In part two of this series I discussed Bayesian inference. Specifically, I discussed how Bayesian inference provided us with a mechanism for deciding in what we should place our confidence given all the information we possess and will yet obtain. This was all framed in the context of confidence. I’d like to discuss an alternative way of looking at Bayesian inference – namely optimization.
Monthly Archives: June 2010
The Mormon Therapist on “Honoring” our parents.
I have been depressed off and on for the thirty years since I joined the Church and almost ten years before that when I wanted to join. I was a teenager at the time and due to opposition and threats from my parents, waited until I married. Since the time my husband and I were baptized, we have been obtusely criticized/put down, not invited to certain family gatherings but required at others, and our Church activity ignored.
A Horrific Tale of Forgiveness
I really miss my book club, but I am participating in the Stay LDS Book Club. The first book that we have decided to read is Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. It is her story of the Rwandan Genocide. I previously discussed the movie Hotel Rwanda, describing the events from Paul Russebagina’s point of view. Immaculee has an incredibly inspiring story as well. The book is intensely moving.
Priesthood as a Puberty Rite
A unique aspect of Mormonism is that all males over age 12 can hold an office of the priesthood, and that they are expected to use that priesthood in service to both the community (sacrament, callings) and to individuals (healings, blessings, and acts of service). When the church was first organized, most of the offices of the Aaronic priesthood were held by adult males, not teens. Has teenage priesthood ordination evolved into a form of puberty rite?
Wandering Mormons as Nephites
More than two years ago, the Holy Spirit began insisting that I re-read the Book of Mormon. Of course, I didn’t immediately recognize the impulse as anything but a good idea originating within my own intellect. That’s what I do with anything – process it intellectually first. I knew spending more time reading scriptures would be the spiritual equivalent of walking more for my heart, so I put it on my to-do-list. You know all about the to-do-list that never seems to get any shorter because of emergencies and recurring requirements. So, re-reading the Book of Mormon stayed on...
Writing a Life
“It’s the people who write, who last. If any woman out there has any inclination to to remembered in the future, the next few generations, she’d just better get busy and write out her story, her experiences.” –Claudia Bushman I haven’t been very satisfied with the writing of my own story. I wish I had a more representative record of my life. I began journaling in 1974 when I was 14 years old. I had a diary all through my high school years. I was certain that when I was a teenager I had some intelligent thoughts. But reading...
Mormon Marriage Ref: Bikinis, Garments, & Facebook
WARNING: Sophisticated readers have described The Mormon Marriage Ref as a painfully artificial and repellent reality TV way of solving arguments, as using incredibly silly black and white binary thinking, and as sorely lacking in nuance. Read at your own risk! Here’s the situation: Matt and Sarah are a young couple living in Las Vegas. They are very physically active, and put a high priority on health and exercise. They love the warm weather and their big neighborhood pool. They originally met in Germany (Sarah is German, and speaks fluent English) while Matt was on his mission. Matt went...
The Fallibility of Infallibility
The Prophet Joseph Smith said “ … a prophet was a prophet only when he was acting as such.” (History of the Church, Volume 5:265). This simple statement, made to a “brother and sister from Michigan” has invoked much discussion about when a prophet speaks for the Lord and when he is simply offering good advice.
So what is a Mormon? What is a Feminist?
To answer the question “what is a Mormon?” I found myself asking the question “what is a Feminist?” I was at a lunch. I was talking with someone who was putting a program together to support female attorneys and make them feel included. She was talking to several of us about how important it was to have good role models, to make certain that girls knew that any education they wanted, any choices they wanted or needed would be supported and were good and encouraged and how important it was to be inclusive. She was looking for groups to...
King David and the Doctrine of Blood Atonement
OT SS Lesson #24 The following statement was made by the LDS Church last Wednesday in conjunction with the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner by firing squad in Utah. I see this as a misunderstanding or a misrepresentation of what was taught in the past regarding the doctrine.
Faith, Knowledge, Belief and Stochastic Theory Part 3: Putting It All Together
In part one I introduced the problem I see with our current understanding of faith, introduced some basic statistics, and weakly drew a comparison to faith. In part two I introduced deductive and inductive reasoning, and showed how Bayesian inference leads to good inductive reasoning. I also gave a brief example of how this might work in real life. In this post I would like to put all these concepts together into at least one way of viewing faith, knowledge, and belief. I will do this by examining the plausible reasoning of three individuals: a stereotypical believing Mormon, a...
