This thread truly frightens me

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

I wrote a long post and lost it because I was "timed out."

Grrrr....

So is Tex arguing for infallibility again? Is he arguing that agency is to choose to follow the prophet or to choose to go to hell? Is he equating unity with conformity? Is he ignoring scriptures about the voice of the people and common consent? Is he being his usual ignorant self? Is he avowing one's decisions should be turned over to another (fascism)?

Bingo. I'm a fascist at heart. But everyone knows this.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by creekster

Don't they look the same? IOW, whether you are agreeing with someone or acting like someone because you are choosing to conform or because you have been led to a unified position by reason or the spirit, isn't the appearance to others the same? This is not an empty question, particularly if we are willing to criticize others for appearing as sheep, and if we assume the premise that we should all be unified in Christ. Now perhaps you have some other definition for unity that I am not considering, and if you have already posted it somewhere, please point me there.

Appearances aren't the (main) issue. Nonetheless, I don't think unity and conformity look the same either.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

Appearances aren't the (main) issue. Nonetheless, I don't think unity and conformity look the same either.

Can you explain what you mean by that?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

Yes. Consider the compass: Each of us at different points, having fragmentary, different, and even oppositional perspectives, and being circumscribed through God.

Too many people oversimplify the square and flat-out ignore or misunderstand the compass.

Yes but we're positioned on a globe in four dimensional space-time, so two dimensional visions of reality are useless.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

Yes. Consider the compass: Each of us at different points, having fragmentary, different, and even oppositional perspectives, and being circumscribed through God.

Too many people oversimplify the square and flat-out ignore or misunderstand the compass.

I like this thought (and may use it in a talk someday, if you don't mind), but doesn't it assume imperfection and a certain alck of unity? IOW, if everyone was in perfect unity would we need a compass to circumscribe our positions? WOuldn't we all be in the same spot, so to speak?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by creekster

Can you explain what you mean by that?

Plato, the 4th grade version:

Appearances be damned.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by ERCougar

You should start to get an idea of what he's actually arguing by around post #150.

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by Tex

Bingo. I'm a fascist at heart. But everyone knows this.

Case in point, SIEQ.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by creekster

I like this thought (and may use it in a talk someday, if you don't mind), but doesn't it assume imperfection and a certain alck of unity? IOW, if everyone was in perfect unity would we need a compass to circumscribe our positions? WOuldn't we all be in the same spot, so to speak?

Think of Fowler's Stages of Faith, and incorporate the Compass. If one is in Levinson's developmental stages of life which is reflected in a faith stage, how could a unified group of diverse life stages ever be at the same point?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by creekster

I like this thought (and may use it in a talk someday, if you don't mind), but doesn't it assume imperfection and a certain alck of unity? IOW, if everyone was in perfect unity would we need a compass to circumscribe our positions? WOuldn't we all be in the same spot, so to speak?

We are circumscribed and unified in God. That doesn't mean we are the same, or are standing in the same place.

Put differently, in an infinite universe, we are all in the middle, even though it may not appear so.