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Guest Blogger: Gary Lee Parker

Sending out sparks of life light, glowing, spinning in the dark like a cosmic disco ball, like white hot arcs of electric night

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The Mormon Transhumanist Association is pleased to announce that this year's annual conference will take place on Saturday, 8 April 2017, at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, Utah.

The theme of the conference is “Evolving Gods.” From its earliest beginnings, humanity has looked beyond itself, seeing in various deities its characteristics embodied to a superlative degree. Human conceptions of the divine have undergone dramatic shifts, from polytheistic contention for dominance between tribal deities, to notions of a god more powerful than all these, and eventually to the consigning of these tribal deities to oblivion as monotheism became predominant. Early Christians, Eastern Orthodox, and subsequent restorationist movements, like Mormonism, emphasized human divine potential through the process of theosis, deification, or divinization. Eastern religions taught the possibility of achieving unity with the divine community of enlightened beings.

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(image sourced from video below)

(Matthew 9:32-33)

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I see your God who has done everything already, and I see the Anti-Christ. Its message is that the work is done, or the work is permanently reserved for Him. Jesus accomplished His part, which, as it happens, was all that needed to be done.

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MTA Members & Friends,

2016 has been a year of change, including for the MTA. We had a successful conference in April that included the election of a new president of the MTA, Chris Bradford. We have a new member of the Board of Directors, Wendy Smith, and an expanded management group, including a new Chief Financial Officer, Drew Ostler, and a new Chief Marketing Officer, Caleb Jones. More recently, the MTA constitution was amended to allow for the election of a new CEO, Blaire Ostler. We are very excited about the expansion of our leadership team and have received an overwhelming amount of support from the association. Thank you!

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When Joshua led the Israelites to Canaan--a land where they could settle and grow their own food--manna from heaven ceased to appear (Joshua 5:12). God didn't disappear; after all, it was God who had kept them whole in the wilderness and delivered them to the promised land.

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(photo credit - text added)

The approach of attesting: “Jesus understands you. Jesus will heal/comfort/lift/unburden etc. you.” can work to deceive the attesters that the burdens of others are Jesus’ to carry. This approach can, ironically, separate us rather than bind us together--because we would-be healers and healed, throw our hands up (even if in prayer) rather than extend them to another.