recursion: n. See recursion.
'Brozy has, I suspect, abandoned all hope of my ever updating again, but Asmond continues to prod me, so I'll take these few lazy Sunday hours to catch up.
Oh, segue. 'Brozy's dating me again. Yay, persistence. I've decided that I have relationships in the same way most people have religions, and I only change my faith when I'm hopelessly damned. Also, coolest thing ever: doing research with a girlfriend. Did you see 'Brozy's brushless motor response? Yeah, that's how cool she is. Also, we found the pill bug of doom.
Many nice comments. Thank you, everyone, particularly Master Fob and Amy, who've recently searched out my journals.
Church last week, our ward conference, was sort of ridiculous; we had a Sacrament meeting talk asserting that ours is a unique church in promoting personal relationships with Christ, an hippie arguing with the Stake President about his Sunday School lesson, and the suggestion in Elder's Quorum that we emulate the valiant bulls of the matador's ring. Hopefully General Conference will make up for it. This week was fantastic, though, actually; Smurfer bore a delightful testimony about joy, Angie made an excellent comment in Sunday School about the communality of Deseret, and we discussed King Benjamin's exhortation to charity in Elder's Quorum. Happily, my home teachers continued the focus on selflessness during tonight's lesson. Imagine my attitude this week has been significantly improved by scripture study with Ambrosia.
We won free tickets to Beethoven's Ninth though KBYU last week. Nice date night up to SLC. Most of our other social time has been with Lunkwill and jessicabenet, delightful company. Lunkwill's helping me find a job, too, which is much appreciated.
So I've been seeing Dr. Manning for quasi-psychological counseling (focusing primarily on my craving for approval) and attending Toasteroven's scripture study group for religious discussion. Both have been useful. For example, from my comment on belcinisimo (home of a girl skilled in turns of thought and phrase, whom I hope to bring to blue-beta), I quote some reasons we brainstormed at TO's to stick with the Gospel even in doubt of its factual verity:
- Descartes's Meditations failed because throwing away all assumptions simply doesn't work; we must hold to that which we believe until a more accurate system presents itself.
- FARMS actually does make some fairly good arguments; while they don't prove the Gospel, they demand an explanation for the origin of the Book of Mormon.
- If the Church is false, the consequences of living it are trivial; tithing is the only significant sacrifice. If it is true, the consequences of rejecting it are colossal and eternal. (Pascal's Wager)
- Humans are generally stupid and selfish; I doubt they can survive without fear of hellfire. Teaching them the Gospel is preserving our race.
- I find the Gospel as philosophically and artistically interesting as any dissertation or sculpture. I wish to be able to discuss doctrine and to teach my children what I consider one of mankind's crowning cultural works.
- Mormon society is an extremely hospitable environment. This is, in fact, my main reason for staying at this point; I did a semester at ASU, and cannot imagine my place in a culture of hedonistic egoism. I don't know whether this applies to you; you seem much more success-oriented and individualistic than I am. I just want to spend my days among those concerned with kindness and stable families. (Subsidized tuition doesn't hurt, either.)
Ah, we saw Corpse Bride. Artistically satisfying, but weak as a story. Also, Asmond got us an N64 and an SNES. Am forced to conclude he's awesome. (Was already suspecting it based on his fantastic music collection--Green Day, Queen, Yellowcard, Billy Joel. Includes some country, but I've completely inoculated myself. Will next work on building a resistance to arsenic.)
Tired. Links:
Animated evolution of Latin alphabet.
Javascript Piano I found while figuring out Rachel's (word of the day:) solfege. Happy birthday. And thanks for the cool word.
14 comments:
Uh-oh. Looks like the spammers have found you.
And persistent you certainly are. : ) Thanks for the concert. Was delightful. [hums]
"I don't know whether this applies to you; you seem much more success-oriented and individualistic than I am."
Who is "you," here? I'm glad you finally posted again. I am insulted by this: "Humans are generally stupid and selfish; I doubt they can survive without fear of hellfire. Teaching them the Gospel is preserving our race." How many humans have you met? I know very few who are stupid and selfish. And there seems to be no statistically significant difference between the stupidity and selfishness of people with the gospel and people without.
On another note, you invariably take the purple approach to religion. Don't you ever just FEEL it? It seems you discount feelings in a religious debate, but really they are the way we get most of our answers in the beginning. Faith isn't knowing. It's feeling.
Congratulations on the dating of Ambrosia again :) She's great, you're great - I hope you two have blissful delights of togetherness :)
I love it when people say good things about me. You're great as well me mate. I'm also glad that you posted again, and wasn't Sunday just amazing? I haven't had a testimony meeting touch me like that in...a long time. Probably since my mission. In anycase, You're awesome and stop thinking so much you'll be happier if you dive.
Comments on here were ALMOST in the order in which you have us listed over on the side there. That would have been really cool.
So I finally managed to get myself to Poetasters after months of good intentions, and they concluded that since I was an "outsider," I must be a mole sent in to report on any scandalous occurrences I observe. Hmm... sure.
Didn't share anything just yet, as I'm rather self-conscious about doing such things in person--I'll come around though. Thanks for the encouragement.
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Well.
It's certainly nice to visit a place where everyone loves one another.
Bawb, after looking back at what little I said, I'm not sure I merited your thanks, but you're welcome. You do have a great way of putting complicated thoughts into communicable language.
I have thought much and often about the argument of Pascal's Wager (though I didn't have a name for it until now). There have been times for me when the sacrifice of being a Mormon involved a lot more than paying tithing, but at least lately I feel there isn't much difference between the life I'd live as a Mormon and the life I'd live as a non-Mormon. Still, though, there is the question of truth. I can pretend something is true because that's the safest bet, but I would rather base my life on something I genuinely believe is true. And when it comes down to it, you can do all the things Mormons do--go to church, obey the commandments, even pay tithing--but if you don't have a testimony of the church you aren't really a Mormon. Testimony is, I think, a defining point of Mormonism. I am happy to continue doing all those Mormon things--I agree with you that, for the most part, the lifestyle endorsed by the church is a good one--but I can't pretend to believe something I don't.
I'm not sure what all that means; I just thought I'd throw it out there to contribute to the discussion.
And thank you for the kind comment on my blog. I'm flattered that you and Brozy read my essays and enjoyed them.
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Wait a second....I've already read this post! Bawb! Where are you!
Thanks for the Latin link. That is awesome.
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You know, Brozy keeps saying you are alive and doing stuff but we have no other witnesses--certainly not from you.
If you don't show up at the party fob, we'll all know the truth.
(You're dead.)
Thank goodness, Th., Bawb was at the party and I can confirm that he is not dead. At least he didn't look dead, as far as I could tell. Though he did appear to be somewhat unshaven, so perhaps he is dead to the BYU Honor Code office.
Wait... If you want nineteen or more adults doing nothing more than dating, then Swinger Dating is the site for you? That sounds GREAT!
Meanwhile, I can also testify that he is alive, but if he doesn't post again, the veracity of my testimony will be short-lived. Do you pronounce that with a long "i" or a short one?
I sure hope you're working on a post right now. Because if you don't post soon, you're going to be dead to me, as well as the rest of the blogging world. : )
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