Sic Et Non

    ***   Having been unable o connect with the web for the past several days, I’m late to call attention to a number of new things that have appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation.  But I managed to connect just a few minutes ago, and my success may last as much […]

    *** I’ve found it essentially impossible, over the past few days, to establish a connection to the internet.  But I seem to have one right now, however fleeting it may be, so I’ll try to strike quickly while the iron is hot.  I have to admit that the sporadic access to unreliable internet […]

    ***   As I write, I’m sitting on a balcony aboard our Nile River ship, looking over the major part of the river’s width toward the southwest.  We’re cruising slowly upstream, further into Upper Egypt.  The sun is sinking over the bank to my left.  We’re between Edfu, where we spent the night […]

    ***   Today was another very good day.  We started off with a visit to the enormous mid-fourteenth-century Mamluk mosque, mausoleum, and madrasa of Sultan Hasan, which has been a favorite of ours since we first lived here in Egypt.  We even had a muezzin demonstrate the adhan or call to prayer in […]

    ***   It’s very easy, from this distance in time and place, not only to lose track of what’s happening back closer to home but to fall out of touch with the day and the hour.  So I came very near to neglecting to mention a new article that has appeared in Interpreter: […]

    ***   My dislike for Aéroport Paris Charles de Gaulle remains strong.  Nothing today has changed that.  Every time I come here, I have a new bad experience.  I’ve missed flights, been yelled at by Air France personnel, and spent hours in what seemed like a oversized sauna.  This time, it was an […]

    ***   Over the next few days, for reasons that will become evident, I will probably be posting shorter blog entries here.  And I may even miss a day from time to time.  I’ll try not to do that, but my schedule will be hectic and my access to the internet will be […]

    ***   The latest installment of Kyler Rasmussen’s series of Bayesian explorations went up on the Interpreter Foundation’s website earlier today:   Estimating the Evidence Episode 20: On Place-Name Plagiarism [Editor’s Note: This is the twentieth in a series of 23 essays summarizing and evaluating Book of Mormon-related evidence from a Bayesian statistical […]

    ***   Yesterday, I received this item (part of a longer solicitation from a would-be fundraising advisor) in my inbox.  It reminded me that, yes, that dreaded time is almost upon us:   Many nonprofits focus tons of their year-end efforts on Giving Tuesday. However, the data shows that Giving Tuesday is hardly […]

    ***   Here are a few links to articles that have previously appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  Perhaps you missed one or more of them:   John Gee, ““Put Off Thy Shoes from Off Thy Feet”: Sandals and Sacred Space” Abstract: While many have written on ancient temples looking […]

    ***   I would like to call your attention to a new website — rather quietly launched a week or two ago by the new B. H. Roberts Foundation — that, I think, represents the first fruits of an effort that could well prove to be very significant:   https://mormonr.org/   ***   […]

    ***   I would like to call your attention to a short but important article in the December issue of the invaluable magazine First Things, written by Brendan W. Case, who currently serves as the associate director for research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science.  It joins […]

    ***   Two new articles went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   Stanford Carmack, “Personal Relative Pronoun Usage in the Book of Mormon: An Important Authorship Diagnostic” Abstract: This study compares personal relative pronoun usage in the earliest text of the Book of Mormon with 11 specimens of Joseph Smith’s […]

    ***   In my surfing of the web this evening during a brief break from more important tasks, I ran across a curious comment.  Its author, obviously a disaffected member or former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, idly wondered why the Church is so “obsessed” — his or […]

    ***   First of all, Kyler Rasmusssen presses on with his Bayesian reflections on the Book of Mormon:   “Estimating the Evidence Episode 19: On Uto-Aztecan” [Editor’s Note: This is the nineteenth in a series of 23 essays summarizing and evaluating Book of Mormon-related evidence from a Bayesian statistical perspective. See the FAQ at the […]

    ***   Here’s a new item that’s just appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, kindly supplied by Jonn Claybaugh:   Come, Follow Me — D&C Study and Teaching Helps Lesson 47, November 15-November 21: D&C 133-134 — “Prepare Ye for the Coming of the Bridegroom”   And this has also just […]

    ***   I’m delighted at this news, which comes right out of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©:   “Light the World Giving Machines Return During Christmas Season: Donations accepted at 10 US locations in 2021”   And, while I was browsing in the Hitchens File©, I also came across […]

    ***   I’m looking forward to this, and I’ve marked Friday, 12 November 2021, on my calendar for it — at 2 PM, Utah time:   “Catholic and Latter-day Saints Dialogue Event”   Thanks to Cody Quirk for calling it to my attention.   ***   As the weather grows ever colder, nighttimes […]

    ***   I feel like sharing some quotations that I’ve previously gathered from believing scientists/mathematicians:   “While . . . media attention goes to the strident atheists who claim religion is foolish superstition, and to the equally clamorous religious creationists who deny the clear evidence for cosmic and biological evolution, a majority of […]

    ***   A new article appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  It was written by someone too mean-spirited, nasty, dishonest, and ignorant to mention.  (I’ve been reading some anonymous online comments about the author, so I know.)   “Oh, That I Were an Angel!” Abstract: Alma’s conversion experience […]