I do not believe that religion, even true religion, is created ex nihilo. Instead, God organizes His church mostly out of pre-existing institutions and beliefs, which are then built on and sanctified.
Ex Nihilo Creation of Religion
Category: Religion
Covenant Ethics
The Mormon ethical system is distinct from modern ethical theories like utilitarianism and deontology – and also from ancient ethical theories like virtue ethics and natural law. Although there is significant overlap with other ethical theories, the emphasis on covenants is unusual. Here, I describe this covenant system of ethics.
Lehi’s Altar
When Lehi leaves Jerusalem, he builds an altar in the wilderness. The Levitical law forbids offering sacrifices anywhere than the temple, under the authority of the Chief Priest. Lehi’s altar shows that he is establishing a new church – not with different beliefs and practices, but with a different community and organization.
A Data Driven Recent History of Missionary Work
I prefer using data to help understand history. Noticeable changes in relevant data indicate that something important happened here – and you should figure out what that was. I am looking at the recent history of Mormon missionary work, using the data for the number of members, missionaries, and convert baptisms published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some changes are easily visible, like shorting the length of a mission in the early 1980s and lengthening it again or the age change in 2012 are immediately obvious. Others, like Raising the Bar and Preach My Gospel, can be seen but are more subtle. I have no explanation for the biggest change: in the 1990s, the number of missionaries and number of baptisms decoupled. Missionaries continued to increase, but baptisms began to fall. We have never been able to get to this number of baptisms since. If we could figure out how to return to the pre-1990 relationship between missionaries and baptisms, we would have hundreds of thousands of additional converts every year.
Freedom: Discipline or Personal Anarchy
Some people use the word ‘freedom’ to mean personal anarchy. Other people use ‘freedom’ to mean using discipline to increase your capabilities.
Understanding Scriptural History
How do we understand and interpret the historical events recorded in scripture – or elsewhere?
What More Could I Have Done for My Vineyard?
Jacob 5 is the longest parable in the Book of Mormon. It typically is interpreted as a fairly straightforward description of God’s interactions with His chosen people throughout history. Here, I present an original alternative interpretation.
The Parable of the Optimization Algorithm
What should my first blog post be? I am sufficiently confident in this argument that I have presented it over the pulpit at church. And I think it also captures my personal peculiarities well.