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Hi I’m Melvin. I feel like I can be resourceful here. I went to BYU, and I also have a master’s degree in applied mathematics from a school on the East Coast. I’m a data scientist and I start work on housing data on Monday.
My journey with the church’s claims probably runs in a different order than most here. I started reading apologetic material proactively, long before I experienced anything approaching a faith crisis, just because I found it to be fascinating.
I had a really good religious education at BYU, and sometimes I wonder why others couldn’t have the same. I didn’t seriously consider the possibility that God didn’t exist until after graduating. When I began exploring the question, I was influenced a lot by Kierkegaard, who I believed rationalized my spiritual experiences as legitimate evidence for the divine. (But I don’t swallow Kierkegaard wholesale; I’m not a fideist.) Then I learned about the fine tuning of the universe, the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics, etc.
I am an Asian born in Asia and my family emigrated to the states when I was a child. I mention that because although Asian-Americans people aren’t particularly more religious, as Alister McGrath has noted, the “war” because science and religion isn’t a thing in Indian, Japanese, and traditional Chinese societies. Also, that means I’m comfortable with the “magical” worldview, although I have no direct experience with it myself. So things like sticking your face in a hat don’t seem bothersome. It also means I’m a more comfortable with authority.
Welcome. I had a question… Melvin Jones wrote:
Also, that means I’m comfortable with the “magical” worldview, although I have no direct experience with it myself. So things like sticking your face in a hat don’t seem bothersome. It also means I’m a more comfortable with authority.
Do you mean you’re more comfortable with authority as another aspect that is a part of the Asian culture or did you mean you’re more comfortable with authority because you’re more comfortable with a magic worldview? I could read it either way.
Welcome Melvin. I hope that we can add to each other’s understandings with our different perspectives and experiences.
Welcome. I appreciate introductions because they help me better understand where someone is coming from when I read their posts. I believe a magical or mystical world is possible, probably much in the way Joseph Smith did but to a lesser degree. (I believe Joseph thought it was more real whereas I believe it only possible.)
nibbler wrote:
Welcome. I had a question…Melvin Jones wrote:
Also, that means I’m comfortable with the “magical” worldview, although I have no direct experience with it myself. So things like sticking your face in a hat don’t seem bothersome. It also means I’m a more comfortable with authority.
Do you mean you’re more comfortable with authority as another aspect that is a part of the Asian culture or did you mean you’re more comfortable with authority because you’re more comfortable with a magic worldview? I could read it either way.
The former. Being Asian made me more comfortable with both. I have a slight Confucian loyalty streak
Now I’m curious about how being more open to a magic worldview translates to being more comfortable with authority. Which authority? The authority of the rules or natural laws that govern magic? nibbler wrote:
Now I’m curious about how being more open to a magic worldview translates to being more comfortable with authority. Which authority? The authority of the rules or natural laws that govern magic?
Sorry, I misspoke. Those two aren’t causally related to each otherm I should’ve said “the former.” Being born outside the modern West means I’m more open to the magic worldview, and being from a Confucian background means I’m more comfortable with authority.
Thanks for the clarification. I tend to run a little dense so I try to overcome it by asking a lot of questions.
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