What are your religions beliefs, if any?

[Houseman]

Just curious

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Atheist, bordering on Anti-Theist.
Not against the people, but against the religion.

Clarifying that further;
I'm against the indoctrination of young people into following fairytales from our ancient history's more foolish days (not saying today isn't foolish, but it's a hell of a lot better).
I'm against the hate and condescension perpetrated through belief that theirs are the only correct way/thinking/path to their own view of what they "deserve" (and "others" Don't). Though religion isn't alone in that, by way of falling under the more encompassing word 'Ideology', Politics can be changed completely, since it isn't "Holy Word" and "Sacred Writ".
I'm against the way the previous mentality lead to 'thought-stoppers' that cause friction, strife, war (and worse) when two similarly ridiculous fairytales demand that theirs is the one and only right belief whilst not being able to provide proof.

etc, etc.

Though I must say that it is an endless source of Dark Humor, If you can get over humanity's boundless grasp for egotistic simplicity and satisfaction and your lost faith (not religious faith..).
Flat-Earthers! Exorcists! Witches! God killing himself to release his created creatures from his own created weakness!

 

[Arnox]

Here: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1?lang=eng

Atheist, bordering on Anti-Theist.
Not against the people, but against the religion.

Clarifying that further;
I'm against the indoctrination of young people into following fairytales from our ancient history's more foolish days (not saying today isn't foolish, but it's a hell of a lot better).
I'm against the hate and condescension perpetrated through belief that theirs are the only correct way/thinking/path to their own view of what they "deserve" (and "others" Don't). Though religion isn't alone in that, by way of falling under the more encompassing word 'Ideology', Politics can be changed completely, since it isn't "Holy Word" and "Sacred Writ".
I'm against the way the previous mentality lead to 'thought-stoppers' that cause friction, strife, war (and worse) when two similarly ridiculous fairytales demand that theirs is the one and only right belief whilst not being able to provide proof.

etc, etc.

Though I must say that it is an endless source of Dark Humor, If you can get over humanity's boundless grasp for egotistic simplicity and satisfaction and your lost faith (not religious faith..).
Flat-Earthers! Exorcists! Witches! God killing himself to release his created creatures from his own created weakness!

I totally get what you're saying here. I honestly do.

But try reading the whole Book of Mormon some time. And then look me in the eye and tell me that some nobody farm boy who, I might add, didn't even have a full high-school education, somehow made all of that up.

 

[Kaleion]

No religious beliefs here at all, in fact, I pretty much explicitly hate religion.

I mean not only do I hate the bigots I was exposed to growing up around Christians and Catholics and think the idea of believing in magic to be downright silly, but I also find the idea of omniscient omnipotent being that has the capacity to help people but actively chooses not to because of whatever dubass retarded explanation any religious individual wants to use at any given time to be downright disgusting, to me personally it's more comfortable to know that there is no control, plan or destiny, that all is chaos and there's no reason for anything than it is to believe that all the awful things I've seen and the ones that I've only heard about have a reason for being.

Seriously though, it's like that time a friend explained to me that she knew God was real because her mother had cancer and just mysteriously healed after praying a lot, I just answered an 8 year old cousin of mine had Cancer and as he slowly deteriorated and not only him but his parents, his brother, his sisters, his grandparents and all of my fucking family prayed for him to and then one day we get the news, as his older brother was on his way back home from spending a weekend with friends at the beach they stopped to help some guy whose car was failing and as he was getting out of the car some drunk guy just ran him over, he died instantly, then just 2 days after his grandfather died of a heart-attack and 3 days after he finally died, her mother was so distraught by all of this happening at one that she tried to kill herself, she failed but was internilezed in the hospital leaving the father to somehow have to deal with this and raise his only remaining 2 daughters by himself, I tried to help but I didn't leave in the same city and there ain't much I could do, and I asked my friend, why do you deserve a miracle and they don't?
She couldn't really answer me, and that's the thing, it's fairer to think it's all random that it is to think that there's something out there actively making the choices, and it's not like this is the worst sob story, I once had to be stopped from walking into a bar with a pipe because I wanted to kill someone, you see back where I lived Human Trafficking is big business and I happened to find out where you could get a few women for a fair prize and after asking around I found out it was common knowledge, I was so frustrated and angry and desperate that I just wanted to do something, anything and my friends stopped me, it had nothing to do with me or anyone I cared about but you know, I couldn't stop crying about that for weeks, I mean I can't even begin to imagine what those people are going through, and you know in truth, most of them are going to die without ever being saved and they did nothing to deserve that.

