It seems that mushy-headed and irrational theists can still contribute to science despite their total estrangement from reality and logic:   “BYU helps NASA prep for human mission to Mars through study of martian dust particles”   Jani Radebaugh, a planetary scientist and a professor in the Department of Geology at Brigham Young University who specializes in volcanology, geomorphology, and planetary geology, is among those who are involved in NASA’s Dragonfly project:   “NASA’s Dragonfly Will Fly Around... Read more

    Hales Swift offers another of his helpful and interesting video presentations on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Many Witnesses Testify of the Resurrection of Christ: A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Lesson 25: “He Is Risen””   ***   A few days ago, I found myself looking up the Wikipedia entry on the Swedish actor Max von Sydow.  (I’ve been aware of him since I first saw him in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal during my late... Read more

    Last night, I reported briefly on the remarks given by the Catholic Archbishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, at Utah Valley University on Sunday night.  See “Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, in Orem, Utah — within walking distance of my house.”  I’ve also called attention to a video about Cardinal Dolan’s remarkable visit that has been posted on the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:  “Apostle and Catholic Cardinal Speak... Read more

    I reported briefly last night on my attendance at a program with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Catholic Archbishop of New York.  Here is an account on the Church Newsroom site:   “Apostle and Catholic Cardinal Speak at Freedom Festival: Elder Cook welcomes Timothy Cardinal Dolan to Utah”   ***   Here are a couple more links to helpful mini-essays that critique the work of one of the most vocal advocates of the so-called “Heartland model” of the geography of... Read more

    We’re just back from a “patriotic service” held over at Utah Valley University under the auspices of the Provo Freedom Festival.  It was thoroughly enjoyable, with good music from the One Voice Children’s Choir and a band from the Utah National Guard, and with a very well thought-out and well-delivered speech on the First Amendment from a high school student whose name, unfortunately, I didn’t get down.   The dignitaries were out in force.  Governor Gary Herbert was... Read more

    Oliver B. Huntington (1823-1907), who was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1836, doesn’t always strike me as a completely reliable source.  I know of other accounts, however, that parallel the Oliver Huntington reminiscences below, which are included in Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, Personal Glimpses of the Prophet Joseph Smith (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2009):   I conversed with one old lady, 88 years old, who had lived with David... Read more

    From an uncompleted manuscript on which I was working a few years ago:   The eighteenth century English poet Thomas Gray is remembered largely for one melancholy composition, entitled “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”  He wrote it as a meditation on the church cemetery at Stoke Poges, a village in Buckinghamshire.  Looking over the graves there, he allowed himself to reflect on the people who occupied them, but who had once been as full of life as... Read more

    Gee, but it’s great to be back home: Home is where I want to be. I’ve been on the road so long, my friend, And if you came along I know you couldn’t disagree.   Of course, while I’ve been out and about since the last of April, others have been busy as well.  Including the good folks on what I call the Peterson Obsession Board.  And it doesn’t matter in the slightest degree where I am:  ... Read more

    My father died sixteen years ago today.   I still miss him very much.  I think about him every day.  Certain sights always, invariably, remind me of him.  There are many things that I would like to tell him, many questions that I would like to ask of him.   Virtually all, if not absolutely all, of the people I’ve known and loved, the people who formed me and to whom I looked up, are now gone.  The collection... Read more

    We’re just back from seeing The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith.  It’s not without flaws, but it’s beautiful.  I liked it and I recommend it.  Latter-day Saint filmmaking is progressing very healthily, I think.   I was interested to see this new movie both for itself and for the fact that Mitch Davis, who directed both it and the original 2001 Other Side of Heaven to which it is a sequel, wrote the initial script... Read more