Rebirth

I recently attended the baptism of a young friend.  I've always been taught that baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior.  It also represents our own rebirth, as Christ taught Nicodemus in John 5.

Why we cannot expect the Church to support gay marriage

You know, Mormonism is a missionary-minded church.  Because of that, I don't think we should expect the Church to come out in support of gay marriage.

Consider the following:

Logical Fallacies - Argument from Ignorance

The argument from ignorance, sometimes known as an appeal to ignorance, is a fallacious argument that states "if you can't prove it's wrong, then it must be right."  A simple example would be to argue that I was Napoleon Bonaparte in a past life because you can't produce evidence against the claim.

Sacrifice

When Abraham and Sarah received their blessings, they were promised a progeny that rivaled the sands of the sea in number, and that through their seed all the kingdoms of the world would be blessed.  But they only had one child, Isaac.  So, when the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, it was not just about losing a son.  In some sense, it was also losing the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant.

Straight Questions

Okay, I'm really curious about how straight guys feel attraction.  I only have my own experience with attraction, and I know that I'm exclusively attracted to guys.

Framing the debate

I grow tired of hearing the debate around the gay marriage issue.  Both sides have a narrow set of topics on which they wish to speak, and any other topic that the other side wants to address is considered irrelevant.  Personally, I am more interested in re-framing the debate.

Logical Fallacies - The Red Herring

The story is told that when training dogs to follow a scent, a red herring (cured fish) with its pungent smell is used to distract the dogs; and they need to learn to ignore the odor.  Similarly in logic, one trap to fall into is to be distracted by a tangential argument that misses the point of the case being made.

Being in love with my wife

In Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel, the title character's alter ego, Percy, had just watched his wife leave after a difficult discussion.  He is described as "a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and his own despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone: the will was powerless. He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last."

When I first read that passage, I thought it utterly ridiculous.

The Lazy Daydreamer

I’m not naturally good at finishing tasks.  So I often feel really guilty about it.

Logical Fallacies - Equivocation

Equivocation is a logical fallacy created by a misuse of language.  When you change the definition of a word mid-argument, that's equivocation.