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Tender Mercies
A couple of weeks ago, I started school online through the Pathway program of BYU-Idaho. I will be honest: I knew that I would learn something but I mostly entered the program so I could matriculate into BYU-I online. It has not turned out to be just a bridge I must cross before I can…
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Are Mormons too conforming and uniform?
I’m way behind the times, I know. But as you know, I’ve been getting my house in order. When I watched the recent “Rock Center: Mormon in America” they asked if our strict code of conduct meant we were too uniform and conforming. I liked how it was answered by the wife in the family…
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Who gets to define bad science?
If you know me, you know I’m religious. A faithful Mormon to be exact. And you know that I’m skeptical. There is a church in the area I live that has a sign with sayings posted on it. This week, the quote is “The real opium of the masses is bad science.” Hmmmm. That could…
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A bad trip
On the way home from my book club tonight, I saw an advertisement for Impact Training. Oh man, did that bring back some memories. I’m not sure whether to be thankful or angry. You see, my parents did this, way back in the mid eighties, when it was but a young company on the crest…
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Mormon temples
Most of my readers know that I’m LDS; Mormon. We build temples. One of the most important reasons for temples is to tie together families from our oldest ancestors to those who are to come in the future. They are there to make the human family whole. Where I live we have had two temples…
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Words, music, sunday thoughts.
One of the constants in our lives is words. We constantly use words to express ourselves, to glimpse the souls of others, and words stream through our private thoughts during all our waking hours and even many sleeping ones. Words are in many ways the skeleton of our conscious selves. A person who has grown…
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Integrity
I gave a talk at church today. It isn’t formatted very well into an essay, but below is the text of it more or less: Integrity is one of those basic principles which is so simple, and yet means so much. It is a deep eternal aspect of the way things are. We often refer…
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Fundamental creation
Michael Heller will be awarded the Templeton prize, which is given for “progress towards research or discoveries about spiritual realities”, for his life’s work pursuing the ultimate cause. Reading his statement at the announcement of the prize, I find a kindred spirit: “…I am interested in too many things. Amongst my numerous fascinations, two have most…
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What is good religion?
It’s always fun to meet people on the web, and someone I’ve met through his kind enthusiasm for my work is Rich. I recently checked his blog, and he has a posted a great chapter in the book he is co-authoring with is father, on what good religion is. Being of the same religion, we of course…
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Is Reiki religion or science?
The claim has been made that Reiki is not a religion, but is evidence based medicine. So I decided to compare it to both religion and medicine to see where it fit best. I think I’m a pretty good choice to do the comparison since I am both religious and scientifically minded. I hope this…