Awards
Lists of Brodie award winners:
X-Mormon of the Year 2012: David Twede
X-Mormon of the Year 2011: Joanna Brooks
X-Mormon of the Year 2010: Monica Bielanko
X-Mormon of the Year 2009: Walter Kirn
A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.
Once You Figure Out God Is a Jerk
So, I heard some years ago that religious people tend to be happier and healthier. It didn’t especially jive with my experience, but hey, it’s what the scientific data say, right? Here’s an interesting piece from the NY Times, corroborating and explaining some of the benefits of “religious attendance — [or] at least, religiosity” the reasons for which are “not entirely clear”. Some of the benefit derives first from “social support [which] is directly tied to better health” and second from Read more [...]
Posted in church attendance, God himself, Sacrament Meeting, Science, secularization
Studying the Original
I recently saw the documentary “Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock” about Teri Horton, a woman who may have purchased a Jackson Pollock painting at a thrift store for $5. It was a fascinating documentary, with a clear perspective. The crux of the film is that Teri cannot prove that the painting is in fact, a Jackson Pollock painting. Through forensics, it appears as if a fingerprint of Pollock’s is on the back of her painting. Also, you look at the painting, and certified Pollock paintings, Read more [...]
Posted in Arts, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Science, Testimony
atheist v. Muslim – part 1
I play soccer on occasion during the lunch hour at my university. One of the other players (probably the best player) is an Iranian-American, “H”, who is also Muslim (he’s in IT). He asked me what I teach and when I told him Sociology of Religion, he became very interested. He said his favorite topic is religion. I knew where this would end up going, but I thought it would be fun to go there anyway. He eventually suggested we do lunch, which we did. Over lunch a number of topics were raised, resulting Read more [...]
Posted in Apologetics, Atheism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Quran, Reason, Science
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Debating Reality Edition!
It looks like a large segment of the American public thinks that a couple of out-of-context quotes from some leaked emails constitute knock-out-punch evidence that global warming is a lie. How can there be so much debate over things as cut-and-dried as facts and reality??? Fortunately Outer Blogness has risen to the task of exploring why! The best short post I’ve seen on how to rationally analyze evidence (outside your area of specialization) comes from NeuroLogica (hat tip Kuri). I’d quote just Read more [...]
Posted in conspiracy theory, Science, Sunday in Outer Blogness
Dallin Oaks tries to remain relevant
For some reason someone thought it would be a good idea to invite Dallin Oaks to Harvard to talk to students. First mistake. Dallin Oaks went. Second mistake. Dallin Oaks said something. Third mistake. Quick summary of what Oaks said: People in the US, generally, are ignorant about religion. He says that’s bad. Oaks then blames higher education for this, claiming that higher education has lost its focus now that it actually spends its time teaching students things like science, medicine, Read more [...]
Posted in Apologetics, Law, Science, Theology, Truth
Oldies but Goodies: Testimony of a Dissident
A while back another blogger asked me to submit an essay about my Mormon experience. Probably, for good reasons he changed his mind and never published it. Since it is already written and might shed some light on my argument at Times and Seasons, I might as well publish it myself. It might help some people to understand where I am coming from. Testimony of a DissidentWhen I grew up in the seventies and eighties, Church was a liberating experience. My mother converted when I was six. My Read more [...]
Posted in Abuse, Appearances, Bloggernacle, Book of Mormon, Boyd Packer, BYU, Callings, Christianity, Depression, Divorce, Epistemology, Ethics, Europe, excommunication, Family, Freedom, Germany, LDS History, Moving On, Nostalgia, Obedience, Philosophy, Power, Prophets, Science, Sunstone, Theology
Utah bankruptcy isn’t about Mormons?
I caught this article while reading my science news this morning: Bankruptcy Rates Reflect Policy, Not People. Basically what the article says is that the different rates of bankruptcy filings by state are not due to spending patterns or characteristics of the people in those states but rather policies regarding bankruptcy filing. In other words, Mormons aren’t REALLY spending more than they are making or filing bankruptcy at higher rates (by Mormons I mean Utahans, just to be clear). What’s happening Read more [...]
So much for dualism, try googlism…
In reading through my morning dose of tech news, I caught this story about the medical and health ramifications of humans having over 1 trillion bacteria inside us (more bacteria than there are human cells). The health ramifications are fascinating, but because I relate everything back to religion I immediately had to ask, “What are the religious ramifications?” Well, if humans really are “body” and “soul” in the classic dualistic understanding, does that mean that our “soul” doesn’t include the Read more [...]
Posted in Joseph Smith, Mormon Doctrine, Science
Today’s Sunday School lesson is on “open-mindedness”
Views: 2893
Posted in Advice, Atheism, Epistemology, Reason, Science
Baylor scholars misleading the public
A recent report by the Council for Secular Humanism has called into question findings from a large survey by Baylor University sociologists of religion. Turns out, the team of sociologists at Baylor, led by Rodney Stark, used a variety of tricks and subtle techniques to make it seem as though the US is more religious than it really is and to make it seem as though religion is on the rise, when just the opposite is true. While this may not be a typical topic of conversation here, it is kind of Read more [...]
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