Post AkBzYIvLNrtDEM1xJY by riggbeck@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by riggbeck@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AkBUkT5SKIpPeA53eC by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T09:25:44Z
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I watched this video about how the Mormon afterlife works and I have never seen a people who needed D&D in their lives so badly.There are all these levels, and side levels, and revival conditions and diagrams that look like dungeon maps. A lot of suffering could have been avoided if there were just some well-placed roleplaying clubs out west like 150 years ago. Send these people some D20s ... jeeeez
(DIR) Post #AkBVDNL0mS2wDL8mga by levampyre@chaos.social
2024-07-22T09:30:52Z
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@futurebird 😂
(DIR) Post #AkBVwyx1mZD3ttfYvY by Extra_Special_Carbon@mastodon.world
2024-07-22T09:39:05Z
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@futurebird 3 of my players in a regular campaign I’ve been running are Mormon, so the cool ones know.
(DIR) Post #AkBWADpdlc7lojWktc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T09:41:29Z
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Maybe the idea of creating your own imaginary worlds with their own rules & stories is more revolutionary than I've suspected? Making a whole universe, investing in it for a bit with some friends and having a good time... and then just letting it go until next week. The idea that anyone can be creative and help build these worlds.A revolutionary way to channel human imagination and the primal need for stories meaning and fantasy.
(DIR) Post #AkBXXTQE4MdymeI6AC by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T09:56:56Z
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@futurebird 1/2from what I vaguely recall, in the early 1980s, TSR hired several mormons. Two of them, Tracy Hickman and his wife, were two of the three major architects of the Dragon Lance setting, and the Heroes of the Lance adventure series. Hickman co-wrote the accompanying Dragon Lance novels with a different woman, Margaret Weis, who wasn't mormon but had similar views.
(DIR) Post #AkBaxo800VTcOU0w0u by avlcharlie@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T10:35:17Z
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@futurebird The sad part is it's just as believable as any of the other religions out there..
(DIR) Post #AkBbIiwqSeD2PTlqCG by vanderZwan@vis.social
2024-07-22T10:39:07Z
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@futurebird If you put it like that it feels more like the human equivalent of "nature healing", since I'm sure that our ancestors did a lot of cooperative storytelling.But then again I'm a sucker for the old "Homo Narrans" argumenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_narrans
(DIR) Post #AkBe6iZ6MJG1brdCwC by DrorBedrack@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T11:10:33Z
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@futurebird fantasy is like a vaccination for religion
(DIR) Post #AkBeIV0eaH392i8WES by guyjantic@c.im
2024-07-22T11:12:36Z
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@futurebird Mormon doctrine is some freaky sci-fi/fantasy stuff. Until the early 20th c. Mormons also looked and behaved very strangely compared to mainstream Americans. Because of polygamy, the LDS church was under tons of pressure from the US government. In 1890 (then again about 20 years later, more firmly) the LDS church stopped polygamy and began a multi-decade process of aggressive integration into mainstream/status-quo American society. Men cut their hair, people could eventually have short sleeves, etc.This integration effort reached its peak (IMO) in the 1950s with the LDS president David O. McKay, who painted a postwar/boomer picture of Mormons at clean-cut (implicitly politically conservative) neighbors in every American city, simultaneously pushing very hard for LDS folks to live up to the image. The trend has continued, and has included making common cause with evangelical Christians, who generally think Mormons are going to a very special kind of hell, but will take their anti-gay votes anyway.The mainstreaming of Mormon PR included de-emphasis of the more interesting sci-fi/fantasy elements of the doctrine, which always made me sad. Those were the best parts! ("Best" = "most entertaining").
(DIR) Post #AkBhjNYKiS0jb5Om4O by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2024-07-22T11:51:06Z
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@futurebird Well, what's interesting is that Smith's original tales about the angel Moroni, the golden plates, and the seer stones, all come from the tropes common to folklore from treasure seeking, the 19th century pastime of trying to find treasure hidden in the ground. Smith was a scryer in treasure seeking teams, and at the time he was active in the hobby, stories of spirits guarding the treasure were common. In a way, this is a case of Ye Olde D&D jumping the rails.
(DIR) Post #AkBivERwUEf0nGcpKi by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
2024-07-22T12:04:27Z
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@futurebird The original Battlestar Galactica lifted some of its mythos from it.
(DIR) Post #AkBjp7H6Ljpal3Cazw by Dianora@ottawa.place
2024-07-22T12:14:34Z
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@futurebird What sort of roll would one need to get the magic underwear?
(DIR) Post #AkBkM5i3BrtfSXWymW by RodneyPetersonTalent@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T12:20:32Z
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@futurebird Scientology before Scientology existed.
(DIR) Post #AkBkUVjWJpEgUGEWXo by mrblissett@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T12:22:03Z
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@futurebirdThe fundamental problem with religions is the promise of an afterlife.
