NOM

I suspect the decrease in median age from 44 to 42 may have something to do with the Covid pandemic. There were a number of older LDS folks who died during the pandemic, whereas younger deaths were uncommon. It's certainly possible. It's also possible that it's within the margin of error ...

I wish there was another label for the unaffiliated. Humanism? Autonomous? Humanism already kind of means something, so it doesn't work as a sufficient catch-all for all of the unaffiliated. Autonomous might kind of work. The biggest weakness with "unaffiliated" is that it frames from the whole ...

Big changes in temple garments are reported, but the biggest are only allowed if you're in particular hot and humid areas. Porn shoulders may be okay in those areas, but not in other parts of the world. Sleeveless Mormon temple garments, finally! Why now? The whole artificiality of the differing ...

The PRRI has released their study on religious identity and diversity for 2023 . As always, it is extremely well-done and highly informative. The most significant findings are that the numbers of religiously unaffiliated (sometimes referred to as "nones") has climbed to 27%, more than a quarter of ...

The PRRI has released their study on religious identity and diversity for 2023 . As always, it is extremely well-done and highly informative. The most significant findings are that the numbers of religiously unaffiliated (sometimes referred to as "nones") has climbed to 27%, more than a quarter of ...

I noticed this one years ago, probably even way back when I was trying to find a way to maintain some belief in Mormonism. The generations don't work. There are so many flaws in the BoM that make it a virtual certainty that the BoM is not an ancient document and is instead the product of one (or ...

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... sus-christ

Looks like a decent number of converts

Speaking from experience, moderation is a hard, annoying job, but it can become necessary. Thanks for taking the effort to do it here and for keeping the forum running.

To get back to the original topic, I think it's very unlikely the Mormon Church will experience any kind of significant schism these days. Or ever, since the original one as part of the succession crisis, which Brigham predominately won. The history of the Church has shown that there will always be ...

I don't believe most transgender individuals are pretending to be the sex they identify with. (I say "most" because you will always find an exception somewhere.) Therefore, a transgender woman would BE a woman and could be RS president. A transgender man could become a Bishop if he were worthy ...

Detransitioners are rare in the context of the entire population. They are less rare in the context of people who transitioned. Do you know what the statistics are? It's not hard to find the statistics. A quick search reveals this recent Associated Press article . Basically, detransitioners are ...

Nope, chemical castration is different. It is used on sex offenders to remove sexual urges, and while I am not a doctor either, puberty blockers work before there are sex hormones to block. They work on the area of the brain that triggers the things before the sex hormones are even released. They ...

I don't know that the selection is as awful as made out to be, but the regulations are truly ridiculous. I've only ever been to the one Utah State Liquor store in Farmington, so maybe others are better, but the selection there was a fraction of what's in the local, tiny liquor store in my ...

wtfluff wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:19 pm As an FYI: Single-Serve "mini" bottles of wine are not available in Utah. 375ml/12oz cans are available. And 500ml "boxes".

Utah liquor regulations are ridiculous. And selection is practically nonexistent.

As alas said, there really isn't anything distinct known as a "cooking wine". Cooking wine is just wine that you cook with. Things sold as "cooking wine" are not suitable for much of any purpose and certainly not for cooking. Buy wine, and then use it to cook with. We're such lightweights that we ...

And because Mormonism is the principal focus here, I want to take a moment more and ruminate more on the comments I made earlier about the BoM. Suppose we accept the Limited Geographic Model, desperately maintained by BoM apologists. It's very problematic, but suppose it's just a matter that we ...

Old Testament proof texting in the New Testament is overall pretty sloppy, if you ask me. Jesus was from Nazareth, but they have to cook up some pretty noncredible ways to have him come from Bethlehem and Egypt to fit the narrative they projected onto the OT revelations. Definitely. It's making up ...

Bart Ehrman goes through how the 'virgin' idea got into the Bible, why it's based on a mistranslation, and then talks a bit about how it's really nowhere else in the Bible and is actually contradicted by Mark/John and I believe he covers briefly that the birth story in Luke is likely a late ...

What's the gist of the podcast?

As much as I liked Pres Hinkley, I groaned when he opined about the ear rings and tattoos. He probably wished he could have taken that back, but who knows. It was a way that TBMs placed a mark on others for rebellion, and it was wrong to do that. Hinckley really rode that folksy grandpa persona and ...