Status Update: Infrastructure · 29 August 2007, 21:08
I just thought I’d update to tell you that I’ve begun the coding of the application that will power MormonAnswers.com, AnswerBase. For you technically inclined, the application is written in Python using the Django framework. After some initial set up issues on my development machine, I got Django and PostgreSQL running, and today busted out the main article and tagging code. I’m shocked at how easy it has been. Django is awesome, and the prebuilt admin backend renders me speechless. If you’re a web dev, I highly recommend picking up Django. Now to figuring out how to build a highly effective search engine, and then the fun parts: data entry and front end UI work. Given that I am a UI designer, the latter shouldn’t be too bad.
The data entry, however… *shudder*
(I’m also wondering about creating a pingable address for select bloggers to auto-add their content to the database, ala pinging technorati… but that may be a bit over the top.)
Testimony · 17 August 2007, 14:42
“Every time I’m out and I see the outline of someone’s temple garments underneath the collar of their shirt, I start to feel hot. I mean, especially in this weather. I can’t see someone else with that many layers of clothing on without feeling suffocated.”
“Is it like a burning sensation?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“And your whole chest seems to fill up with pressure?”
“Right, because I can’t imagine how uncomfortable they must feel.”
“That’s not empathy, Jon. That’s the Holy Ghost.”
Can I just take a second to say how much I love Dooce ? I wish I could be that witty and smart about something that overwhelmed my childhood.
More talk of Parrots · 6 August 2007, 19:54
I was visiting my family on Sunday, and the usual discussions about the week’s occurrences took place as we sat around, allowing our meal to digest. As it was Sunday, it was only a matter of time before a church-related discussion took place. This week, it regarded the day’s fasting and requisite testimony meeting, in place of the usual sacrament meeting. As if ribbing my sister with an inside joke, my bro-in-law asked her “So what did you say when you bore your testimony?” It turns out that he was earnest in his desire to know, as he had been dealing with my screaming nephew outside while she was at the microphone, but the air of inside joke eminated from the fact that she responded in such a curious manner.
“I don’t even know.”
I’ll admit, my sister and I share the wonderful ability to draw a blank on things that just happened, so it seemed as though her husband was teasing her about it. Had that been the end of the conversation, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
However, my sister-in-law piped up.
“Oh, I know! I never know what I say up there,” followed by my mother’s proclamation that “you really shouldn’t… you’re being moved by the spirit!”
I couldn’t take it. I had to say something.
“Wait… you never know what you’re saying when you’re bearing testimony? Shouldn’t you know what you are stating aloud as belief?”
My mother looked at me perplexed. My sister in law chimed in “No, but you’re being moved by the spirit!“
I decided not to get into it—talking to my family about religion or politics just gets ugly, as it usually turns to questions about why I don’t go to church any more. However, let’s carry this thought out a bit, shall we? Define a testimony, especially as pertains to Mormon belief and terminology. More or less you get:
- Testimony
- noun
a declaration of one's religious beliefs, a public recounting of a religious conversion or experience.
So essentially you’re getting up to tell people what you believe to be true, what your beliefs are. It would stand to reason that this is a highly personal thing, and thus, no one should be telling you what you believe (don’t get me started on the practise of whispering a “testimony” into the ear of a waiting and scared 2 year old for the child to repeat into the mic), nor should anyone else but you be able to proclaim your beliefs for you. I mean, seriously, right?
What was being said, that night, however, was that when they get up and profess their beliefs in regard to god, jesus, jos. smith, church and other dogma, they don’t know what they are saying, have no control over what they are saying, and essentially, are allowing someone else to dictate their beliefs (even if that someone is “the spirit”). Now, if I were to talk about the spirit guiding someone—never mind my non-belief for a moment, this is purely for illustrative purposes—whilst speaking, I’d generally like to think, as far as my Mormon upbringing and tutelage lead me to believe, that the person being guided is being told something, which they will cognise, process and then repeat. What they were describing, though, was more along the lines of a possessing experience, as though “the spirit” had complete control over their mind, to the point that they have no recollection of what they said. This smacks of something, but it is not the supposed “still small voice” I was taught of as a child.
