Is knowing better than not knowing?

I begin with a video from Jesusophile or rather, I would, if the particular video hadn’t been taken down. But in the video I’m thinking of, Jesusophile relates a parable, that I’ll paraphrase:

So, what if you take two children and give them encyclopedias, and ask them, “What is the capital of America?” And one of them says, “I don’t know; I do not see it,” And the other says, “Here, I’ve found it! It is New York City!” Obviously, the one who *finds* an answer is smarter than the one who doesn’t find anything because he has found an answer, so atheists are less intelligent than Christians because they find nothing and the Christian finds *something*.

Now before you come at me, realize that I didn’t make this up. I’m not genius enough to make this up. I wish you could see the video (check out others from Jesusophile to get a sense of him), because seriously, it’s a subtle kind of genius there.

But it gets me to my point…is knowing better than not knowing?

Internet vs. Chapel Mormons — Yet another divider

How does he fool anyone? Clark Kent and Superman don't even look different. At all.

Could it be that Mormons on the internet practice a different religion than Mormons in the chapel? What would this entail?

This is the conclusion drawn by “Dr. Shades” in a theory he proposed (and presented at Sunstone a while back) that I just read about. You can find out about the hypothesis from Dr. Shades’s website, from an summarizing blog entry from Jon, the SLC Freethinking Examiner (ugh, Examiner.com), or from the second episode of the Mormon Expressions podcast, which focuses on it. And this idea has even become so (in)famous that the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) has devoted a page to it.

From what I’ve heard and read, I think there is something to the idea of Internet Mormons differing from Chapel Mormons…but I also think that this something is the start of research rather than a foregone conclusion.

Cultural Mormonism, an account

This is a comment from a post that’s two years old at By Common Consent.

Take one girl and have her sing “I’m a Mormon” and “Book of Mormon Stories” all through her childhood. Immerse her in the scriptures and teach her that there is only one way to happiness in this life and the next.

Emphasize her pioneer heritage and attend many large family reunions at which grandmothers will speak tearfully of how grateful they are to have 100% of their progeny faithful LdS.

Encourage her to attend BYU, and watch with pride as she marries in the temple and has three children.

Listen uncomfortably as she voices concerns about the church, about history and doctrine, about current practices and beliefs. Be alarmed as she cries about the prospect of raising her children in this religion. Be unable to really understand, or talk about it anymore.

This girl will have a lot to say and work through and sort out. She will need people who understand the radical paradigm shift she has experienced. She goes online, and finds people there talking about these things. Slowly, day by day, she comes to terms with her deep disillusionment.

She reads and writes to know she is not alone. That is the ground zero answer for all of the disaffected presense, and this presense overlaps into the faithful bloggernacle because:

1. There are still many interesting conversations that pertain to a post-Mormon.

2. Once one has gone through this epiphany, this shift in faith, the truth seems so clear. The impulse to engage, to talk and debate, to share, is very strong.

With some distinctions, I think this captures the spirit of cultural Mormonism. My questions would be: what if you take out certain parts? Can you take out BYU and can you take out generations upon generations of Mormons? Is growing up with “Book of Mormon Stories” and other primary songs enough? As I (and a few of my commenters at Mormon Matters) wrote, I think that correlation provides the majority of Mormon culture…so anyone who has been active in the correlated gospel an be cultural Mormon. This means that Utah doesn’t matter; BYU doesn’t matter; what matters is that church experience that remains similar worldwide.

And also the “meta-culture” — the sense of thinking about Mormon culture, especially because it is different from the outside world. “Being in the world, but not of it.” This gives people a distinct cultural Mormonism as well, I think. The reason people leave the church but don’t leave it alone is because you can never be non-Mormon when you’ve been Mormon. Ex-Mormonism or former Mormonism will always be different from never being Mormon, and every Mormon and ex-Mormon recognizes this intuitively.

EDIT: Even Orson Scott Card recognizes the vibrancy of cultural Mormonism. So it’s not just me!

