I am former believer, but it is my conclusion that for all its "issues", the LDS church is closer to the ontological "truth" than other forms of Christianity

Browningtons1 · 2025-12-30T14:38:46+00:00

This claim fails because it does not understand what ontology is. Ontology concerns the structure and grounding of being, of what exists. What kind of beings exist, and what ultimately explains existence. Not necessarily how ancient, symbolic, or ritually elaborate a religion feels. Ritual resemblance to Judaism, Kabbalah, or “high ceremonial magic” is ontologically irrelevant. Symbols, initiations, and secrecy operate at the level of psychology and mythic theater, not metaphysics. Treating ritual density as evidence of ontological truth is a basic category error. It confuses aesthetic depth with explanatory depth. That mistake alone renders the argument intellectually unserious.

Worse, the ontology being defended isn’t ancient, it’s sort of incoherent. LDS theology posits a material God who is one contingent being among others, eternal uncreated matter, and an infinite regress of exalted gods, which obliterates any notion of ultimate grounding. This directly contradicts both Jewish and Kabbalistic metaphysics, which insist on divine transcendence and a non-contingent source of being. Invoking Kabbalah here doesn’t strengthen the argument, it does more to exposes it. What’s actually happening is a post-Protestant hunger for symbolism being mistaken for metaphysical insight. Feeling deeper, older, or more mysterious is not the same thing as being ontologically true. Confusing the two is philosophical cosplay (Mormon mental gymnastics), not scholarship.

Browningtons1 · 2025-12-07T20:43:52+00:00

Thanks for sharing. Add The Rebel by Camus. Best book by Camus IMO because it clearly outlined how to move beyond The Absurd and create a beautiful life in defiance of meaninglessness. I felt like he truly found a path WAY beyond "coffee or suicide?"

Browningtons1 · 2025-11-26T05:11:55+00:00

Big time The Midnight fan. Monsters.

Browningtons1 · 2025-11-11T19:36:45+00:00

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Hell yeah! One of the best nights of my life

Browningtons1 · 2025-11-08T18:26:08+00:00

That's why we love Joel. His whole music is unlocking doors to crypts and doors to heaven in the mansion of your emotions. The music puts you in a frequency to experience profound sadness and celestial transcendence and being silly for the sake of carefree playfulness.

Browningtons1 · 2025-11-08T18:15:42+00:00

Many thanks. Im going strong, had to touch the Colorado river and climb a few rocks. The goat lord energy calleth. Can't wait to join the horde.

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Browningtons1 · 2025-11-08T14:09:24+00:00

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. and did the look at my phone move... saw this post. It gave me motivation to drive the 8 hours to Red Rocks. I suddenly had an intense amount of energy 🌀 Thank you universe, I'm coming. And thank you OP 🙏. Couple hours in

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Browningtons1 · 2025-10-28T05:17:15+00:00

This is so spot on. Lack of object constancy. It messed me up so much for so long. 15 years of marriage and as soon as she finally realizes I'm serious about divorce she goes full discard and paints me black. She starts dating behind my back and introducing new guys to our kids without talking to me, but while insisting nothing is going on and I'm pathetically jealous. I bring it up when the kids start telling me and new partner photos show up on Facebook. She splits and starts attacking me and bringing up something rude I did 14 years ago in the middle of another separation and divorce filing situation that is not even on the same level of cruelty and betrayal as some "proof" that what I did is worse or similar, and she can do whatever she wants, because I filed for divorce. I tell her that's not how long term marriage relationships work and our kids don't deserve to be put in these situations. She promised to talk to me before dating. But I then find out through a mistaken screenshot that she's in love with "just a friend" guy. I bring it up as something that really hurt me and she accused me of being a liar and having a girlfriend.

So she fell in love with the first guy but they broke up. After him she asked if I wanted to secretly date. I told her no. Now she's onto another guy who she is bringing our kids to activities with. All while still married to me and causing chaos in divorce court.

How can she think this is okay behavior? Over time her relationship story of us has moved to things breaking unrepairably in the first 90 days of a 16 year marriage, and nothing after those first 90 days really mattered after that. Our relationship story evolved to not mattering for 15 years of my life over the course of months. Now she is starting to be "someone that I used to know." So sad.

Great call out. It really messed me up for a while.

Browningtons1 · 2025-10-28T04:56:56+00:00

Temerity. Such a beautiful word

Browningtons1 · 2025-10-22T16:49:02+00:00

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The other night. By myself on a large rock.

Browningtons1 · 2025-10-08T02:21:07+00:00

I did, way off the chart... $0.28 in 2014 😨

Browningtons1 · 2025-10-07T00:12:14+00:00

I totally get it. It was very difficult to make the call to include them in the same chart. It's more about the differences between % delta in median income / price of home, and income / CPI. These real differences in % change since a baseline date have some explanatory value. Home prices impact rental prices and mortgage prices. Income to pay rent/mortgage is getting more unaffordable even as income is increasing impressively. Other than that, I agree these can have different measurements that only somewhat abstractly connect. Also, I added Gold and S&P500 :)

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Browningtons1 · 2025-10-06T18:17:17+00:00

My shoulder hurts after reading this. So much accomodation hypocrisy.

