Sic Et Non

    Dipping briefly back into Eugene England, Brother Brigham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980):   In February 1849, when the Saints were still relatively new in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, President Brigham Young learned that some of them were going hungry while others seemed to be hoarding private supplies of grain.  […]

    Conference Talks: “Why Evolution and LDS Thought are Fully Compatible,” given in late 2013 by Steven L. Peck Steven Peck, a professor of biology at Brigham Young University, takes it as “axiomatic that evolution in its broad sense is the way the biological world works, although details are still being worked out and […]

    First, though:  The Interpreter Foundation continues to pour out materials that, we hope, are of benefit to those who follow what we do.  I’m grateful for the generosity of donors and volunteers, without which this would not be possible:   Interpreter Radio Show — January 8, 2023 — In this, the 8 January 2023 […]

    I’ve long been interested in what are called “fine-tuning” arguments for the existence of God.  I’ve posted many entries here that have been devoted to them either wholly or in part.  (See, for example, my several discussions of the late British particle physicist Sir John Polkinghorne, who spent his last decades as an […]

    The terrible mass shooting that occurred last night in Monterey Park, California, hit literally close to home.  The Star Ballroom is located at 122 West Garvey Avenue, between Garfield Avenue and Alhambra Avenue.  Garvey was effectively the southern border of my everyday, familiar world when I was a child, and Garfield was my […]

    While doing a little clean-up today — my wife is coming back tonight after two weeks in Virginia, and it’s panic season (e.g., time to do the dishes, do the wash, restore some semblance of minimal household order — I came across the following typescript.  The author is identified on the paper and […]

    But, first, I call your attention to a couple of my typically mean-spirited and buffoonish crimes against humanity: “Beautiful Patience,” written by Daniel C. Peterson.  “Abstract: Believers in the God of Abraham — who include not only Jews and Christians but also Muslims — are exhorted to call upon him every day, as well […]

    These three pieces have gone up quite recently on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   Conference Talks: “Science and Genesis: A Personal View,” originally presented in 2013 by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Given their status as targets of humor and caricature, the well-worn stories of Adam, Eve, and Noah are difficult for many […]

    I mentioned the other day that I had responded to an online article in Newsweek entitled “Black Mormon told they can’t marry white members because “seed is cursed.””  Almost immediately, a clutch of vocal anti-Mormons showed up to target me, personally.  I wasn’t surprised.  It’s happened many times before.  So, basically, I backed out […]

    By now, you may perhaps have heard of this outrageous case from Hamline University in Minnesota.  (I’ve already mentioned it here in my blog entry for 30 December 2022, noting that I myself have used precisely the same image — see immediately above — in lectures that I have delivered, accompanied by exactly […]

    When I was a young’un — long, long ago, in a galaxy far away — there was a rather powerful weekly magazine called Newsweek.  Apparently it still exists even now, at least online.  And, just today, this wonderful article went up:  “Black Mormon Told They Can’t Marry White Members Because ‘Seed is Cursed'” […]

    Elder Russell M. Nelson was set apart as the seventeenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 14 January 2018 — which means that this past Saturday marked his fifth anniversary as the leader of the Church.  Here are some interesting retrospectives on his tenure in office: “A Look […]

    I’m halfway through a period of temporary bachelorhood: My wife is babysitting one of our granddaughters out in Virginia, assisted by my middle son.  I couldn’t go because of some obligations here at home.  But it now appears that I may actually survive.  And, someday, I’ll do the dishes and do the wash.  […]

    A new article — this one a review essay — went up earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  As with all of the other journal articles that we’ve published over the past nearly 10.5 years, it is available to all and sundry at absolutely no charge:   […]

    Scott Pierson has kindly called my attention to this article from today’s Jerusalem Post about an important recent research discovery.  I was already aware of the discovery and will probably write something about it for Meridian Magazine, but I had not seen this particular article, which provides a very accessible summary of the […]

    Up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:  “Conference Talks: Answering New Atheism and Seeking a Sure Knowledge of God,” given by Amy L. Williams In these remarks, which were delivered in 2013, Dr. Williams describes and counters the arguments of the “New Atheism,” a loose movement that some have characterized as […]

    To the considerable irritation of at least a few extremely irritable critics, the Interpreter Foundation continues to produce.  Here are three items that went up just today:   Come, Follow Me — New Testament Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 4, January 16 — January 22: John 1 — “We Have Found the Messiah” As […]

    Many years ago, there was a period when my speaking engagements on behalf of the old FARMS — the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, predecessor to the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and, organizationally, to BYU’s new-direction Maxwell Institute — got a bit out of hand.  I was being […]

    With a group of friends (mostly neighbors and former neighbors), we are putting together a private bus tour for this summer to church history and general historical sites in England and just a bit of Scotland.  (Some of the sites will probably play a role in our new “Six Days in August” film […]

    I think that I’ll post another set of draft notes inspired by (and, to a considerable extent, drawing upon) Michael Guillen’s Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021).   The question of the origin of life on […]