(DIR) Post #AkBkiK3eWXxaKaEglc by mrblissett@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T12:24:32Z
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@futurebird4D6 builds *character*
(DIR) Post #AkBl259Lf5ODszK2DY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T12:28:01Z
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@mrblissett There is no way to prove much of anything about notions like an afterlife. But, given the importance of death, the finality, fear and mystery that surround it, ideas about something after are kind of expected. I was trying to think of another place to make impossible to verify promises. What about a "sleeper life" ? When you are asleep, you live another life in another world. You must follow the teachings to shape your sleeper life... it's not as compelling I suppose.
(DIR) Post #AkBl7j6cX9AhFsjnYe by mhkohne@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T12:29:07Z
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@futurebird I saw a short intro video about Mormonism when they were giving tours at the complete-but-not-yet-consecrated temple in Philly - honestly struck me as only a couple ticks away from a horror novel (lots of FOREVERs)
(DIR) Post #AkBlGXTt7iCto9p5d2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T12:30:44Z
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@mrblissett Being promised fragments of heaven and hell in your sleep each night isn't as compelling because we wake up from sleep. So, even if it were real (and we can use dreams as "evidence" that it is...) that other life is less substantial than a waking life. So an afterlife is only really compelling if we can imagine it to be as real as our waking lives. But if our sleeping lives are not as substantial why would a life after death be substantial?(does this make any sense?)
(DIR) Post #AkBlsepCGgIzaWxyPQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T12:37:40Z
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@steverocky @MarionDonnelly @tshirtman I feel really lucky that I can have distance from the church I grew up with without needing to ever reject it. In part because it has grown with me (for example deciding that they would do wedding for gay couples after all) Because a church can be an important and helpful social organization. A source of support and community. It really sucks when people can't put their trust in their local social institutions because of harm or just... intransigence.
(DIR) Post #AkBmsyZsvVyinzWJ04 by noiseician@mastodon.world
2024-07-22T12:48:53Z
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@futurebird it's funny that you say that because I used to play d&d with Mormons back in the day and their father had taken all of the books (monster manual, DMG, etc) and marked out all references to devils and demons with a black sharpie...not even kidding. 😂@trendytoots
(DIR) Post #AkBnRZMwdz9Il0xl8C by capital@scalie.zone
2024-07-22T12:55:09Z
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@futurebird about that one tale I saw of someone introducing their mom to k-pop and she dropped a whole bunch of far-right conspiracy stuff after getting into the community around.Anyways, story telling is definitely a social need for humans. Having fantasies to express hope, explore ideas, understand the world, or imagine a better future span histories and cultures. It's a form of connecting and bonding, a way to share the mind with others.
(DIR) Post #AkBoKSuyKZN2g03U7k by zmatt@beige.party
2024-07-22T13:05:02Z
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@futurebird I was introduced to D&D by a Mormon friend when I was a kid
(DIR) Post #AkBqGkQLVAHlij5Koi by CuriousMagpie@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T13:26:50Z
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@futurebird Oh … that explains so much about an acquaintance.
(DIR) Post #AkBqbrS2ZMQTb2wfh2 by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2024-07-22T13:29:57Z
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@ned @futurebird I once played a DnD character who was a cleric of a sect that venerated an esoteric text called "The Player's Handbook" and whose adherents carried around identifying objects called "character sheets".
(DIR) Post #AkBs13FXwKaBNmg1lA by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2024-07-22T13:46:23Z
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@futurebird I’m curious if the video was made by believers or detractors, or just someone neutral. There’s a lot of anti-Mormon sentiment out there, and a lot of people who engage in it do not always portray the doctrine correctly. I’m Mormon (admittedly haven’t been practicing the last few years because of several reasons) and also play D&D. I was heavily into fantasy as a kid, though didn’t start D&D until college.
(DIR) Post #AkBtOQ4DN7WglP5DRw by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2024-07-22T13:50:42Z
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@futurebird I think many people, Mormons included, miss a lot of the point of our beliefs about the afterlife. We have probably really liberal beliefs about the afterlife, where only the absolute worst people end up in some form of eternal torment, while everybody else gets some form of paradise. But I won’t say we don’t have problems, but I will say those are often cultural rather than doctrinal. And often more those in and around Utah.
(DIR) Post #AkBtORFEzbwMPtFXH6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T14:01:43Z
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@queenofnewyork Coming from someone who was raised in a Baptist tradition where the biggest message about the afterlife seemed to be "you can't know anything about it only God knows" and "be suspicious of anyone who thinks they are going to Heaven they might not be only God knows"And really just a lot more "Only God knows"It's wild to hear something like "there are secret names and exactly 3 levels in this part of Heaven"
(DIR) Post #AkBtORsadJPqNvexbk by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2024-07-22T13:53:25Z
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@futurebird But in addition to Tracy Hickman, other Mormon authors in speculative fiction include Orson Scott Card (who I dislike for many reasons) and Brandon Sanderson. There are many more, though those are probably the bigger names.