I was never taught that when professing personal belief that the spirit would knock you out of control and take over. If the spirit were to tell you what to say (once again, hypothetically, since I don’t believe in the mormon/christian concept of the holy spirit) in a personal belief proclaiming experience, wouldn’t it be that the spirit were reminding you of a great experience, or helping you say something important, but all the time, saying it to you, for you to think about and repeat? To say something takes over you and speaks for you when you are stating your personal beliefs is to say those beliefs are not personal, and they really aren’t yours—even if you do believe the same. Belief is personal, and if someone is controlling what you say when you state your beliefs, and you have no recall of what you said… well, I hate to use the term, but you have to say that tastes an awful lot like brainwashing. Or at very least (and this may reach believing Mormons better that the b-word does) it seems like evangelical speaking in tongues, only the words being spoken aren’t gibberish, but memorised, socialised rote recitations. Mormon readers may turn off at the sound of the word brainwashing, but I know they’ll cringe at being compared to evangelicals speaking in tongues, but really… it’d have to be one or the other: if there is some spirit controlling the speech, it’d be like speaking in tongues, and if not, it has to be some level of brainwashing or memorised recitation of socially-accepted rote phrases.
Either way, it gives me the creeps and makes me feel a bit sad for my family. I’d like to think that if they really do believe Mormonism to be true, they’d actually be able to say it themselves without entering some blackout zone.
Discussion (remember, keep it friendly, kids):
A State of Blind Self-Security · 3 August 2007, 04:28
I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not.
— Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:150
Food for thought, especially when you think about Dallon Oaks recent comments in the PBS documentary about not criticising church leaders, even if they are wrong.
Clarification · 25 June 2007, 04:57
I feel I should clarify a few things in regard to this blog, its relation to the main site (MormonAnswers.com), what my personal biases are, and how they play a role in this blog, and ideally how they will not play a role in the main site. Also, I hope to make clear what the discussion feature of this blog is for, and what it is not; what will contribute to a good conversation and what will get you banned.
This is a blog.
Yep. It’s a web-log. It’s a journal, of sorts. It is not the actual MormonAnswers.com web site I refer to. Sure, it is hosted on the same server, uses a subdomain of MormonAnswers.com, and is produce by me, Bodhi. However, this is, yes, you guessed it… just a blog. It’s a place to unload personal thoughts, little clips or blurbs I found interesting, etc. It is not the site that I refer to often, the coming site, MormonAnswers. When it does arrive (eventually… keep in mind this is a side project and I am a working adult with many, many other interests and time-comsuming tasks), there will be no confusing the two. I’ve considered changing the address of this blog to bodhi.mormonanswers.com and starting a fresh blog here (ie, blog.mormonanswers.com) solely talking about the progress and news regarding the actual MA site. That may happen, for the time being, keep in mind that this is not the mormonanswers.com main site, it is a personal blog, and as such, the statements made are not necessarily indicative of the outlook and stance of MormonAnswers.com. A person’s personal views to not have to colour everything he or she does. A person can dislike motorcycles but still work as an effective part of an ad agency team creating a new commercial for a Yamaha bike.
So what is your damage, anyway?
It is fair enough to question my motives. Since I am a former mormon, it is easy to see that I’m obviously not a fan of the LDS church. But I’m also a nice guy who enjoys music and hiking. I’m more than just some angry ex-mo, and as I’ve stated exhaustively elsewhere, MormonAnswers.com will be about archiving potential answers for those with questions. I want to keep it neutral in a way that will not promote a certain sect or atheism, as is common of some sites and pages out there. I don’t care if you “come to Jesus,” or eschew religion all together, or whatever. That isn’t my concern. I just don’t want to see the valuable information concerning mormonism fade away from the internet because the posters used some free web host or the web hosting from their dialup provider (far too often that content will vanish if the author does not log in for a few months/years).
