When I began questioning mormonism, my Dad explained that there was a difference between the church and the gospel. The church was made of people who were human, and the gospel was the kernel of truth within the church. He said that the mormon faith was the closest to being…
Category: Reason
Making Your Opponent’s Case
If you have to ban somebody over religious differences, it is probably a good idea to wait until the debate about what constitutes a bad religion is over. When you argue that religion provides a special path to the truth, you are not helping yourself by prohibiting your rhetorical opponent’s…
atheist v. Muslim – part 1
I play soccer on occasion during the lunch hour at my university. One of the other players (probably the best player) is an Iranian-American, “H”, who is also Muslim (he’s in IT). He asked me what I teach and when I told him Sociology of Religion, he became very interested….
playing with probability
What is the probability of any one exclusive religion being the correct one (“exclusive” means: claims to be the only true one)? This question popped into my head the other day and made me think that you could theoretically calculate that probability using the following formula: n-(n-1)/(n+1) or 1/(n+1) Where…
Beyond Conservatism
The popularity of the Sarah Palins among the Republican base explains a lot about America. I have never been to Alaska but Palin reminds me of my friends and neighbors in rural Nevada. Her attitudes about sex education, evolution, and library books are fairly typical in broad swaths of the…
Can Mormonism change?
I’ve been debating my brother about some issues surrounding same-sex marriage on my blog (no link; still trying to remain anonymous). In the course of that debate, a few ideas popped up that I think people here might enjoy. This is a good one having to do with religions changing….
According to logicians, I can prove a negative
I caught this post on the eSkeptic newsletter by a logician arguing that you can prove a negative based on induction (great reading for anyone interested). As that is the case, here are a few negatives I’m ready to prove: Modern Horses in America: 1. If horses had existed in…
BYU editorial on word change
In case you missed it, the BYU newspaper came out with an editorial on the word change in the BofM. The logic employed in this editorial is a brilliant representation of the flawed logic that I usually see in apologetics (though there are a few regular commenters on here who…
The D’s of Mormon Apologetics
A recent discussion on a post mormon discussion board touched on the question of the possibility, or likely impossibly of steel swords in the new world in Book of Mormon times. The question was brought up “Is this a ‘gotcha’ in the mormon debate?” I responded that is was not,…