Unfortunately I missed part of this weekend’s LDS General Conference, which is held semi-annually. I did listen to all of Sunday’s talks though. One thing I noticed is that there were some very good quotes, which I will highlight.
Best Quotes from April 2012 LDS General Conference
- President Deiter Uchtdorf gave a talk on not judging other people. The quote I liked was off a bumper sticker he had read which reads “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you!”
- Russel Nelson, an apostle, discussed in part the absurdity of the Big Bang Theory and made a great comparison. He said “Could an explosion in a book factory create a dictionary?”
- Elder Rasband of the Seventy talked about how God’s works are often made manifest through other people. He discussed how we sometimes need to jump in and help others rather than sitting back and merely asking “can I help?” The quote I liked in his comparison was “would you ask someone who was drowning ‘let me know how I can help you’ or would you jump in and save them?”
- Todd Christofferson, and apostle said something that I’ve said a few times on this site that we’ve had discussions on regarding when a prophet is speaking as a prophet vs. as a man. He discussed an example of how Brigham Young one morning said a lot of opinionated things to a group of LDS Saints and later in a church meeting he got up and said “this morning you heard what Brigham Young had to say…now you will hear what the Lord has to say”. The quote I liked from Christofferson was “Not necessarily every statement by a prophet is revelation.”
- President Thomas Monson discussed how most of the things we worry about in life are of little importance compared to the big questions we ask during trials in our lives. He also discussed making the most of our lives and not aimlessly going through life. The quote I like from him was something to this effect: “we enter mortality not to drift through the waters of life. We have the power to reason, think and achieve…”
- L Tom Perry gave a talk on the Book of Mormon. The quote I thought was great was this “Are you a Mormon? If not, you should be!”
- M Russell Ballard gave a very excellent talk on using the scriptures to havigate through life and also had some very good statistics on how people who live the gospel principles tend to (statistically) have more education and prosperity than those who don’t live the gospel. The quote I liked from him was “when I first saw a GPS I felt like Lehi looking at the Liahona for the first time…it was a ball of curious workmanship!”
- Larry Wilson talked about not using force as parents or teachers to our children and spouses. Rather, teaching principles without controlling agency. The quote I liked was this: “wise parents raise their children to get along without them…ultimately children need to depend upon the Lord, not their parents.”
- Neil Anderson, an apostle, shared a very moving story about a father whose 3 small children had been buried in their home during the earthquakes in Haiti a couple years back. The father prayed to God that at least one of his kids would be saved. They searched and searched and after hours of looking, they heard something (and this is the quote I like) “a midst the rubble of the earthquake Ganchi (the man’s 5 year old son) was heard singing his favorite song ‘I am a Child of God”
I realize there was a lot said and a good portion of conference I missed. Feel free to vote on the quotes I shared below and if you have a quote you liked better from conference, select “other” and then share the quote in the comment section.
25 comments
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April 1, 2012 at 10:02 pm
Tim
Did you not hear Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk in the Saturday Afternoon session? I thought that talk stuck out more than any. After that I liked Uchtdorfs. If you didn’t hear it I suggest you do. He talked about not being envious and how God is just.
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April 2, 2012 at 5:18 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Tim,
I didn’t hear Holland’s talk on Saturday. I heard it was good though. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the reference.
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April 2, 2012 at 6:50 am
Cal
“Russel Nelson, an apostle, discussed in part the absurdity of the Big Bang Theory.”
I suppose by “Big Bang Theory” he means the theory that the universe came into existence all by itself. I saw a program in which a scientist who is a Christian presented the big bang as something that has been scientifically proven, and said it supports the biblical story of creation. He said even non-Christian scientists are admitting the world was created by an undetectable causal agent or something like that.
They can’t bring themselves to say it was God but we know who that agent is because we detect the undetectable (!), thanks to the grace of God shown through his Son’s suffering and death for us (Good Friday is this week) and revealed through our faith in the Father & the Son!
Does anyone know more than I do about the Big Bang as God’s bang?
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April 2, 2012 at 5:20 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Cal,
I can agree with a Big-bang theory if there was God behind it, but if it is just simply things crashing together with nothing behind it I can’t get behind that theory.
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April 2, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Cal
Neither can I.
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April 11, 2012 at 1:03 am
timeforce
Yes. I do know more than you about the Big Bang and the how it in no way relates to the existance of God. The universe has been expanding and accelerating. This has been proved empiracally. That is the Big Bang. Galaxies farther away produce higher redshifts. Acceleration. This means that as we look at the universe we are seeing an image that’s millions or billions of years old and closer to us than they are now. This suggests that the universe was once incredibly small, (singularity) but the Big Bang Theory doesn’t explain why the universe began expanding, but it does prove empiracally that this expansion takes place. So having a belief in God has nothing to do with accepting a scientific fact. Also I would add that if you have a belief that contradicts well established scientific fact, then the most likely explanation is that your belief is wrong. Evolution comes to mind.
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April 2, 2012 at 11:37 am
Larrin
My least favorite part of conference was Elder Nelson’s comment on the Big Bang. His comparison is a logical fallacy, it’s a false analogy. They are in no way similar. I wish our church leaders would stop making anti-science. It makes it very difficult to convince people that it’s okay to stay in the church if you learn that science is not easily disproven by armchair scientists, and that it’s not as simple as superficial analogies.
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April 2, 2012 at 5:21 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Larrin,
I’m not sure that Nelson was saying a Big-bang theory is completely out of the question, but he was saying it is out of the question that God wasn’t behind the creation and that there was a purpose and reason behind creation….basically that it wasn’t an accident.
