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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 5, 2025

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arguing for physical resurrection

To be clear, Im in favour of all three points. I dont want to say agree, since Im an atheist and that would make it even weirder than it already is, but Im anti-gnostic.

I'm not against the idea of holy objects or corpses, but relics imo verge into idol worship, where they seem to have power of their own.

Certainly some people do that. I think personally seeing and maybe interacting with a semi-important piece of Gods history can have a big impact on someone. Its not separate in the sense that its an inevitable part of whatever happened to and with it in the first place. Visiting the holy land is similar, and propably seems less idolatrous.

while that may be symbolically violating Jesus I'm confident he's not actually harmed, so common sense tells me that the Communion isn't literally part of his body.

Is a sacrificial animal harmed by what you do to its flesh after the sacrifice? And yet that is clearly its body that youre eating. I dont think theres anything contradictory about it being both Jesus flesh and not part of his current living body. And since its apparently fine that heaven is made from divine matter thats invisible, I dont think the lack of apparent changes is a problem either.

Certainly some people do that. I think personally seeing and maybe interacting with a semi-important piece of Gods history can have a big impact on someone. Its not separate in the sense that its an inevitable part of whatever happened to and with it in the first place. Visiting the holy land is similar, and propably seems less idolatrous.

Sure, that's fair. I guess I just get an idolatrous vibe from it, but there's nothing objectively wrong per se.

And since its apparently fine that heaven is made from divine matter thats invisible, I dont think the lack of apparent changes is a problem either.

My source on this is solely D&C 131:7-8

There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes.

We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.

So I need to correct myself--actually heaven should not be invisible at all, at least not for that reason. It's just spirit matter that's imperceptible, not perfected normal matter.

Is a sacrificial animal harmed by what you do to its flesh after the sacrifice? And yet that is clearly its body that youre eating. I dont think theres anything contradictory about it being both Jesus flesh and not part of his current living body. And since its apparently fine that heaven is made from divine matter thats invisible, I dont think the lack of apparent changes is a problem either.

Thanks, this makes a lot more sense to me.