- Jack on Outer Darkness, Voids, Dark Nebulas, and the End of the Universe: “I think those who go to such a place are those who want nothing to do with the Lord or his Kingdom. They are so filled with wrath that they actually prefer to go to place beyond the precincts of the Kingdom. And in saying “place” I mean that the only thing that defines it as a place is that it is not the Kingdom. It is “without form and void” of order.” Feb 18, 21:55
- on What Did You Think About Church Yesterday, 2/15?: “I started last week’s reading with a bad attitude: what can we learn from Noah and the Ark other than “be good or else”? Fortunately, our teacher pointed out the chiastic structure of the whole story, which makes God remembering Noah the turning point. He then used that as a springboard to talk about getting closer to God, played a clip from President Oaks’ BYU devotional, and made it a pretty great lesson. That actually dovetailed with something I noticed in my reading: we frame this as a “follow the prophet” story, but as far as is recorded Noah never tries to persuade anyone else to build a boat or to get on his. His prophetic message (according to Moses 8) is “repent.” Of course if the “violent” and “corrupt” society he lived in had listened, no boats would have been needed. But since that didn’t happen, he then received personal revelation on how to mitigate the consequences of living in a violent and corrupt society for him and his family. That certainly seems relevant today, even if both the consequences and the mitigation are just a bit different.” Feb 18, 16:59
- on Brave Like Eve Art Exhibit Open in Bountiful, Utah: “my wife and i went and saw this yesterday. it was beautiful. we would not have known about this show w/o your post, so thank you for sharing.” Feb 18, 12:00
- on Hymns and Tunes I Submitted for “Hymns—For Home and Church”: “Thank you for sharing your talent! I think members who compose new hymns ought to be encouraged to perform them in Sacrament meetings. Just because the church didn’t accept them for the hymn book shouldn’t bar them from being heard locally.” Feb 18, 07:32
- on Outer Darkness, Voids, Dark Nebulas, and the End of the Universe: “@ Last Lemming: I actually liked the Good Place because, regardless of the particulars, it got people thinking about the afterlife and what heaven and hell’s defining characteristics would be. I like that framing of hell as well, it’s very Lewisian; the people in The Great Divorce who chose to stay in Hell couldn’t simply move on from the petty squabbles of their mortal lives. @ Mark Ashurst-McGee: Oh definitely, the depression that comes with the idea of an Outer Darkness, end-of-universe situation is only applicable to atheists. Even deists would probably find the idea that a clock-setting God would just watch the universe die off forever a tough pill to swallow. @ Mhermitmom & R: I agree. I’ve thought the same thing for both of those insights.” Feb 18, 04:33
- on Hymns and Tunes I Submitted for “Hymns—For Home and Church”: “Not about these hymns in particular, as somebody who is not musical, but was raised in a musical family so I understand the culture, it was an interesting social phenomena to watch when the Church announced that people could submit hymns. It made a bigger splash than I thought; sort of outing the budding musicians in our ward. Like how everybody over a certain age and education level is working on a novel, I didn’t realize how many people had been working on composition. All that is to say to not feel too bad, I’m sure the slush pile the Church employees have to weed through is huuuge.” Feb 18, 04:28
- on Outer Darkness, Voids, Dark Nebulas, and the End of the Universe: “The idea of the Atonement as an engine that turns back entropy has always been very appealing to me.” Feb 17, 20:22
- on Outer Darkness, Voids, Dark Nebulas, and the End of the Universe: “My mother thought of paradise as the light of christ and warmth comes with light. She felt outer darkness was dark and therefore cold. That has stuck with me.” Feb 17, 19:59
- on Outer Darkness, Voids, Dark Nebulas, and the End of the Universe: “If our Heavenly Parents are outside of our Big-Bang-Universe, then they can probably handle anything. If they are inside of our Big-Bang-Universe, then they will have to do something about the far future. Michio Kaku, in his book Parallel Worlds, says that we will have to either figure out how to get into a different (and younger) universe, or we will have to time-travel back to a younger time in our own universe. And, you know, there are probably some other solutions as well. I’m confident that we can trust our Heavenly Parents on this one.” Feb 17, 15:50
- on Feeding the hungry has negative ROI: “Norman Maclean said much the same thing in his novel A River Runs Through It. “Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.” ? Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories” Feb 17, 08:39
