In this episode (also a re-publication), the good guys at Mormon Expression podcast interview John Dehlin, Brian Johnston and Logan Beaux about James Fowler’s Stage 5, and how it might apply to Mormonism.
This episode is re-published courtesy of John Larsen.
Part 1
You spoke about creating something that will leave a legacy, not just leave comments on a discussion board. This sounds very boring, and it may mean nothing to you, but I think this is one of the biggest things we can do to change the way the world is progressing: fix online debate. The problem is the thread discussion format. But if we posted one idea, and let people brainstorm the best reasons to agree and disagree, it could change the world…
The problem with debates, is every new post changes the topic, and there is no way to cover every aspect, but if you tree out with reasons to agree and disagree with each reason, every comment will be organized in the right place, and every comment will add to the debate, for years after you die… the problem with discussion boards is that the ideas get lost, and new information is not organized…
It is hard to explain on the internet, but I agree with you, that we need to find ways for our ideas to leave a permanent impact, and I think we can do that by organizing our debates better…
Awesome! I wish the GA’s listened to this! A thought came to me when the interview was closing out. The broader Church, like nature, is subject to evolutionary forces. Every now and then, a jumping gene, or punctuated equilibrium-type mutation occurs, let’s call this Mormonism, which sets a new platform from which religion can evolve, stumbling towards whatever it needs to go. Also, I was reading some of my journal entries from a year or two after I joined the Church and I can see I was a stage 3. It was in that stage that I had my most powerful spiritual experiences. So I guess passing through the stages is important. I don’t think we (stage 5 Mormons) would hang in there if we didn’t have a history of spiritual experiences.
I’m hearing a lot about the different stages lately. What the heck are they?
This is awesome, going to have to read said book!