- Jonathan Green on Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, Infinite Regress and the Eternal Chain of Gods: “That’s a good point that it’s not just late Nauvoo theology, and that the King Follet Sermon touches on scripture and revelation from the earliest Restoration. Personally, I find the late Nauvoo stuff intellectually fascinating, but it’s not what I most respond to devotionally, so these days I look at our cosmology as a wide space of things we can believe, which includes everything from mildly traditional trinitarianism to infinite regress and more, without requiring a specific point within that space.” Oct 13, 18:18
- on CFM 10/19-10/25: Thoughts and Poetry for “Before I Formed Thee in the Belly I Knew Thee”: “I apologize for not removing the snide and erroneous comment earlier. Please keep any comments civil and respectful, and don’t assume you know the author’s unstated intentions. FWIW, two strikes and you are banned from T&S if it happens on my posts.” Oct 13, 17:21
- on The Bronze Threads of Fate: A Handbell Journey: “RLD, I can imagine! Those are some of my favorite pieces too.” Oct 12, 22:27
- on Latter-day Saint on Joe Rogan: “If “the data” is as hostile to (LDS) belief as Dan claims, then I’d really like to see him provide the general (or specific) grounds for his continued belief. Otherwise, it’s just fideism.” Oct 12, 16:10
- on Latter-day Saint on Joe Rogan: “Just one example, in “marriage and sexuality” on celibacy. Professor Pablo A. Torijano of the Complutense University of Madrid aptly points out, the consensus of the “Third Quest for the Historical Jesus” (with scholars such as E.P. Sanders, John P. Meier, and Geza Vermes) insists that Jesus and his first followers operated entirely within the parameters of Galilean Common Judaism. • Marriage was the absolute norm: In that environment, marriage was not one “lifestyle choice” among several; it was the connective tissue of the economy, family survival, and religious duty. • Jesus’s celibacy: Although the historical Jesus probably did not marry—which was a striking eccentricity in his context—his central message was not an institutional endorsement of celibacy, but rather the apocalyptic proclamation of the imminence of the Kingdom of God. The first disciples (such as Peter, whose mother-in-law is explicitly mentioned in the texts) were married men who lived according to average Jewish customs. McClellan adopts a macroscopic and diachronic perspective (across the entirety of biblical history). In attempting to dismantle the modern theological argument for a “single, permanent biblical design for marriage,” McClellan assembles all the pieces that appear in the New Testament (including Paul’s letters and second-century texts) to demonstrate that the Bible contains contradictory narratives. However, in doing so, he flattens the sociological reality of 30 AD, where celibacy did not have nearly the same institutional or social status as marriage. So, was there diversity? Yes, of course. Can you flat to what Dan does in his videos? Nope. You must ponder and be honest with proportions, and explain what represented the most to the society in different times, especially in the inter-testamentary times (Also that being a paradox in those videos because Dan jumps from Mesopotamia to biblical time, to Jesus’ time even to rabbinic time… it’s a mess). And this affects the Petrine Church (term used by Antonio Piñero), the original jew christian movement that preserve all Jewish traditions, it exists high chances, in the first century of expecting that Jewish marriage would be the average, the norm in Jesus followers.” Oct 12, 14:01
- on Latter-day Saint on Joe Rogan: “I was reminded a little when reading the comments of when the Book of Mormon musical first came out–15 years ago, maybe–and journalists were looking for reasons why it was okay to like a musical that made fun of a religion. At some point, someone invited John Dehlin to an early performance of BoM and the NYT basically did an entire story saying, “Hey, this Mormon liked it, so it’s okay to make fun of them!” (Or that may just be my jaded recollection; it’s been a while.) And I remember thinking to myself that even if he was still on our books at the time, Dehlin wasn’t really much of a member anymore and seemed to have left the faith in all but word, so maybe he wasn’t the best member to represent us as as whole. And I knew all that because I’d been “on the blogs” for a lot of years before that, including John’s blog. FWIW, like what I’ve seen from Dan McLellan, though admittedly I’m not even a scholar, let alone a Biblical scholar. But like the Dehlin/NYT story, to the extent McLellan is going to be held out representative of what Mormons are or believe to the world as a whole, I think it’s fair to ask if he’s even still believing. What I admittedly don’t know is the extent to which people actually associate him with the Church.” Oct 12, 12:08
- on When Peace Is More Than Personal: “If you myopically look at this and a few other instances of official violence, this is a bad situation. Overall, violent crime is down dramatically in much of the US over the past few years. Drug overdose deaths have also been dropping. Many point to increased border enforcement and targeting of illegal alien criminals as prime reasons. I have seen some who want ICE agents to get significantly more training in proper use of force, conflict resolution, etc. This would probably help, but would require an increase in funding for federal law enforcement. Many of the most vocal in opposition to this type of enforcement would not want that. I would have loved to protest or stop the many abuses from federal and local governments against many US citizens from a few years ago. It took several years and multiple congressional elections before some serious changes started. I have not heard of a similar ICE encounter in my locale. I think that the local law enforcement will turn over arrested criminals if ICE asks. Raymond Winn, I can remember President Trump wanting to make a deal with congress on border security 7 years ago. He insisted on lots of funds to build a bigger border wall and increase border patrols. He was flexible in many other areas in negotiations, but congressional leaders did not want to make a deal. Many of the congressional leaders who are the loudest opponents of current ICE tactics could have probably got a deal with Trump to get ICE to use their preferred tactics back in 2018 or 2019. I suspect that a deal could be made now on ICE enforcement, but Trump would need a win in other areas to make that deal.” Oct 11, 23:39
- on The Bronze Threads of Fate: A Handbell Journey: “I had to smile at the Smash Bros album. I owe my love of orchestral music to childhood exposure to a record (yes, vinyl–I’m old) by the London Philharmonic with the Star Wars soundtrack on the front and Holst’s The Planets on the back.” Oct 11, 21:44
- on Latter-day Saint on Joe Rogan: “RLD, I have a strong testimony. I’m active and committed. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just so tired of the meanness!” Oct 11, 21:37
