Old Faith Blog

A comment to me in a Facebook group, "I hope your child's participation in religious stuff is voluntary." Indeed, I'm happy to report that it is. I'd be a big fat hypocrite if it wasn't. This brings me to share a few thoughts on the subject. As a Latter-day Saint, I believe the following scriptures are the word of God: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." - Ephesians 6:5 "But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth." - D&C 93:40 "Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things (the Plan of Salvation) freely unto your children..." - Moses 6:58 (Here's the full list of scripture references on the raising of children in Latter-day Saint canon.) I don't see anything here comm...

I just finished reading a graphical adaptation of Charles Darwin's " On the Origin of Species ". Although it was heavily abridged, it covered the basics and did so alongside some interesting graphics. It serves as a great introduction to evolutionary theory, and my kids are sure to enjoy it. So how can I be a proponent of evolutionary theory and still be a practicing Latter-day Saint? Because I don't see how truth can be incompatible with truth. Don't misquote me now. I'm not claiming that every point in evolutionary theory is true. Actually, my interest is bigger than just evolutionary theory. It's scientific discovery in general. Science is the observation and discovery of the natural world. That's all it is. Sometimes our perspectives are skewed, but those are sorted out through open dialogue and debate. Progress is made when all sides are free to observe, discover, and share. There's nothing to be afraid of about scientific research qua s...

Let's go back to the time when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Satan had just gotten Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and Eve in turn got Adam to partake. At this point, God returns to the Garden and is calling for Adam, And they heard the voice of the Lord God, as they were walking in the garden, in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife went to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And I, the Lord God, called unto Adam, and said unto him: Where goest thou? And he said: I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I beheld that I was naked, and I hid myself. And I, the Lord God, said unto Adam: Who told thee thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, if so thou shouldst surely die? And the man said: The woman thou gavest me, and commandest that she should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat. And I, the Lord God, said unto...

Alright so, I've had to completely rework my thoughts on agency, or free will, and God's omniscience. I have made a very critical mistake with my definitions. I've followed the lead of, well, most everyone and assumed that "omniscience" means "to know everything". I no longer believe that this is how we should define omniscience when considering the omniscience of God. I've had some very good help with this. Blake Ostler wrote a piece titled " Mormonism and Determinism " for the Mormon journal Dialogue . It's a response to L. Rex Sear's piece on determinism . I recommend reading the entire Ostler piece, but for the purposes of this short post, I wanted to extract what he had to say on God's omniscience. Because I've defined omniscience as "to know everything", I took that to mean knowing everything, including the future. Call this foreknowledge, or when it comes to God, call this "divine foreknowledge...

A puzzle that once perplexed me is the seeming paradox between our having agency, or free will as the secular term goes, the ability to choose, and God's omniscience. This can be a perplexing question when we consider just what God being omniscient means. I understand it to mean that God is all-knowing . That he knows everything, including what choices we are going to make, even before we make them. I've heard a couple things argued about this: If we make a choice that God was not aware of, then God is not omniscient; Since God is omniscient, and he knows every choice we make, we aren't really making a choice, because the outcome has already been determined; If God is omniscient, and our choices have already been determined through his foreknowledge, ie. a form of predestination, then we don't have agency (free will). It would seem, then, that the doctrine of free will, or agency, is incompatible with the doctrine of God's omniscience. How have others attempted ...

I'm reading Denver Snuffer's " The Second Comforter " and happened upon this footnote that enlightened my understand of the Nephi slaying Laban episode: Some Saints are troubled by this commandment to kill Laban. It is consistent with Christ's later teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and consistent with God's dealings with mankind elsewhere. Laban's accusation against Nephi's brother that he was a "robber" ( 1 Nephi 3:13 ) was a ruse to justify Laban in killing Laman. A person was justified in killing a robber. ( Exodus 22:2 ) Laban was using this as an excuse to justify his intention to kill Laman. Later, Laban commits the very act which he had earlier accused Laman of committing. In this case, as in the case of David ( 2 Samuel 12:1-7 ), Laban has made his own judgment upon his own head. Just as David condemned the thief in Nathan's allegory, Laban condemned the robbery which he was about to commit. As certain as Nathan's procla...

Our last quorum lesson was out of the Gospel Principles manual, on the topic of Tithing. This can be a very controversial topic. In fact, I understand that all Bishops are allowed to counsel is that the amount paid for tithing is 10% of one's "interest annually" or "increase". I don't believe they are allowed to counsel that tithing is paid from one's "gross income" or "net income". What I'd like to briefly present here is my own opinion on the topic. Again, this is my own opinion, and I won't be backing it up with any scriptural or General Authority references. "Gross income" is simple. What is the top line of your paycheck? What is your total salary? If someone is paid $10 an hour, and they worked 80 hours in a 2-week period, then their gross income is $800. If one were to pay tithing based on their gross income, they would pay $80.