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April 4, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Larrin
Now that I’ve read the address, I don’t see your interpretation as tenable. He says, “Yet some people erroneously think that these marvelous physical attributes happened by chance or resulted from a big bang somewhere. Ask yourself, ‘Could an explosion in a printing shop produce a dictionary?’ The likelihood is most remote. But if so, it could never heal its own torn pages or reproduce its own newer editions!” He describes the big bang as erroneous thinking.
I would love it if you’re interpretation is what members of the church will think he means, though even that would be far from optimal. However, that is not what most church members will get out of the talk. They will think the big bang is something you’re not supposed to believe in as a church member, and will lead to people that are skeptical for the wrong reasons and using the wrong logic. Skepticism is great! We should all study the facts and research to discover what we know and what we don’t. Unfortunately this isn’t what Elder Nelson says to do. Hearing false analogies from religious leaders in authority positions about how scientists have erroneous ideas doesn’t help anyone.
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April 2, 2012 at 11:38 am
Larrin
I meant to say that I wish our church leaders would stop making anti-science “statements.”
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April 2, 2012 at 6:42 pm
eddy
a non member said that pres monson said we were all begotten children of the father, i missed that but she swears he said it, did he say that?
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April 2, 2012 at 10:39 pm
graceforgrace
Hi eddy,
I don’t remember him saying that, but it’s possible. I’ll have to wait for the transcripts to come out. they should be out by the end of the week.
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April 2, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Joshua Paul Merrill
Russell M Nelson doesn’t understand the big bang at all. His comment is “FALSE” as in not “TRUE” so here we have an apostle of God preaching blatant anti-science fallacies that are easily disproved. If a man of God is preaching falsehood from the pulpit then he’s a false prophet.
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April 2, 2012 at 10:40 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Joshua,
You sound pretty passionate about the big bang theory. Why are you so passionate about it and why do you think Nelson is so wrong? What evidence do you have to prove otherwise?
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April 4, 2012 at 7:19 pm
sarah
Wikipedia clearly lays the evidence for the big bang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang It’s been basically a proven theory since the CMB (thermal radiation from the big bang) was discovered in the 1960’s. To say “Yet some people erroneously think that these marvelous physical attributes happened by chance or resulted from a big bang somewhere,” is simply false.
Blatant anti-science comments like his are not an acceptable thing for a church leader to say.
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April 11, 2012 at 1:23 am
timeforce
I could not have said it any better sarah. I wonder if Nelson has recieved any revelations from God in the last twenty years? He’s been repeating this story since the 80’s. I guess with all the exponential leaps and bounds within the scientific community in the past few decades God thought it was more important to re-affirm the same old faith inspiring stories, instead of giving us reliable solutions to our earthly problems.
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April 5, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Scientist
The only thing consistent about science is that it is constantly being invalidated or enhanced as our knowledge grows. I doubt Elder Nelson completely understands the big bang, but I guarantee that the scientific community in general has the understanding of an infant when it comes to the full truth of the creation. All they can do is state what their observations point them to. Even those observations are constantly changing. Consider what’s been discovered relatively recently about the nature and amount of dark matter and dark energy, for instance.
The big bang sounds great until you 1) try to explain how the mass and energy that originally collapsed down to the singularity that triggered the big band originated (the official answer from astronomers: from a previous universe?), and 2) Explain how such significant organization has resulted from such a random event and that that organization has somehow resulted in our ability to sit here and even contemplate it (the official answer from the scientific community: chaos theory. Put enough monkeys in a room with typewriters and they’ll eventually type the Library of Congress. That sounds plausible until you realize the odds are impossible, even after trillions of years).
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April 9, 2012 at 5:28 pm
J
Scientist, beautifully stated!
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April 11, 2012 at 1:26 am
timeforce
I agree! Just imagine how little we knew about the universe during Jesus Christs time. Science has grown so much!
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April 15, 2012 at 3:42 am
Adeyemi O. Balogun
Such a powerful and inspiring Conference!!!
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June 7, 2012 at 1:19 pm
stephen
is it right for lds members to call ourself mormons,since we are not of mormon but of jesus christ.paul one said in the scriptures that if u say u are of moses then u belong to moses,if u are of peter then u belong to him but we are not of mormon,we are f jesus christ so why are we called mormons.
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July 3, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Cherie
Stephen, We didnt choose the name, it was given to us by those who hated us. We embraced it, because of the faith of Mormon. In a recent talk, we were reminded and encouraged to use our “real” name. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Some will continue to call us “Mormons”.
As for the Big bang theory and evolution…Show me a cell phone that was created by shaking the contents together in a bag. Show me a book that was created by banging letters together. Tell me what a cow was previously, that by becoming a cow…it has evolved and is better because of it. What about a chicken? A Bunny rabbit? No, there is no such thing as evolution, just as there is no “Big Bang” theory. There was a plan. It was a scientific plan. It was in the order necessary for us to be able to exist. That plan was implemented. It took time. We dont know how much time… the “days” were for our understanding that it happened in order and over time. There is much more to science than right and wrong. We dont have all the answers. We dont need them. That is where faith comes in. Elder Nelson is an apostle of God. I will stand behind him over a random scientist any day. How dare anyone call him a false prophet!
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October 3, 2012 at 12:57 pm
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October 7, 2012 at 5:07 pm
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[…] The article I wrote last after last April’s General Conference was fun, so I thought I would continue the tradition. This time, I’ll include the best quotes from all sessions of conference, including Priesthood session. As with last conference’s article, I will include a poll for you to vote on your favorite quote. Just so you know, the quote that had the most votes by far last conference (49%) was the one by Dieter Uchtdorf, which is: […]
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April 7, 2013 at 9:43 pm
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