The Proverbial Elephant, Non-overlapping Magisteria, and Gifts of the Spirit
I can’t help but laugh at the ridiculous title of this post, but I swear to you that I tie all the ideas together.
belief
Choosing to Believe: Thoughts from the Givenses
The following is taken verbatim from the introduction of an important new book from Terryl and Fiona Givens called The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life. Whether and/or when belief is a legitimate choice is a fascinating topic to me.
Terryl Givens on Choosing to Believe
The following is a partial transcript I made of an excellent Mormon Stories podcast interview with Terryl Givens, one of the most intellectually interesting and thoughtful Mormons I know of. Here he discusses his view on how and why religious belief must be a choice and not simply something that’s obviously false or obviously true.
Dismantling the Rose
I’ve heard an analogy that compares people’s personal religious beliefs to a beautiful rose. Some people’s intellectual curiosity drives them to dismantle the rose in order to see how it’s put together. Petal by petal they gently pull it apart to learn how the individual parts work or to examine its raw biology under a microscope.