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Even though I’ve had times when I didn’t really believe in God, I can say now that I do have faith in Heavenly Father. I really do believe He is my Father. I also believe that He is the god of the whole universe, yet He was once a man. I reconcile that with a belief in multiple universes. I once thought I was clever for thinking of that, then found out the multiverse theory is not so new 😳 wayfarer wrote:yet does not allow any mention of our spiritual Mother in Heaven to in any way share glory with Him.
I, for one, am glad that little mention of Her is made because “god” and “oh my god” and “Jesus Christ” are used as casual expressions, cuss words, and to convey outright disgust. Somehow, She is mostly spared from this. It is as if Heavenly Father says “Say what you will about me and my Son, but do not disrespect Her.” I bet She gets infinite praise and glory in heaven.Nephite, that’s not the way I see it, but I certainly understand that inclination. Does anyone know if there is any other religion that uses the name of its deit(ies) as expletives? That always has troubled me.
Old-Timer wrote:Nephite, that’s not the way I see it, but I certainly understand that inclination.
Does anyone know if there is any other religion that uses the name of its deit(ies) as expletives? That always has troubled me.
in india, no-one uses the names of their gods as expletives. just not done — wouldn’t make sense. However, they have a rich swear word vocabulary of around 130 distinct words, generally in the ‘obscene’ category.I, too, don’t accept the idea that Mother in Heaven is so sacred she needs to be in the back room. i think the church is entirely too infused with male dominance hierarchy, and could use a dose of the divine femine, the inverted pyramid.
This question I still feel I can answer with some degree of honesty. I agree with wayfarer – I’m not sure if I can entirely accept the SDOG. I believe in some guiding force or purpose in the universe, I’ll use the term “The Tao” for it. I’m open to the idea of exalted beings as taught in the LDS tradition, but I would think of Heavenly Father as being one of possibly many exalted beings which are separate and subordinate this ultimate guiding force. Yeah, a woman’s touch is nice. I know my Father lives and loves me, too. I can know the truth and be free. Ahhh. Shawn is back. Welcome to the TR discussions. 
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1. Do you have faith in and a testimony of God the Eternal Father? Like everyone else, I tend to break these down into smaller chunks to tackle.
FAITH“Faith” to me is a word so broad you can drive a celestial chariot through it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). That’s straight from the standard works, the New Testament. Faith is a hope, no matter how tenuous and thin. The last half of the statement can be confusing, but it just says that faith *IS* the evidence of things not seen. It doesn’t mean you have to believe in something you can’t find evidence for. It’s just a poetic way of saying the feeling of hope is about a desire for something better that might not yet exist.
That’s an extremely low bar to jump over. About the only way I can see not qualifying is a case where someone feels extremely hostile towards the concept of any form of God, of the divine or higher humanity, or any form of altruistic collective consciousness in humans.
So to qualify for this condition in the question, all I have to do is have a feeling of hope for the existence of God (in whatever form).
TESTIMONYThis seems nearly as flexible as faith. Have you experienced some form of hope in God? Can you construct some form of positive concept of “God” even if it’s just the collective goodwill of humanity? “God is love” (1 John 4:
Have you ever experienced love? I have. I have a testimony of being treated with charity and compassion. I have experienced the good in giving charity and compassion. I can “testify” of that experience.God the Eternal FatherSee above for my already simple ideas on constructing a definition of “God” that is something based on our standard words, but isn’t the very specific “dude in a toga with a white beard on a throne.” It’s fine to have that specific imagine. I have no problem with that either. I’m just suggesting looser definitions that might work for people who have a hard time with it.
Eternal Father? Sure. Why not? It doesn’t ask if you reject all other concepts or aspects of God. I really like the idea of male and female images of deity. I think they have some usefulness. I think we do the best we can when we are trying to imagine God as a bigger version of ourselves (which would include an Eternal Mother).
I personally suspect that “God,” whatever is really out there, if it is something actually outside our self, is so complex and advanced beyond our imagination that we don’t have language for it. We can’t really define it in thought completely because we lack the tools. We can approach this through symbol, but even that only captures aspects.
So I have no problem saying yes to this question. At a minimum I have hope in the existence of God. I have personally experienced at least some aspects of “God” as defined in the Standard Works (i.e. Love). I accept that one aspect of God can be imagined as a benevolent and eternal father.
I know Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit. wayfarer wrote:the LDS Standard Definition of God (SDOG)
I’m going to add some words into your acronym so that I can have the Mormon SNOOPDOG
Standard
Narrative
Of
Overarching
Paradigm
Definition
Of
God
Brian Johnston wrote:wayfarer wrote:the LDS Standard Definition of God (SDOG)
I’m going to add some words into your acronym so that I can have the Mormon SNOOPDOG
Standard
Narrative
Of
Overarching
Paradigm
Definition
Of
God
+1
ROTFL
😆 I had an interview with the Bishop this past Sunday for my recommend. I believe it was this question where he read it to me, paused then looked at me askew with a smirk on his face after I answered yes (but it could have been with any of the first 3 questions). And then I explained my answer as, “Well, at least as much as you do.” He showed he agreed by nodding his head. Sometimes it’s great having your husband as the Bishop but sometimes it just really sucks. This was one of the better moments. Most of the time he’s cool with my questioning and struggles (because as you can see he has his, too) but sometimes he just loses his cool!
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