I don't know, I'm just rambling here, but yeah I refuse to accept the existence of a God not because of science, although there's some of that too but because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if a God existed, because if it does it is most definitely the single most horrible and disgusting creature that has ever existed and it can go fuck itself, and just an extra if you need a God and faith to make the right choice that just means that you are a shitty person.

Though I don't believe in God, this Leonard Cohen song reflects on the insecurities I have regarding the concept of a God quite well.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6fvzGIBfQ[/youtube]

 

[bluegate]

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I totally get what you're saying here. I honestly do.

Thank you!

But try reading the whole Book of Mormon some time. And then look me in the eye and tell me that some nobody farm boy who, I might add, didn't even have a full high-school education, somehow made all of that up.

Looking you in the eye might require a trip to the States. Or Africa or wherever you are going on Mission. ,)

I confess that I haven't read the entire Book of Mormon, but I have read quite a bit about it and Joseph Smith and my conclusions are that it isn't that far-fetched. If you lived during the height of the Second Great Awakening in the Burned-Over-District where a general mystical folk-magic held sway and was influenced by British Explorers doing Archeology and ancient tales of Atlantis/Mu/etc. With a helping of a an active imaginary creative mind.
It looks like he was just another man disillusioned with the current religious practices and sought to make his own feelings on the matter more relevant.

Sorry..!

 

[Houseman]

Here: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1?lang=eng

You were saying in the Bioshock thread something about prophets. Do you believe that there are modern-day prophets? Do these act like those in biblical times, where they go around actually being a conduit of communication for God and performing miracles?

What is the organization of the LDS like? Who "runs" it? I heard of a "Seventy"?

 

[Houseman]

it's fairer to think it's all random that it is to think that there's something out there actively making the choices

A hypothetical god wouldn't have to be actively micro-managing things. Such a being could allow things to be random, like you say. But then, that brings up the problem that you alluded to earlier, why allow things like this to happen? Of course, a religious person may answer, but it might be with something retarded, like you've said.

Reading your stories recalled to mind all the brutality in the bible. I think once, in the OT, they chopped up a guy and sent parts of him to all the surrounding neighborhoods . Entire families are killed in acts of revenge. Wars are fought. Thousands are killed in single events. Through it all, God was RIGHT THERE, directly having a hand in a bunch of it, and reaffirming the proof of his existence each time.

But then those people forgot just as easily. You'd think that they would be fear-stricken into the most solemn obedience, but nope, they went to worship other gods again and again, and had to be smacked back into line repeatedly.

I just thought it interesting:
Perhaps it can be said that you do not believe in God because you have seen so much death and suffering.
The Israelites in the bible turned away from God even after witnessing and being threatened with the death and suffering of those who denied or disobeyed God.

 

[Arnox]

No religious beliefs here at all, in fact, I pretty much explicitly hate religion.

I mean not only do I hate the bigots I was exposed to growing up around Christians and Catholics and think the idea of believing in magic to be downright silly, but I also find the idea of omniscient omnipotent being that has the capacity to help people but actively chooses not to because of whatever dubass retarded explanation any religious individual wants to use at any given time to be downright disgusting, to me personally it's more comfortable to know that there is no control, plan or destiny, that all is chaos and there's no reason for anything than it is to believe that all the awful things I've seen and the ones that I've only heard about have a reason for being.

