8 ms·
For those who are annoyed about the name of the site not being in the title: GEDMatch was phised a few days ago, then yesterday phishing led to the data exfiltr
by site-packages1 6y ago
For those who are annoyed about the name of the site not being in the title: GEDMatch was phised a few days ago, then yesterday phishing led to the data exfiltration from the Israeli DNA site MyHeritage.
https://www.myheritage.com/ https://www.myheritage.com/
- markdown 6y agoI thought myheritage was owned by the Mormons.
- hangonhn 6y agoJust out of curiosity, is there a reason for Mormons to especially care about their genealogy?
- js2 6y ago> One of the core tenets of Mormon faith is that the dead can be baptized into the faith after their passing. Baptism of the dead evolved from the beliefs that baptism is necessary for salvation and that the family unit can continue to exist together beyond mortal life if all members are baptized. > Mormons trace their family trees to find the names of ancestors who died without learning about the restored Mormon Gospel so that these relatives from past generations can be baptized by proxy in the temple. For Latter-day Saints, genealogy is a way to save more souls and strengthen the eternal family unit. http://www.pbs.org/mormons/etc/genealogy.html http://www.pbs.org/mormons/etc/genealogy.html
- SomewhatLikely 6y agoWhy not just baptize every human then?
- bobbylarrybobby 6y agoHa! Get a load of this guy, caring about people outside his family /s
- perl4ever 6y agoThat's the whole point; they intend to baptize everyone living or dead, and theoretically even the dead get to decide whether to accept. Genealogy is a side effect of this, I have the vague impression that they need to know who you are to baptize you; however, everyone on the planet is a member of the same "family".
- gliese1337 6y agoThat is a correct impression. A name, date, and associated place, with all three assumed to uniquely identify an individual in most cases, are required to perform the ordinance. Most typically, that's a birth name and a date and place of birth, date and place of death, or date and place of marriage. If it turns out that there were two people with the same name born in the same town on the same day... well, the angels will help figure that out later.
- mkhpalm 6y agoI think they actually try to in what they call baptism for the dead.
- edbaskerville 6y agoThere has been a bit of that. Although it is officially against church policy, some Mormons have baptized some deceased Jews, including Anne Frank: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/us/jews-take-issue-with-posthumous-mormon-baptisms-beliefs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/us/jews-take-issue-with-p...
- perl4ever 6y agoI feel like taking offense at this is not worth it. If they sincerely believe they are saving souls, and you don't, then it shouldn't mean anything to you. Baptizing the dead seems silly and quaint, but Christians used to ask, how is it fair to send the unbaptized to hell that never had a chance to be saved? Mormons should get some credit for acknowledging the unfairness and coming up with a "solution". I think it's a sad commentary on human nature that the Christian sects that don't believe anyone goes to hell at all are even more fringe and taken less seriously than Mormons.
- Thorrez 6y ago>I think it's a sad commentary on human nature that the Christian sects that don't believe anyone goes to hell at all are even more fringe and taken less seriously than Mormons. One reason they might not be taken seriously is that in the Bible Jesus directly talks about people being in Hell.
- kmonsen 6y agoI don't think that is true, see for example: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824479587/heaven-and-hell-are-not-what-jesus-preached-religion-scholar-says https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824479587/heaven-and-hell-are...
- Thorrez 6y ago>Bart Ehrman says the ideas of eternal rewards and punishments aren't found in the Old Testament or in the teachings of Jesus. What about Matthew 25:46? > Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. That article seems to assert that Jesus taught the soul cannot live apart from the body. There are various other quotes from Jesus contradicting that. John 14:1-3: > Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 18:36: > Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place." Luke 23:43: > Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."
- Trasmatta 6y agoThat's what they're trying to do. In Mormon theology everyone who dies without a chance to be baptized must be given a proxy baptism by someone living, so they have a chance to accept the gospel in the afterlife. The goal is that this will eventually happen for everyone who ever lived. (Source: former Mormon.)
- Gustomaximus 6y agoSend someone up to space each year and sprinkle water on earth, do a bulk lot.
- hangonhn 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Y%C3%BC-hsiang#Conversion_to_Christianity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Y%C3%BC-hsiang#Conversion... There was a Chinese general who supposedly did something like that using a firehose.
- Trasmatta 6y agoUnfortunately won't work unless you flood the world, because Mormons only do baptism by full immersion.
- codeisawesome 6y agoThey only need to wait a century or two then... and try to release more greenhouse gases if possible.
- gliese1337 6y agoEven discounting the procedural difficulties, which would make such a baptism invalid to the church, it doesn't count without knowledge and consent.
- jobigoud 6y agoHow do the dead ancestors give consent in the current scheme?
- sxp 6y agoThere is an interesting sci-fi version of Mormonism's baptism of the dead & Tipler's Omega Point in Charles Stross's Accelerando: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando.html https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/acceler... > The Church of Latter-Day Saints believes that you can't get into the Promised Land unless it's baptized you – but it can do so if it knows your name and parentage, even after you're dead. Its genealogical databases are among the most impressive artifacts of historical research ever prepared. And it likes to make converts. > The remaining faithful of the Latter-Day Saints are correlating the phase-space of their genome and the records of their descent in an attempt to resurrect their ancestors. > ...the panopticon-logged Net ghosts of people who lived recently enough to imprint their identities on the information age, and the ambitious theological engineering schemes of the Reformed Tiplerite Church of Latter-day Saints (who want to emulate all possible human beings in real time, so that they can have the opportunity to be saved). That results in a a fun version of the simulation hypothesis where we're all simulated beings in some Mormon-Tipler Heaven.
