OpticalCat's Blog

Knowing

opticalcat — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:07:46 +0000

Spoiler Alert! If you have not seen the movie knowing, then do not read any further.

In the movie Knowing there are connections between religious events and the plot of the movie, and eventually what may be considered either angels or aliens (they definately have spaceships). The movie connects these very well, and so I expect most people to love or hate the movie. The movie is also about determinism versus chaos. Does the universe have a plan, etc… The main character is suffering from a crisis of faith because of the death of his wife, he no longer believes that the universe in any wy determined. The movie, with the predictions results in his change of belief.

God is usually less direct in our lives, but no less profound. The spirit can transform us to become better people. And, while we may be in the last days, with the coming of Christ looming nearer, we in many ways simply live our lives, even with all the chaos around us. Christ’s sacrifice is not a merely a physical salvation, as in the movie, though resurrection is a part of our salvation, but also a spiritual one. We are saved by the ability to return to live in heaven, and to grow and become more forever.

So while the thought of aliens coming and acting like Noah is an interesting one, we should be more concerned with the salvation provided by Christ. This planet is our home, for better or worse, and while God may see what we do, our choices are our own. I hope that we all make the best of choices.

A. J. Morris

Bavarian Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

opticalcat — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:15:19 +0000

A few months ago, my brother and I were watching “Stranger than Fiction” when I decided that I wanted to make “Bavarian Sugar Cookies,” which are mentioned at the end of the movie. So I looked online for a recipe, but saw that one did not exist, however, I did see comments that others were looking for it as well. The recipe didn’t exist, so… I made one up. I looked at Bavarian recipes, like Bavarian Cream, and decided how to make my cookies Bavarian: Cream Cheese. Cream Cheese not only adds a Bavarian touch, but it adds the white on white color and texture that you can see in the movie.

My bother came over and took all the pictures, you can get to his blog here: skoticus.blogspot.com

And here’s the recipe:

Preheat oven to 400 F.
½ C softened butter
1 C (8 oz) softened cream cheese
4-6 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 C sugar
2 eggs
½ C milk
1½ tsp vanilla

1. Cream butter and cream cheese together

2. Sift in 4 C flour, and the other dry ingredients

3. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla.

4. With a wooden spoon, mix everything together until moist.

5. Turn the dough onto a floured pastry mat or wooden surface. Knead until dough is smooth no longer sticky, adding additional flour as needed.

6. Flour the pastry mat again, and roll out the dough to ½ in thickness, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.

7. Cut out whichever shapes you’d like. If you don’t have a cookie cutter use an upside down cup.

8. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 min.

9. The cookies are done when the top is still white but the bottoms are golden brown.

Frosting
½ C softened butter
1 C softened cream cheese
1½ tsp clear* vanilla
Powdered Sugar to taste
Food coloring, optional

1. Cream butter and cream cheese together with the clear vanilla. (Clear vanilla is used because regular vanilla will darken the frosting. Regular vanilla will not affect the flavor, but you will not get as white of frosting. You can also use frosting paint to whiten the frosting.)

2. Add powdered sugar to desired sweetness and texture.

3. Spread frosting on cooled cookies with a spatula.

If desired, you can add food coloring to the frosting for brightly colored cookies.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Please leave comments after you try them.

A. J. Morris

The Creation and the Atonement

opticalcat — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:46:51 +0000

In two senses we can be thought of as children of Christ. In the first, we can be seen as products of his creation. He helped, under the direction of God, to create the universe, ans so he may be seen as a phyisical creator, and he is a God, though not God The Father. Jesus, along with others, created this world and many others. This world, among others, was set aside for mankind to dwell. This world also had another purpose, for it was to be here that Christ was to die and make his atonement.

It is in the atonement that we become children of Christ in the second sense. God began Christ as the firstborn in the spirit realm and the rest of our spirit brothers and sisters were created afterwards. Christ become a figurative father of our souls by taking our sins in the atonement and allowing us to return to God.

In the New Testament, Jesus says “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. ” As Mormons we typically use this as a reference to the Nephites who lived on the American continent and whose record forms the Book of Mormon. I wonder if we do not go far enough. Not only the other lost tribes of Isreal, but all of mankind may be considered to be under the care and redeeming power of Christ. This world, all other worlds, and even those who wait in the spirit world may be considered to be the sheep of Christ.

A.J. Morris

Peter’s Rejection and Reacceptance of Christ

opticalcat — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:53:44 +0000

In class we have discussed Peter’s thrice denial of Christ, and his later reaffirmation of his witness of Christ. Peter, for not wholly know reasons denies Christ three times on the night of Christ’s arrest. We may suppose that he was afraid to be associated with Christ, who was, after all, on trial, but we can also examine the concept of the kingly or warrior Messiah, which the Jews felt was coming. It is fully possible that the apostles did not understand Christ’s true mission, and they therefore assumed him to be the warrior Messiah who would make the Jews independent once more, and toppling Roman control.