Seriously though, it's like that time a friend explained to me that she knew God was real because her mother had cancer and just mysteriously healed after praying a lot, I just answered an 8 year old cousin of mine had Cancer and as he slowly deteriorated and not only him but his parents, his brother, his sisters, his grandparents and all of my fucking family prayed for him to and then one day we get the news, as his older brother was on his way back home from spending a weekend with friends at the beach they stopped to help some guy whose car was failing and as he was getting out of the car some drunk guy just ran him over, he died instantly, then just 2 days after his grandfather died of a heart-attack and 3 days after he finally died, her mother was so distraught by all of this happening at one that she tried to kill herself, she failed but was internilezed in the hospital leaving the father to somehow have to deal with this and raise his only remaining 2 daughters by himself, I tried to help but I didn't leave in the same city and there ain't much I could do, and I asked my friend, why do you deserve a miracle and they don't?
She couldn't really answer me, and that's the thing, it's fairer to think it's all random that it is to think that there's something out there actively making the choices, and it's not like this is the worst sob story, I once had to be stopped from walking into a bar with a pipe because I wanted to kill someone, you see back where I lived Human Trafficking is big business and I happened to find out where you could get a few women for a fair prize and after asking around I found out it was common knowledge, I was so frustrated and angry and desperate that I just wanted to do something, anything and my friends stopped me, it had nothing to do with me or anyone I cared about but you know, I couldn't stop crying about that for weeks, I mean I can't even begin to imagine what those people are going through, and you know in truth, most of them are going to die without ever being saved and they did nothing to deserve that.

I don't know, I'm just rambling here, but yeah I refuse to accept the existence of a God not because of science, although there's some of that too but because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if a God existed, because if it does it is most definitely the single most horrible and disgusting creature that has ever existed and it can go fuck itself, and just an extra if you need a God and faith to make the right choice that just means that you are a shitty person.

I could tell you about the law of opposites and the war in heaven, which is VERY relevant to what you're talking about. But something tells me it won't matter. This feels like an emotional belief. Not a logical one. And if it's an emotional belief, there's nothing I can say that will ever convince you.

I confess that I haven't read the entire Book of Mormon, but I have read quite a bit about it and Joseph Smith and my conclusions are that it isn't that far-fetched. If you lived during the height of the Second Great Awakening in the Burned-Over-District where a general mystical folk-magic held sway and was influenced by British Explorers doing Archeology and ancient tales of Atlantis/Mu/etc. With a helping of a an active imaginary creative mind.
It looks like he was just another man disillusioned with the current religious practices and sought to make his own feelings on the matter more relevant.

Sorry..!

On the surface, the BoM seems like an easy thing to conjure up, but when you read and study it, it's downright eerie how so much of it connects to parts of the Bible and claims things of ancient America that weren't even thought about at that time, archaeologically, but have been proven to be correct as time went on. And I'm not just talking about how it references some passages of the Bible either. And even putting all that aside, the Book of Mormon makes SO much damn sense in a world where Christianity is trying to paddle and get by on just the Bible alone...

Do you believe that there are modern-day prophets? Do these act like those in biblical times, where they go around actually being a conduit of communication for God and performing miracles?

What is the organization of the LDS like? Who "runs" it? I heard of a "Seventy"?

In order:

- Yes.
- Yes, but they're FAR from the only ones in the church who can perform miracles.
- It's laid out much like how the primitive church was laid out. Here's the full hierarchy: https://www.lds.org/church/leaders?lang=eng

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I confess that I haven't read the entire Book of Mormon, but I have read quite a bit about it and Joseph Smith and my conclusions are that it isn't that far-fetched. If you lived during the height of the Second Great Awakening in the Burned-Over-District where a general mystical folk-magic held sway and was influenced by British Explorers doing Archeology and ancient tales of Atlantis/Mu/etc. With a helping of a an active imaginary creative mind.
It looks like he was just another man disillusioned with the current religious practices and sought to make his own feelings on the matter more relevant.

