Mormon Musings

2005-12-18T04:43:00.000-08:00

Joseph Smith's First Vision

Last week I lent my nevermo, non-theist neighbors a copy of the Mr. Krueger's Christmas DVD--which just so happens to have the church's latest version of the Restoration film on it. I asked them to watch the Restoration and last night we chatted about it and compared the film to the contemporary accounts (or lack thereof) of the vision. I thought it was interesting to get their perspective on the film, especially in light of the conflicting versions of the vision.

Here's the link to the MP3 file (20Mb)

2005-12-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

What's more dangerous, atheism or religion?

In our first podcast, Bruce, Marshall and I offer our answers to the following questions:

- Are atheists equivalent to anarchists?
- Why do atheists behave morally?
- If there's no God, is religion harmful?
- Are you an aleprechaunist?

To listen to this one-hour podcast, please right-click here and choose "Save Target As" to save the file to your computer. You can then listen to the podcast on your PC or copy to your MP3 player.

If you have feedback, please be sure to add a comment below.

2005-12-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Mormon Musings blog!
My name is Steve Zimmerman and I'll be posting my thoughts regarding the Mormon church and the complex doctrines and culture that define it. Although I no longer believe the foundational claims of the LDS church, its culture represents a significant part of my upbringing and I was a devout follower for 35 years. Although I'll try to be respectful of Mormonism (while disagreeing with many of its tenets), the target audience of this blog is not the true-believing (i.e. unquestioning) member but rather the individual who wishes to logically, rationally, and empirically analyze Mormon beliefs for him- or herself rather than relying on top-down dogma.

As a companion to this blog, two of my neighbors will join me for an ongoing podcast that delves into Mormon-related topics in an hour-long conversational audio format. Neither of my neighbors is Mormon--they are atheist in fact--but I've shared a lot of information about the church with them. Their perspect is interesting to say the least!