- RLD on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory? Part 2: “Stephen and I must have been writing at the same time and my final parenthetical was not meant to dismiss his question about boundaries. I do think it’s pretty straightforward though. I’m always down to discuss what the gospel tells us about aliens. I could imagine writing a fictional story based on my speculation. You could then evaluate whether you think I got it right. I could even publish it. If told you to keep it quiet, but I’d received a revelation about aliens, you should be skeptical. But it might be true. If you asked me if you could publish my revelation about aliens to the Church and I said yes, you should think “Uh oh, this person either doesn’t understand or doesn’t accept how revelation actually works. I’ll bet his revelation isn’t real anyway.” Real revelation to the Church comes through established channels and follows established procedures. If you think the Holy Ghost is telling you to publish my revelation to the Church, you’re wrong. If I claim a General Authority told me I could publish it to the Church, I’m wrong. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, or maybe I’m being deceptive. In the unlikely event a General Authority actually said it, he didn’t have the authority to do so and it’s still meaningless. Every member of the Church knows, or ought to know, 1) who they can receive revelation for, and 2) who can receive revelation for them. Any purported revelation that breaks those rules, whether it’s personal or something like Visions of Glory, is a mistake. We all make mistakes, even about revelation we receive, and those rules limit the consequences of our mistakes.” Jan 31, 12:01
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory? Part 2: “These stories are certainly relevant to understanding the context of Visions of Glory, but there’s a big difference between a fictional speculative story and a purported revelation. A speculative story invites the reader to evaluate each element of the story for truthfulness. A purported revelation invites the reader to evaluate the revelation itself–who received it, the circumstances of its reception, etc.–and if they accept the revelation as authentic then they accept all of its elements as truth. (This almost shouldn’t have to be said, but the rules for evaluating purported revelation ought to be familiar to every Church member and Visions of Glory obviously breaks them.)” Jan 31, 11:00
- on What Can We Learn from Visions of Glory? Part 2: “This reminds me of a number of quotes. Brigham Young said that before joining Mormonism, he was frustrated with a popular Methodist preacher, Lorenzo Dow, for preaching “only morals” and not mysteries. I found some early quotes on Mormon success on the attracting converts who wanted such things. In his introduction to his publication of John Dee’s secret spirit diary, Meric Casaubon, condemned Dee and Plato for seeing out such mysteries. “Plato’s writings are full of Prodigies, Apparitions of Souls, pains of Hell and Purgatory, Revelations of the gods, and the like.” Aristotle was better “because he did not think that it was the part of the Phylosopher to meddle with those things that no probable reason could be given of.” Joseph Smith was staunchly on the mystery side. “I cannot believe in any of the creeds of the different denominations, because they all have some things in them I cannot subscribe to though all of them have some thruth [sic]. but I want to come up into the presence of God & learn all things but the creeds set up stakes, & say hitherto shalt thou come, & no further.—which I cannot subscribe to.” October 15, 1843 It also reminds me of a conversation I had on my mission with a woman who’d converted a while before and was interested in a book Deseret Book was selling on what the gospel teaches us about aliens. My comp and I weren’t really into it and one of us said something about this not being necessary for salvation. “Don’t tell me that!” she fired back. “That’s why I left the Baptists because they were always saying that.” So … where are the boundaries?” Jan 31, 10:58
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “The speech referenced in the first research article listed here greatly influenced how I perceive leaders of the church. They went from better than the rest of us to just like the rest of us in my mind.” Jan 31, 07:25
- on “Don’t Try to Make Me Good; Shoot Me”: The Complicated Reality of J. Golden Kimball: “Great stuff.” Jan 31, 00:18
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “Abstract from the publisher for “Gold Plates to Silver Screen”: The Book of Mormon has always been intricately bound to its claim that it is a true record of historical events, and the acceptance of its historicity is integral to the faith of many Mormons. As is the case with the Bible, this brings up challenges when the narratives are adapted to film due to conflicts between faith, historical accuracy, and creative licence. This chapter examines how films based on the Book of Mormon each take the historical claims of the text as valid while emphasising different elements of faith, history and narrative. Each film engages with the historicity of the Book of Mormon in different ways, but the desire to create a faith promoting, historically accurate, and entertaining film experience can be seen in each.” Jan 30, 19:00
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “Ah, okay. I thought it might have something to do with my formatting or something (sometimes I have to do these quickly). But yes, with these I generally tend to just report on them without any commentary, but as with everything there’s sometimes variation in quality.” Jan 30, 16:17
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “Like Gary, I’m always grateful for your efforts to keep us all up-to-date on cutting edge research. In this batch, the cutting edge didn’t seem very sharp. To me, at least, there appears to be a general tone of liberal academic cultural politics influencing the subjects, methods, and findings.” Jan 30, 15:38
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “Gary Bergera: Of course! Mark Ashurst-McGee: You’re going to have to be a little clearer about what you’re not impressed about.” Jan 30, 10:30
