. Mormons use the Bible as scripture, with the caveat that as far as it has been translated correctly. Keep in mind that the oldest text we have from New Testament books is from the 3rd century, so this is a rational caveat I think. I have read the Bible several times and use it my life regularly when studying topics. I have not found any contradictions thus far. As far as waiting until 1820, I would not claim to know all the reasons that God waited until 1820 to reveal things is that we believe that there was an apostasy that was predicted to take place before another 'dispensation' of the Gospel. We believe this did take place shortly after the death of most of the Apostles. Also, it is our belief that in order for the full Gospel to be able to take hold there had to be the right setting and place for acceptance. Given the amount of persecution the early Mormons received, I think my church would not have been permitted to take hold in any of the European countries at the time. That's just my thought... I think one the main factors that my church survived is that they fled to Utah in the 1850's and onward where they were able to practice our faith without much persecution. As far as rational, that's a tough one...by nature religion is irrational. But I have found space for it in my mind by accepting that there are, and will be things in this world that cannot be explained by science. By nature I am very skeptical person.Which seems like a contradiction from a Mormon, but it's true, I don't get convinced of things too easily and usually need to see a great deal evidence about something in order to be convinced. I suppose that I consider myself rational, but know enough to say that I can never have all the answers for a rational explanation for everything. Oh be sure, that we can be anarchists... some of my LDS friends are anarchists. But to clarify, we believe that we are lawfully able to be subject to kings, rulers etc. This addresses the claim that the Catholics often use, saying that kings are subject to Gods Law, and that the Church on earth is not subject to the king. We say that the church 'government' or leadership is subject to kings and rulers and not above the law as some churches claim.

To be fair, I have seen a few threads that have degraded into insulting on bulletin boards. So, I just wanted to to be clear that I didn't want things go that way at all. I am sorry if your offended by what I said, I didn't mean to be disrespectful by saying that.. I don't think too many people would be insulting or disrespectful, but wanted to be clear about it, religion is an easy topic to get disrespectful about. some topics to start.... hmmm... Well, I have seen that many people criticize churches and religion for saying you have original sin. I have the same criticism, Mormons do not believe in original sin an the same sense that other churches believe. We believe in the fall of Adam and Eve, but that we are not 'evil'. I person cannot be responsible for their actions until they are able to understand right and wrong. We call this the 'age of accountability', and in our church we believe that age is 8 yrs old. Also, our concept of hell is not the same as other religions. We believe in a concept we call different degrees of glory. There is a scripture that likens it unto the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. In other words, you will receive some kind of reward unless you are a really evil or a very very bad person.I would say that very few people in the world would be sent to the lowest area, which is lower that the glory of the Stars... this area is called Outer Darkness. Our focus in the church is to try to qualify for the Celestial Kingdom, which is the highest degree of glory. Maybe these topics would start the dialogue. Cheers, Bushrat