Author Archives: Bruce Nielson

Why Did You Resign (from Mormon Matters)? – Introduction

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John DehlinPrisoner: What do you want?
Number Two: Information.
Prisoner: Whose side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling…. We want information…information…information!
Prisoner: Who are you?
Number Two: The new Number Two.
Prisoner: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are, Number Six.
Prisoner: I am not a number; I am a free man!
Number Two: [shouting] Why, why, why did you resign?
Prisoner: I’ve resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own. I resign.
Number Two: Why did you resign?
Prisoner: For peace.
Number Two: You resigned for peace?
Prisoner: Yes. Let me out.
Number Two: You’re a fool.
Prisoner: For peace of mind.
Number Two: What?
Prisoner: For peace of mind!
Number Two: Why?
Prisoner: Because too many people know too much.
Number Two: Never!
Prisoner: I know too much!
Number Two: Tell me.
Prisoner: I know too much about you!

My Introduction to the Bloggernacle Through Mormon Matters

Recently Bonnie from Wheat and Tares asked me a question that no one had ever asked me before. She wanted to know why I had resigned from Mormon Matters. Actually “resigned” is the wrong word. I supposed I never in any sense officially resigned. I simply stopped posting one day and stopped even visiting or commenting. It didn’t even really happen all at once. It started out with me taking longer and longer breaks from blogging on Mormon Matters and then one day the “break” was so long there was no point in my coming back. Continue reading →

The Mormon Transhumanist Association

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A while back I reviewed a book called Parallels and Convergences: Mormon Thought and Engineering Vision. I enjoyed the book and was curious about the fact that several authors in the book were members of the Mormon Transhumanist Organization.

I had just learned about so-called “Transhumanists” a year or two earlier because I read a book called The Physics of Immortality. Essentially a “Transhumanism” is (from Wikipedia) “…an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.”

I had noticed that of all the Christian religions (and probably all religions, though I’m hardly qualified to judge) Mormonism had the most touch points with Transhumanism. (Though some significant differences as well.) So I’m shouldn’t be surprised to find that there was Mormon Transhumanist Association. Continue reading →

Reason as a Guide to Reality

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This is a reprint from Wheat and Tares. It was the first of my “reason as a guide to reality” posts.

Did you ever hear the one about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac? He stayed up all night wondering if there really was a dog.

Like many people, I’m curious about the nature of reality and really do sometimes stay up all night wondering about… well, just about anything.

A while back I wrote this post about the ramifications of a comprehensible God. If God and reality are comprehensible then using reason and rationality to explore reality is a worthwhile goal. But if God and reality are not fully comprehensible, then reason and rationality will only work haphazardly, and therefore are not reliable guides.

A Slice of PI

What I find so fascinating about logic and reason are that they do work. For example, what is the value of PI? Continue reading →

Interesting Quote

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In Doctrines of Salvation, Joseph Fielding Smith was answering a question about whether or not women hold the priesthood through their husbands. He said they do not but he goes on to say that…

Women… will become priestesses and queens in the kingdom of God, and that implies authority… (Doctrines of Salvation 3:178)

Just thougth that was interesting, that’s all. I’ve heard it before, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it. Now if I can just find that dang quote about the temple and the Patriarchal Order of the priesthood.