Sorry..!

On the surface, the BoM seems like an easy thing to conjure up, but when you read and study it, it's downright eerie how so much of it connects to parts of the Bible and claims things of ancient America that weren't even thought about at that time, archaeologically, but have been proven to be correct as time went on. And I'm not just talking about how it references some passages of the Bible either. And even putting all that aside, the Book of Mormon makes SO much damn sense in a world where Christianity is trying to paddle and get by on just the Bible alone...

Like how there were tribes of Christians in America calling themselves Christians thousands of years before Christ was born? ^^
I must have missed that bit of Archeological news. ,)

 

[Arnox]

Like how there were tribes of Christians in America calling themselves Christians thousands of years before Christ was born? ^^
I must have missed that bit of Archeological news. ,)

Why not?

Jesus Christ's coming was preached from the VERY BEGINNING. His coming was foretold over and over and over again long before he was born. The Mosaic law even was supposed to be a symbol of things to come. A ritual to point toward when the Savior would come and make an infinite Atonement for the sins of all.

 

[Signa]

I was raised Catholic, so I do hold a lot of their cultural values, but I stopped going to church 15 years ago, and there is simply no going back now that I have no faith in God. That said, listening to people like Jordan Peterson showed me there's still a lot of value in religion, even if that value isn't revolving around impressing Skydaddy. Things like self improvement, and duty to your community are things that Christians learned to do before anyone could articulate why it was a good idea to do them. It was easier for culturally primitive people to say that God wants you to be nice, than to figure out what human nature entails, and what makes us our best and worst.

 

[Arnox]

I was raised Catholic, so I do hold a lot of their cultural values, but I stopped going to church 15 years ago, and there is simply no going back now that I have no faith in God. That said, listening to people like Jordan Peterson showed me there's still a lot of value in religion, even if that value isn't revolving around impressing Skydaddy. Things like self improvement, and duty to your community are things that Christians learned to do before anyone could articulate why it was a good idea to do them. It was easier for culturally primitive people to say that God wants you to be nice, than to figure out what human nature entails, and what makes us our best and worst.

"Morals— all correct moral laws— derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level."
- Juan Rico (Starship Troopers)

 

[Houseman]

Do you believe that there are modern-day prophets? Do these act like those in biblical times, where they go around actually being a conduit of communication for God and performing miracles?

What is the organization of the LDS like? Who "runs" it? I heard of a "Seventy"?

In order:

- Yes.
- Yes, but they're FAR from the only ones in the church who can perform miracles.

The prophets in the bible, through God, did things. Miracles. They killed people with fire from heaven and summoned bears to maul crowds. Their bones and clothing created miracles. Most importantly, God spoke through them.

What have the LDS prophets done, that they gain the title of prophet?
How does one become (or become recognized as) an LDS prophet?
Are prophets infallible?
Can women be prophets?

In contrast, no JW would describe themselves as a prophet.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Like how there were tribes of Christians in America calling themselves Christians thousands of years before Christ was born? ^^
I must have missed that bit of Archeological news. ,)

Why not?

Jesus Christ's coming was preached from the VERY BEGINNING. His coming was foretold over and over and over again long before he was born. The Mosaic law even was supposed to be a symbol of things to come. A ritual to point toward when the Savior would come and make an infinite Atonement for the sins of all.

The very beginning? From the Jewish Torah then? That's only 600BCE. The oral history of the Jews? Ever heard of Chinese whispers?
It would be interesting being able to view the happenings that far back through some sort of "magic mirror". Seeing why the Kingdom of Judah and their god Yahweh prevailed over the Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom and their respective gods.