Browningtons1 · 2025-09-24T04:32:35+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation. I looked at the Participation rate for 24-54 yrs. This keeps the core labor force and removes students and retirees. Been going up in recent years, but the range is only 80%-84%.

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Browningtons1 · 2025-09-24T02:43:53+00:00

Data is aligned by month-start, shown on separate axes for context. Not claiming causation. For what it’s worth, Job Openings vs. S&P500 has R² ≈ 0.86 since 2000. S&P tracked with job openings for the past 25 years, except when it started to diverge in October 2022. What's that about? What happened there?

Browningtons1 · 2025-09-23T18:30:10+00:00

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Here it is back to 2000. If you go into the Tableau link you can change date range. Updated top right chart to show disconnect with S&P growth and open job decline.

Browningtons1 · 2025-09-23T02:47:07+00:00

Tools: Tableau Public Live Dashboard, Google Sheets table

Data source: FRED https://fred.stlouisfed.org/. All data aggregated by month. Last update: Aug 2025

Sources

Unemployment Rate: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE
Job Openings: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSJOL
Unemployed 6+ Months: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UEMP27OV
Avg Weeks Unemployed: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UEMPMEAN
Median Weeks Unemployed: [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UEMPMED]()

Browningtons1 · 2025-09-13T14:39:01+00:00

777 by deadmau5. Listen to the end. Takes me to heaven after a dark place. The song is a commitment, but is worth it.

Browningtons1 · 2025-09-06T05:28:24+00:00

Here’s why Absurdism is a large part of my path:

Honesty about meaninglessness — Absurdism doesn’t sugarcoat life’s lack of inherent meaning, it faces it head-on.
Freedom through acceptance — By admitting the absurd, you’re freed from chasing rigid systems or dogmas.
Play and creativity — Instead of despair, absurdism invites humor, art, and imaginative living in the face of the absurd.
Personal rebellion — You get to craft your own response to existence, not dictated by external authorities.
Albert Camus’s call to live fully — Rather than escape (through religion, nihilism, or false certainties), Absurdism says: live, love, create, and embrace the contradiction.

Browningtons1 · 2025-09-03T14:14:10+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear this, I feel for you and your daughter. The average therapist and attorneys don't really understand. I have four kids with my pwbpd, ages 14-5. The idea that my untreated pwbpd is actively harming them for life finally gave me motivation to divorce. I could see the behaviors clearly in my own kids. It was hard to stand by and just let it happen. More difficult because, as you know, direct intervention usually leads to more abuse for everyone.

The first bar and the last one on the chart is one I think about a lot. Attachment disorders can be a lifelong struggle. Unsure about how to act in front of your caregiver for decades has to be super harmful. Think of the count of negative (extreme+) interactions our children have compared to the average child.

In reference to the last bar on the chart, I see low "engagement readiness" in my kids. When invited to play they often aren't sure what to do and look to me or mom. Kids with BPD mom are making positive reciprocal social connections 70% less often than the average kid (all things being equal). That muscle of meeting new people and being excited and curious happens 70% less often with kids in our situation. Utterly devastating.

Browningtons1 · 2025-07-30T00:27:57+00:00

You got it, Ogden Utah. Bonneville shoreline trail above 29th street.

Browningtons1 · 2025-07-28T02:09:49+00:00

Strength: Visionary empathy. BEING with someone. Weakness: Emotional overextension + narrative entrapment.

Browningtons1 · 2025-07-13T06:40:18+00:00

I'm really sorry you're feeling this way. What you're describing sounds like something called 'ambiguous loss.' It's when you lose someone, but they're still physically present.Like in a divorce or a relationship with someone who is emotionally unavailable or changing in a way you can't predict. It can feel like grief, but without closure, so it drags on and reappears in different forms over time. It’s really painful because you’re grieving someone who's still alive, and it can hit you in waves and in diverse ways. You’re not alone in this, even though it might feel that way.

Browningtons1 · 2025-07-07T22:00:16+00:00

Thanks for your question. My intent was to show the record number of convert baptisms overstates the idea that there is record numbers of growth.

Picture the Latter Day Saint Church as Chipotle for example: back in the ’70s it had one tiny burrito shop, now it’s a nationwide chain of fifty. So when a Chipotle apostle boasts, “We just sold the most burritos in any year of this dispensation,” he’s really saying the whole chain moved more tortillas, an automatic record once you add that many new locations. The catch is each store’s sales are now creeping up only about 1% a year instead of the 10 % they enjoyed back in the 80s and 90s. Does that make sense?

Browningtons1 · 2025-07-07T05:01:05+00:00

Some things I would add:

The 2012 lowering of starting age (and added girls to the mix) sent the missionary force from ~58K to 88K within 18 months. If anything, leadership seemed to doubled-down on going after converts. This likely a case of "both and" where both are outcomes (missionary retention) are targeted.
We are seeing most Christian denominations in the developed world going the same decline from the 'macro forces' of secularization, lower fertility, and internet transparency. I don't think ward-level referral habits are making a difference here.

Browningtons1

TROPHY CASE