Simple Utah Mormon Politics

Various Christian denominations teach unequivocally that organic evolution is a falsehood. Where do you think The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints stands on this issue? It might surprise you. Have you ever been taught in an Sunday School class that the theory of evolution is outright falsehood? Have you felt on a high school or college science exam about evolution that you would have to choose between your faith and science? If you're a Latter-Day Saint, you don't have to worry about these issues. Because your church's doctrine on this subject just might not be what you think it is. I've been rereading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, a book which fascinates me. While I don't think his understanding of early Christian history is anything to write home about, I have been impressed by his explanation of evolution--particularly Natural Selection . During reading, I have found myself--especially when I discovered that Natural Selection and Chance a...

Prepare yourself to be inundated by a three hundred million dollar advertising campaign to convince you that you are at fault that the globe is warming, despite mountains of evidence that there has been no recent warming at all. Al Gore and his trusty Superfriends--from both sides of the political aisle--will be attempting with both barrels to lull you into a belief that the question has been settled once and for all. When I was a kid, I used to watch the Superfriends on Saturday morning TV. There was always someone, like the man who, with his evil xray ice gun, was bent on taking over the world. But Superman, Superwoman, Batman, and the whole cast of Superfriends always saved the day. I was almost as scared then that the iceman was really going to freeze the earth as my kids were recently that Al Gore's "documentary" told the truth about man and global warming. It was comforting to them when I cited several bits of evidence that An Inconvenient Truth is mostly lies. T...

Imagine what it might have been like if Hillary Clinton were George Washington's press secretary. mis·speak / mɪsˈspik / Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation [ mis- speek ] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –verb (used with object), verb (used without object), -spoke, -spok·en, -speak·ing. 1. to speak, utter, or pronounce incorrectly. 2. to speak inaccurately, inappropriately, or too hastily. 3. to flat out lie your pants off [Origin: 1150–1200; ME misspeken; see mis- 1 , speak ; cf. OE missprecan to murmur ] So this is what the campaign for presidency has become, a circus, lasting for approximately two out of every four years, where the most qualified candidates are ignored, and the least qualified (Obama, Hillary, and McCain...) are paraded before America as our only choices. Why are they the only choices? Because they make for great theater!! If you type "hillary mis" into the Google search widget of your browser, the second thing...

Would you ever ask an LDS General Authority for an autograph? What do you think they would say to you if you asked? What would you think of them if they signed one for you? I was part of an interesting conversation a couple of days ago. We were talking about " priestcraft ", which requires two things: To receive the praise of throngs of people. To solicit and bask in that praise. Based on the first definition alone, President Gordon B. Hinckley might have been accused of priestcraft--millions of people adored him. But if the second definition is figured in, he would not be guilty of priestcraft, because surely he didn't do it to receive all the attention and praise. I suspected that at times such adoration was slightly embarrassing to him, and I wondered aloud in our conversation: "Did President Hinckley ever get asked for autographs? If so, how did he handle the situation?" I think he would have politely declined, but I guess I'm not sure. There is a p...

One of the reasons that health care costs so much in the US is because general hospitals are not required to publish their costs. Claiming that publishing their costs would contribute to collusion and higher prices, they hide their costs from consumers. Hiding costs is precisely what does allow for collusion. That's a main reason why your health care costs are so high. Why do the general hospitals hide their costs? Because the United States Congress allows them to by law. And you thought American health care was inefficient because the free market doesn't work. News flash! US Health Care is hardly a free-market industry. Health care in the United States continues to gravitate further away from the free market. Subsequently, health care costs rise--while fewer and fewer people can afford to pay for even the insurance to protect against these costs. The other day I went to the grocery store. Here's what happened. I don't do the grocery shopping very often, so ...

Maybe it's because it doesn't have all the materialistic trappings of Christmas. Perhaps because it's starting to feel like it's finally going to be Spring this year! But for whatever reason, this Easter has been one of my more memorable ones. Did you enjoy Easter 2008? Even though I woke up early and worked an uncustomary 7 hours yesterday and 1 today, I still rate Easter 2008 as one of my favorite Easters ever. To appease the Christians, the Pagans, and perhaps everyone else , the date of Easter varies each year. Because it's a bit earlier this year, it falls on the day before my father's birthday (he has since passed on to the next life) as well as my father-in-law's birthday, who were born on the exact same day (March 24, 1935--we haven't established how close in time on that day they were born). Last year's Easter, celebrated with the Staheli side of the family, was just as enjoyable. I remember my mother asking one of my younger children w...

Barack Obama said a lot of the right things in his speech in Philadelphia yesterday. The only problem is--I'm not sure if I can trust him. I agreed with some of the things he said, but I wonder about some things that weren't said, and I also wonder about the potentially hidden meanings of others. Some of the Things I Agreed With In No Other Nation - I agree with Obama's implication that America is something to be uniquely proud of: I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one. Reverend Wright's "Profoundly Distorted View" - I appreciated very much that Obama publicly chastised Jeremiah Wright for his overtly racist statements: But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simpl...