Continued from here.

For the full series click here.

So I was a little surprised by this set, though in hind sight, it makes perfect sense.
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Alright I know posting on something like this is a cheap way to drive traffic and comments, but a recent conversation Kristen and I had with an LDS friend inspired me to post on the elephant (or two) in the room. What is the deal with so many Mormon women getting plastic surgery which normally includes but is not limited to adding big fake boobs? (Which they of course cover ever so modestly thereafter…)

I wish we had some data on this subject. What I don’t know is if Mormon women are more likely or less likely than their socio-economic counterparts to join in the plastic surgery trend. My guess is that income and region are far greater predictors of plastic surgery participation than religion. If that is true the question is: Should we be surprised about that? (more…)

Continued from here.

For those of you who are new, click here for the entire series.

Seeing as the more free of commentary on my charts I am, the less crazy the comments on the post are, I am going “commentary lite” on this one. (more…)

Continued from here.

For those who are new, click here for all parts.

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.
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Continued from here.

Well, we’ve talked about engagement before, so I don’t want to spend too much time on it, especially as there have not been that many dramatic changes in the results, even though the questions I used this time are a little different.
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Continued from here
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As a way of introducing the data set and setting out from the onset the natural imperfections inherent in doing data analysis via a web based tool, I thought I would begin with a brief explanation of the intent of the survey and some preliminary charts showing the demographics provided for those who took the survey.
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There was an interesting segment on 60 Minutes last week titled “Jihadists And ‘The Narrative’”. You can watch it here:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

“The Narrative” is the all too pervasive worldview among radical Muslims that says the United States is secretly bent on destroying Islam. Near the end of the segment it became clear that The Narrative relies heavily on conspiracy theories for its support. In this case the radical Muslims are convinced that the CIA was the driving factor behind the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the United States. The logic is that the CIA put Al Qaeda up to the attacks so America would have an excuse to invade Iraq and Afghanistan and to proceed with its secret agenda to destroy Islam. (more…)

I am going to do another Survey soon, but as I have no peers with which to review my question set, I thought I’d pass them by any readers out there for thoughts on the phrasing of the statements.

Each statement will be answers with a Likert scale ranking from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Statements will be as follows:

There is no contradiction between the theory of evolution and my religious beliefs
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I made some major errors in this post initially. Please read this revision

In 2002, M. Russell Ballard, with the endorsement of President Hinckley, issued a challenge to the church that we strive to send those who are truly able and worthy on missions. A few years after, Blake Ostler posted over at Times & Seasons lamenting the loss of those who were seemingly now being denied the opportunity to go, as well as the loss of converts due to this. (see follow up posts on this, and see appendix for follow up on those posts) Today I am revisiting those numbers.
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Firmographics

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Several corporations use a 12 question survey to measure how engaged their employees are in the company and use this as a measure to determine the quality of the workplace. I thought it would be interesting to apply these questions to the church.

You may take the survey here, or link to it here

I will share the results when/if I get 250 responses.

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About three years ago I was listening to a Sunstone Symposium recording (a “Pillars of my Faith” talk) given by John Kesler where he talked about his conversion to the gospel after being an atheist for quite a while. He also mentioned that later in his life as a member of the church he started meditating with a Zen Buddhist which led him to feel incredible love and connection with God, which has also allowed him to occasionally hear God’s voice. He also described the experience as training one’s thoughts and gaining self mastery. As a result, I was intrigued with the concept of meditation as a spiritual practice and decided to look into it some more.

I found out that meditation is a part (or has been a part) of the spiritual practice of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc. for thousands of years. I started paying attention to the use of the word meditation in the correlated materials and the word is often used in conjunction with prayer, scripture study, and fasting as a means to feeling God’s presence and experiencing personal revelation. However, the context that I believe most Mormons use the word is often synonymous with the concept of pondering, or thinking deeply about something; rather than as a systematic mental exercise. The spiritual practice of meditation in other traditions seems to be somewhat different than what I think Mormons do (though it may still be parallel in some regards).
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There have been rumors circulating in recent months that the threefold mission of the church that became part of Mormonism under President Kimball (Proclaim the Gospel, Perfect the Saints, Redeem the Dead) was going to be expanded to include something about caring for the poor and needy. It now appears those rumors were accurate. We get this from Peggy Fletcher Stack’s article on the subject today:

The LDS Church is adding “to care for the poor and needy” to its longstanding “threefold mission,” which is to preach the LDS gospel, purify members’ lives and provide saving ordinances such as baptism to those who have died.

This mission first was coined by late LDS President Spencer W. Kimball in the 1980s and since then has been repeated as a mantra by the church’s more than 13 million members.

The new group of phrases will be described as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “purposes,” rather than missions, and will be spelled out in the next edition of the LDS Church Handbook of Instructions , due out next year, church spokesman Scott Trotter confirmed this week.

I like it. A lot.

Utah was atop yet another list of happiest states in the USA.

I’ll bet that really chaps the hides of critics and enemies of Mormonism. For some reason that makes me happy (and I don’t even live in Utah).