The Mormon Therapist on Parental Concerns re Toddler Masturbation
Natasha Helfer Parker is a Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist and a member of the Church with 13 years of experience working with LDS members. Here she shares with us representative cases from her practice and insights she has gained from her work as a therapist. She blogs at mormontherapist.blogspot.com. I am LDS, married, and a stay at home mom of a 2 year old son. He’ll be 3 in October. My concern is about his increasing interest in masturbation. I’m frustrated by the lack of guidance I’ve found on parenting websites, where pediatricians do not deem early...
Joseph and Sidney: A Strained Friendship
The friendship between Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith is very fascinating. Sidney was one of the earliest, and most impressive converts, joining the church in December 1830. His training as a Baptist minister was especially helpful to Joseph, and he often preached many wonderful sermons. As time wore on, there were some really interesting issues between Joseph and Sidney. Richard Van Wagoner wrote a biography called Sidney Rigdon: Portrait of Religious Excess. The Missouri and Nauvoo periods were especially tumultuous. With Sidney running the church in Quincy, Joseph and others were still in the Liberty Jail. Through the first...
Mormonism: Nature Religion or Social Religion?
“God against Man. Man against God. Man against Nature. Nature against man. Nature against God. God against nature–very funny religion!” ~Dr. D. T. Suzuki. Is Mormonism as a restorationist church a “nature” religion or a “social” religion or something in between?
Official Doctrine vs. Personal Speculation
Mormonism, in its very short history, has a rich tradition of theological speculation. The foundations of the Church were based on burning desires to know concrete answers about the great mysteries. The existing answers in the early 19th century felt stale or unsatisfying as the world was changing and new frontiers opened up. Formerly settled religious questions were thrown back into the ring for debate. This happened within a frontier tradition attempting to interpret and combine ideas from the newly forming materialistic sciences with the long-established magical world view held in western culture.
Father’s Day Reflections
Stop to capture your answers as you read through the scenario. Imagine . . . You have set off to climb a mountain, in search of a fabulously rare stone. (1)What is your impression of the mountain as you stand at its foot? . . . After a hard search, you still haven’t found the stone, and now the sun has fallen. (2) What will you do next? . . . You have finally discovered the stone you were seeking. (3) What kind of stone is it? Describe its size, weight, and value. . . Now it is time to come down...
How Many Mormons Does It Take to Screw in a Lightbulb?
Today’s post is by Matt Workman. I waited backstage with my small troupe of comedians. One more act to go, then it was our turn to perform. Would the act on before us whip the crowd into a frenzy? Take all the steam out of the room? Perhaps overshadow our under-rehearsed sketch? The performance started and it took us a while to figure out what was happening, but soon it was painfully obvious: our lead-in act was a PowerPoint presentation. It may not surprise you to learn that the venue for this particular comedy performance was a church activity...
Faith & Doubt
Today’s guest post is by Glenn. When I was at BYU, I got interested in the study of folklore – the way that traditional culture informs our understanding of the world. I worked in the BYU folklore archives cataloguing missionary stories – encounters with the three nephites, miraculous experiences (some easier to believe than others), initiation stories of greenie missionaries, cautionary tales — just a whole bunch of really interesting stuff. I was hooked.
Faith, Knowledge, Belief, and Stochastic Theory Part 2: Inductive Reasoning
Deductive reasoning is a form of reasoning in which the conclusion can be drawn directly from the premises. The idea is to show that the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises. For example: Bridges built using sound engineering principles are safe. The Bay Bridge was built using sound engineering principles. Therefore, the Bay Bridge was safe (at least when it was built). This form of reasoning is reliable, at least as far as logic goes, producing correct conclusions from the premises.
Time to Study the Old Testament…Again – Part 8 – The Names
One thing that has always intrigued me about the English version of the Old Testament were how the names, the Hebrew names, were modified away from a Hebrew pronunciation. Sometimes the names are close and sometimes not even. The key to pronouncing a Hebrew name or any Hebrew word is that he accent is always syllable .