Monthly Archives: November 2010

Video bomb

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I’d be remiss not to pass along the videos below. They each deserve their own post and discussion, but that would frankly be quite the chore. So, being the lazy blogger I sometimes am, I’m just throwing them all into one ‘video bomb’ post.

The first video argues that Christian philosopher William Lane Craig’s arguments for theism commit circular reasoning. Craig is no intellectual lightweight; it’d be extremely naive to disregard him after only a seven minute YouTube clip. But still, I think there is something to this criticism.

At the beginning of this year, SHAFT watched the critically-acclaimed BBC television play “God on Trial.” The play takes place at Auschwitz during WWII. Some Jews in the camp convene a trial against God, charging him with breaking his covenant with the Jewish people by allowing the Holocaust. In this scene, the guilty verdict is announced.

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Some similarities between Mormonism and atheism

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By Common Consent, a popular Mormon blog, laments a recent phenomenon:

Our young people go off to college or leave home for work, and they promptly drop out of the Church. This seems to be happening at accelerated rates compared to the past, and the old assumption that many will eventually come back when they start families of their own seems to be holding less than it used to. In short, we’re losing our young people at an alarming rate.

This trend isn’t unique to Mormonism, of course. Indeed, relative to other Christian sects, Mormonism has fairly low attrition. But what is interesting about those who apostatize from the LDS Church is that they don’t leave to join other faiths. More often, they leave religion altogether. This blog and its readers are evidence of that.

I often hear the sentiment from my LDS friends that, “If Mormonism isn’t true, no religion is.” I think that’s a false dilemma, but I understand it. Mormons become victims of their own devoutness. Their expectations of the church and its leaders are unrealistically high, setting them up for disappointment. When you believe in something (in this case Mormonism) so strongly, and then discover that it’s untrue, you begin to doubt other beliefs you held as certainties—including god.

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Link bomb #11

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A recent Newsweek article calls Utah “the new economic Zion”, because it has been largely insulated from the bad economy. Part of that is Utah’s low corporate taxes, making it a hospitable environment for business. And Newsweek attributes the rest to the Mormon work ethic.

The Truant (satirical) headline: “Pearl of Great Price” not worth that much after all”.

Some recently declassified FBI files shed light on conservative firebrand and Mormon leader Ezra Taft Benson’s relationships with the Eisenhower and the John Birch Society.

The Catholic blog “First Things” explains why the phrase “I’m spiritual, but not religious” is vacuous. “The word “spiritual” has no useful meaning if it does not refer to a relation to a real spirit … It’s not a useful word if it means a general inclination or shape of mind or emotional pattern or set of attitudes or collection of values. There is no reason to call any of these spiritual.”

The Center for Inquiry’s resident philosopher John Shook provides a detailed overview of the various naturalisms.

The LDS Church takes another stand on a hot-button political issue, and this time I agree with them. The church came out in support of comprehensive immigration reform.

A major study by renown sociologist Robert Putnam finds that Mormons are among the most devout religious groups, among the most likely to keep their faith as an adult, are unusually charitable, and have relatively positive and pluralistic views of other religions.

In his new book, the Pope condones condom use in exceptional cases. Well, kind of.

A father in Indiana is denied custody rights of his children because he is an agnostic. Absurd.

This YouTuber advocates a boycott of the Salvation Army this holiday season, because of its religious opposition to gay marriage and anti-discrimination ordinances.

Mormon apologist and Islam expert Daniel C. Peterson, in an online discussion board, writes, “I’m not sure whether Muhammad was a prophet or not. I’m reasonably confident that he received inspiration from God.”

A new study finds that Utah lags behind all other states in attainment of college degrees by women.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola of Tufts University release a landmark study on atheist clergy—priests and pastors who secretly disbelieve, yet continue to preach the Christian gospel. Dennett claims that this is a fairly common phenomenon. I’d argue, though, that the LDS Church doesn’t have this problem, as its leadership consists of lay members who, unlike most Christian clergy, don’t undergo religious/theological education.

Evolutionary biologist and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci worries that science vs. philosophy will be the next big culture war.

Andrew S. of Irresistible (Dis)Grace asks whether most Mormons even care about the truth.

France is starting to teach philosophy in school to kids as young as four. Let’s just hope they’re not reading Nietzsche quite yet. Then in the UK, you have Islamic schools that are teaching children how to cut of thieves’ hands and that there is a Jewish plot for world domination.

The New Scientist has compiled their best articles on the science of morality into one special report.

Lastly, something to think about this Thanksgiving: The weird evolutionary story of cranberries.

Religious double standards in the Elizabeth Smart trial

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In June 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home by Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell, a homeless street preacher, claims to have been commanded by god to take her as a plural wife. Smart was held captive by Mitchell and his legal wife Wanda Barzee for 9 months until March 2003, when she was spotted in Sandy, Utah.

The Elizabeth Smart story is back in the news, with Brian David Mitchell finally facing trial. If convicted, he will be sentenced to life in prison. Mitchell’s defense team is invoking the insanity plea. In response, Smart (who is on leave from her LDS mission for the trial) testified that Mitchell’s religious beliefs are not sincerely delusional, but calculated and self-serving.

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A secular argument against gay marriage

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Take a cursory glance at this blog and you’ll notice that I often write about homosexuality. The issue of gay marriage in particular has received a lot of discussion here—and not all of it well-informed.

I find the case for gay marriage to be far more compelling than the case against, but I think some of my fellow gay marriage proponents overstate the weakness of the opposing view. Objections to gay marriage are often summarily dismissed as religious, bigoted, or a combination of the two. This is unfair.

Religion and bigotry animate a lot of the opposition to gay marriage, no doubt. But there is, in my estimation, at least one viable secular argument against gay marriage—that is, an argument that doesn’t make an appeal to faith or prejudice. Here is the abbreviated version:

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The Allreds on living and leaving polygamy

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Sunday evening, I attended a presentation at the University of Utah by one of my favorite high school history teachers, Vance Allred. He and his wife recounted their experiences of living in a polygamous cult, and explained why they brought their family out of polygamy in 1993.

Vance prefaced his life story by giving a historical overview of Mormon polygamy. He noted that Joseph Smith first addressed the issue of polygamy in the Book of Mormon, where the practice is conditionally condemned. Several years later, Joseph Smith received a revelation (D&C 132 ) that “celestial marriage” (polygamy) is a commandment and required for exaltation.

Polygamy was secretly practiced by Joseph Smith as early as 1833, and practiced to greater extent nearly a decade later in Nauvoo. Once in the Utah territory, free from mob violence and federal reach, the LDS Church began to openly practice polygamy.

Vance then detailed the historical events that resulted in the church’s abandonment of polygamy. There was a series of federal laws passed to outlaw polygamy. Among the first was the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln. The most draconian law was the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act, which disincorporated the LDS Church, dissolved its assets, and resulted in the imprisonment of many prominent Mormons. These and similar laws were deemed constitutional as per Reynolds v. United States, the case in which the Supreme Court ruled polygamy was not a protected religious practice.

Under such legal and political duress, LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff issued the 1890 Manifesto—an official denunciation of polygamy. (Polygamy, though, wasn’t really discontinued until the Second Manifesto in 1904, during the Reed Smoot hearings.)

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