Quotes of Note- Elder Widtsoe and President Brown on Limits of our Knowledge and Assumptions

March 21, 2011 By benspackman

“We set up assumptions, based upon our best knowledge, but can go no further.”- Elder John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 126. Widtsoe was a European, a Harvard grad, a scientist, and an Apostle, a unique combination I don’t believe has been duplicated since. (President Eyring comes close, although New Jersey, a foreign country to many of us, isn’t technically in Europe.) Widtsoe makes this statement in context of thinking about the Flood. What I find striking about it is... Read more

Quotes of Note- Presidents Hinckley and Uchtdorf on Books and Reading

March 7, 2011 By benspackman

President Hinckley, cited in The Voice of My Servants, p. 61: “I confess that I am constantly appalled by the scarcity of my knowledge, and the one resentment I think I carry concerns the many pressing demands which limit the opportunity for reading.” Speaking to BYU graduates, he said, There is a tendency on the part of some graduates to say, `Now all of that is behind me.’ No, there is much more ahead than there is behind. We live... Read more

Better Sex Through Chastity

March 3, 2011 By emilyu

Premarital sex on college campuses is not something I know anything about. I went to BYU about 10 years ago, and while premarital sex existed there, it certainly wasn’t widespread enough to be conceived of as a marketplace. So when I read this Slate article reporting that the current market “price” for sex is currently very low, I was, well, shocked. Apparently single women in their twenties are having sex under conditions for which I wouldn’t have even been willing... Read more

Contributing to the Ensign- Interesting Guidelines

March 2, 2011 By benspackman

I was looking for something in the Ensign, and noticed two little links at the bottom, “Submit an article to the Ensign. View our updated content submission guidelines.” Really? Open submissions? Apparently so. How long has this been going on? The submission guidelines have some interesting things. For example, under the “General Ongoing Needs” section, one sees the first of several desired categories is “By Study and by Faith: These Church history and other academic or scriptural articles are doctrinally... Read more

Quotes of Note- Elder Talmage on Genesis

March 1, 2011 By benspackman

“Let us not try to wrest the scriptures in an attempt to explain away what we can not explain. The opening chapters of Genesis, and scriptures related thereto, were never intended as a text-book of geology, archaeology, earth-science or man-science. Holy Scripture will endure, while the conceptions of men change with new discoveries. We do not show reverence for the scriptures when we misapply them through faulty interpretation.” -Elder James E. Talmage, “The Earth and Man,” LDS Church, Salt Lake... Read more

My life is like a kitchen floor

February 25, 2011 By erin

When we first moved into our home, we were delighted by the bright and spacious kitchen. It had 6 recessed lights in the ceiling, plus one over the sink. After a few months, one of the lights burned out. I put “buy replacement bulbs” on my list of things to do. Perhaps a month later, a second light burned out. I moved my shopping trip up the priority list slightly, but there was really no rush. It was still easy... Read more

Quotes of Note- President Packer on “Scientific neglect”

February 23, 2011 By benspackman

No, it’s not what you’re thinking. I believe this story is from when he served as mission president in New England, 1965-68, and I’m still not quite sure what to make of this story, other than that President Packer is not always the “hard-liner” he is made out to be. (more…) Read more

Quotes of Note- Elders Ballard and Packer on meetings

February 14, 2011 By benspackman

“Are you using the ward and stake councils effectively as they were intended? Don’t let them become meaningless exercises in organizational bureaucracy. The way some leaders conduct council meetings, you would think they really believe in a fourteenth article of faith: ‘We believe in meetings—all that have been held, all that are now scheduled—and we believe there will yet be held many great and important meetings. We have endured many meetings and hope to be able to endure all meetings.... Read more

Quotes of Note- George Q. Cannon on Doctrine from the Stand

February 7, 2011 By benspackman

If we hear any principle taught from the stand that we do not understand, let us seek to comprehend it by the Spirit of God. If it be not of God, we have the privilege of knowing it. We are not required to receive for doctrine everything that we hear. We may say, “I do not know whether this is true or not; I will not fight it, neither will I endorse it, but I will seek knowledge from God,... Read more

Why are Mormon homemakers so creative?

February 4, 2011 By emilyu

I like making stock. It makes me feel resourceful. Industrious. Virtuous. Rather than throwing away a chicken carcass, I wring a little more value out of it by boiling it with a few vegetables. Some cookbook authors declare homemade stock to be incomparably better than canned stock, but I honestly can’t taste the difference. I like making stock for the virtue of it, not the aesthetics. It’s one of the few things I do in my homemaking that feels conservative... Read more