I hate cats.

I had to pick up some degreaser for my mountain bike tonight and thought it was the perfect evening to walk the couple miles to Walmart with my wife to get it. On the way back Angela decides to pet some random cat on the street, and the stupid things decides to follow us for a mile home. Now it is outside our house meowing and crying. Stupid cat. I hate cats.

*Update*

It gets worse. I got sick of hearing it crying outside our front door, so I open it up to throw a cup of water on the stupid thing, hoping it would chase it away. Instead, the stupid cat runs into our house and hides under a desk in the den.

Stupid cat.

I really hate cats.

Buy this Shalmeno

When I was new in primary I thought the hymn "Love One Another" was a romantic love song. In the song a woman asks her lover to purchase her a gift called Shalmeno which I thought was probably perfume.

Pew Forum: A Portrait of Mormons in the U.S.

"A new analysis of the Landscape Survey data reveals that as a group Mormons are among the most devout and conservative religious people in the country. The Mormon community is also internally diverse, with differences according to levels of religious commitment and educational attainment, regions of the country where Mormons live, and between lifelong Mormons and those who have converted to the faith. This report explores Mormons' unique place in the American religious landscape and is divided into three parts: demographic characteristics, religious beliefs and practices, and social and political views."

I just began to read the results of this new study. Check it out here.

*I'm adding comments with sections I find interesting.

And should we die before this song is through...

...Happy day! All is well!

Just a very short blog post to once again say that our hymns are usually sung way too slow and make me tired, agitated, and depressed.

Why we need to stop asking if science and religion are compatible.

The following is a comment I wrote in response to Mormon Heretic's question of whether science and religion were compatible.

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I think that in most cases, asking if science and religion are compatible is like asking if mathematics and poetry are compatible. The question really doesn't make sense. Sure, perhaps they can probably share the same room, but in most cases unless one is trained in both, they usually have no idea what the other is talking about.

To ask if the Genesis account of creation is compatible with evolution is to totally misunderstand the Genesis account. It was never meant as a scientific or literal account of creation. Anybody who goes through the LDS endowment should be acutely aware of that (though unfortunately most are still too obtuse to realize it). The seven creation periods are no scientific accounts, but is simply a means to use the numerically significant seven (which means totality) to break apart the known world into seven parts and show that for God the totality of creation was good.

Much of the same can be said about the two accounts of the creation of man in Genesis. Neither are meant to be scientific accounts, but are rather religious accounts used to point out the fallen nature of all of us. Again, the LDS endowment should make it clear to LDSaints that the Eden myth is not about two naked humans running around a magical garden and talking to snakes, but is meant to show that each of us has fallen and is in need of redemption. This is why I believe the Book of Moses teaches that God says "And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many" (1:34). Adam was not meant to be understood as a real naked person in a magical garden, but representative of all of us.

I think we could all find a greater use of our time if start recognizing the categorical differences between religion and science and realizing that in so many cases the question of their compatibility is simply nonsense.

Wedding Photos!

We posted our wedding photos on our family blog. Check them out here.

My new bike!

As many of you may know, my beloved Viggy was stolen from me last October. Because of the potential costs for our wedding I didn't buy a new bike and was going to wait until after the wedding to see if I had money left to get one. For 8 months I went bikeless and relatively depressed because of it.

To suprise me on our wedding day, my beautiful, awesome, super sexy wife bought me a new bike! Angela was planning on surprising me by sneaking away for a minute during our reception and riding it into the pavilion, but I accidentally ruined that part of the surprise by finding it in my brother's garage while helping set up the chairs and tables for the reception. When I saw it I started freaking out because I found the bike that I really wanted, but wasn't exactly sure that it was my bike. Luckily it was.

Here are some photos from some recent rides.

Buffy the Edward Slayer

“The Great Grand Executor”: The Development of the Holy Spirit in the Thought of Orson and Parley Pratt

This is my paper I presented following the BYU Summer Seminar on the Pratt Brothers with Terry Givens and Matt Grow.
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Throughout the writings of the brothers Parley and Orson Pratt, the conception of the Holy Spirit plays a central, though widely evolving, role in their theological writings. More than merely reciting scriptures and the teachings of Joseph Smith, the Pratts utilized their own insights, reasoning, and creativity as they elucidated on Mormon theology and tried to synchronize Mormonism's radical new beliefs and existing scripture into a cohesive and systematic whole. In doing so they both influenced and were influenced by the teachings of Joseph Smith and each other, and while the brothers may have been distanced by geography and personal estrangement, it is clear from their writings that they shared an admiration for each others work as they depended on and built off from the other. While at first the emphasis on the Holy Spirit lies in its mere existence and renewed life in the practices of the Mormons, the role of the Spirit changes as the growing conception of the eternal materiality of spirit shifts their thought from the importance of the mere existence and influence of the Holy Spirit to a focus on its ontological makeup and central role in Mormonisms new cosmology, finding its extreme in Orson's understanding of the Holy Spirit as the “Great God” or “Great Grand Executor” of the universe.

You can read the rest here.

The end of an era

Obama is changing his policy plans

Obama Drastically Scales Back Goals For America After Visiting Denny's