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The Analyst & The Fool

By: Brandon Wilson and Christian Van Dyke
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  • Summary

  • Have you ever wondered to yourself: "How am I here? What is holding the universe together?" Have you ever driven yourself insane trying to understand all of the different methods and theories humanity has used to answer these terrible questions? Understanding the universe and humanity's place within it is an absurd undertaking. Nevertheless, it is an undertaking that has driven and baffled humanity for millennia. Fear not dear listener! Brandon Wilson and Christian Van Dyke are here to share in your confusion. Don your jester caps and professor robes as we analyze the laughably absurd! Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
    Brandon Wilson and Christian Van Dyke
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Episodes
  • The Family Proclamation: A Peculiar Document

    The Family Proclamation: A Peculiar Document
    Jul 19 2024
    There is perhaps no document in recent years that has been more polarizing for Latter-day Saints than The Family Proclamation. Is it a prophetic document? Is it doctrine? Is it scripture? Or just good advice? It seems there is hardly any consensus amongst Latter-day Saints on this matter. Conservative members tend to use the document as a bludgeon against people who are LGBTQ+, seeing their sexual and gender identities as violating God's commandments given to present-day prophets, seers, and revelators. Whereas liberal members tend to negotiate more with the text, trying to adjust the document to meet their present-day sensibilities or simply calling for the dismissal of the document entirely. In this episode, we challenge dogmatic readings of this text by analyzing its history as an amicus brief for a civil rights case in Hawaii. We further discuss the history of the ideas contained within the document. What does the text say? What did the original authors intend for the text to say? Where do these ideas come from? How does that original intent get swept away by the passage of time and through how the text is used? These questions are particularly pertinent since Latter-day Saints are famous for polygamy—a sexual orientation that was quite deviant from the norms of the time. The Family Proclamation, with its staunch stance of monogamy and cisgender heterosexuality, stands as an awkward contrast to the sexual and relational history of the Church, particularly in its infancy. Please check out Dan McClellan's podcast episode on the matter if you'd like to learn more about homosexuality in the Bible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW6w-AOiKNM&pp=ygUeZGF0YSBvdmVyIGRvZ21hIGFkYW0gYW5kIHN0ZXZl To access David Scott and Boyd Petersen's article, use this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmPbiKVlj0XdPdpWLdkYFyHGT5Me9ut7/view?usp=drivesdk --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 hr and 48 mins
  • Counting Down the Christmas Clock with Mr. Grinch

    Counting Down the Christmas Clock with Mr. Grinch
    Dec 23 2023
    Blast this music... it's joyful and triumphant! This Christmas we engage in one of the most important ontological discussions since the debates over the nature of Christ at the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon: What is the Grinch and Why is the Grinch? Using Jim Carrey's version of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" as our basis, we explore the wacky world of Who reproduction--exploring where babies come from--and primarily engage with The Grinch's struggle to regain a will to power stripped away from him in his youth. However, the film leaves us hanging a little bit on this front: does the Grinch surrender himself to a status quo in Whoville? Or does he bring about a real transformation of Whoville by relinquishing his resentment of the Whos and Christmas? All of this, and more, will be discussed! Merry Christmas to all, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! We appreciate your continuous support. *Content Warning* There are mentions of sexuality throughout this episode, especially since characters in the film are... umm... subtly sexually involved? There is a brief discussion of eugenics and ableism as we investigate a Platonic interpretation of the film. We do not endorse these views and actively oppose them. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Brandon Wilson -- Mormonism, Theurgy, and the Theurgic

    Brandon Wilson -- Mormonism, Theurgy, and the Theurgic
    Dec 22 2023
    For this special episode of The Analyst & The Fool, we bring you one of our first episodes ever recorded. In this episode, we dissect this amorphous blob called Brandon Wilson; a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University. Brandon details a bit about his intellectual biography as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, getting introduced to the writings of Hugh Nibley, learning to think critically and ask penetrating questions about his faith, and how that led him to study esoteric subjects such as Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and theosophy under Jeffrey Kripal and Claire Fanger at Rice University. Now, Brandon is bringing these approaches to Mormon Studies in how Latter-day Saints experience their temple ordinances through comparing them with Neoplatonic theurgy. Invoking the comparative hermeneutics of Algis Uzdavinys in his work Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity, Brandon explores how Mormonism’s temple practices can be categorized as “theurgic” in nature, ritual actions that aid initiates to bring themselves into higher states of consciousness and align their actions with the actions of God. In this sense, Latter-day Saints aim to create heaven on this earth through these processes, thereby making God immanent and subject to human action/inaction. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support
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    1 hr and 3 mins
Philosophy Social Sciences
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