I was raised Catholic, so I do hold a lot of their cultural values, but I stopped going to church 15 years ago, and there is simply no going back now that I have no faith in God. That said, listening to people like Jordan Peterson showed me there's still a lot of value in religion, even if that value isn't revolving around impressing Skydaddy. Things like self improvement, and duty to your community are things that Christians learned to do before anyone could articulate why it was a good idea to do them. It was easier for culturally primitive people to say that God wants you to be nice, than to figure out what human nature entails, and what makes us our best and worst.

Jordan Peterson likewise caused me to have a revelation (hah!) that most western countries are based on a much modified or updated form of Christianity. And that it's not necessarily a bad thing either even.
As long as you only consider their moral teachings.

"Morals— all correct moral laws— derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level."
- Juan Rico (Starship Troopers)

Nice! Indeed.

 

[Arnox]

What have the LDS prophets done, that they gain the title of prophet?
How does one become (or become recognized as) an LDS prophet?
Are prophets infallible?
Can women be prophets?

In contrast, no JW would describe themselves as a prophet.

The title of Prophet is not something you earn. It is passed to you.

Although the Lord likes to appoint those who have great spiritual experience, he can and sometimes does appoint those who don't have as much. Even after the First Vision, it took Joseph Smith a long time before he finally received the fullness of the priesthood, and thus obtained the official title of Prophet, even though he had still been the de facto leader of the Church at the time. (Although honestly, it's not and has never been the prophet's church. It's the Lord's.)

As to the rest of your question, this should answer most, if not all of it: https://www.lds.org/topics/priesthood?lang=eng

The very beginning? From the Jewish Torah then? That's only 600BCE. The oral history of the Jews?

From the fall of Adam and Eve.

 

[Monoochrom]

I don't believe in any Gods, I consider myself a agnostic atheist. Officially I'm Catholic though.


I used to be more militant about my atheism, though never to the point of being one of those annoying internet atheist jackasses. Nowadays I generally don't talk about the subject.

 

[Chimpzy]

I have no religious beliefs. They are not a part of my life, nor do I care that I don't have any. I suppose that makes me atheist.

I don't care what someone else believes either, so long as those beliefs don't cause harm of any kind.

 

[Kaleion]

it's fairer to think it's all random that it is to think that there's something out there actively making the choices

A hypothetical god wouldn't have to be actively micro-managing things. Such a being could allow things to be random, like you say. But then, that brings up the problem that you alluded to earlier, why allow things like this to happen? Of course, a religious person may answer, but it might be with something retarded, like you've said.

Reading your stories recalled to mind all the brutality in the bible. I think once, in the OT, they chopped up a guy and sent parts of him to all the surrounding neighborhoods . Entire families are killed in acts of revenge. Wars are fought. Thousands are killed in single events. Through it all, God was RIGHT THERE, directly having a hand in a bunch of it, and reaffirming the proof of his existence each time.

But then those people forgot just as easily. You'd think that they would be fear-stricken into the most solemn obedience, but nope, they went to worship other gods again and again, and had to be smacked back into line repeatedly.

I just thought it interesting:
Perhaps it can be said that you do not believe in God because you have seen so much death and suffering.
The Israelites in the bible turned away from God even after witnessing and being threatened with the death and suffering of those who denied or disobeyed God.

To be honest, the first time I doubted the existence of God was purely because I found the idea of God watching me while I took a shower to be extremely uncomfortable and I was like 5 years old, after that it was just because I always liked to be contrarian and my family is predominantly Christian and Catholic and I was brought up in religious schools, I pretended it was because I was smart and believed in science rather than a stupid fantasy book but in truth I was just a dumbass edgy kid that mostly said things to be edgy, as time went on I experienced much more of life and unfortunately I didn't live in a nice place, hearing gunshots, waking up and seeing the outlines of the people that were murdered adorning, making sure to go to school in large groups to avoid being kidnapped, that sort of environment, at first I really didn't care, in fact I embraced the amorality and chaos of the place, I used to steal, scam and threaten nothing much mattered to me, then serious stuff happened to people I genuinely cared about and I learned the value of empathy and with it my awareness of all the awful stuff happening around me increased, I remember I was genuinely going crazy for a while after that I'd have panic attacks and nervous breakdowns at school, I started doing werid stuff like staying out in the street all night looking for criminals to beat up and genuinely stupid stuff that makes me wonder how the fuck I didn't die back then.

