As if the big BYU-Utah football game were not enough, the still-undefeated men’s hoops team knocked off #6 Louisville last night in Las Vegas and will play #1 North Carolina tonight in the finals of the Las Vegas Invitational. Days like today are a BYU sports fan’s dream come true. The only question this morning is whether it will be a good dream or not by the end of the day…
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Is anyone else uncomfortable with the assumption there are an infinite number of human spirits/intelligences in existence?

What I mean is, it seems like a pretty common assumption among Mormons that there are an infinite number of beginningless and irreducible spirits waiting to inhabit future worlds (or for those who like the popular tripartite model: an infinite number of “intelligences” who are waiting to receive spirit bodies and then inhabit future worlds). If time is also infinite, as most of us assume, and an infinite number of inhabited worlds have already passed then it seems the assumption is that all of the following things currently exist:

-An infinite number of pre-mortal spirits/intelligences (who have been waiting an infinite amount of time to get a mortal probation according to most Mormons)
-An infinite number of resurrected people (who lived as mortals on the infinite number of previous earth-like planets)
-An infinite number of resurrected planets (to house those resurrected people)
-An infinite number of exalted people (gods or Gods depending on your assumption I suppose)
-An infinite number of sons (and daughters) of perdition

Of course this all assumes there is an infinite amount of space and matter in existence as well.

I dunno, I just don’t dig the idea of being just one of an infinite number of us. I much prefer the notion of a finite amount of beginningless and irreducible matter and space (despite the implications of that idea) and a finite number of beginningless spirits/intelligences in existence.

What do you think?

BYU has taken care of business the last three weeks, but I am not yet convinced this team is going to prove to be top 25 material this year.

Three weeks ago the Cougs made it out of Albuquerque with a win. It was not pretty — the Cougs gave up a couple of late touchdowns on turnovers — but a W if is a W. Here are some highlights those of you not living in Utah (essentially the only place one can see the games again this season):

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I have long suspected that some of our creedal Christian friends have inadvertently begun worshiping the Bible itself in place of, or at least in addition to, the living God. Recently Aaron Shafovaloff (of the Fluffy Bunny Nice Nice Club) seems to have confirmed that suspicion for me in his case at least.

We were discussing how he knows the Bible is the word of God over at his blog and he kept saying things that made no sense at all to me. I kept asking things like “Did God tell you it is true or not”? And he kept saying things like “No, not in the way Mormonism talks about this “yes” answer.” Well his last comment finally started clearing up this issue for me. Here are some of his quotes: (more…)

BYU football righted the ship this afternoon, manhandling the Air Force Falcons 31-6.

It was by no means a perfect game for BYU — the Cougs still turned the ball over twice and had too many penalties — but it was more than enough to get the job done. The defense decided to show up today and did their best to convince BYU fans that the Tulsa debacle was an anomaly. Max Hall and the offense continued to impress and tight end Dennis Pitta, freshman running back Harvey Unga, and juniors Manase Tonga and Michael Reed all had big games. (If I were an opposing MWC defensive coordinator I would not be looking forward to trying to stop BYU for the next few years with that kind of young talent on offense.)

This was a good win for BYU. It puts the Cougs atop the conference standings and knocks out a 3-0 team. With the other top MWC contenders (TCU and Utah) coming to Provo this year the Cougs seem to have the inside track at winning the conference at this point. If BYU can continue to dominate at home all they need to do is avoid an upset in places like Albuquerque next week. Now that BYU has proven they remember how to win we’ll see if this team knows how to win away from home next Saturday.

BTW — Anybody actually see the game? I listened online to the KSL radio broadcast. The fine folks at Comcast and The Mtn. decided to not even sell an internet streaming video of this game… lovely.

Anyway, sound off on the game or team Coug fans.

I didn’t see the game this week. I don’t get CSTV on my cable provider. Sounds like turnovers and penalties killed us again.

Sound off or vent here if you want Coug fans.

So it’s over. UCLA beat BYU today 27-17. The loss can be pinned on turnovers and penalties but the officiating seemed to play into both of those things as well.

BYU’s first turnover was the least controversial of the three. Max Hall tried to force a pass to Austin Collie and got picked off. The UCLA corner returned the interception for a touchdown. Ouch. The second turnover, a fumble, was highly questionable because it looked clear to me that the BYU tight end had a knee on the ground well before the ball came loose. In fact it looked to me like it was his knee hitting the ground that jarred the ball loose. The third turnover was equally suspicious with Max Hall losing the ball as he was being sacked. His arm was cocked back and moving forward just as the defender grabbed at the ball from behind him. The ball flew 5+ yards forward but the officials ruled it a fumble. Of course in both cases the reviews came down in favor of the Pac 10 team. (The Pac 10 is becoming well known for shoddy officiating (home cookin’?) and I can see why.)
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So far so good with my pre-season predictions for BYU football. I predicted a BYU victory and that part was right. I predicted a final score of 16-9 so a 20-7 actual score wasn’t too far off. What I didn’t predict was that this was never a close game at all. BYU totally dominated Arizona on Saturday in ways the final score just doesn’t reveal. Here is what I saw on Saturday:

Defense

It was a dominating performance by the defense. The seven points given up came in the waning seconds of the game. The Cougs were just that close to pitching a shutout. The defense is living up to the hype so far. That is good news to Cougar fans and bad news to opposing teams.
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Julie put up an interesting post over at T&S asking “Are Women More Spiritual Than Men?” This question has come up at several Mormon blogs recently and it has become pretty clear to me that before we can answer it we need to define the word “spiritual”. So what does spiritual mean to you? (more…)

Ok, I can tell that fans are itching to make their predictions about the upcoming season — they started putting them up prematurely in the 2007 Season Preview thread. So here is the place to make your predictions for the upcoming football season. Here are mine:

Sat, Sep 1 Arizona ……………………W — 16-9
Sat, Sep 8 at UCLA …………………..L — 17-24
Sat, Sep 15 at Tulsa …………………W — 31-10
Sat, Sep 22 Air Force ……………….W — 35-17
Sat, Sep 29 at New Mexico ……….W — 24-14
Sat, Oct 13 at UNLV …………………..W — 45-13
Sat, Oct 20 Eastern Washington W — 52-10
Sat, Oct 27 at San Diego State…. W — 38-17
Sat, Nov 3 Colorado State …………W — 27-24
Thu, Nov 8 TCU ……………………………L — 35-31
Sat, Nov 17 at Wyoming …………… W — 34-21
Sat, Nov 24 Utah………………………. W — 35-28

So there you have it. I’m going with 10-2 in the regular season. I figure 10-2 will likely at least tie BYU for 1st the conference and send them to another bowl game which I predict they will win to go 11-2 overall on the year just like last year. I optimistically predicted a 9-3 regular season in 2006 and the Cougs outdid me. I hope they do it again this year.

What are your predictions?

In 2005 and 2006 I covered BYU football over at Bloggernacle Times. But since that blog is now defunct, the Thang is launching a new sports category so I can keep my sports blogging hobby going.

2006 Season Recap

BYU started the 2006 season with high hopes but lost two of their first three games in heartbreaking fashion. (They lost at Arizona on a last second field goal and a Boston College in double overtime.) The Cougs then went on to rattle off 10 straight wins including beating top 20 TCU in Texas and crushing the Oregon Ducks in the Las Vegas Bowl. This Spring graduated senior quarterback John Beck was taken early in the second round of the NFL draft by the Dolphins and looks to be the QB of the future in Miami. Several other graduated Cougs are vying for permanent spots on other NFL teams now too.

2007 Outlook (more…)