Simple Utah Mormon Politics

I am really beginning to like this Google Voice thing!  It allows me, using my smartphone, to "put my thoughts down on paper" as it were, much more quickly than if I had to type everything.  Here are some things that that I told Google Voice today about the Mormon doctrine of premortality.

I remember several times reading the story of Christ's appearance to the Nephites in the Book of Mormon and thinking, “Wow. Nice entrance, but is that all there is? Surely he could have taught them more than he did." Well, he actually did.

Here are some of my insights and wonderments about Moroni chapter 10 in the Book of Mormon.

This is an analysis of the article " The Mystery of ISIS "

Abraham chapter 4 in the Pearl of Great Price gives great insights into how the creation of the earth came about.  According to Abraham, the earth was not creating out of nothing, but out of existing matter. Abraham 4 uses 3 very interesting "O" words--organization, order, and obedience. Everything was organized and given order, but it's interesting about how the concept of obeience was different for the different entities that were "created".

Do Mormons believe in Original Sin?  Sort of...but not really.  In only the most general terms can what Mormons believe about the fall of Adam and Eve be considered similar to what other Christian religions teach about Original Sin. Yes, Eve and Adam's individual choices to partake of the forbidden fruit brought mortality and 'fallenness' into the world. But there the similarities end.  Here are some of the major doctrinal differences:

It seems to be unusually common among those acquainted with the Book of Mormon to imagine that when Lehi's family came across the ocean to the Americas that they encountered no other peoples.  There are, however, multiple subtle references in the Book of Mormon itself that point out that Lehi, Nephi, and their clan did engage with native populations shortly after they arrived.  In this article, I give one such example.

Is the Book of Abraham true?  Yes, I think so.  But this volume of LDS scripture very likely didn't come about in quite the way that you were taught in seminary or Sunday school. I've recently come across a great podcast called Mormon Sunday School by Jared Anderson. In one of his episodes, Jared and his panel of guests have some very insightful looks at the value of the Book of Abraham and how it came to be.  The podcast can be found here .  My interpretive notes and quotes from the podcast are included in this blog article. Note : Jared and his guest panelists come at this topic from a believing perspective.  They all agree that the Book of Abraham is authentic and teaches profound eternal truths. For some who may not be sure that they can accept the traditional story of how Joseph Smith brought about the Book of Abraham, the 3-hour podcast discussion will be a treat!

The story of Enkidu and Shamhat seems similar to that of Adam and Eve.  See what similarities you can find in my description of the story of Enkidu, Shamhat, and Enkidu's alter-ego, Gilgamesh below.