Utah State gave a valiant effort and the last second touchdown made it seem closer than it really was, but the only thing that kept this one from getting boring was Max Hall’s repeated interceptions.

The defense did a pretty good job overall against an Aggie offense that has proven to be fairly potent. The offense was solid except for the turnovers. Not a great showing but not bad either by the Cougs. As long as the Cougars keep improving it should be a very interesting game in three weeks when TCU rolls into Provo. Next week is a trip to Vegas.

BYU came out and looked pretty good against Colorado State today. The final score was BYU 42, CSU 23. BYU started very strongly getting a couple of interceptions and blocking a punt in the first quarter, with the offense punching in touchdowns on all three.

Just a few thoughts:

– Harvey Unga is really good. Man is it great to have him back.
– Max Hall has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns this season. He has a nasty habit of throwing high risk passes over the middle. A lot of his INT’s happen when he anticipates wrong the direction a receiver will break. Those end up going right to defenders.
– Brian Logan is a really good tackler but at 5’6″ he is going to get abused all year long at his cornerback position. BYU probably needs to figure out how to get someone bigger in there on occasion — especially in the red zone.
– BYU is not a top 10 team right now but they could be later this year if they keep improving.
– Todd Christiansen is a deeply annoying color commentator. I want to pull for him because he is a BYU guy but man is his commentary painful.
– Andrew Rich is a beast. He obliterates people with his tackling every week.
– Basketball coach Dave Rose looked good in the interview today. Cancer-free, less overweight, and more gray hair. I couldn’t be happier for him. Plus, I am calling it right now: BYU makes the Sweet 16 this year. I expect this year’s BYU hoops team will be the best in decades.

Congratulations to the Cougars. Utah State is coming to Provo this Friday in a pre General Conference tilt.

What constitutes good theology?

One might assume that good theology always equals true theology. But based on D&C section 19 I am not sold on that assumption. When I read section 19 I am reminded of the movie line “You can’t handle the truth!” . Further, I gather from section 19 that God has somewhat of a utilitarian view of good theology. That is, the revelation seems to indicate that God is more interested in our actions than our beliefs and if believing something that isn’t entirely accurate leads to right behavior God doesn’t mind the incorrect belief flourishing. If that is true, the best theology is the theology that leads to the best behavior in humans.

But even if the best theology is the theology that leads to the best behavior in humans, we must deal with the problem that people are not all alike. While theology X might be optimal for leading you to right behavior in your life, I might behave best by believing theology Y. So within Mormonism perhaps God goes with as close to a “one size fits all” theology as he can? That might explain the complete lack of a formalized and systematic theology in Mormonism too…

What do you think constitutes good theology?

I have been thinking about the core of a sure testimony of the restored gospel. It seems to me that a truly solid testimony of Mormonism must be based on personal revelation from God confirming a couple of things:

1. That God exists and is worthy of worship and emulation, and
2. That God inspired the founding of Mormonism and is currently guiding the church

That’s it. I submit that all the other stuff people focus on in publicly expressed testimonies is less core than these two.

I reckon that if one can personally communicate with God and have God convince them of those two things, one should be sufficiently anchored to handle anything that might otherwise shake their faith in the gospel. Further I think that if one can at any time turn to God and confirm 1 and 2 above one should be permanently inoculated against any surprises one comes across.

Of course if one cannot break through and receive any revelation from God at all then there are bigger problems to deal with than any other issues one has with Mormon culture/history/practices.

It was a fun two weeks. Back to the reality that speed kills. (Well actually it probably wasn’t the speed that killed us in this game (though the speedy QB was real trouble). It seems like execution, size at receiver, and overall desire from FSU led to this result.)

The temporarily vaunted BYU defense was completely and utterly smoked by FSU. The first FSU punt was in the third quarter. Every time FSU got the ball they scored a touchdown. Max Hall tried too hard (as he tends to do when the Cougs get in trouble) and as a result melted down and threw three INT’s (as he tends to do when the Cougs get in trouble).

Harvey looked great. Unfortunately he may have re-injured that hamstring. Ugh.

I need to be clean shaven on September 15th. That is the first day of the mustache growing contest my brothers and I are starting. The contest ends November 15 so we get two months to grow the most awesomely awesome mustaches we can muster.

Lest you think the competition will be easy, there happen to be six Johnston brothers and one brother-in-law in on the contest ranging in age from 25-45. I am not sure what sort of mustache I will bust out. The first couple of weeks will be spent growing a base mustache or Van Dyke and from there I will see what I can do. I’ll probably post a few pictures of the contestants at some point.

