Announcement: 30 June 2008

Nathan Richardson is, at this time, on an adventure fighting dragons and orcs in an effort to save the world. While we wish him luck on his week-long leave of absence, this means we won’t be hearing from him for a few days. However, I would like to invite our readers to peruse our new [...]

John Locke and Primal Authority

Jeffrey Thayne
In my post “Ecclesiastical and Government Authority,” I discussed the importance of priesthood authority in conducting the affairs of true religion. I drew on our familiarity with the importance of authority in ecclesiastical affairs to propose this possibility: in order to govern other men, a man must first have authority to do so. I [...]

Alternative Eating Styles

Nathan Richardson
In a previous post, “Alternative Breathing Styles,” I explained that the LDS church’s position against the practice of homosexuality is motivated by love for people who experience same-sex attraction. Many proponents of homosexuality find this hard to understand or believe. They might say, “I am not interested in changing, and I certainly don’t consider [...]

Ecclesiastical and Government Authority

Jeffrey Thayne
Jeffrey R. Holland, in the April 2005 General Conference, quoted President David O. McKay who said that the most distinguishing feature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was “divine authority by direct revelation.” Holland continues:

Clearly, acting with divine authority requires more than mere social contract. It cannot be generated by theological [...]

Alternative Breathing Styles

Nathan Richardson
One thing that is not often understood by proponents of the homosexual lifestyle is the motivations of those who oppose it. Gordon B. Hinckley explained that the Church’s positions on homosexuality is inspired by love and concern for people who experience same-sex attraction:

Our opposition to attempts to legalize same-sex marriage should never be interpreted [...]

Shackled by Determinism

Jeffrey Thayne
One goal of the natural sciences is to discover regularities in observable phenomena that allow us to predict future phenomena. George Kelly explained, “It is customary to say that the scientist’s ultimate aim is to predict and to control.”1 To this end, the natural sciences have largely, if not completely, adopted the philosophy of [...]

Love Stories and Business Deals

Nathan Richardson
In a previous post, “Covenants and Contracts“, Jeff explained that when we define a covenant as “a two-way contract,” we are severely limiting our understanding of the true nature of covenants.

Neither I nor my spouse are independent contractors cunningly negotiating particular goods and services … whose ultimate goal is always to achieve the [...]

Poking Our Own Eyes Out

Jeffrey Thayne
Terry Warner, in a lecture given at the BYU Women’s Conference in 2006, said, “It is not the wrongs others do to us that harm us most, but the wrongs we do to others.” In other words, we hurt more for the harm we inflict on others than anything that others can inflict upon [...]

My Marriage Evolved Away

Nathan Richardson
In a previous post, “The Essence of Marriage,” I responded to a book review about the definition of marriage. The reviewer concluded that “marriage has no essence,” and therefore we need not be upset or concerned that some groups are vociferously trying to radically alter its legal definition to include, for example, genderless marriage [...]

Moral Invitations We Can’t Ignore

Jeffrey Thayne
Terry Warner, in his book Bonds That Make Us Free, said:

We are constantly receiving signals from others that reveal something of their needs and hopes and fears. Martin Buber expressed this idea in these words: ‘Living means being addressed.’ We are called upon by others’ unspoken requests, expressed in their faces and gestures and [...]

The Spiritual Laboratory

Nathan Richardson
In a previous post, “Your Spiritual Nose,” I suggested that people too often dismiss the spiritual senses as being less reliable than our physical senses. Some object that spiritual senses are often misperceived or misinterpreted, to which I responded that the physical senses can be misinterpreted, too, such as when a stick appears to [...]

C. S. Lewis on Judgment Day

Jeffrey Thayne
I was recently rereading Mere Christianity and found a passage that eloquently expresses an idea I hinted at in “Metaphors of the Atonement” and “Knee-Bending Rules.” The idea is that it is something within us that prevents us from returning to God if we don’t repent, rather than some metaphysical law that forbids us [...]

Your Spiritual Nose

Nathan Richardson
Empirical means “depending upon experience or observation alone.”1 Thus, empiricism is defined as “the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience.”2 Notice the assumption that experience is synonymous with the senses. It is frequently assumed that sensory experiences (taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight) are the only “real” experiences. If that were [...]