Author Archives: Bruce Nielson

A Baptist Point of View of Being the One True “Church”

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Another reprint from Mormon Matters.

One stumbling block to communication between Mormons and other types of Christians is our use of the word “church” — sometimes at least — as a synonym for “religion.” The word “church,” as used in the New Testament, meant an assembly or congregation. (Presumably the entire body of believers in Jesus in the case of the New Testament.)  Modernly the word “church” has also come to mean the building that congregation meets in, as well as the specific denomination that congregation is aligned with. By comparison, the word “religion” usually refers to a set of beliefs about the nature of the universe. Even an atheist is a religion in this sense. Mormons sometimes use “church” and “religion” more or less interchangeably because of our belief in a restoration of a set of beliefs simultaneously with a restoration of authority.

As a Baptist once told me: “It’s the utmost of arrogance that Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons think they are the only true Church! As a Baptist I don’t believe we’re the only true Church!”

I’ve heard many Mormons opine that such a statement can’t be true. Do they really think there are several different sets of religious beliefs that get one to heaven?

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The Truth in Politics Act

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Day 1:

Wally: I’m Wally Cronkquist and that popping noise you just heard ring round the world is the sound of 250 million corks simultaneously celebrating the passage of the Truth in Politics Act. Only two years ago the controversial “Referendum Amendment” passed, allowing individual citizens the right to create their own bills and put them on a national voting ballot. The Truth in Politics Act is the first use of this new process.

With me is Chuck Sneadman, political professor from Harvard, here to explain the new law.

Chuck: Well, Wally, it’s quite simple, really. From this point forward, all politicians are required to receive a chip implanted in their brain that gives them an electric shock every time they try to either lie or spin the truth. At last all political problems will be solved because only honest politicians will stay in power!

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Algorithmic Reducibility

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Don’t miss the latest post in my “Reason as a Guide to Reality” series.

Maybe it’s because I have a computer science background, but I find the idea that algorithms might be fundamental to reality as intriguing. Is it really true that absolutely everything can be reduced to an algorithm? Here is a teaser:

Interestingly, this ability to reduce all explanations to computable algorithms forms a sort of ‘algorithmic reducibility’ that stands in stark contrast to the more familiar sort of ‘physical reducibility’ we normally think of.  In fact, if it’s true that all explanations have attached algorithms, then ‘algorithmic reducibility’ would seem to play the very role that Reductionists thought particle physics played: if you can’t reduce it to an algorithm, you don’t actually have a full explanation. Therefore this would mean that the theory of computation is actually more fundamental than particle physics.

I realize these posts are a bit ‘harder to get into’ than some. But I really believe an exploration of how we gain knowledge is a fundamental concept to understanding Theology and God.

The Improbable versus the Even More Improbable: The Existence of Jesus

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Another reprint from Mormon Matters. The following article, despite appearances, is not about whether or not Jesus existed. I accept that He did exist as an article of faith. This article is actually about a certain flawed way of thinking that we all sometimes fall into. As such, I admit up front that I know next to nothing about the historicity of Jesus. If you think you’re going to learn a lot about this subject by reading my post, you’re wrong. All that I know on this subject I got off Wikipedia from this article. Go read it yourself and draw your own conclusions. Maybe someday I’ll get serious about the historicity of Jesus and actually make a real attempt to study it. But in the mean time, bear in mind that this article has nothing to do with whether or not Jesus existed.

Not long ago I came across someone on the internet on Yahoo Answers asking for evidence that Jesus even existed. Several decent answers were posted pointing to the non-Biblical sources that refer to, or seem to refer to, Jesus. These are:

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What is Science: Is Science about Reductionism or Holism?

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Don’t miss my latest science post over at Wheat and Tares. This one is called “What is Science: Is Science about Reductionism or Holism?”

Here is a teaser:

So Deutsch’s objection to Reductionism isn’t that things can’t be reduced – they can – but rather that a science of particle physics is not necessarily more fundamental to understanding reality than (according to Deutsch) emergent theories such as life, thought, and computation. (The Fabric of Reality, p. 21) Those phenomena are not hopeless derivative of particle physics after all, they are fundamental parts of a potential “Theory of Everything” by which reality is to be understood.