The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Philosophers

December 5, 2012 By 46 Comments
"What sat in those three chairs was three men, though hard to recognize as men till you looked closely. Their hair, which was gray, had grown over their eyes till it almost concealed their faces, and their beards had grown over the table, climbing round and entwining plates and goblets as brambles entwine a fence, until, all mixed in one great mat of hair, they flowed over the edge and down to the floor. And from their heads the hair hung over the backs of their chairs so that they were wholly hidden. In fact the three men were nearly all hair."

I know there are some rumblings in yesterday's thread about sin, judgment, and necessity about my being tardy to reply to comments.  When there's such a fast discussion (over 100 comments in 12 hours, I can't pop in and out as much as I'd like to.   I did quite appreciate Steve Schuler's comment that, even though my tardiness was frustrating, "For my purposes the best aspect of Leah’s blog are the comments threads and the overall civil and thoughtful exchanges I am able to read here." … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemology/Philosophy Tagged With: 46 Comments

I Never Promised You an Ecstasy Garden

September 10, 2012 By 31 Comments

Since we've been discussing some Mormon perspectives on conversion and personal revelation, I've got the perfect excuse to link to Daniel Siliman's essay on Catholic conversion stories.  It's very much a RTWT, but I'll post an excerpt to whet your appetite. (Ok, it's a long excerpt. I got carried away.) My sense is, too, that while there're certainly historic examples of Catholic conversion narratives, that this widespread popularity -- that conversion narratives as a common Catholic practice … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Conversion Tagged With: 31 Comments

A Mormon Perspective on Interrogating Emotions

September 7, 2012 By 71 Comments

It's a guest post by Michael Haycock!  He blogs aperiodically at Not a Tame Lion, and helped clear up factual questions about Romney's priesthood along with more abstract questions about Mormon theology of priesthood the last time he guestblogged here.  Now he's popping in to talk about conversions than win over hearts as well as minds in the light of a recent On the Square piece. It is a typical indictment of Mormon proselytization and practice that it’s all predicated on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Epistemology/Philosophy Tagged With: , 71 Comments