My family has been Mormon since the mid-1800’s, but it has never been one of the stalwart families. We don’t have polygamy in our past, we don’t have extensive missionary experience, we don’t have grand tales of intermarriage with prominent persons. I'm easy-going, proud to be a Mormon, and proud of my heresies. Pride will ruin me. I'm proud of that, too.
Tonight I’ll be telling my eight year old that one of his friends died last night in a tragic accident. I can’t imagine what the family of this little boy is going through. It’s devastating even from afar.
For those of us affected at a distance, it’s a sobering reminder of how fragile this life is, and how quickly it can change. (more…)
Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California overturned California’s Proposition 8 today, a victory for equal rights. Surprisingly, my hetero marriage seems just as stable tonight as it was this morning. Go figure.
In a 136 page ruling, Judge Walker ruled that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.
The Church issued its own response. Essentially: (more…)
Joining Nahum in the ranks of the impotent, facts apparently have little power – especially when they are used to counter misinformation. This article from The Boston Globe relates specifically to political belief and voter behavior, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to see the correlation to other realms of belief. From the article:
Most of us like to believe that our opinions have been formed over time by careful, rational consideration of facts and ideas, and that the decisions based on those opinions, therefore, have the ring of soundness and intelligence. In reality, we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts. And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. This reinforcement makes us more confident we’re right, and even less likely to listen to any new information.
Last night PostSecret included another Mormon-related card. This one is interesting in that it generated quite a bit of searching for the blog behind the “Faking It” sentiment. A number of links showing up in the search engines turn out to be malware, but the actual link is listed here after the jump… (more…)
Interesting article in Nature this week reporting on Italian researchers and their findings with brain surgery affecting spiritual experiences. (more…)
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