Religion, SF, and Other Speculative Fictions.


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Entries from April 2007

Twenty Questions (divided by two).

April 30th, 2007 · by John · 6 Comments

This is a clever meme in which you ask to be interviewed by someone who is responding to someone else’s questions. I did it twice, once with Bored in Vernal, because I wanted to learn more about her, and once with PilgrimGirl, because I wanted to learn more about her (you can never learn enough [...]

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Tags: Meme · Personal

Book Pilgrimage.

April 29th, 2007 · by John · 3 Comments

Bored in Vernal, just so you know, I’m still working on my answers to your interview questions. GameBoy, CatGirl and I spent the day at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. It’s billed as the “country’s largest celebration of the written word”, and as devout readers, we try to make an annual pilgrimage to [...]

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Tags: Book Reviews · Science Fiction and Fantasy

More than One in Three.

April 27th, 2007 · by John · 1 Comment

Amnesty International issued a chilling report on sexual violence against Native American and Alaskan women. The lede to this story calls it a “soul-destroying account.” According to Amnesty’s report, “More than one in three Native women will be raped in their lifetimes.” Would we put up with these numbers if it was one in three [...]

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Tags: Current Events · Feminism

all my dreams coming true

April 26th, 2007 · by Miko · 3 Comments

I used to watch Star Trek (TNG, DS9, & Voyager) and then go to bed and dream of living it. I didn’t even have to be the captain (although as I got older, I was): even just a kid on board (like Westley, my hero when I was in grade school) would have been beyond [...]

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Tags: Current Events · Science · Science Fiction and Fantasy

Mormon, Christian, Atheist, Quaker.

April 26th, 2007 · by John · 17 Comments

Before you scroll or click any further, think of the first three adjectives that come to mind when you read the word, Mormon. Toss out any nouns and non-adjectives. No changing them (after all, this is an exercise in pseudo-free association), and don’t succumb to the temptation to type them in the comments as they [...]

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Tags: Christianity · Doubt · Mormonism · Quakerism

[Update:] Wednesday Challenge: Reflect on Smiling at a Stranger.

April 25th, 2007 · by John · 12 Comments

Today’s challenge is straight out of the book (Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life) that inspired my Weekly Challenge series (This one is #72 in the book). So try it out. Smile at a stranger (ideally, this will be the entire interaction with this person). Maybe this won’t be much of [...]

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Tags: Weekly Challenge

Blogging-a-day.

April 24th, 2007 · by John · 3 Comments

Elise’s Monday Madness inspired me to post my own. I’m going to update it as I go through the day: 4:00 am – Drift in and out of troubled dreams, in which Jana and I turn into living stone and speak in a Southern drawl at will. 5:15 am – Do a mental sketch of [...]

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Tags: Personal

Stand Up & Take it Like a Woman!

April 24th, 2007 · by Miko · 3 Comments

My neighbor recently found out that my husband & I are members of the local firing range & was interested in going to shoot. So we arranged to go on Saturday. When I checked in with her that day, she indicated that her partner had gone and she wasn’t sure when he’d be back to [...]

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Tags: Feminism

Cyclical Scorn.

April 23rd, 2007 · by John · 7 Comments

Recently a prominent LDS filmmaker left the Church, and Jana and I were surprised by the harsh criticism leveled at him by liberal, intellectual Mormons we thought relatively sympathetic and generous. In this post, I wave my rhetorical gun haphazardly in their direction. For a people that aggressively woos potential converts away from tight-knit faith [...]

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Tags: Doubt · Mormonism

Hey, I know! We should just ban reading!

April 23rd, 2007 · by Miko · 6 Comments

Since it’s clearly what caused this guy to go crazy. [/sarcasm] Seriously, if these had been video games instead of books, we’d be hearing just that argument. There are even people who are claiming he must have been playing violent video games, since they’re the Root Of All Evil‚Ñ¢. I’m actually surprised that there is [...]

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Tags: Current Events