As often happens these days, I had a fine experience a few nights ago as a result of tagging along with one of my children. My 17-year-old son brought a movie home — “The Namesake” — at the suggestion of his girlfriend’s mother. I decided to sit down and watch it with him. Time well…
If this were five years ago, shortly after my exodus from Mormonism, I would probably be reporting that I awakened this morning in a panicked, cold sweat after one of those crazy mixed up dreams in which I had come to the certain realization that the Catholic Church was God’s one true, and only authorized,…
I watched Lyndon’s you tube presentation to the Red Mountain Community Church near Phoenix, and thoroughly enjoyed it. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECjddl…. He is an eloquent spokesman for the post-Mormon movement. His personal style is folksy, and pleasant. He is the kind of guy that most people would probably love to spend an evening chatting with. I certainly…
Stronger, Better Educated Females — A Silver Bullet for Humanity’s Current Demons? Years ago, I ran across E.O. Wilson’s wonderful essay “The Bottleneck” (see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?arti…). Since then, from time to time, I have wondered whether we have available to us a more powerful social medicine than female education and empowerment. I have not found one so…
This does not happen much anymore, but I still occasionally get a letter from an LDS leader asking in a polite way what happened to my testimony and why I don’t do what he thinks might bring it back. In this case, the questions and comments were as follows: – My questioner understands that I…
The following is a note I sent to a friend this morning on this topic. best, bob As it happens, I have thought a lot about the way in which our degree of choice influences happiness, and why it seems that to an extent at least, the more choice we have, the more unhappy we…
Life is good. One of the things that makes it good – or better – is taking time to record whatever we find satisfying. These are not necessarily highlights. They are, more simply, whatever resonates with us. So that is what I’m going to do this evening. I will reinforce the nice feelings I had…
While I do not care for everything Stephen Colbert does, I have been chuckling aloud for a couple of days while listening to his CD “I am America, and so can you!” The man is such a beautiful walking parody of what is wrong with the right end of the American political and religious spectrum,…
I am in a contemplative mood today. This likely has to do with the fact that work and family life have been frenetic for months, and while the pressure is still high, today it has backed off enough to allow breathing room. The weather reflects my outlook. As I look out my office window, rain…
Steve Farmer (see http://www.safarmer.com/Farmer.Beijin…) is a former Harvard prof who uses a complexity based computer program to help date ancient documents. He has told me that he thinks he may be able to shed new light on when the B of M was written. I am aware of another similar complex pattern finding system that is…