Comprehend
Res Ipsa Loquitur
In less than 180 years too!
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Who was Joseph Smith to you?
- Thread starter Bishka
- Start date
In less than 180 years too!
Bishka
Veteran Member
Thank you.....(For the life of me I couldn't remember how old the Church was)
Comprehend
Res Ipsa Loquitur
No problem. If you don't like to do the math, General Conference always tells you, yesterday we ended the April meeting of the 177th annual general conference, this tells us the church is 177 years old... cool eh? I didn't figure that out for a long time. (dumb huh).
Bishka
Veteran Member
Gentoo
The Feisty Penguin
I was going to post something about how I thought this thread was a sort of overreaction, but I stopped and thought about it. Joseph Smith can be seen as the spiritual center to your (general you to include all LDS) beliefs, in that, without him you wouldn't believe what you do simply because the church wouldn't exist. And to see people say things like that can really hurt. And I think I know how you feel by that.
I was/am extremely upset at the addition of the Goddess Worship and Spirituality board not too long ago, Guitar's Cry can vouch for that. Mainly because the Goddess was being praised and acknowledged without any mention whatsoever to the God. Being a God worshipper and being mostly agnostic to the Goddess, it's getting very aggrevating to see the Goddess praised to the near exclusion of the center to my spirituality.
While I said in the other thread that Joseph Smith was the founder of the LDS church, I didn't think how the LDS members would react to that. I appologize would like to amend my answer to: The founder of the LDS church and spiritual center to many, many people around the world.
I was/am extremely upset at the addition of the Goddess Worship and Spirituality board not too long ago, Guitar's Cry can vouch for that. Mainly because the Goddess was being praised and acknowledged without any mention whatsoever to the God. Being a God worshipper and being mostly agnostic to the Goddess, it's getting very aggrevating to see the Goddess praised to the near exclusion of the center to my spirituality.
While I said in the other thread that Joseph Smith was the founder of the LDS church, I didn't think how the LDS members would react to that. I appologize would like to amend my answer to: The founder of the LDS church and spiritual center to many, many people around the world.
Bishka
Veteran Member
Don't worry about it. It wasn't your reaction that I was responding too. It was the accusations of 'a kook' or a 'criminal', that really frustrated me. Those people still haven't responded to how he is a 'criminal'.
I do appreciate your sentiments Gentoo.
You are a wonderful woman and I feel close to you. You've been nothing but kind to the Latter-day Saint on the forums and all of us appreciate that. :hug:
Bishka
Veteran Member
Ciscokid
Well-Known Member
Joseph
John Smith was Pochantas's boyfriend.
I'm not too good with names :help:
yuvgotmel
Well-Known Member
What is more widely known about: Mormonism or Firefox?
The creator of Firefox was only a teenager when he developed the browser that is rated #1 among web developers!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/276185_software03.html
Honestly, before coming to RF, I can say that I knew more about Firefox than Joseph Smith!
The creator of Firefox was only a teenager when he developed the browser that is rated #1 among web developers!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/276185_software03.html
Honestly, before coming to RF, I can say that I knew more about Firefox than Joseph Smith!
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
Thanks, Gentoo for amending your answer, but seriously, it wasn't necessary. I didn't find your original answer ("The founder of the LDS Church") to be even the slightest bit offensive, and I don't think any of the other Latter-day Saints did either. And for people who didn't recognize the name, "I don't know who he is," would have been a good enough answer.
Speaking for myself, I was just offended -- and not all that much, to be honest with you -- by those people who implied that he was a "nobody" or who made some kind of snide remark about him. Since he typically shows up in listings of the 100 Most Influential Americans (along with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mark Twain, Andrew Carnagie, Ernest Hemingway, Louis Armstrong, Alexander Graham Bell, etc.), I see anyone who refuses to acknowledge his accomplishments (whether they agree with his theology or not) as being either immature or ignorant. I have more patience with ignorance, by the way, than with immaturity. We're all ignorant about some things, but we ought to be mature enough to act like adults instead of children.