The amusing part about the timing of this contest is that my boy Q-dog is getting baptized in October so the family pictures will have his dad and several uncles sporting sweet mustaches.

A family with six boys does what it can to bond after everyone grows up, no? (Feel free to fire up a mustache growing contest among your brothers too if you wish)

Final score BYU 54 Tulane 3.

Harvey Unga played a little so he may be back at full strength soon. Kariya looked good in relief for Harvey though and JJ DiLuigi looked quite good too. The Cougars may have lost starting offensive lineman Braden Hansen to injury which is bad. Overall BYU did what a top 10 team is supposed to do. Florida State comes to Provo for another big game next week. So far so good on the 2009 season.

The #20 BYU Cougars took down the #3 Oklahoma Sooners 14-13 tonight. It was a HUGE win for BYU and the first win against a top 10 team since Ty Detmer’s Heisman season in 1990.

Things looked grim when it became clear that star running back Harvey Unga was too injured to go. There were no proven backup tailbacks but sometimes-fullback Bryan Kariya stepped up big to fill Harvey’s shoes. Max Hall made his critics who say he didn’t play well in big games eat crow. Max went 10-10 to end the first half and then was 9-10 on the long game winning drive.

The defense was extremely impressive. They look faster, meaner and the hitting was so violent that Heisman trophy winner separated his shoulder on a clean stick by OLB Coleby Clawson.

Rise and Shout Cougar fans. Now, not only is a BCS bowl possible, there is a slim chance of BYU making the title game with an undefeated season and some lucky breaks. No, seriously.

Alright I admit it. I watched most of three college football games last night. It had been so long since last season and I was Jonesin’ alright?

Anyway, as most BYU Cougar fans know, the season opener for the #20 Cougs is tomorrow in Dallas at the brand-spankin’ new Dallas Cowboy stadium (aka JerryWorld). The opponent is the venerable Oklahoma Sooners in a quasi home game for the #3 ranked team in the country. Most everyone in the know thinks Oklahoma will run away with this game and that is not an unreasonable prediction. This Oklahoma team (who played in the the BCS championship game last year) is returning most of its defense, most of the skill players on offense, and its Heisman trophy winning QB as well. Sure the offensive line is mostly new (same with BYU) and the star tight end will be sitting this game out with a recent knee injury, but BYU winning this game would be a major upset.
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Remember that mini parable they used to teach in church about a delicious cupcake (or cookie or whatever) being just right except for that one nasty ingredient (cockroach, rabbit poo, or whatever)? The moral of the story was that the old “it is fine except for that one scene/lyric/part” excuse just won’t do.

Well the same message applies to the Mysteries of God. Don’t pollute the beautiful mysteries of God with poppycock (aka self-contradictory and incoherent nonsense).

Here are some examples of great mysteries: We don’t know how God hears our thoughts; We don’t know how God manages to speak to our minds; We don’t know how God heals the sick; We don’t know how God parts seas, moves mountains, causes or stops rains, converts water to wine, or any of the miracles we know of. The list of specific mysteries is innumerable.

But separate from mystery list is the paradoxical nonsense list. The thing that makes this a “nonsense list” is that by definition these things are self contradictory like the following: God can make a circular square or God can create a married bachelor. Remember that banal one they used to ask in elementary school? Can God create a rock so big that he can’t lift it? These are all part of the paradoxical nonsense list. Add to the list the claim that God can travel to or see our actual future and yet we still have real (libertarian) free will. The reasons why this last one is nonsense have been discussed ad nauseum here in the past. The simple explanation is this: If the future exists to be traveled to or known then it is fixed. If our futures are fixed then our stories are already written. If our stories are already written we are not writing them with our free will right now. Period.

On a side note, I am always amused at the way people get all huffy about this truth. Once cornered (and people always end up cornered when defending sheer nonsense) a popular response is to scream “Philosophies of men!!” and stomp off. But truth is truth and the fact that some men believe it shouldn’t be a problem.

[Note: I re-read this post and toned down the rhetoric a little. I was annoyed and in a hurry when I first wrote it.]

I frankly don’t get it.

We live in a fairly new neighborhood with a K-8 public elementary/middle school in it. My kids walk the half a mile to and from school every day. Starting this year all four of them will go to and fro together. I think it is great. The kids are flourishing socially and academically (as they have in every school they’ve attended.)

But we know lots of people in the neighborhood (and ward) who choose to send their children to other elementary schools. Sometimes it is a school in a neighboring district, sometimes it is a charter school in town. In each of these cases it means driving the children to and from school every day. (more…)