If someone insinuates your husband is polygamous…

If someone insinuates that your husband is polygamous, when you really believe in abstinence and committed  monogamy, how should you respond? I like the way Dave responds:

I’m afraid that in the 21st century, a good offense (in politics and religion) is the best defense. So maybe as a reply you should ask your colleague (and you can switch genders as needed): “So, how many gals did you husband sleep with before you married him? How many is he sleeping with now?” I mean, if they’re going to get personal about your moral commitments, get personal about theirs. You get uptight for a commitment to abstinence and monogamy, maybe you should let them get a little uptight about hooking up and sleeping around. Or if they, in fact, secretly think abstinence and monogamy aren’t such a bad idea, make them confess publicly. You’ll feel better.

To be honest, I didn’t know Dave had such comments in ‘im.

Irresistible (Dis)Grace in Mormon Matters 2008 Niblets

I’d like to thank the academy, first of all. I started blogging at Irresistible (Dis)Grace in November of 2008…and that, quite frankly, is rather late in the game. I quickly got traffic though, and I’ve been more regular with this one than my last.

I never would’ve imagined being able to be nominated for the Mormon Matters 2008 Niblets, however.

And yet, here I am. To be honest, I think in many ways I’m an underdog, but in many other ways, I’m not the underdog (just an underdog).

So, let’s look over where I’ve been nominated…and then you, gentle readers, can mosey on down to Mormon Matters and see if I deserve any (or all) of these nominations…feel free to read the rest of the nominations too. Of course, there’s not too much hurry, since voting is until July 15.

A Deconstructionist Testimony of the Book of Mormon

I would sustain this testimony I read a few days ago, if I could grasp what it meant.

Here’s a wall of text sampling from it:

The slippery slope between Mormons, ex-Mormons, and Bleach

Surprise. This is about manga!

Sorry. I wanted to have a misleading topic on purpose.

Today, I really wanted to talk about Tite Kubo’s manga Bleach. Why? Because 1, posting pics of manga characters results in a surge of traffic. And 2, for the past summer and this one, I’ve been obsessed. Last summer, I watched the anime until I got to the Bounto arc (which I promptly skipped as the filler it was)…and this summer, I’ve picked up again, this time going by the manga. And so, as I’ve read this time, I’ve noticed an intriguing comparability between pluses/wholes, minuses/menoses/hollows, Vizard/Visoreds and Arrancars, and Mormons, Ex-Mormons and Anti-Mormons. So maybe you won’t be disgusted yet.

Creeds, Mormonism, Evangelicals, and Third Party Politics

What can we figure out from contrasting America’s traditional party politics system with the diverse and (sometimes unstable) political structures of European nations, which most often have proportional election systems that allows for smaller, less popular parties to get a foot in the door?

And what can Mormonism and Evangelicalism have anything to do with it?

Before I read “Why We’re Confused” by Bridget Jack Meyers (just call her Jack), I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. But as I began reading…my mind started racing.

I think it has to do with creeds.

Thoughts about an ex-Muslim’s story

Equality at Equality Time recently posted a video from an ex-Muslim that he personally related to. And it did not disappoint — I enjoyed and agreed with several points from it. If I can, lemme embed the video…

There are a differences in details, to be sure, (my life is not the speaker’s) but here were a couple of quotes that I particularly liked:

Alexa Rankings, blog traffic, and how you can work them

When I first starting blogging, I wasn’t all that worried about blog traffic. This isn’t to say that I didn’t care if I had 10 readers or 100 (or even just 1), but that I wanted to write first and worry about traffic and rankings never.

Over time, I think I caught a bug. I started caring about the numbers in cyberspace. I like to think I still have some sanity, though — after all, I haven’t sold my soul to SEO efficiency. But I began to look forward to seeing smaller numbers for my site’s alexa rank.

Perhaps it was because I read so many others’ articles discussing the same topic. (To be honest, Zelophehad’s Daughters has consistently seemed to avoid the alexa trap, which will be important.)

I guess the rational question to ask (even if it was after I jumped on the bandwagon) was: “What the heck is Alexa ranking?”

The Alexa Logo