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
I'm not aware of any statistics on that. Are you?
Good for him. Seriously, he must be a bright guy. Maybe he'll be remembered 165 years after his death, too. Or not.
I'd love to know what percentage of the people who have heard of firefox have heard of its developer...not that it has anything to do with the discussion at hand.
yuvgotmel
Well-Known Member
I'd love to know what percentage of the people who have heard of firefox have heard of its developer...not that it has anything to do with the discussion at hand.
Well now that you have heard of the developer, do you think he is extraordinary?
Do you think of him as more than a teenager?
yuvgotmel
Well-Known Member
I'm having a difficult time here understanding what it is that I'm expected to "feel" towards Joseph Smith. ...
I could name thousands and thousands of famous people. I could go back in history, from other cultures and regions of the world, and attempt to find every single famous person that ever existed. Yet...what does that prove?
If someone does something extraordinary (uncommon, etc.), does that cause some restructuring of the DNA to make them non-human? ...
In one of the previous posts, I was told that my lack of knowledge of Joseph Smith was more telling of me than Smith's character... I still don't know what was meant by that.
If I spent the rest of my life researching and documenting every famous person that ever lived, I'd still never accomplish the task.
...Whether or not people would like to believe it, we HUMANS are all in this TOGETHER. We each effect our surroundings. Ever heard of Morphogenic Fields?
I could name thousands and thousands of famous people. I could go back in history, from other cultures and regions of the world, and attempt to find every single famous person that ever existed. Yet...what does that prove?
If someone does something extraordinary (uncommon, etc.), does that cause some restructuring of the DNA to make them non-human? ...
In one of the previous posts, I was told that my lack of knowledge of Joseph Smith was more telling of me than Smith's character... I still don't know what was meant by that.
If I spent the rest of my life researching and documenting every famous person that ever lived, I'd still never accomplish the task.
...Whether or not people would like to believe it, we HUMANS are all in this TOGETHER. We each effect our surroundings. Ever heard of Morphogenic Fields?
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
In order to answer that, I'd need to know what you mean by "feel." If you're talking about an emotion, I wouldn't expect you to "feel" anything. Most people who have any interest in religion would probably acknowledge his accomplishments and his influence on Christian theology. As to whether I'd expect that of you, I don't know. I really don't know you well enough to know what I reasonably should expect of you.
It proves that out of the billions of people who have ever lived, only a few thousand have managed to really contribute anything that greatly changed society.
Seriously, don't waste my time with questions like that.
From your comments, I gathered that you were suggesting that if Joseph Smith had really been a person of any significance, you'd have known who he was. I was merely pointing out that your lack of knowledge did not in any way diminish Joseph Smith's importance as the founder of a major Christian denomination. Perhaps you're not aware of Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, John Wycliffe, or Ulrich Zwingli either. If you aren't, that would explain your refusal to see Joseph Smith as particularly notable.
You'd get a whole lot further than if you were to research all of the ones nobody's ever heard of.
Yes, we do. Some more than others.
No, and if you want to enlighten me, please do so on a new thread.
I think Joseph Smith was an intelligent man who had beliefs, and got others to follow him.
I don't believe that he really had a meeting with God where God said the things Smith proclaimed. I believe it is possible he had a divine experience, but misunderstood...
I don't know if I would go as far as to say he changed the world, yet, but a section of it surely.
I don't believe that he really had a meeting with God where God said the things Smith proclaimed. I believe it is possible he had a divine experience, but misunderstood...
I don't know if I would go as far as to say he changed the world, yet, but a section of it surely.
I still don't know his name. He probably is pretty smart. How much money though has he made off of Firefox? That will let me know if he's extraordinary.
Comprehend
Res Ipsa Loquitur
of course an honest test would require that we wait 150 years and see who knows the name of the creator of Firefox... There are a lot of little flashes in the pan, Smith has staying power. Does anyone think for a second this kid will be remembered in 150 years?
Nope.
I guess that is my take; I believe that he may well have thought that he had a meeting with God, and it is not impossible that he did.