So the site certainly isn’t pro-mormon. Sorry. But I’d like to think it won’t be anti-mormon either. It will simply be information. Is Google anti-mormon because it indexes thousands of anti-mormon web sites? Of course not. People can make up their own mind… isn’t that a wonderful concept?
Bias
Yes, as mentioned, I have a personal bias. I’m not a fan of the LDS church. But I do not dislike mormons. Hell, most of my family is mormon… how could I hate mormons? So I do not believe in the tenets of that church formed by Mr. Smith, but I think that members of said church can be fantastic people. It’s the same principle as, say, not liking your school’s rival, but still being able to hang out with your cousin or buddy who attends that school.
Am I Christian? No. Am I religious? No. Do I want everyone who visits MormonAnswers.com to become just like me? No. I honestly don’t care about the results of the information served, I just want it to be available. I’m not going to put up a counter that shows how many people have left the LDS church due to what they have read. I mean, how ridiculous is that?
What am I? I’m a card-carrying Humanist, if you’re really curious. If you want my nutshell explanation of what that means, it’s that I believe in acting ethically and morally without the believe/fear/motivation of an afterlife. Basically, don’t let fear of punishment or desire for reward motivate your life—be good to your fellow humans because otherwise our human family suffers. I am also a pacifist, and hold progressive political viewpoints (another reason I am a humanist). So can expect these beliefs to colour my comments on this blog, but the goal the MormonAnswers.com site is to be set up in such a way that regardless of my viewpoint, your viewpoint, etc, the information/articles will do the talking. Once again, back to the Google example, you never wonder what Google believes about stem-cell research or eating fish on a friday. And when MA arrives, I’d hope the users would not even have to worry about whether the site wants them to leave Mormonism for Catholicism or Islam or atheism or anything. They just want to look something up, see what authors across the net have to say about it, or even better, what some historical documents have to say.
On being a twerp.
It is exceptionally easy to act like a jackass online. If you do so on this site, I’ll warn you. If you keep it up, I’ll ban you. Simple as that. So what entails being a pain, then?
- FLAMING
- Flaming is coming to the site with the sole purpose of trying to piss me or other readers off, in order to elicit a response. Some real asshats get off on this, and nothing makes me hate the internet more than these button pushers. You flame, you get warned. You flame again, you get banned. Simple as that.
- AD HOMONYM
- A fancy way or saying “name calling.” If you can’t seem to speak like an adult and result to calling someone a dooty-head because you disagree with them, you will be on my hit list. Do it too often, and you might not be long in the realm of our discussions.
- OFF-TOPIC DIGRESSION
- If you show a tendency to derail conversations with unrelated topics, you run the risk of irking me. Comments are generally made with the sole purpose of muddling things and distracting people.
- BITCH/MOAN
- Okay, this is just personal. Don’t complain about how long your comment took to be moderated or if it wasn’t posted at all. Comment moderation is there for a reason. Just because you don’t see comments on this site that fit the above descriptions doesn’t mean they haven’t been submitted. I’ve simply sent them to the comment rubbish bin. Just because you typed it in and hit send doesn’t mean it has any right of showing up on the site. Sorry… but to paraphrase Snatch, it’s a free country, but it ain’t a free site. Deal with it.
Why make such a big deal? Because we’re dealing with religion and belief, and dissenting viewpoints. People blow themselves up over similar topics! It is a rather incendiary topic, and if some level of control is absent, things can get out of control quickly.
Bring something to the table, be grown up, stay calm, and we may just have an interesting conversation. Don’t feel discouraged if you are a believing mormon… I welcome your comments as well… just keep the above guidelines in mind. A good discussion should include a number of viewpoints, and you can contribute yours if you are a reasonable person without anger management issues. :)