In spite of my various attempts to clarify my motives, people continue to ask why I have chosen to be so noisy and public as I exited the LDS Church. Most of these questions (and the occasional accusation that I’m insincere, or an attention whore) come from people who seem to be deeply connected to [...]

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I have mixed feelings about the discussion that’s taking place at my maybe I’m being ex’d post, and I wanted to work out my unease out loud. Though I’m capable of it, I don’t like rational argument when discussing my personal religious experience. I’m not competitive. I don’t really have anything to prove. I prefer [...]

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Several of you have directed my attention to what I believe may be the post that offended LDS muckety-mucks enough to invite me to a disciplinary council. It’s a video blog entry in which I show and comment on a brief excerpt of HBO’s Big Love depiction of the temple veil ceremony, I read from [...]

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When the local Mormon Stake President came to the door, I was half-hoping it was Carolyn, wanting to share a glass of Layer Cake Shiraz (that she had recommended) while our wives were at paddling practice. The kids were wrapping up dinner and Isaac and I were sitting on the couches enjoying warm conversation and [...]

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After a long hiatus, I’m starting the podcast back up. There are a few changes, however: I’m abandoning the “Atheist’s Prayer” title, and rebooting this as simply the “Mind on Fire podcast.” The content will range widely, but will include stories I’ve written, interviews and conversations, and fun audio projects like the First of May [...]

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I’m happy. This is a very strange feeling for me and one that was foreign. But I’d been noticing it of late: things don’t piss me off, my short fuse has gotten longer, and I generally approach things with equanimity. And people. I like people now. It was hard for me to identify this fact [...]

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All right, folks, come hither and hearken unto my latest hare-brained scheme: Have any of you heard the Jonathan Coulton classic, First of May? If you haven’t, here it is (warning: there’s literally some fucking language in there). If you have, I know you’re all like “MST LISSEN NAO”, so here it is. See how [...]

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This is how our president defined our country yesterday. Explicitly denying that it was a “Christian nation” and explicitly stating that this fact is one of our “great strengths”. It’s nice to be reminded of this—and by someone so high in the administration! It is vogue for politicians to exclaim “God bless America!” Whether or [...]

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It’s got it all: atheism, spirituality, god, scifi, and good music!! Hulu’s got the first four eps up right now (and it doesn’t keep them forever), so go catch up. It’s too smart and too well written to stay on the air for long. It’s the story of Kings David and Saul transposed into a [...]

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This episode is 94% Temple, 6% Beer. Mostly I talk about the throat-slitting penalty that was removed from the endowment ceremony in 1990, when I still had the (mis)fortune of experiencing it. I would love to hear your feedback. Update: Most of my attributions got edited out (I had to seriously shorten my ramblings, believe [...]

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