I really appreciated Obama's commencement speech to Notre Dame on the importance of understanding people different from us and finding common ground ( Read more... )

YAY.

Whedonesque feed -> The Guardian's Lucy Mangan rounds on Twilight -> Comment on post -> Very mocking LJ review of Twilight book from ex-Mo perspective -> Seeing link on the front page of her LJ to this:


( Read more... )

Last night I saw an NPR story called Religion Survey Finds Many Americans Swap Faiths. It had a link for Full results of the survey and tools for examining the findings, which I looked into and found some data about income distribution between different religions in America. After a little playing around in Excel, I came up with this:

( Read more... )

Crazy. A piano solo version of "Reverently, Quietly" just came on my Pandora.

At first I thought "This sounds familiar." Then when I saw the name of it I was surprised. "Pandora is playing an LDS primary song?"

It's pretty. Tho to me it also sounds like a melancholy echo of my past.

Rev'rently, quietly, lovingly we think of thee;
Rev'rently, ( Read more... )

N.T. "Tom" Wright, "one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought," Bishop of Durham, the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England, and author of Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, gave an interview with TIME in which he describes some changes that need to happen ( Read more... )

As I was reading the article on lds.org regarding the passing of President Hinckley, I realized something. He has been many things for many people, but that's not why I'm sad that he's gone. I'm sad because of who he was for me.

He was the first prophet that I felt a connection with. The first prophet I remember was Ezra Taft Benson, prophet when I ( Read more... )

Searching for God in the Brain

Summary:

Researchers are looking for where religious feeling occurs in the brain. This area of study, called "neurotheology" or "spiritual neuroscience," might provide a link between religion and science, as well as find "ways of eliciting pleasurable otherworldly feelings in people who do not have them or who cannot ( Read more... )

Posted here about an ex-LDS member in Mesa whose excommunication was ordered to be announced to eight ward congregations today.

Lots to talk about this morning...

I transcripted an NPR article I heard this morning: Public TV Series Examines 'The Mormons'
And posted My reaction to "The Mormons" part 1. The special is viewable in segments online here.

Two more NPR articles caught my attention:
( Adapt, Move or Die: Prehistoric Climate Change )

Posted about PBS special: The Mormons, and thoughts on Anti-Mormon label in 
( Read more... )