“Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man: Frequently Asked Questions about Science and Genesis” Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw originally appeared in Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man (2016). Abstract: This chapter answers thirty-five questions on topics where science and scholarship meet the scriptures, such as the authorship of Genesis, the Creation, evolution of humankind, the Garden of Eden, the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge… Read more

    Some insist on reading what I’ve been writing here as my argument that it’s perfectly fine for a Church to look like and behave like a typical American business or corporation, to be motivated by the same profit incentives that motivate profit-seeking corporations — while exploiting tax breaks that properly pertain only to legitimate churches and non-profits — and that corporate culture is somehow intrinsically good.   I’m arguing none of these things.   Fundamentally, I do not… Read more

    I posted the item below in October 2017, and it seems directly relevant to the topic that I’ve been pursuing in this series of blog entries:   I listened late tonight (Monday night) to an interview with historian D. Michael Quinn, on the Mormon News Report.  I highly recommend the interview.  (It begins at just about precisely the 45-minute mark of the podcast.)   In the past, I’ve been critical of some of Mike Quinn’s writing, and I’ve published… Read more

    Here are two of my favorite comments from the late American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science popularizer Carl Sagan:   “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’ Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed… Read more

    In a very recent blog entry here (“A memory from southeastern Austria”), I recalled an experience that I had many years ago in connection with an interfaith “trialogue” in Graz, Austria.  I’ve been asked to say something more about that experience, so here’s a bit more — which will take two installments to record fully.  (One of my purposes in maintaining this blog is to work on autobiographical sketches.)   I had come to know the late James… Read more

    For at least a few critics of Church finances, the issue seems to be, to some extent anyway, one of aesthetics and politics.  I have particularly in mind a certain critic — not surprisingly, an academic in an exceptionally impractical field (we’re akin, in that regard) — who has objected for years to the “corporate” character of the Church.  His politics, so far as I can tell, trend distinctly leftward, and he apparently dislikes and distrusts business and… Read more

    Many years ago, I participated for two successive years in an international and interreligious “trialogue” that involved roughly ten scholars each from the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions.  It had already been going for at least a year when I was asked to join in it.  The first year that I particpated was in Graz, Austria.  The next year was in Jerusalem, including a day in BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.  I’m not sure that the… Read more

    Continued from “Will computers ever become conscious? (A)”, drawing from Christof Koch, “Proust among the Machines: Within our lifetimes, computers could approach human-level intelligence.  But will they be able to consciously experience the world?” Scientific American (December 2019):   Contemplating the question of whether or not machines will ever be conscious, Christof Koch observes, “we inevitably come to a fork up ahead, leading to two fundamentally different destinations” (48).   The first of the two alternative paths that he describes… Read more

    As I pointed out in “LDS Inc. (Part Seven),” I understand the desire for greater financial transparency on the part of the Church and — like one now-departed senior leader of the Church of whose position on the subject I was personally aware — I’m not unsympathetic to it.   That said, however, I can think of at least one serious reason not to be fully open and transparent.   Already, in the little discussions here, we’ve had avowed… Read more

    Since I began this little series on “LDS Inc.,” a number of critics, here on this blog and elsewhere, have responded to it by demanding more “financial transparency” from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which hasn’t issued expenditure reports since 1959.  This is a distinct matter from the one that I’ve been addressing, but it’s obviously related.  I haven’t wanted to become involved at this juncture in the controversy over opening the Church’s books, and… Read more