The Messiah, the savior, that the Jews were looking for was not Christ, because he was humble, and meek, and said that that which is Ceaser’s (money) should go to Ceaser; they wanted someone to throw out the Romans and make the Jews dominant. The person the Jews were looking for much more closely resembles Barabbas (which means son of the father, and his name may actually be Jesus, which would have been a common name then). Barabbas was a revolutionary and offered the Jews political freedom, but the ultimate result of Jews desire for freedom would be the destruction of the temple, and much of Jerusalem, some 30 years later. It is perhaps significant that the Jews choice of political freedom over spiritual freedom eventually resulted in the destruction of their spiritual center, and their further submission.

Anyway, to continue with Peter, the apostles were offended because the Messiah that they had in mind could not get arrested and not resist. So Peter went through a crisis of faith. He does eventually realize his mistake with the coming of the dawn and the crowing of the cock. This, no doubt, reminded him of Christ’s ability to prophesy and his status of, at the least, a divinely favored prophet and that he had abandoned him. The other apostles may have gone through similar experiences, because Christ said that they all would be offended. Peter’s sin at this time may be seen as two fold, first he denied knowledge and or love of the savior, and second he failed to speak in his defence.

Later, after the resurrection of Christ, Christ asks Peter three times if he loves him. On the third question, Peter seems to realize again that he has denied the savior three times, and so he must reaffirm his love for him three times, this would account as a repentance for his first sin. Christ, however, also tells Peter to “Feed my sheep,” this message that requires Peter to go and speak out the message of Christ and the gospel may be seen as an atonement for his failure to speak on Christ’s behalf originally.

A.J. Morris

Bread

opticalcat — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:56:03 +0000

Bread means very little to us most of the time. In this time and place we buy bread from the store neatly wrapped and looking like they were constructed from cardboard cut outs. They taste a little like that too. Real bread, made from scratch doesn’t last as long, both because it is delicious, and because the lack of preservatives make it dry out quickly, but the taste is far superior. I know, I make bread. Even though I make bread, it never looses its appeal. The smell of fresh baked bread is mouth watering every time. There is a large amount of work that goes into bread, but even making from scratch now, is much easier than it used to be. We use ovens at a constant temperature, a flour of an unimaginably fine quality, with no rocks, etc… in it. All our ingredients are prepared for us, and we then can go to work with them. It is then, no surprise, that we do not really understand the imagery of bread in the New Testament. When bread is your staple, and your life line, and it takes a large amount of work, it means something different to you.

I too, realize that I do not know as much about this subject as I could, so for now I shall stop here, however, I hope to do a larger article on this in the future.

A.J. Morris

opticalcat — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:02:37 +0000

The book of Mark ends at the empty tomb. This is a fitting place to end it, because the entire narrative has been leading to this. Mark begins with Christ’s call to preach, and his baptism. It ends, not at his death, as you would expect with most stories, but instead with his resurrection, and the empty tomb.

Or at least the original Mark narrative does. It ends at 16:8. The rest of the narrative was added later. Since many of them are verified in the other gospels, they are most likely accurate. Why did they add them? I think that the reason is obvious. First, additional witnesses of Christ’s resurrection are provided, and the last verses tell the purpose of the book. The book follows the purpose that was given unto the apostles, that they are to go and declare his word unto all the world. Whether Mark, or any of the other writers of the gospels knew what their works would do is debatable. They were prophets, so they might have been shown what would happen by God; the one who would have been most likely would have been John, because he saw much about our day. Whether they knew it, or not, their works went out to the world.

I would like to start a new topic. The Apocalypse. It is at least a little depressing being part of an Apocalyptic religion. Which a great many religions are. There is a contrast between the hope for the Millennium, which is looking better every day, and the hope for the world and the people you see around you. If you believe what the Bible, and for us all our other scriptures say, then you can hardly doubt the fact that the world is going to have some serious problems. In someways, I think that many of the signs of the Apocalypse are going to be created by men. Things like rumors of war are obvious candidates, but as the technology of destruction continues to improve, so improves the chances that we destroy ourselves. It is not necessarily that those who have this capability will use it, the problem is that more and more people are gaining access to more weaponry. I am a member of a religion with the end of the world coming, but I am not in any particular hurry for it to arrive. So, I think we need to keep weapons, especially nuclear weapons, out of the hands of dangerous countries.

A.J. Morris

The One Who Suffers For Omelas

opticalcat — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:10:10 +0000

I read the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” by Ursula Le Guin last year. The story deals with a city that the author allows you to create for yourself. If you think something is unimportant or implausible, then you do not have to have it in the city, though the narrator suggests things that may be in the city. While I would personally disagree with some of the things that the narrator suggests, I can see where others might find them neccesary. This, however, is not the crux of the story. And if you have not read the story, then I suggest that you read it before continuing on, and you can read it here.

OK, I will now assume you have read it. The child who suffers for Omelas raises a whole host of moral questions. We as human beings are torn by our rational thoughts and our instinctive rejection of the way that the child is treated. It is in some ways more apprehensible that the people who do this are good in almost all other ways. First, is order to decide about this, it is very important that we see whether the deal has any validity. The deal has some very specific tenants, and if they were all only dealing with human emotions and interactions then we might assume that the peoples belief in the deal is what causes the deal to work. However, the narrator mentions several other things that the deal effects including ” the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies.” We can also see the possibility of an advanced civilization, which would remove at least some of the superstitions, though our society also seems to remove large amounts of truth with them.

