Category: Liberal Arts

  • Tomorrow morning, at 2 AM

    John David Payne

    Once a year, after enduring a grueling six hours of church in one day, I lay down to sleep knowing that during the wee hours of the night I will be robbed of one whole hour. It is time to forever abolish Daylight Saving Time.

  • Defining terrorism

    John David Payne

    By request, this morning I am going to talk about defining terrorism. The first important thing you need to realize is that there is no single widely accepted definition, either in academia or in the policy world. Everyone uses their own. So we’re going to talk about how you can build your own definition of…

  • Prophecy vs. History

    John Fowles

    Not too long ago, I stumbled across the PBS presentation of Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel (2d ed. 1999). It reminded me of dealing with the book at college and enjoying the ideas presented and the sweeping take of world history that it offered. But while watching the presentation and contemplating the message…

  • Market Dominant Minorities in the Book of Mormon

    John Fowles

    Market Dominant Minorities

  • And Justice for All

    Jim F.

    I apologize in advance for writing about a topic that is at least closely related to, if not the same as Nate’s. But it is his fault. He made me start thinking about the question of freedom and its relation to justice.

  • The Mormon Bankrupt

    Frank McIntyre

    Utah has a very high rate of bankruptcy. In 2000 it hovered at around 7 filings per thousand people– twice the national average. This lonely fact has launched a thousand explanations for why Mormons have such a problem with defaulting on their creditors. Clearly, the thinking seems to be, this shows some of the rot…

  • The Quotidian

    Jim F.

  • Is Poverty Satanic?

    J. Nelson-Seawright

    One of the most important scriptural texts for the theological consideration of poverty is to be found in Alma 32. This chapter discusses Alma’s mission to the Zoramites. During a sermon on the hill Onidah, Alma is approached by a group of impoverished individuals who were “poor in heart, because of their poverty as to…

  • Hermeneutics

    Jim F.

    That’s a 25 cent word if there ever was one, something for college kids to show Mom and Dad to prove they got something for their money, something a grad student to lord it over others with in the commons.

  • Dear Jane

    Jim F.

    Dear Jane, I don’t know you—at least I don’t think I do—but I have been struck by your willingness to speak openly and honestly about your situation. My Sikh friends speak of “seekers.” You are genuinely a seeker and, so, a person deserving of respect, including the respect of response. However, I haven’t had anything…

  • Eternal Progression and Retrogression

    Geoff J

    If there is progression, there may also be retrogression; if there is good, there may be evil. Everything has its opposite. (John A. Widtsoe, Rational Theology, Chapter 15)

  • God’s Foreknowledge or Lack Thereof

    Geoff J

    Foreknowledge vs. free will

  • On being a bookkeeper in Zion

    Nate Oman

    As a young missionary, the Lord saw fit to inflict on me one the greatest trials that can afflict a Latter-day Saint: He forced me to become educated about Church financial controls and auditing procedures.

  • Give to the Beautiful

    Frank McIntyre

    We had a seminar recently from an experimental economist out of the University of Chicago. He has done a variety of cool things using field experiments. Let me mention the one he presented. The experiment involved sending people door to door to do fund raising for a (real) charity. The fundraisers (who were college students)…

  • Choose Your Own Adventure

    Frank McIntyre

    Let’s play a game. You can choose between two jobs. One pays $50,000 and the other pays $100,000. You know, or can guess, that if you take the first you will give about $5,000/yr in fast offerings and other gifts to the poor. If you make $100,000 you will give about $15,000. You will also…

  • Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten

    Frank McIntyre

    Clearly, were there to be a famine, a one year food supply in the basement would look really good. What may be slightly less obvious is that the presence of food storage, even if nobody ever uses any of it for an emergency, can stop a famine from ever actually happening.

  • Theology and Idolatry

    Jim F.

    Let me present a sketch–though only a sketch and a very broad one at that–of how one might think about theology, both about a problem with it and one of the possible responses to that problem.

  • Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press

    Frank McIntyre

    I see that Slate now puts the odds of Harriet Miers confirmation at 70%. Silly Slate, don’t they know that niche is taken? As I’ve mentioned before, the best bet, literally, is to follow the gamblers. And as of press time, they are betting that Miers has a 3 in 10 chance of making it…

  • Thinking about the Trinity

    Jim F.

    It is hardly news to this crowd that Mormons don’t accept the traditional understanding of the Godhead, the Trinity.

  • Health Care: What to Do?

    Julie M. Smith

    This from a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research Educational Trust: “The average cost of health insurance for a family of four has soared past $10,800 — exceeding the annual income of a minimum-wage earner, according to a survey released Wednesday.”

  • I Shall Be Free

    Frank McIntyre

    I got my bill today and it turns out that there really is something cheaper than a Germanist these days.

  • The happiest place on Earth

    Frank McIntyre

    is Ireland.* Really.

  • Think, Brethren, Think!

    Frank McIntyre

    Brigham Young has many wonderful tidbits scattered throughout his years as prophet. A friend pointed out the following snippet:

  • Ricoeur Dies

    Jim F.

    Paul Ricoeur, Christian philosopher, friend of Emmanuel Levinas, colleague of Jacques Derrida, is dead.

  • Mormons and Markets, II.A: Information and the Failure of the United Order, an Addendum

    Frank McIntyre

    Consider this an addendum to Nate’s post on the catastrophically large amounts of information needed to plan an economy.

  • The Order of Things

    Jim F.

    My discussion of belief and practice has in its background a larger discussion concerning what it means to be religious.

  • Belief and Practice

    Jim F.

    I have been carrying on an argument with Nate on one of his posts (## 5 and 7) and in his responses to one of Blake’s posts ( #23) –sort of.

  • 6.6 Billion

    Frank McIntyre

    According to the IRS, the federal tax code uses up 6.6 billion hours of time for people and businesses to fill out their tax forms. Now, to tell the truth, I sort of like doing my taxes. The numbers are easy to deal with, I often get money back, and it convinces my wife that…

  • The Sway of Philosophy

    Jim F.

    As I see students get excited about Heidegger or Wittgenstein or some other philosopher and the insights into their own lives and the gospel that come with that excitement, I remember my first year or so in graduate school.

  • How much is it worth?

    Frank McIntyre

    Suppose you think the world would be a better place if there were no Walmarts in your town. Then the next question is, suppose you could live in the world where Walmart was not allowed, but you had less money.