I finally have a new calling. It’s a doozy, are you ready…I’m ward literacy specialist! (more…)

This post is for the ladies so guys if you’re reading this and you get embarrassed just remember that you’ve been warned. (more…)

As some of you know I just had LASIK eye surgery this week. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. (more…)

A few months ago my family was invited to participate in a babysitting co-op involving 4 other families. This means that once every 5th Saturday Geoff and I watch 17 kids for about 5 hours. All the children are between the ages of 18 months and 9 years old. (more…)

In this installment of my reading club for Sterling McMurrin’s 1965 book The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion I’ll cover pages 13-18. By doing so I am only 18 months behind Clark and Dave who did the same thing in the summer of ’04.

On Universals and Particulars

In my last post I noted that McMurrin places the Mormon concept of reality firmly in the ever-moving becoming camp (as opposed to the static, timeless being camp). In the next section of the book he asks whether there is place in Mormonism for “anything that is genuinely stable and unchanging”. His answer is yes. But he notes that the unchanging absolutes in Mormonism are principles or ideas. For instance, he suggests that the moral will of God or his divine purpose is considered absolute in Mormonism. He also mentions that in Mormonism natural laws “are at least stable if not absolute”. (more…)

In this second post of this reading club I will cover pages 11-13 in Sterling McMurrin’s 1965 book The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion. (The original plan was to cover pages 11-18 like Clark did in his reading club but the post got too long.) I think this series might be helpful to lay the groundwork for the philosophical terms that become required as we discuss Mormon theology here at the Thang. I’m hoping I can refer back to this series of posts when discussing theology in the future. But beyond that, I think these subjects are interesting and worthy of discussing in their own right as well. (more…)

I hate shopping. No, wait! I didn’t mean it. I love shopping. Please, don’t take my membership in the sisterhood away. Let me explain… (more…)

I don’t read a lot of fiction. It’s not that I don’t like reading good fiction – more that I have trouble stopping. When I get a book I really like I have trouble sleeping or concentrating until I finish it. For that reason, I tend to read my fiction on vacations and holidays. Last Christmas I was inspired by a post by Kaimi to get a copy of Enders Game. I loved it and powered through it in a day or two. Last week I decided to try the sequel, Speaker For the Dead, and couldn’t put it down either (causing me to drop out of a few hot blog debates here and elsewhere…). If anything, I think Speaker For the Dead might be even better than Ender’s Game. I’m on to the third in the series now, Xenocide. I’m about half way through and it is not shaping up to be as good as the first two books, but it does give me some good fodder for a blog post. As it turns out, the universe Ender and friends live in is apparently built on the theology and metaphysics (ideas about the nature of reality) of 19th century Mormon apostle Orson Pratt. (more…)

You know how Prince and P Diddy are constantly changing their names? I’m thinking about doing that myself. It’s not for any glamorous reasons. I’m thinking that my new name will help me keep a new year’s resolution that I’ve made for myself. I’ve decided that 2006 will be the year of frugality for me. (more…)

Date: Tuesday, December 27
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: The Johnston’s house in Queen Creek (SE of Mesa)

We got a note from Kaimi Wenger letting us know he will be in town for the holidays. We decided that it would be a good opportunity to throw the first Arizona bloggernacle shindig. If you are interested in hanging with the Johnstons and Wengers and any other Arizona ‘Nacle citizens that can make it, just email me at geoff at newcoolthang.com for directions. We hope you Zoners can make it!

One of the things that remain a mystery to the world is the nature of the soul. I have already written a couple of posts on this subject, the first was called “Are we eternal or is it just our parts that are eternal?” and the second was my recent post on the Sterling McMurrin book. McMurrin put it pretty well when he said the question was one of what our spirits are made of – are they necessary or contingent; are they made up of irreducible parts or are they “simple”, irreducible, and indestructible themselves. When he wrote his book in 1965, McMurrin felt that the parts model was dominant in Mormonism. (more…)