{"id":44986,"date":"2017-11-22T12:42:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T19:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44986"},"modified":"2017-11-22T15:14:42","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T22:14:42","slug":"singing-hymns-well-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/singing-hymns-well-nothing.html","title":{"rendered":"Singing hymns to . . . well, NOTHING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sydney's<\/a>
The Sydney Opera House (Photo by David Iliff. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0)
From one point of view, this building, like\u00a0everything else shown in the photograph above, is of no more ultimate significance than an anthill, the rust on a piece of iron, a clod of lunar dirt, two seconds of radio static, or a randomly chosen blemish\u00a0on the back of a garden snake\u00a0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How very, very sad:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGlobal Atheist Convention Called \u2018Reason To Hope\u2019 Cancelled Because No One Wants To Go\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t you think that people who\u2019re convinced that their few years on Earth are all they\u2019ve got\u00a0would want<\/em> to devote some of their rapidly dwindling time to gathering with like-minded hopers? \u00a0To being reminded of the glorious good news of atheism before a lethal accident or a fatal illness\u00a0terminates their\u00a0existence?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What greater \u201creason to hope\u201d could there possibly be than the conviction that all human relationships end in death, if not before? \u00a0That lost loved ones are mouldering in the cemetery? \u00a0That most of the people around you are credulous fools? \u00a0That good and bad are mere arbitrary human distinctions? \u00a0That the universe is pitilessly indifferent to us and our pathetic dreams? \u00a0That, with the passage of time, it will have made not the slightest particle of difference that the Parthenon\u00a0and the Taj Mahal and the plays of Shakespeare and the music of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven ever existed?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such thoughts almost make me want to break out into ecstatic singing. \u00a0How about you?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But,\u00a0I guess, instead of spending your time at a convention of atheists, you could go skiing or watch a movie or play your guitar or spend some time on the beach.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What a difficult dilemma.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, you could spend a few moments listening to this podcast, which is accessible through the website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council of Fifty\u2019s Quest for Religious Liberty,\u201d with W. Paul Reeve<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of you will find this video podcast\u00a0of interest. \u00a0Terryl Givens interviews Elder Marlin K. Jensen, an emeritus member of the Seventy:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA disciple\u2019s plea for openness and inclusion\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s difficult to imagine, but there is just the slight whiff of a possibility that a journalist has gotten something wrong while attempting to cover a story with a Mormon angle to it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That, anyway, is the claim of one non-Latter-day Saint writer:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNewsweek twists message Elizabeth Smart has been sharing with Mormons about sex\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s an item in which \u2014 even more difficult to believe! \u2014 someone on television seems to have mocked<\/em> Mormons and Mormonism:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gilbertsheldon\/posts\/10159478993795005?comment_id=10159478997115005&notif_id=1511317256831001&notif_t=comment_mention<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to Stephen Smoot for alerting me to this important product announcement:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence-Free Bible Now Available\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was very pleased to see the new Church video mentioned (along with several other interesting things) in this article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mormon Channel video is modern retelling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was particularly happy to see the central role played in it by an African Muslim woman.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 How very, very sad: \u00a0 \u201cGlobal Atheist Convention Called \u2018Reason To Hope\u2019 Cancelled Because No One Wants To Go\u201d \u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you think that people who\u2019re convinced that their few years on Earth are all they\u2019ve got\u00a0would want to devote some of their rapidly dwindling time to gathering with like-minded hopers? \u00a0To being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSinging hymns to . . . well, NOTHING<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    How very, very sad:   "Global Atheist Convention Called 'Reason To Hope' Cancelled Because No One Wants To Go"   Wouldn't you\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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