What is the worth of the deal? I won’t bother to discuss the material and emotional benefits of the deal, I will instead focus on what makes this story so powerful and yet so frustrating, the moral implications. On the surface, some of us might reject the deal flat out, if it is discussed, however, it becomes more appealing. At the cost of one child’s happiness we can preserve the happiness and joy of all the other members of society, including those other children who would normally be abused. Not only that, but we recieve the physical comforts of good weather, good harvest, and so. The deal starts to look really good. I originally read this in a short story class, and it was at this point that the arguement really began in earnest. The professer asked us if having it be one child forever would make a difference, or if a series of children had to be used. We all argued over tchnical points, and if the system was already in place we would use it. Would we as members of society look at what had been done and say that it should not have been done, as in the story? Would we, like most of them, look and feel disgust and pity and anger and decide that sicne I could do nothing I would just live on in Omelas?

I understand why they walk away from Omelas. If you decided it was injust and you could not live with it, you could still not free or help the child. If you did then you act would release the deal and any good that you accomplished would be outwayed by the breaking of the deal and suffering and destruction of the city. So you would have to walk away, and go live somewhere else. Would you walk away? I certainly don’t know if I would, and I don’t know if it would be the right thing to do, but I can understand why they walk away from Omelas.

There is, however, one more thing that changes the equation. What if it were a willing sacrifice, who knew perfectly what was at stake and what they would suffer, would we then accept? I almost certainly would. And we did, before we even came here, we accepted our brother as a sacrifice so that we could return to God. I have been reading Mark with my New Testament class, and we have just finished the book. We read the section on what many religions call “The Passion” and we call the atonement, where Christ suffers for the sins of the world and then dies to seal his own work and break the seal of death.

I wonder if we truely understand what that means sometimes. Christ, the Son of God and of the mortal Mary, was both a God and mortal. Both were necessary, because a God cannot die, and mortal could not survive what he had to suffer. He suffered for the sins of this world, and all others that he created, in Gethsemene. He bled from every pore, something that would kill a man, and the Father sent an angel to comfort him. Christ suffered an infinite pain, and the father watched. I cannot imagine the love that would have allowed Christ to make the sacrifice, and I cannot imagine the love that God has for all of us in order to let him suffer for our sakes. We too, are the children of God, and he wants us to return. Christ after having suffered, allowed himself to be taken by the priests, and to be afflicted further. On the cross, he gave his life when the work was finished. He could have healed his own wounds and called down angels, he could have caused the earth to swallow those who killed him, but instead he demonstrated his divine, infinite, love. And he rose, and in his rising death was broken, and all mankind was guaranteed that they would regain there bodies after they die. All mankind will regain their bodies and never lose them.

There are those who feel that God is a cold distant being who does not love them or involve himself in the affairs of mortals. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This world was created so we could come to see if we could be righteuous even if we could not always see God directly. He loves us, beyond any measure, and while we do not see from his perspective, this world is here for us. Humankind has been given the agency to act, and so evil is able to enter the world through us, but God will be with us if we allow him to be. I ask a blessing upon all who read this, that you may feel the love of God be with you. The love, unimaginable, the love called charity, which is the pure love of Christ, the divine love which allowed him to suffer for your sins. I ask that we may all strive to posses that love, and to grow more Christ like.

The New Testament – My Introduction

opticalcat — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:34:11 +0000

If you didn’t read my other post, just let me say hello, my name is A.J. Morris. This post is about The New Testament, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Let me begin by saying that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Most people know us as LDS, or the Mormon Church. I want to let you know, in case you don’t already, that we are Christians, despite what you may have heard. If nothing else, we believe in the New Testament, and we have the name “Jesus Christ,” in the name of our church. I usually assume that these are pretty good clues, but if you need more, you might want to check out the Church’s website at www.lds.org.

I would like to begin the more personal section of my blog by discussing my own knowledge of the church. I know that the Mormon church is true, without doubt. I will freely admit, however, that my testimony, could use some work. My knowledge is based on knowledge, and the power of my intellect. Pure knowledge can be great, but it is in some ways a curse without the blessing of faith. So, that is what I am hoping for, to develop some faith through the course of this blog.

So, that is how my blog will be. Because my strength is my mind, my discusses will revolve more around the technical and intellectual aspects that are raised by the New Testament. If I happen to have spiritual experience, I may talk about it, but this blog will be primarily focused on the mind.

A.J. Morris

Why the Blog?

opticalcat — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:17:33 +0000

Hello,

I’m A.J. Morris

I have been thinking about doing a personal blog for some time now. I already have one that I run at www.ojodesigns.com/blog, but that is a professional blog, not a blog for personal use. I’m sure that I will still discuss glasses on this blog, because they are a big part of my life, but I will be able to discuss many other things as well.

Speaking of other things, I will be posting for a religion class on The New Testament. I will be sharing how the lessons, readings, and so on are relevant to me, or just in general. If you are interested in reading about this, just pop into the section on The New Testament.

See You Later