The Backyard Professor

Evolution and Mormonism (Religion in General) incompatible?

BYU biology professor Steven Peck has something thoughtful to say in his latest blog post:

...[T]heology is under unprecedented attack from a cluster of philosophers and scientists, called the ‘New Atheists.’ While this group is hardly representative of scientists in general, they are popular, vocal, evangelical and influential. They are theologically naive, but their misrepresentations of religion and theology are gaining traction. What seems odd is that in responding to these atheists there seems to be a tendency for believers to buy into their most harmful (from my perspective) argument. That is, that evolutionary biology and religion are incompatible and that one must be chosen above the other. They both accept the thesis that there can be no compromise and that this is a fight to death between one or the other. This is unfortunate because this false dichotomy, widely accepted by both camps, is the real danger. As I have said elsewhere in [the Salt Lake Tribune] speaking about the creationist movement Intelligent Design, “[My] complaint about Intelligent Design is it sets religion and science against each other. It puts forward a false dichotomy in students’ minds that suggests that evolution and faith are incompatible. It makes people of religious faith suspicious of science. When students genuinely think that science and religion are incompatible, one of two things typically happens. One is they embrace science and since it is incompatible to religion, religion is abandoned. The other is that they maintain their faith but remain suspicious of science and cast doubt upon its methods and findings, inclining themselves to superstition and pseudoscience. I have to wonder if the reason science education in the United States is falling behind other countries is because misinformed people of faith have been dissing science to the point that many students are choosing other paths. Faith and science need not be enemies. I embrace both fully and without reservation. My religious convictions are part of who I am. My science and faith reciprocate and inform one another. They are part of the way I understand my place in the universe. Intelligent Design does nothing to promote the search for understanding and cooperation between these two vital ways of knowing. It is a darkening of the mind on every level, both religiously and scientifically.”

My videos on You Tube Shed Light!

A comment from a friend of mine which I have permission to share.......

I was listening to Kerry's latest video when my mind did a little wandering. I thought about the idea of the hypocephalus being a lamp, or producing a flame under or near the initiate's head. I also thought of previous comments I've read about the hypocephalus being the Eye of Re. With these things in mind, I turned to The Tower of Alchemy by David Goddard:

<QUOTE>
Because the Stone is also the opened third eye, we are taught: "if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light"(Matthew 6:22). Tibetan sacred art depicts tantric deities as having an open third eye upon the forehead. Again, The Eye of YHVH is upon them who hold Him in awe." And, in Isaiah 53:8, "Thy watchman shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion." It is the eye, the Mercury center, which is the Adytum, the holy of holies, in the temple of the human body. In Tibetan sacred art, the Buddha is shown with a gold, conical jewel rising from the protuberance on his head. The protuberance indicates the fully-developed "thousand-petalled lotus" (the Mercury center) and the gold jewel is the Philosopher' s Stone; "Om, the Jewel in the Lotus, Hum." The tilak or mark upon his forehead (and on other divinities and Sages) also
indicates the presence of the confected Stone within the skull. It is the prismatic nature of the Stone produces the radiant halo about the heads of the Enlightened Ones. . . . (This next part could tie in with Steve Graham's post on D&C 88)Although the symbol for the alchemical Quintessence is assigned to the triangle(triangles associated with the pentagram--bcn) corresponding to the head, it is not to indicate that the First Matter is in any way restricted to the head region, but to show that the Quintessence is perceived through the spiritualized faculty of sight. In Buddhism the awoken Third Eye is called the "Eye of non-dual Wisdom" because the Sage who looks with this Eye can actually see that all beings live in, and are composed of, the One Radiant Energy and are therefore interdependent. All Creatures and things are seen to be appearances or forms of the One Thing and seem to be separate--like waves appear to have fleeting separateness
from the ocean--but in fact are indissolubly rooted in the Priumordial Nature of the Absolute.(p. 96-97)
<END QUOTE>

Eyes, light around the head, temples associated with the hypocephalus( Eye of Re). All sorts of lights go on in my wild head as I ponder these things! At least in my mind things are making all kinds of connections!

