Radically Orthodox LDS Perspectives
Is critical thinking destructive to faith?
How can we fortify our own thinking skills and learn to spot errors in common criticisms of our faith?
This presentation offers a simple primer on critical thinking; slides are available for viewing and download here:
Continue reading “Critical Thinking: a Primer for Latter-day Saints”None of the following statements make something untrue.
“Cannot be confirmed to my satisfaction”
“Does not reflect my personal experience”
“Does not reflect the experience of people around me”
“Does not meet my personal standard for validity”
Continue reading “Latter-day Saint Epistemology”Why do we sometimes feel like we don’t belong?
Who is responsible for belonging?
What are things that individuals and institutions do that decrease people’s sense of belonging?
What are reasonable expectations for ourselves and others?
These are discussion points in our presentation on belonging, based on Ben Pacini’s briefing to BYU-I faculty. Slides, discussion, and resources below.
Continue reading “Presentation on Belonging”Does the church need to change?
Yes. the church has changed a lot over the years, and will continue to evolve into the future.
But what specifically needs to change, and why? And what are good and not-so-good ways for members to think about change in the church? What do we as human beings bring to the equation?
Below are the presentation, our discussion of the slides, and some of the resources cited in the presentation.
Continue reading “Changing the Church”A couple of weeks ago on a work trip I spent time with a coworker friend I hadn’t seen since before COVID; he’s a guitarist, and in our catching up we talked about the sadness of losing Eddie Van Halen in 2020.
Continue reading “Reflecting on Van Halen”The Book of Mormon is an absolutely remarkable text of religious psychology. At various points in the text, certain terms are used to make fine distinctions between very specific states of mind and heart. And the consequences of these states of mind and heart are spelled out in terms of social trends in communities.
When I say I know the Book of Mormon is true, part of that statement includes my conviction that it conveys real history of real people and real phenomena. The other part of that statement is that its unique picture of religious psychology is accurate. This morning, my reading in 3 Nephi reinforced this conviction in me.
Continue reading “Getting Along < Shared Belief < Conversion"Although “faith crisis” has become a bit of a buzzword, there’s a real phenomenon beneath the fad: sometimes your expectations and assumptions collide catastrophically with new information.
You have three options when this happens. You can try to pretend nothing has changed, but if the new information is real, this denial won’t last. At best, it’s a delaying tactic. Eventually you will have to either walk away from your former beliefs or rebuild them.
One great example of a faith crisis is Paul. Prior to meeting Jesus, he thought he had it all figured out. Meeting Jesus demolished his old beliefs. He knew he was wrong. But he didn’t know what to believe instead. Not on an intellectual level, at least. According to N. T. Wright’s biography, Paul spent years figuring out how to take the raw material of his old beliefs (especially the Hebrew Bible) and put the pieces back together so they fit his knowledge of the Savior. (This is the third option.)
Nephi is another example of a faith crisis, but the depiction in the text is a lot more subtle. Still, the pieces are there. Start with 1 Ne 2:16:
Continue reading “Nephi’s Faith Crisis”Why are we here?
There are many answers to that question, even among groups of people who hold the same religious beliefs.
But a good representative statement from Evangelical Christianity is found in pastor Rick Warren’s best-selling book The Purpose-Driven Life:
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
…You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by God and for God—
My sacrament talk delivered on 4-24-22:
Repentance: Hebrew word teshuvah: “turning,” or reorientation
Greek word metanoia: conversion, transformation
These notions of repentance are different from saying sorry and trying to stop sinning.
Continue reading “Christ and the Second Arrow”This is an adapted version of the lesson that I taught for Easter Sunday yesterday.
The Good News of Christ makes faith and repentance possible. We have cause for faith because, in vanquishing death and sin, Christ gives us all something to believe in: the possibility that every grief and sorrow may one day be turned to joy. Christ’s perfect example and his Atonement also serve as the motive and means for repentance, filling us with a desire to turn to Him as well as a path back home. These principles—faith and repentance—will lead us be baptized and then to receive the Holy Spirit, which will cause us to become new creatures. This is it, the whole Gospel, in one paragraph.
I want to expand this message into three parts: the what, the why, and the how of the Gospel, each expressed as a promise of Christ’s gifts to us.
Continue reading “The Second Change of Heart”