I had another dream, I had another life
This Monday’s post for Times And Seasons is based on the story of the blind men and the elephant. It’s an ancient and familiar story, but I’ve got a slightly different take on it. What happens if the blind men can’t step back (metaphorically) and get the complete picture by just aggregating their individual perspectives? What happens when conflicting points of view are irreconcilable? Is there hope for tolerance and progress? I believe there is.
I decided to write about sin again this morning for my post at Times And Seasons. And while I was looking for fun images to accompany the post, I stumbled upon a couple Calvin and Hobbes strips that did the trick.
Wow… Calvin and Hobbes makes everything better.
Today at Times And Seasons I went back to Grossman’s On Killing for a second post. This time I used his model of wartime atrocity as a vehicle for exploring sin. The short version? Acts we consider sinful are generally committed under some degree of mitigating circumstance, such as partial coercion and ignorance, and so in a sense are less important than our reaction to our own behavior after the fact. It’s at that time that we choose to either protect the ego by rationalizing our bad decision–and thus fully internalizing the implicit immorality of the action–or “lose ourselves” and sacrifice the ego in order to reject sin.
For the most part, we choose the former, unfortunately, and in so doing construct our own individualized Hells.
Edit: Nate pointed out that I left off the link the first time around. Oops! Here it is.
This morning’s piece for Times And Seasons was a tough one to write. I wrestled with it for about 3 of 4 hours before getting it into shape that I thought was good enough for public consumption, but just barely. I think there are too many different themes poking out in odd directions, giving the piece a sort of misshapen, rough texture. I’ll revisit it one day.
In the meantime, however, I think there’s still some interesting points about the difference between being exactly obedient and being maliciously compliant.
I really enjoyed David Brooks’ “book report” on Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age”. So, this morning in Times And Seasons, I blogged about it.
Might you find it interesting? You may, but you won’t know unless you read it.
This week’s post for Times And Seasons does double-duty. First of all, I’m trying to put into practice the idea I’ve discussed in the past that theology can be a form of worship. Second, I’m delving into one of my favorite topics, which is the connection between free will and existence as it pertains to the nature of God and the existential roots of objective morality. Sound interesting? Give it a read. If not, the quote above is probably the best part anyway, so your day has already been enlightened (by George MacDonald, if not by me).
This morning’s post at Times And Seasons is live. It’s a review of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s epic non-fiction study On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (which everyone should find interesting) and also how it relates to the distinctly Mormon belief that a spirit + mortal body is a step up from a spirit alone (which is of narrower interest).
If that piques your interest, give it a read! Leave comments there if you’d like to discuss it. (I’m turning them off on this post.)
It seems I’m back on my Monday morning posting schedule at Times And Seasons. Today I posted about potential problems with Mormon expectations for missions and marriage conflicting with society’s emerging idea of prolonged adolescence. Mostly a Mormon-centric piece again (it is on T&S, after all) but I think margon (Mormon jargon) is relatively light.
Also: I talk about Twilight. So there’s that.
After a little bit of a break from posting at Times And Seasons over the past few weeks, I’m back in my usual Monday morning slot with a post about the futility of debating the Trinity between Mormons and mainline Christians. Check it out, if you are feeling theologically inclined. (There’s also a gratuitous Star Wars reference to help things along.)
Well this is neat. Juvenile Instructor–a Mormon history blog–has a shout-out to my recent piece for Times And Seasons about Mormons and sci-fi. Edje Jeter notes that Mormons don’t just write sci-fi, they are often the subjects of sci-fi and lists 5 examples. I went ahead and added three more in the comments.