The Doctrine & Covenants are God's Kabbalistic "Voice" PDF

Here are some notes I made for yet another Sunday School class. I had mentioned Kabbalah, and the class wanted to know more about it, so as I read the D&C, the ideas came to me, I wrote them down, and wala! Here ya go... enjoy.

Download Doctrine and Covenants Kabbalah

More Light on the Ancient Mother Goddess PDF

Here is the introductory paper to a series of lectures I gave at the public library in my home town a while back. I gathered as many angles on the ancient Mother Goddess as I could at the time. It was amazing to me how all encompassing she really is. I truly believe you will learn some new and enlightening information in this paper, whether you have studied this subject before or not. This is the first time this has seen the light of day. Enjoy. Please give it a moment or two to open, it's 30 pages of PDF, and lavishly illustrated.

Download Mother Goddess Lecture

Ancient Temples, John Welch on Margaret Barker's New Book

A very interesting analysis of Margaret Barker's new book on early Christianity and temples is at T&T Clark Blog. Worth looking at!

http://tandtclark.typepad.com/ttc/2008/05/responses-to-ma.html

Are We Dishonestly Hiding Our Own History in Mormonism?

I recently read an argument that we Mormons are hiding our history and not giving "full disclosure" on many things that some folks ask about and learn later on once they convert. Is this dishonest? Are we hiding our history? Do we even yet comprehend it? I argue we don't. And I know critics against Mormonism don't, based on decades of experience reading their own knowledge of Mormon history, rather lopsided at best.

My first question is, is it even possible?

Another nice blogspot

http://strongreasons.blogspot.com/

President Hinckley makes me MAD!!!!!

As only he can do. Mad with delight at his amusing, yet truly accurate perspective. The man just rocks! If I am even half near this wonderful when I get to be his age (that probably won't happen either), then I will consider myself absolutely Godly blessed!

Pres Hinckley spoke in the Priesthood Session about anger and how it is a major factor in problems today. He mentioned a person who was upset because a negative article about him was in the paper. A friend told him not to worry about it, because 1/2 the people didn't read the paper. Of those that did, 1/2 wouldn't notice the article. Of those that did, 1/2 wouldn't read it. Of those that did, 1/2 wouldn't understand it. Of those that did, 1/2 wouldn't believe it. Of those that did, 1/2 were nitwits.

Reincarnation. What? Reincarnation. Which? Reincarnation. Why? Reincarnation, Whoa...... HOW?

"[In the mystic Swedenborg's philosophy, reincarnation] depends entirely
upon the thought of the person. All things in the universe arrange
themselves to each person anew, according to his ruling love. Man is such
that his affection and thought are. Man is man by virtue of willing, not by
virtue of knowing and understanding. As he is, so he sees. The marriages of
the world are broken up. Interiors associate all in the spiritual world.
Whatever the angels looked upon was to them celestial. Each Satan appears to
himself a man; to those as bad as he, a comely man: to the purified, a heap
of carrion. Nothing can resist states: everything gravitates: like will to
like: what we call poetic justice takes effect on the spot. We have come
into a world that is a living poem. Every thing is as I am. Bird and beast
is not bird and beast, but emanation and effluvia of the minds and wills of
men there present. Every one makes his own house and state" (Emerson,
"Swedenborg; or, The Mystic," _Representative Men_).

You & God: God & You: Anyone There?

"You have to go past the imagined image of Jesus. Such an image of one's god is a final obstruction, one's ultimate barrier. You hold on to your own ideology, your own little manner of thinking, and when a larger experience of God approaches, an experience greater than you are prepared to receive, you take flight from it by clinging to the image in your mind. This is known as preserving your faith.…

"When you experience your god as with form, there is your envisioning mind, and there is your god. There is a subject, and there is an object. But the ultimate mystical goal is to be united with one's god. With that, duality is transcended and forms disappear. There is nobody there, no god, no you. Your mind going past all concepts, has dissolved in identification with the ground of your own being, because that to which the metaphorical image of your god refers is the ultimate mystery of your own being, which is the mystery of the being of the world as well."

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, pp. 262–63