(DIR) Post #AkBtOT0QRfHHsWKjSa by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2024-07-22T13:55:57Z
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@futurebird The Satanic Panic did get some. Ironically the family in my neighborhood that got the school to change the spelling program to not include the game where you level over the year to a wizard, also were obsessed with a tiny part of LDS doctrine that they blew out of proportion and talked about all the time and were just weird. I describe them as wanting to be in a cult. (They are why when I hear about the Franke and Daybell/Vallow cases I get even extra ragey.)
(DIR) Post #AkBtOUdoMiNQwxlhUO by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2024-07-22T13:58:51Z
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@futurebird But yeah, I sometimes refer to them as Utahmormons, like the Utahraptor, because there’s a difference between those who live in Utah and those who live elsewhere. But then, I had a roommie in VA who was from VA but had classic Utahmormon vibes. She hated most TV, so one of the other roommates would watch soap operas when she got home to keep this girl away from her.
(DIR) Post #AkBvIOBXehEp68lLJA by riggbeck@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T14:22:44Z
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@futurebird We know from South Park that only Mormons go to Heaven. Do you have a link to this video - it sounds fascinating.
(DIR) Post #AkBvSrU5ZohMrbQooy by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T14:25:01Z
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@riggbeck I don't know this channel super well but the two women who run it seem to have an interesting perspective. https://youtu.be/4cmKB6eTdBs?si=y84H4bJsjissowRN
(DIR) Post #AkBvokx4XrBiySQctc by JorgeStolfi@mas.to
2024-07-22T14:28:59Z
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@futurebird IIn the 1500s (give or take a couple of centuries) a popular book genre was a detailed description of how Hell was organized, including detailed descriptions of the many dozen version of the Devil -- names, appearance, features, and roles -- and who was subordinated to whom, as an organizational chart.
(DIR) Post #AkBvz0DgdMmfDs5MS8 by riggbeck@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T14:30:36Z
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@futurebird Thanks. I'm interested in imaginary maps and grand hermetic theories.
(DIR) Post #AkBxGXIozBnyhjPaYC by queenofnewyork@newsie.social
2024-07-22T14:45:13Z
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@futurebird Fair. But it's also odd to come from the other perspective and be like "But he said..." :) The orderliness of it makes my brain happy, but I also like sorting stuff. But I struggled a lot when my dad died, because he was a mess and unlikely to be looking at exaltation. So I'm trying to go and trust that, whatever happens, God has it under control and it will be the best for everybody. (That's one of my struggles that has kept me home on Sundays. I am not good at letting go.)
(DIR) Post #AkBzYIvLNrtDEM1xJY by riggbeck@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T15:10:37Z
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@futurebird So essentially Mormonism is a spiritual MLM scheme. Most religions fudge the theological details, but these people have really thought it through.
(DIR) Post #AkC7A1Hu6POfDTVvqC by voxofgod@jorts.horse
2024-07-22T16:36:06Z
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@futurebird there's a show called #hellOnWheels about the transcontinental railroads completion. Lot of interesting things in it But going through Utah and all of the deals the Mormons made were something else One unforgettable thing was the 58-ft wide bed of Brigham Young? One of these days I may look it up
(DIR) Post #AkCBItFPlSM8hepp2m by elronxenu@mastodon.cloud
2024-07-22T17:22:23Z
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@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AkCBN43fVrqzOEKbC4 by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T17:22:46Z
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@futurebird Don't get me started on Jehovah's Witnesses!
(DIR) Post #AkCBfp3XVxmiMcDPxQ by rvinson@liberdon.com
2024-07-22T17:26:45Z
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@shannonpersists @futurebird "Brigham Young will say “we just as well give mules the right to vote as Negroes and Indians.” He also says, “What we’re trying to do today in advocating for Black voting rights is to make Black people equal with us,” and he says, “I will be opposed to that all day long.”"https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/03/05/worst-speech-lds-history-brighams/#Mormon #LDS #Young #Slavery
(DIR) Post #AkCDM96LTdCYeLGzJY by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T17:42:26Z
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@rvinson @futurebird Yeah that's because Jehovah's Witnesses are taught to be politically neutral, they preach about it at their meetings.
