01-26-2016, 01:20 PM | #1 |
Demiurge
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,368
|
BYU law school being investigated by bar group
over the issues of discrimination against gays and against those that leave the LDS faith.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/3459506-1...discrimination BYU very much wants every non-LDS student at BYU to leave their faith for Mormonism. But if it happens the other way around, buh-bye. |
01-26-2016, 05:59 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
|
Quote:
The prospect of polygamy with the wives inevitably selected from the now all-Muslim student body, and substantially increased pay, is what's interesting to our nihilistic protagonist. Of course Houellebecq's characters are not admirable; but in an ironic way they always make me examine what makes life and its tedium, aggravations, and inevitable horrors and ultimate oblivion worth living. There is also some excellent, highly entertaining satire. There's a lot of hilarious stuff about how religion really is winning and secularism and Western Civilization are "putrefied" and doomed. However, Houellebecq is quite indifferent to novel mechanics and artistry. So don't read him for that. This book ought to interest Mormons because you see how similar Mormonism is to middle or upper middle class or Saudi-style Islam. The linked article from the New York Times made me think the same thing.http://nyti.ms/1PNALKH The LDS Church really ought to consider a merger or a coalition with this element of Islam. There is a lot in common; they are the two distinct religious movements that are most alike. It could be the only hope for the LDS movement.
__________________
Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster Last edited by SeattleUte; 01-26-2016 at 06:02 PM. |
|
01-26-2016, 06:25 PM | #3 |
Demiurge
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,368
|
Zulu, who formerly posted here and may yet post again, remarked in the past that in his travels to the middle east that he found Muslims and Mormons to have much in common and very similar values.
He no longer publicly shares such sentiments, either because he has changed his mind, or because the comparison is not flattering. However the efforts of LDS church leaders over many decades to make Mormons into hyper-Americans seems to have worked. I think most Mormons in America would abandon Mormonism before abandoning America. And this is eventually to the undoing of a ultraconservative leanings that go strongly against the American mainstream. Accommodation is the path that we will see. Moderation will eventually win, after some kicking and screaming. |
01-26-2016, 06:39 PM | #4 | ||
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
Quote:
Quote:
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
||
01-26-2016, 06:54 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
|
Leaving the terrorists and radicals aside, Mormonism is the New World's Islam, and each has a like love-hate relationship with Euro/American secularism. I say love-hate because Mormonism and Islam alike is inextricably tied to and reliant upon modern secularism in a way that neither recognizes. So many Mormons are even now poor, brown, disdained immigrants (like Muslims in Europe). Mormonism and Islam each was started and took root at the fringes of and in the sticks outside of great and powerful secular cultures. The founding mythology, the theology, the moral code, the attitude toward females, sexuality and gays, and food and drink codes are the same--the only difference is pork. Granted, the D&C is more like the Koran than the Book of Mormon is.
__________________
Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
01-26-2016, 08:21 PM | #6 | |
Demiurge
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,368
|
Quote:
|
|
01-26-2016, 10:30 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
|
Quote:
But I'm willing to entertain a theory that the strains of monotheism that arise in reaction to Pauline Christianity and Euro or Classical based societies look much the same. And there is a lot in history to support this, as we consider not only Mormonism and Islam, but also the radical, ascetic strains of Judaism during the historical Jesus' time (such as the Essenes) that some consider the seeds of Islam, and the ascetic Protestant sects started in more remote places of Northern Europe and other New World sects.
__________________
Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
|
01-26-2016, 11:37 PM | #8 | ||
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
Quote:
Although there are superficial similarities, there are dozens of dissimilarities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_...ms_and_Mormons Quote:
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
||
01-26-2016, 11:58 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
|
Quote:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...nalCode=cjmm20 Why do you think some snake oil salesman was peddling Ptolemaic papyrus in Nauvoo? Why are Mormons defensive about this? The comparisons I've made are neutral. Islam is more important, older, bigger, richer, etc. The Koran is much more respected as literature than Mormon scriptures. The Islamic brand is probably a lot more valuable. I'm sure it would be the acquiring entity. If Mormons don't like the comparison they should ask themselves why.
__________________
Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
|
01-27-2016, 01:01 AM | #10 | |
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
Quote:
Mohammed does form perhaps an archetype of the warrior/prophet whose calling commences with a vision of God and his angels. In that sense, what the archetype set up in the charismatic sense is analogous to Joseph Smith, but to state categorically that Joseph Smith knowingly emulated a man he could hardly known much about, given the lack of materials in English with much understanding. Early translations from Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Farsi into workable English seem hardly likely to make to it to an uneducated farm boy in upstate New York. It more likely possible that the sociological conditions which allow charismatic figures to create a following recur from time to time, as shown by numerous charismatic "prophets" throughout the ages. Moreover, Islam won over its minions through martial conquest and the LDS faith is now floundering because it is unable to control the information flow and is unable find a central message for new adherents. The Caliphates and Umayyads were well-established within 150 years, but 750 CE, leading the growth under the Abbasids, Seljuks and Ottomans over the centuries. In many respects, absent moderation and attachment to a growing economy or world empire, the LDS faith is unlikely to see such growth and domination.
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
|
Bookmarks |
|
|