- tzs 6y agoThat leads to my afterlife nightmare scenario. I die bravely in glorious battle and am chosen by the Valkyries for Valhalla. One evening as we feast after that day's fighting, quaffing giant tankards of mead and boasting of our deeds, there comes a knock at the door. Two young men in suits enter, and go to speak to Odin. Odin then call for me to come over. He tells me that the young men are Mormons, and that some distant relative born long after I died (great-grandkid of a second cousin or something like that) has joined the Mormon church and has been busy baptizing the whole damn family tree. Odin tells me I'm Mormon now, and cannot stay in Valhalla. I must move to the Mormon afterlife. (Actually, the Mormon afterlife doesn't seem all that bad compared to that of most Christian or Christian-adjacent religions, in the sense that if you reject their teachings but still live a decent life you get a decent afterlife).
- mdocherty 6y agoValhalla is only good if you keep winning the afterlife wars!
- menybuvico 6y agoValhalla is nothing but a training ground for the forces of Odin. Once Ragnarök happens, they will die a final death fighting the forces of evil. If you want eternal life, you want to go to Fólkvangr.
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoRagnarök is the only afterlife war.
- riffraff 6y agoI believe the "if you live a good life you go to heaven" is a common tenet of many Christian denominations since the Vatican Council. At least, I recall my religion teacher (a catholic priest, we have such a class in public schools in Italy tho they vary in content and quality) telling us that some decades ago. You do not go to heaven if you're an atheist tho, as _denying_ there is something divine puts you in the bad list, sorry.
- jacquesm 6y agoThat's such an incredibly rude and conceited practice.
- SiVal 6y agoOh, nonsense. Proxy baptism doesn't make you a member. That's not what they believe. Century after century Catholics taught that if your loved one had the misfortune to die before baptism, no hope. Eternal misery, because Christ said baptism was mandatory. Mormons say, well Christ was right of course but certainly not cruel, so the good news (gospel) is that if you don't get baptized before death for whatever reason, someone will take care of that formality for you so you can still choose in the next life whether you want it or not. If you decide you want it, then you were officially baptized. If you don't want it, you weren't baptized. (Someone else was, offered it to you, and you declined.) If buying your ticket for a party that requires a ticket but you don't have to go to if you don't want to is "incredibly rude and conceited", you would have good reason to condemn all of Christianity similarly for Christ's claim that he paid the mandatory price for your sins, buying you a ticket to heaven that you'll need (Christians claim) but that you can either accept or reject, as you wish. Mormons offering to extend the deadline for you to decide into the next life is hardly "incredibly rude and conceited" IMO.
- jacquesm 6y agoMy life is none of their business.
- holografix 6y agoProbably a practical and financial reason such as the Catholic Church not allowing priests to marry and have children as a form of preventing priests passing on accumulated wealth or power to their offspring.
- Godel_unicode 6y agoThat's a pretty strange claim, do you have any evidence for it? Priests are not exactly wealthy, in general.
- getmoheb 6y agothey're not now. but christianity is an old religion. after it became the official religion of Rome their aristocracy increasingly took up bishoprics, wich were much more powerful then, and acted as great lords do. paul johnson's a history of christianity is a good read if you want to know (lots and lots) more
- andrewxhonson 6y agoIn addition to (and in conjunction with) the other comment about baptism for the dead, it is believed to be a fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy of pointing "the hearts of the children to their fathers" before the end of the world. Only names and some important life event dates are required for baptisms, but there is also an emphasis on learning much more about them if possible.
- throwawayForMe2 6y agoFamilySearch is the Mormon site.
- WarOnPrivacy 6y agoAdding that FamilySearch hasn't joined the other genealogy sites in their DNA Addictions. & MyHeritage has clearly lost their way. They've all but abandoned their research role (their once-excellent post 1940 records are nearly unsearchable now) to one obsessed with DNA & image gimmickry.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hpoe 6y agoNope, you're thinking of Family Search that is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 6y agoAnd possibly Ancestry.com, they don't have ties with the church per say, but they do have very strong ties to Utah.
- KMag 6y agoWhat does the GED stand for? Genetic ??? Database? To someone who grew up in the U.S., GEDmatch sounds like a dating site for people who took a test in lue of completing secondary education.
- pbhjpbhj 6y agoOne use of GED is for GEnealogical Data[base], or Genealogy Data. GED files have been used for decades in genealogical circles at least. So I think that's what they're referring to? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM, for example.
- staticautomatic 6y agoI upvoted you and FYI the word you’re looking for is “lieu”.
- KMag 6y agoMuch appreciated.
- GnarfGnarf 6y ago"GED" is the first three letters of the genealogy data interchange format called GEDCOM (GEnealogy Data COMmmunication).
- pricci 6y agoI think it was like this: Millions of GEDMatch accounts where opted in to share info with the police, without consent. Also, user emails where leaked, which lead to a phishing attack targeting MyHeritage users. 16 of them fell for it and they passwords were stolen.