Sunday, May 15, 2011

More on Moroni's promise

A few months ago I wrote a quick blog post arguing that "Moroni's Promise" in Moroni 10:3-5 was not intended to ask readers to pray about the content of the Book of Mormon, but was rather intended to ask readers to pray about the Moroni's words that follow verse 5 (ie. his argument that miracles and the gifts of the spirit have not seized). You can read that post here.

A few days ago, an occasional reader of my blog copied that post onto a certain message board to get some responses. For the most part, the responses did not offer constructive critique, but instead either focused on me personally or exemplified a retrenchment into the traditional interpretation with pathetically forced criticisms.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Marla Iyoko Ericson

Marla was born 20 minutes after we got to the hospital today. Had we left our apartment any later she could have been born in our new Mazda.

7lbs 15 oz, 19.5".

She and Angela are doing great.

We were expecting a boy though, so now we're gonna have to find some girl clothes.






Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Book of Mormon Musical has ripped off our beloved EFY soundtracks

The soundtrack for the Book of Mormon Musical is available to listen on NPR here. After a quick listen it becomes obvious to any fan of the music from the Mormon Especially For Youth (EFY), that Matt Stone and Trey Parker have ripped off the latter.

Just compare the following. Can you figure out which is from EFY and which is from the new musical?

We Believe:





I Believe:


Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Can someone please explain the Deseret News comment moderation to me?

Both times that I have tried to comment on the Deseret News' website my comments were rejected by the moderators.

Just now I left the following comment for this article about Peter Vidmar's resignation from being an Olympic team leader:

"Imagine, instead, that someone was actively campaigning to prevent Mormons from building temples anywhere, with the claim that he "is not Anti-Mormon, but simply believes that Mormons building temples is a threat to society." Would you want him as a team leader for a team you were on? What if he was actively using his free-speech to promote racism? Of course he has his free speech--however, speech and actions comes with social consequences. You have all the free speech you want if you wanted to call me names or be rude to me. However, you can't be surprised if I no longer want to be your friend."
A few minutes later I got the following generic response:

Monday, May 02, 2011

Christianity’s Perversion: Zizek and Latin American Liberation Theology

Here is my last term paper at Claremont. It needs more polishing, but I'm proud of it. The second subtitle is: Or Why Osama Bin Laden's Death Bothers Me.

It is also what I wish my Easter Sermon would have been.

PDF version here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Christianity’s Perversion:
Zizek and Latin American Liberation Theology

The next to final scene in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart features several minutes of the protagonist, William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson), being beaten, choked, racked, castrated, disemboweled, and finally beheaded in front of a cheering fourteenth-century English crowd. Taken by itself, the scene would be akin to a snuff film or contemporary horror “torture-porn” (like Eli Roth’s Hostel). Instead, however, it evokes a powerful reaction from the viewer because of the context in which Wallace’s torture and death is given in the movie. For nearly three hours before this violent presentation we are shown the exploits of Wallace as he rallies the peasants of Scotland together to fight against England’s King Edward in an attempt to gain their freedom. Fearing Wallace as a threat to his power, Edward sees that he is eventually captured and sentenced to death. With this long background, the climactic scene is not just difficult to watch because of its violence, but because of that which led up to these final moments. His death points to his life and is presented as a testimony to his cause.
In The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, Slavoj Zizek concludes that the “perverse core” of Christianity is the message that Christianity is the “religion of atheism” wherein when “Christ dies, what dies with him is the . . . hope that there is a father.”[1] Though they would hardly consider themselves advocates of a religion of atheism, liberation theologians from Latin America[2] have made similar departures from the traditional understandings of the cross,[3] sharing with Zizek the view that “in theological terms, . . . it is not we, humans, who can rely on the help of God—on the contrary, we must help God.[4] In this paper I hope to compare and contrast the departures of Zizek and Latin American liberation theologies as they both contrast themselves from the more traditional theology of the cross—a contrast that is particularly evident in a comparison of Braveheart with Mel Gibson’s other blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

FoxNews.com confrims braking news: Usama Bin Landen Dead

I took the following screen capture from FoxNews.com's website tonight:


Besides the utter cuteness of FoxNews spelling like my 4 year old nephew, I wonder why FN chooses to use "Usama" instead of "Osama." I have not been able to find any other news sources that use this spelling, including the London Times and Al Jazeera. My only guess is that they use this because this is how bin Landen Laden's name is spelled on the FBI Most Wanted list--the only other place I could find that uses this.

It is nice to see that it has been confrimed confirmed though.

An engineer and a phenomenologist walk into an elevator...

On facebook I posed the following question that has baffled me every time I have waited in an elevator:

"Do 'Door Close' buttons in elevators really work, or are they just there to give us the illusion of control?"
I received two very different answers.

 From Alexander Miles, the inventor of the automatic elevator door:
"They interrupt a wait time and begin the closing procedure which is not immediate."
From Edmund Husserl, the father of phenomenology:
"They interrupt a wait time and begin the closing procedure which is not immediate."