I pretty much had a messiah complex for a while when I thought I was the only one that could help people out or save them and it was after I realized that in truth there is very little one individual can truly accomplish that my hatred of the idea of God really became a thing, I mean at first I just thought the idea of God was silly, now I find it to be an abhorrent concept.

But yeah, the point is that's pretty much it, not to say that my life is a tragedy or any of that "Woe is me" bullshit but I've seen more things that I would have liked to see and to be honest it's pretty much broken my spirit, and sorry if my choice of words was a little inappropriate back then but I do hate it whenever I hear any variation of "God has a plan", because if it does it can shove it up its ass and if he doesn't have one then he can go ahead and create one with the explicit purpose of it being painful to shove things into it.

I could tell you about the law of opposites and the war in heaven, which is VERY relevant to what you're talking about. But something tells me it won't matter. This feels like an emotional belief. Not a logical one. And if it's an emotional belief, there's nothing I can say that will ever convince you.

It is very true that it's more of thing based on emotion, I'm pretty sure I made that clear though not to sound like a condescending asshole (Which to be honest I very much am) but religion and spiritualism isn't logical either so you truly would be even more unable to convince me if you were to rely on logic than you already are, again I don't mean to offend but I find it funny to hear that when it's normally religious people who deny logical things so that they can keep their faith intact, and to be honest if there was irrefutable evidence of the existence of God (We all know there isn't) I would not deny it, however, I wouldn't be happy about it and I'd much rather be dead than worship any shitty God or Gods if were the case that it's not actually Jehova who is real but any other religion, which let's face it have as much a chance of existing as that one.

 

[Arnox]

It is very true that it's more of thing based on emotion, I'm pretty sure I made that clear though not to sound like a condescending asshole (Which to be honest I very much am) but religion and spiritualism isn't logical either so you truly would be even more unable to convince me if you were to rely on logic than you already are, again I don't mean to offend but I find it funny to hear that when it's normally religious people who deny logical things so that they can keep their faith intact, and to be honest if there was irrefutable evidence of the existence of God (We all know there isn't) I would not deny it, however, I wouldn't be happy about it and I'd much rather be dead than worship any shitty God or Gods if were the case that it's not actually Jehova who is real but any other religion, which let's face it have as much a chance of existing as that one.

Well... If it makes you feel any better, I have a lot more respect for you than for someone who proclaims to be a Christian but is a total shithead when it comes time to walk the walk.

Jesus Christ himself has stated this also many times. He'd rather you either be completely for or against him. Hypocrisy, as he was talking about, was one of the most distasteful things to him. And I come to find that I'm pretty much of the same mind as well when it comes to this sort of thing. Either be my outspoken enemy, be my friend, or get out of the way, because I have better things to do than interact with hypocrites and liars.

 

[Houseman]

As to the rest of your question, this should answer most, if not all of it: https://www.lds.org/topics/priesthood?lang=eng

There are a lot of other links on that page. I'm not about to go through all of them looking for answers to my questions. I'd rather you just type it out, if you know:

How does one become (or become recognized as) an LDS prophet?
Are prophets infallible?
Can women be prophets?

I mean, sure, I could just spend a few months on the LDS website reading over everything, but I'm here to talk to you, so I'd prefer if you did the talking, rather than the website.

 

[Arnox]

How does one become (or become recognized as) an LDS prophet?
Are prophets infallible?
Can women be prophets?

