epistemology Archive

The Won’t To Believe

Posted on May 3, 2013 | 14 Comments
I could do it. I could choose to believe.
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On Holland’s Epistemology

Posted on April 20, 2013 | 21 Comments
There is a wide chasm, however, between choosing to live a religion and claiming to have absolute knowledge that one's religion is the only "true" or "valid" path to God--and this chasm can't be crossed based solely on one's own experiences.
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49: A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: What’s Real, Deconstructing John Dehlin, and My Thoughts on Religion, Part II

Posted on March 29, 2013 | 12 Comments
The first challenge is an exercise in epistemology; The second is an exercise in phenomenology. The first asks what is "true," while the second focuses on what is "real."
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48: A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: What’s Real, Deconstructing John Dehlin, and My Thoughts on Religion, Part I

Posted on March 26, 2013 | 26 Comments
I sometimes wonder, if given the opportunity, whether my 40-year-old self could talk any sense into my 19-year-old self. I don't know the answer to that.
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47 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: A Faith like Mine

Posted on December 18, 2012 | 7 Comments
I now admit, somewhat sheepishly, that one of the reasons I voted for Obama is because of his religious beliefs.
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42 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The Only Thing I Know

Posted on October 15, 2012 | 15 Comments
The faith that had once seemed so unshakable in my youth had dissipated. Instead of warmth and hope, I felt hollow.
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Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Sacred Artifacts and Rituals

Posted on August 17, 2012 | 4 Comments
I'm a faithful skeptic, a doubting believer; this is why these spiritual experiences were so unexpected.
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Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: An Object Lesson

Posted on August 14, 2012 | 11 Comments
I have felt those same feelings in and around mosques, synagogues, and churches of many different Christian denominations. Let's add mountaintops and porch swings, too.
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Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: What If?

Posted on July 31, 2012 | 12 Comments
Now I was laughing, giddy with freedom. "I don't know if You're there! I don't know what any of this means!" The more I said it, the more it filled me, that burning in the bosom, that unbridled peace.
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Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The Mystery of Spiritual Experience

Posted on July 24, 2012 | 11 Comments
And it all comes down to one thing: experiencing a sense of Connection. Connection with God. Connection with other people. Connection with the natural world.
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Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: That Amazing Grace

Posted on July 23, 2012 | 9 Comments
It goes on and on, this tapestry we weave with the Divine that moves in and out, going from the seen to the unseen, letting us know that behind it all are threads that connect everything.
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Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Letting Go

Posted on July 22, 2012 | 6 Comments
I realized that I'd always had it backwards. Spirituality didn't come from holding the power of God inside your body like a form of light. It didn't come from knowing all the answers, from soothing other people's pain or from living a perfect life.
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17 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: True or False?

Posted on November 8, 2011 | 33 Comments
The last time this was laid out for me in a sunday school lesson I decided to diagram how it actually works. I've tried to be as accurate as possible.
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Mormon Matters 45: The Mormon Practice of Bearing Testimony

Posted on August 3, 2011 | 2 Comments
As a result of Brent’s latest Mormon in the Cheap Seats posts (Build Out, Not Up and On Testimonies), Mormon Matters just did a podcast regarding Mormons and the practice of bearing testimony. Dan Wotherspoon moderated the discussion with a great panel: Brent […]
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