Diligently Seek

The third installment of Potter Squad. Part 4 coming later this week. 

Yesterday my wife and I had a very real conversation. We were sitting in our car, watching our kids play in a park, and Dani casually asked me about metaphysics. The scene must be set a little so that you can see my point here. Dani and I left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about 4 years ago. I left in my mind first, having concluded that the likelihood that a god exists is thin enough to warrant disbelief . I have stayed my mind on that case, and the evidence for it continues to foment in my mind. Dani has not been so sure. She has always been cautious and rigorous. She does not seek a conclusion. She waits for it . So, yesterday, we sat and she casually brought up some experiences of which she is aware that seemed to give evidence for a spiritual realm. We talked about intuitions, incredible coincidences, and synchronicities. Spouses sense the death of their loved ones from across the globe. Dani has sensed danger before it arrived, identified lies be...

To be read after Harry, Cho, and Luna just finished their discussion during the first meeting of Dumbledore’s Army. Harry basked a moment in the warmth of Cho’s giggle, looking a bit stupidly at her still as she flicked her hair behind an ear, screwed up her pursed lips and sent a giggling jinx at the distractedly sour Marietta. Marietta succumbed to the laughter and flashed consenting eyes at her friend, pulling out her own wand to practice Expelliarmus . With effort, Harry directed his attention at the rest of the room. A kind of uniform electricity was on the faces of each member of the new D. A. – there was a magic beyond wands in the room tonight. Soon each participant had disarmed their partner several times and the sound in the room changed from the ebb and flow of incantations and clinking wands to an animated, chaotic, chatter. Partners had ceased disarming one another and were feverishly giving feedback, abusing Umbridge, whispering, shouting, laughing, and calling to o...

I'm about to leave on a road trip to Utah right now, traveling a road to the heart of a world I have left and that I despise. A road I travel too often. I'm going there to mourn the death of my cousin Meda . http://m.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=meda-maureen-barker&pid=188033861&referrer=0&preview=True#sthash.fPspQM5J.gbpl I'm sad and scared. I will be in the car with my family who are all still in the church. I'll be in my jeans and Star Wars t-shirt and they'll all be in white button downs, ties, black slacks, and repressive dresses. I'll be wishing I could have a drink and share a buzz and tears with those who share my grief, they will be eating heavy starches and sickly sugars and convincing each other they should not be sad. That is what Mormons try to teach other at times like this. Have an eternal perspective. She is with our other dead loved ones. We will see her again and it will be ...

I'm a bit grumpy right now. I have written more calmly on this issue here . But today I am grumpy. I have this True Believer friend who constantly tries to reconvert me. He uses C. S. Lewis' Argument from Reason all the time, but he infects it (bad as it already was) with presuppositionalism. His contention is that atheism is solipsistic and therefore has no ontological ground for reasoning. This is precisely backward. Theism is solipsistic. Lewis was a solipsist. I get there in two ways. One is through Hitchens who so tersely demonstrated that the assumption that the cosmos was designed by a being with oneself in mind, and pretending that this is a humble belief, is irresolvably dissonant. The cosmos is not yours, and it is not your dad's, and it is not your inheritance. So much for solipsism. Now, as for presuppositional arguments from reason. Again, I can depend on the rigors of empiricism because that method makes no prior metaphysical claim. One s...

Hello Again, So I am going to do much more with my posts soon than just announce our new videos, I promise. I am going to use this blog as a supplement to the youtube channel . In the meantime, the second Potter Squad installment is ready! In this video we learned: Lucy is super cute Joseph is pretty clever about forming theories about the novels Potter Daddy knows too much about the anatomical temple The Pensieve complicates the mind/body problem Joseph's favorite lesson from this video was the explanation of the anatomical temple Lucy is a big fan of conflict We should have at least one more video and one of the supplementary blog posts done by the end of this week. Please like, subscribe, and share :)

I am writing this blog to promote and explain a new channel that my son and I are making, called Potter Squad . We have only one pos t so far, but we will be putting more up as soon as possible. Project: We are reading through every book of Harry Potter right now. Unfortunately, we got the idea to do this about halfway through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . Our project will be to do two things: share all of the lessons that we learned live while recording us reading the books, and elaborate on those lessons through new commentary.  What about the books we didn't record? When I upload the videos for all of the chapters Joseph and I recorded together, I will re-read the books with my daughter Lucy and record that, I will then turn those into videos as well, so you will have at least one Potter Squad video for each chapter of Harry Potter. If you have any questions or suggestions, please either comment here or in the comment section of our videos. Afte...