- Once a prophet dies, the apostles gather together and begin the process of selecting from among the current apostles a successor. They will pray and fast for revelation on this. Also, the decision MUST be unanimous or the call doesn't go through.
- Define infallible.
- Generally no. Women do not receive the priesthood. Well, they actually do, but it's a little complicated and they're not in any leadership positions, putting aside the Relief Society.

 

[Houseman]

How does one become (or become recognized as) an LDS prophet?
Are prophets infallible?
Can women be prophets?

- Once a prophet dies, the apostles gather together and begin the process of selecting from among the current apostles a successor. They will pray and fast for revelation on this. Also, the decision MUST be unanimous or the call doesn't go through.
- Generally no. Women do not receive the priesthood. Well, they actually do, but it's a little complicated and they're not in any leadership positions, putting aside the Relief Society.

Thanks.
You keep saying "priesthood", while I keep saying "prophets". Are they the same?

Also, why aren't prophets going around doing public miracles like they did in bible times, or are they? Are they going around curing the sick, blind, raising the dead, calling down fire from heaven, etc? That's what I was getting at when I mentioned all the examples earlier.

- Define infallible.

When prophets prophesy, is what they say always true?
Actually, before that, do LDS prophets/priests speak direct messages from God?

 

[Arnox]

You keep saying "priesthood", while I keep saying "prophets". Are they the same?
Why aren't prophets going around doing public miracles like they did in bible times, or are they? Are they going around curing the sick, blind, raising the dead, calling down fire from heaven, etc?
When prophets prophesy, is what they say always true?
Actually, before that, do LDS prophets/priests speak direct messages from God?

- The priesthood is authority given from God to act in his name. Priesthood keys are specific to each calling and are spiritually given to help in handling that calling. In order to even use them at all though, you must have priesthood power which is earned by righteous living and intent. Unlike anyone else in the church, the prophet has ALL the priesthood keys, and that's basically what makes them a prophet.

- They are, but again, we don't depend on them for miracles at all. Any Melchizedek priesthood holder (which is pretty much all the baptized males in the church who are worthy) may do blessings for comfort, healing, casting out evil spirits, and other things. Regular prayer is also used with fasting sometimes also being used to draw ourselves closer to heaven. Keep in mind though, all these things must be done with the approval of the Lord. It is not only important to know how to call a blessing or miracle down. It is also vitally important to know when and when not to do so. This knowledge must be given by the Holy Ghost who is the constant companion of each of us worthy members who have been baptized. Consider this for example. Say you're partially blind and you file for and are granted SSI (Disability) benefits. A little bit later on, you join the church. Now, the Lord COULD grant your full sight back again via a priesthood blessing, but if He did, such a blessing might harm your life much more than you might realize. The gov. gave you your benefits under the assumption that you were permanently disabled. If you're suddenly NOT disabled, it will look insanely suspicious, and best case scenario, they'll only take away your benefits. Worst case, they'll pursue you for fraud. Or consider this. Your partial blindness might have also been there to keep you out of the military because if you had joined, something incredibly bad might have happened to you and/or others. Now miracles still absolutely happen. That is definitely for sure. Dreams, miraculous healings, prophesying... These things can and probably will come at at least some points of your life in the church. In fact, if you're truly living worthily, I'd say they're downright inescapable. (if you live near the sun, you will be influenced by the sun.) But the Lord does not grant them on our whims, even if you do have the priesthood. With the Lord, all things are done in the proper order in the proper time at the proper place. Period.

- Yes, they do. When they're under the influence of the Holy Ghost that is. When they're not, they're just men like you and me. The real question is knowing if what they say truly is the word of God or not. Once again, that is knowledge given to you through the Holy Ghost via prayer.

 

[Houseman]

Can you provide some examples of miracles or prophecies?
Cause the prophets of old have stories like "I called down fire from heaven and killed a bunch of people. Can your puny fake god do that?"

What do you have that would make people believe that LDS prophets are true and represent the one true religion?