Let’s Talk About Sex
I think a lot about sex----although maybe not in the way that some people do. In particular, I think a lot about why people like and don’t like to have sex, what ignites desire and what suffocates it. As a therapist, I meet with people almost daily who are trying to...
Don’t Be Goofy
Many of my friends like Disney. I do not. I'm not talking about Walt, I really admire his creativity and vision, I'm talking about the corporate monster he unwittingly spawned. I have my reasons for the distaste, reasons based on my personal values which are based on...
Dependency: the first law of heaven
An earlier version of this post was originally published on mormonliberals.org. Being dependent isn't a bad thing. We are all dependent on the Savior, for example, and we are all dependent on each other for support.[ref]The definition of "dependent" I'm using comes...
An E-mail from Dr. Phillip Barlow
AN EMAIL EXCHANGE BETWEEN ME AND DR. PHILLIP BARLOW NOTE: This is a personal email exchange between Dr. Phillip Barlow, the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, and me. The conversation was spured by a fabulous Mormon...
Reaching the Nations: International LDS Church Growth Almanac, 2014 Edition
Reaching the Nations: International LDS Church Growth Almanac, 2014 Edition by Matthew Martinich I began my serious study and interest in the worldwide growth of the LDS Church and missionary work in 2002. One day I had the thought that I did not know where all of the...
The Dilemma of Post Faith Reconstruction Missionary Work
I grew up giving a greater than normal dedication to my Mormon faith, but after a disheartening experience in the temple on my way home from the mission field, I completely lost faith in God and my religion. Over the next decade and a half I slowly reconstructed it...
Relief Society Lesson Notes: Lorenzo Snow Chapter 22
The following are notes that were taken from my ward's Relief Society lesson on Chapter 22 in the Lorenzo Snow manual titled Doing Good to Others. I really liked the direction that our teacher took this lesson. It seemed to come more from the...
Infinite Assumptions
In this third part of my discussion of cosmic assumptions, I explain that not all infinities are created equal. I discuss different sizes of infinity, variation among universes, and assumptions we make about evidence. See the introductory post, here, and the follow...
The Drama of Faith
For the first time in my comparatively short career as a permablogger here at Rational Faiths I am writing a post for me. It isn’t that I am not of course interested in the things I normally write, but I do try to keep the readers in my mind when deciding what to...
Multiverse, Shapes, and Laws
The three, nested Klein bottles shown in the image have only one side, like a Möbius strip--the outside is continuous with the inside (although a topologist would tell you that this is only an approximation and that a Klein bottle cannot really be made in our three...
Become as a Little Child: Angry, Scared, and Open
Whenever I’ve been in a Sunday School class of some kind, and one of the scriptures that contains the phrase “become as a little child” is read, the inevitable question usually follows: “And how can we become as a little child?” or “In what ways should we emulate...
Reflections on Martin Luther King Jr. and Mormonism
There is a stark contrast between Dr. King's "Dream" speech and his letter from Birmingham. In the former he spoke of unification; in the latter he spoke of shattered dreams. From Birmingham he wrote, "In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham...
When you sum(As,e)
You've probably heard the saying: "When you assume . . . you make a sum of As and e." For you non-chemists, that would be arsenic plus one electron making an arsenic ion with a charge of negative one. That's not a very stable ion, so it's not really found in nature,...
FROM THE LIFE OF JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH, CHAPTER 2: OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST
Note: I teach Elder's Quorum every other week. These are my lesson notes from today's discussion. In general, the material presented in italics, are things I said or questions asked by me; but not always!! Also, you will notice that there is a ton of material here....
001: Infertility …So When Are You Gonna Have Kids?
Hey it's our first podcast! Celebrate... Holiday! We are excited to announce the official launch of the Rational Faith's podcast! We hope that you will find it somewhat interesting, a little irreverent and maybe a tiny bit funny. Meh, probably not funny, but oh well....
Three Mormonisms
Introduction: Tensions in Utah It was early 2012, and Alain de Botton had just published Religion for Atheists, a book which asserts that everyone — even non-believers — should embrace the good features of religion, like community and service. When Religion for...
LGBTQ Mormon Crisis
Two Printable handout for bishops and stake presidents that talks empirically about LGBTQ suicides:
The LGBTQ Mormon Crisis: Responding to the Empirical Research on Suicide
Youth Suicide Rates and Mormon Religious Context: An Additional Empirical Analysis
The Barker Brothers’ Projects
These videos were created for Latter-day Saint parents and allies to voice their love for their LGBT brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. They want to give a message of comfort and support to other parents who are navigating the difficult conflicts that can arise in families around this issue.
“Cogito!” (“I think!”) follows the intellectual adventures of a recovering academic outside the walls of academia.
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