Summaries of the 5 Non-School-Related Things I Read This Week

1) Your Partner is the Secret to Career Success

BY CINDI MAY, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Researchers have identified conscientiousness as the character trait in a significant other that allows you to excel in your profession. [The rest is sciencey stuff: In their longitudinal study, Solomon and Jackson tracked responses from 4,544 heterosexual married people, roughly 75% of whom were in dual-income households. Participants first completed a personality assessment that measured five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.]

2) Loving Others and Living with Differences

BY ELDER DALLIN H. OAKS Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, LDS.ORG

Here are some key quotes I enjoyed from Elder Oaks' address:

• "We are to live in the world but not be of the world." (see Luke 13:21; Matthew 13:33; also 1 Corinthians 5:6–8).
• "Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise or dilute our commitment to the truths we understand. We must not surrender our positions or our values. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the covenants we have made inevitably cast us as combatants in the eternal contest between truth and error. There is no middle ground in that contest."
• "In dedicated spaces, like temples, houses of worship, and our own homes, we should teach the truth and the commandments plainly and thoroughly as we understand them from the plan of salvation revealed in the restored gospel. Our right to do so is protected by constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and religion…"
• "On the subject of public discourse, we should all follow the gospel teachings to love our neighbor and avoid contention. Followers of Christ should be examples of civility. We should love all people, be good listeners, and show concern for their sincere beliefs. Though we may disagree, we should not be disagreeable."
• "We encourage all of us to practice the Savior’s Golden Rule: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
• "When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously and practice civility with our adversaries."

3) Stop It with the R-Rated Movies Thing
BY KURT FRANCOM, 14 January 2014

A facebook friend raised the question about the morality of watching American Sniper, a film based on the life of a real American war hero, and directed by Clint Eastwood. Here's the gist of the article:

• The MPAA (and their rating system), by itself, is not a trustworthy source for Mormons to base film viewing decisions on.
• MPAA criteria are different than mine." The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) does not necessarily align with Mormon values. Just because a film was awarded a PG-13 rating by the MPAA, doesn't imply that the Holy Spirit agrees with them. The Holy Spirit is a Mormon's best resource for aiding the decision of what one should permit to enter one's own mind.
• More data is better. The MPAA offers very little information regarding what is in the film itself. Other online resources will give you full details about what the film contains, so there will be no uncomfortable surprises in the theater: OK.com (LDS Church-produced) and kids-in-mind.com (not to mention the Parents Advisory section at IMDB). (e.g., Which information is more useful—"R-rated" or "150+ F-words"?

4) How Brainwashing Works

BY JULIA LAYTON, SCIENCE.HOWITWORKS.COM

In the late 1950s, psychologist Robert Jay Lifton studied former prisoners of Korean War and Chinese war camps. He determined that they'd undergone a multistep process that began with attacks on the prisoner's sense of self and ended with what appeared to be a change in beliefs. Lifton ultimately defined a 3-part process involved in the brainwashing cases he studied:

I. Breaking Down the Self

1. Assault on identity
2. Guilt
3. Self-betrayal
4. Breaking point

II. The Possibility of Salvation

1. Leniency
2. Compulsion to confess
3. Channeling of guilt
4. Releasing of guilt

III. Rebuilding the Self

1. Progress and harmony
2. Final confession and rebirth

5) Design Arguments for the Existence of God

by KENNETH EINAR HIMMA, Seattle Pacific University

Note: Jason Hills turned me on to this one when we were hiking Y Mountain last week.

There are a number of classic and contemporary versions of the argument from design. This article will cover seven different ones. Among the classical versions are: (1) the "Fifth Way" of St. Thomas Aquinas; (2) the argument from simple analogy; (3) Paley's watchmaker argument; and (4) the argument from guided evolution. The more contemporary versions include: (5) the argument from irreducible biochemical complexity; (6) the argument from biological information; and (7) the fine-tuning argument.

All of these design arguments follow the same formula. They typically consist of (1) a premise that asserts that the material universe exhibits some empirical property F; (2) a premise (or sub-argument) that asserts (or concludes) that F is persuasive evidence of intelligent design or purpose; and (3) a premise (or sub-argument) that asserts (or concludes) that the best or most probable explanation for the fact that the material universe exhibits F is that there exists an intelligent designer who intentionally brought it about that the material universe exists and exhibits F.

Paley's watchmaker argument is my favorite.  There are thus two features of a watch that reliably indicate that it is the result of an intelligent design. First, it essentially asserts that an observed pocket watch found on the ground must have been made by intelligent design because it performs some function that an intelligent agent would regard as valuable. Second, the watch could not perform this function if its parts and mechanisms were differently sized or arranged; the fact that the ability of a watch to keep time depends on the precise shape, size, and arrangement of its parts suggests that the watch has these characteristics because some intelligent agency designed it to these specifications. Taken together, these two characteristics endow the watch with a functional complexity that reliably distinguishes objects that have intelligent designers from objects that do not.

Paley then goes on to argue that the material universe exhibits the same kind of functional complexity as a watch.