Hello SHAFTers! I’d like to thank everyone who came to the Mountain Meadows Massacre discussion on Friday. If you are interested in seeing the rest of the PBS documentary “The Mormons” or if you missed the discussion and want to watch the chapter on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, you can watch the entire program online thanks to miracle of the series of tubes.
We hope to see all of you tonight at SHAFT’s Opening Social! 
For those of you in the Logan area and who are attending SHAFT meeting regularly, many thanks. Now we have another favor to ask. As Paint the Street draws closer, we need to start thinking up ideas for a logo/quote/picture/something to put down in paint. If anybody think of something, let one of the officer’s know. If you want to draw up your design, even better. Bring it to a meeting, or give it to an officer as you see them wandering about campus. Thanks for your input, you guys, and I’m sure you’ll come up with something “inspiring”. ;)
* This is the fourth installment in my “Why I Don’t Believe” series.
If there is only one thing upon which my Mormon friends and I will agree, it’s that sacrament meetings are sometimes insufferably dull. Kids have their baggies of Cheerios, but the rest of us are left to find other means of avoiding the tedium of church. My distraction of choice was the Book of Abraham. I was especially intrigued by the facsimiles that accompanied it. I mean, what other sacred text can also function as a coloring book?
As I matured, so too did my interest in the Book of Abraham. The illustrations aside, it’s a fascinating and important work of scripture. I began to more faithfully study it and its teachings. The Book of Abraham discusses some of Mormonism’s most peculiar doctrines—the plurality of gods, the pre-existence, and polygamy. It also introduced the scriptural basis for the black priesthood ban.
Despite its importance, many Mormons are unaware of the history behind the Book of Abraham and the immense (if not insurmountable) difficulty it poses to their religion. For those who don’t find this post persuasive, I hope it will at least be informative.
Continue reading
I came across an interesting series today as I was looking around the website Surf the Channel. I was looking for a documentary to watch (I know, I’m a nerd) when I came upon Richard Dawkin’s series The Enemies of Reason. In the first episode, which I am currently watching, Dawkins strays from his usual topic of religion to discuss New Age superstition. Technically, you can be an atheist and still believe in tarot cards, psychic readings, and ghosts, but why would you? Many atheist pride themselves on using logic and reason to rid themselves/avoid a belief in God. It seems only natural that they would want to use those same skills to decide whether to visit a psychic healer or a doctor to help with your arthritis?
If any of you have an irrational belief (and everybody does), I encourage you to take a second look at it. Do some research, and ask yourself, Does this make sense? It can be hard, and a little bit scary, to get rid of long held beliefs. Sometimes you need to let them go one at a time, weening yourself off of superstition. Finding the distinction between truth and lies is a life long battle that everyone is fighting. But everytime you throw off a silly superstition, whether it is religion or avoiding black cats, it brings you that much closer to the truth.
This must be an example of the intellectual rigor of Joseph Ratzinger. The Pope has claimed that atheism is responsible for the destruction of the environment. Now all we have to do is figure out how to implement his brilliant solution to the environmental crisis.
What I wrote is, of course, not actually an argument that the Pope is wrong. I will respond to that now. For full context, here are the Pope’s (translated) remarks. Continue reading