NOM

I'm also not a fan of such events. I skipped my college graduation, and a temple wedding ceremony worked out well for me because we could just do it on some random evening without inviting anyone beyond immediate family (which is what we did, since my wife felt the same way about formalities). I'm s...

I haven't bothered to read much about this campaign, but I did see a short video someone posted that contrasted Jesus helping people with normal people doing things that were within their power. That made me think that having a symbol/legend like Jesus can be a good thing regardless of which parts o...

I know some families with unstable backgrounds for which being LDS is an enormous benefit. While it's pointless in a way to speculate on what-if situations, I'm pretty sure they they are much happier as devout members than they would have been without that framework in their lives. Many things the L...

Sure, that's a good way to clean your cartridges when they get dirty. Sometimes blowing on the connectors just isn't enough to get Blaster Master running properly again.

Before I read The God Delusion , I had kind of a negative opinion of Dawkins and his approach to discourse based on some of his interviews and things. But I really enjoyed that book. I'm not sure of what would be an equivalent opposing view. Maybe something like Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis? You...

Nice to see you here. I always appreciate your thoughtful contributions. Funny, I had assumed that photo was a real one of you. I guess I don't watch enough movies (though now that I look up that actor I have seen him in at least one thing, There Will Be Blood ). A year after that I admitted to self...

Raised LDS, I served a mission and married my wife in the temple. No kids so far. When I began to learn some surprising new things about the history of the LDS church, I found it at once exciting and disturbing. Exciting because I'd long enjoyed studying LDS history and doctrine, but I'd reached a p...

I'm not surprised that no one has mentioned my old NOM identity. I was never one of the "cool kids". I'm not sure how that sounds to any of you but I don't say that with anger or anything. I was a true believer for a good chunk of my life but I always preferred being one of the back pew kinds of me...

One thing that may be worth considering is how the atmosphere would be perceived by those who are at different stages of a transition of faith. I know that when I first encountered NOM, it felt a little too edgy at first even with its rules on clean and respectful language (though it didn't take too...

I always enjoy reading your Web log posts.

When the old site was down, I checked it nearly every day. As far as I know, I also don't do much that would reveal my heterodoxy. And that's in part just by nature of being introverted. It's funny how one of the biggest giveaways is breaking the thou shalt nots in the Word of Wisdom. But those are ...

4) Not worrying about wasting my time. I used to worry that I was somehow wasting my time . . . . I don't know that I'd connect it with joy, exactly, but this is definitely something I have experienced. Is there even such a thing as wasting time? I sure used to feel as if I wasn't reaching my full ...

If someone rejects Christ's atonement, does this mean that Christ was punished unjustly when suffering for that person's sins? Similarly, if the atonement was "infinite" but its purpose was to cover finite acts of sinners, does this mean that the punishment was excessive and at least some part of it...

Alma's definition of faith always bothered me for the same reason that the standard philosophical definition of knowledge bothered me. That is, someone can claim knowledge if The person believes a statement to be true The statement is in fact true The person is justified in believing the statement t...

I've long appreciated the overall tone of NOM, and the way that people are more interested in sharing experiences and exploring ideas than making points and trying to sway others to a particular way of thinking. The other night, I looked at some threads in other places where people were discussing t...

I haven't been keeping up with Mormon Stories as much as I used to (though I'll probably catch up at some point), but I listened to this episode the other day. I think others here might appreciate the discussion between John Dehlin, Gina Colvin, Dan Wotherspoon, and Thomas McConkie. http://www.mormo...

I don't know that I have a conscious strategy, despite often thinking that I should. I guess I do follow some of the "rules" mentioned here, though they have simply been a part of making things up as I go along. Number 4 is largely hypothetical for me. If any interesting topics happened to come up i...

I was glad to find this new incarnation. I don't really participate any any other religion-themed discussion boards, and I stumbled upon this by chance in a search a few days ago. I'm sure that there are others, like me, who are only kept from the site because they know not where to find it.

I can often relate to your approaches to things. I'm with you on wanting to be around those in my LDS community. Although I have never gone "inactive" before, I haven't attended a lot of classes at church in recent years due to a combination of chronic tardiness and having a calling that gives me a ...

Thanks for sharing your story, Shawn. I've been intending for years to organize my views regarding religion and things into some sort of structured document. Not even to share with anyone, necessarily, but just to better organize my thoughts. So far I only have some partial outlines and scattered to...