(DIR) Post #AkCDjOn3JQa1y5KwRU by rvinson@liberdon.com
2024-07-22T17:49:46Z
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@shannonpersists @futurebird "A strong abolitionist feeling has power over them, and they commence to whisper round their views upon the subject, saying, “Do you think it’s right? I am afraid it is not right.” I know it is right, and there should be a law made to have the slaves serve their masters, because they are not capable of ruling themselves."https://mit.irr.org/brigham-young-we-must-believe-in-slavery-23-january-1852#Mormon #LDS #Young #Slaverty #Democrats
(DIR) Post #AkCEI3405EROifmo4m by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T17:52:02Z
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@rvinson @futurebird Wow. Just wow. Jehovah's Witnesses teach you not to vote. I've actually tried like h*** to ditch them and it's impossible. This is non consensual and it has been for a long time. Stop dragging me to meetings you know I'm socially phobic.
(DIR) Post #AkCEcKCI5exZeOKg0u by rvinson@liberdon.com
2024-07-22T17:59:43Z
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@shannonpersists @futurebird "Jehovah's Witnesses were subjected to intense persecution under the Nazi regime. Nazi leaders targeted Jehovah's Witnesses because they were unwilling to accept the authority of the state, because of their international connections, and because they were strongly opposed to both war on behalf of a temporal authority and organized government in matters of conscience."https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-persecution-of-jehovahs-witnesses#Mormon #LDS #Young
(DIR) Post #AkCGPcNtMM6CCUpN3Y by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T18:17:39Z
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@rvinson @futurebird That sucks. Well I don't hate them it's just that I can't get it through to them that I don't want to be a Jehovah's witness but they keep coming back and I've tried to tell her but she loves to pop in unannounced because I tried to get her to stop and I just wish it were more consensual.
(DIR) Post #AkCGWvGRYyJ0mZpJq4 by rvinson@liberdon.com
2024-07-22T18:21:10Z
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@shannonpersists @futurebird The ones I've met just sit outside with pamphlets and haven't been pushy at all.
(DIR) Post #AkCGz3sL8ksDb8yD2G by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T18:25:53Z
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@rvinson @futurebird Once you're too far in it's impossible to get out.
(DIR) Post #AkCHQkvvA0wuxSqoUq by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T18:30:09Z
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@rvinson @futurebird Maybe I just don't want to be one. That's it. 45 years old to be telling me what to wear what to do when to do it, I'm gonna keep on thinking what I believe and another thing I believe is that my very specific religion is *not" the one "one true" religion.
(DIR) Post #AkCHRfNVIeHs1EBdGS by shannonpersists@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T18:21:47Z
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@rvinson @futurebird She's a really nice lady but she keeps trying to get me to believe their exact ideology and I go and I still think the same as I used to, I tend to disagree with the concept that you should worship God God's or Gods God Dad. I mean it's great to do it. Just not trying to do it 24/7/366
(DIR) Post #AkCHRgDy9aFqdwjX2e by rvinson@liberdon.com
2024-07-22T18:31:24Z
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@shannonpersists @futurebird "Let us reflect that [the earth] is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments."https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
(DIR) Post #AkCHy8enybDS5olNCq by rvinson@liberdon.com
2024-07-22T18:37:17Z
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@shannonpersists @futurebird "The word Satya (Truth) is derived from Sat, which means 'being'. Nothing is or exists in reality except Truth. That is why Sat or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God. In fact it is more correct to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth. But as we cannot do without a ruler or a general, such names of God as 'King of kings' or 'The Almighty' are and will remain generally current."https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/truth-is-god/chapter-6-god-is-truth-knowledge-bliss.php#Truth
(DIR) Post #AkCNwBhwGN3GhRgKsS by mrblissett@mastodon.social
2024-07-22T19:43:53Z
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@futurebirdYes you are making perfect sense.The mind is trying to find patterns all the time. It will find faces where there are none and hear voices/music/laughter from pure noise. This is all that dreams are - making sense of being senseless.
(DIR) Post #AkCbRZwbV7Y8FVq8lE by PTR_K@dice.camp
2024-07-22T22:15:21Z
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@futurebird I wish I could believe it would have helped.But the RPGSs Mage: the Ascension, Over the Edge, and Unknown Armies have all existed for decades. And still we ended up with Q Anon and flat earthers emerging at the end of the 2010s.So I have my doubts.
(DIR) Post #AkCbaVJm4RfOVVvx9U by supaspoida@ruby.social
2024-07-22T22:16:57Z
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@futurebird I have a theory that the bits about retroactively claiming ancestors of converts are why they own ancestry.com and 23andme.com
(DIR) Post #AkCbf40P2rKDFO2ykS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-07-22T22:17:51Z
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@supaspoida You don't need that to be a theory. They WOULD.
(DIR) Post #AkCkWCLVZ7kE5zlZPk by seawall@mastodon.nz
2024-07-22T23:57:01Z
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@futurebird hence why it must be STOPPED, so it doesn't fulfill the need that Mormonism is trying to
(DIR) Post #AkE3jR8XydF01Lgpqy by oblomov@sociale.network
2024-07-23T15:07:03Z
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@futurebird this might actually explain why they are among those dead set against D&D for being “satanic”. They were actually scared of the competition.