![\"President](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2024\/10\/1_9-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>I\u2019ve been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to announce that the 2024 Interpreter Foundation theatrical film Six Days in August<\/em> is now available for streaming. \u00a0I haven\u2019t yet checked any of these, so if there are people out there who successfully view the movie at one or more of these sites, I would welcome confirming reports:<\/p>\n Six Days in August<\/em> Streaming<\/strong><\/p>\n Most of the above are listed together at JUST WATCH: https:\/\/www.justwatch.com\/us\/movie\/six-days-in-august-2024<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure why this is the case, but LIVING SCRIPTURES is not yet streaming Six Days in August<\/em>. \u00a0However, that will come.<\/p>\n I need to point out that the streaming of Six Days in August<\/em> is not free<\/em>. \u00a0On the other hand, the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s 2022 docudrama, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em>, is now available for streaming at no charge<\/em> via a link at The Witnesses Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other media news: \u00a0Here\u2019s an item that will make all faithful Latter-day Saints everywhere practically burst with pride: \u00a0\u201cSalt Lake City Is Rapidly Emerging As Reality TV\u2019s Hidden Gem\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I\u2019m intrigued by the article\u2019s recurring suggestion that it is the standards of the Church that create the, umm, interesting lives of the stars in these hit television shows, rather than \u2014 potentially, hypothetically, maybe just conceivably, perhaps \u2014 the flagrantly conspicuous failure of those stars to adhere<\/em> to the standards advocated by the Church.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s a weird one that I hope you can access. \u00a0It appeared in the 18 December 2024 issue of the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, but I somehow missed it when it was published: \u00a0\u201cIt Pays to Have Long Hair and a Beard in Utah\u2014Jesus Models Are in Demand:\u00a0Look-alikes are being hired for family portraits and wedding announcements but expectations can be high; \u2018You know I\u2019m not the real Jesus, right?\u2019\u201d<\/a> \u00a0Have you<\/em> ever heard of this? \u00a0I haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n Somehow, too, the notion that the long-haired and bearded look is held in particularly high esteem in Utah doesn\u2019t quite match other stereotypes of the state\u2019s population. \u00a0Consider, for example, the way Utahns are portrayed at this link: \u00a0\u201cI Asked AI What Europeans Think Americans From Every Single State Look Like, And The Results Are Just Plain Mean:\u00a0I guess this is what Europeans really think of us.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Or, alternatively, consider the way in which the appearance of Latter-day Saints is depicted in Broadway\u2019s musical The Book of Mormon<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0Take a look at your bishopric. \u00a0Take a look at your stake presidency. \u00a0Read through the dress and grooming standards at the Church\u2019s college and universities. \u00a0Take a glance at the missionary photo board at the chapel where you attend. \u00a0Take a good look at the ordinance workers next time you attend the temple. \u00a0Long hair and beards seem to be in short supply. \u00a0At least, anyway, on the men.<\/p>\n I continue to be pleased at the unanimous decision that was just handed down by the Ninth Circuit. \u00a0As, evidently, are others: \u00a0\u201cEvangelicals, Jews, Adventists, others grateful judges supported church autonomy in Latter-day Saint tithing case: 9th Circuit Court dismisses the James Huntsman tithing lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In other potential court action: \u00a0\u201cChurch says Texas town not standing by settlement reached for the McKinney Texas Temple:\u00a0The town of Fairview and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints negotiated a smaller temple in November. The agreement may be unraveling and the church may seek legal remedy\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n For about fifteen to twenty minutes each year, I work on a massive multi-volume project that is intended<\/em> (should it ever actually come to pass) to create doubts about the common assumption of what I\u2019ve commonly referred to as atheistic naturalism or materialism. \u00a0Here\u2019s a definition of physicalism<\/em> \u2014 another possible term \u2014 that might fit the bill. \u00a0Can you see anything problematic with it? \u00a0According to physicalism, so the definition or description goes,<\/p>\n in the end all facts are determined by physical fact alone, and we human beings are thus nothing more than extremely complicated biological machines. \u00a0Everything we are and do is explainable, at least in principle, in terms of our physics, chemistry, and biology \u2014 ultimately, that is, in terms of local interactions among self-existent bits of matter moving in accordance with mathematical laws under the influence of fields of force. \u00a0Some of what we know, and the substrate of our general capacities to learn more, are built in generically as complex resultants of biological evolution. \u00a0Everything else comes to us directly or indirectly by way of our sensory surfaces, through energetic exchanges with the environment of types already largely understood. \u00a0All aspects of mind and consciousness are generated by, or supervenient upon, or in some mysterious way identical with, neurophysiological processes occurring in the brain . . . \u00a0Mental causation, free will, and the self are mere illusions, by-products of the grinding of our neural machinery. \u00a0And of course since mind and personality are entirely products of our bodily machinery, they are necessarily extinguished, totally and finally, by the demise and dissolution of the body. \u00a0(E. F. Kelly, \u201cIntroduction: Science and Spirituality at a Crossroads.\u201d \u00a0In E. F. Kelly, A. Crabtree, and P. Marshall, eds., Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality<\/em> [Rowman and Littlefield, 2015], xii)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That constitutes a worthy target, I think.<\/p>\n And I can scarcely be faulted by a physicalist for opposing<\/em> physicalism. \u00a0After all, if mind and personality are merely epiphenomenal appearances that are entirely dependent upon purposeless physics and chemistry and the biology that evolved from them, if mental causation (e.g., seemingly logical processes), free will, and the self are nothing more than illusory by-products of bits of matter in motion, I have no real choice and argumentation is irrelevant.<\/p>\n You know that things are getting way out of hand when competing brands of theism conspire together<\/em> to commit their crimes against humanity. \u00a0Here is a frightening example of precisely that which I\u2019ve just recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cInterfaith Collaboration to Help Address Food Insecurity in London:\u00a0The Church of Jesus Christ and Muslim Aid UK help The Felix Project provide millions of meals in West London\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n As one incisive observer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is fond of pointing out, such actions have nothing to do with God. Rather, they\u2019re all about the Church\u2019s desire for money.<\/p>\n\n
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