The Book of Mormon and the “New York Times Book Review”

Earlier this evening, I posted a striking quotation from the eminent Anglo-American mathematician and physicist Freeman Dyson, now in his ninety-third productive year:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2015/04/mind-and-intelligence-are-woven-into-the-fabric-of-our-universe.html

Here’s something that may surprise you.   The New York Times Book Review has just published an interview with Professor Dyson, which is worthy of reading in its entirety:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/books/review/19bkr-bythebook_dyson.t.html?_r=0

It’s fun and interesting to learn about his preferences in books, including novels.

I’m pleased to see that he really likes Eric Bell’s Men of Mathematics, which almost seduced me too into mathematics as a young man.  (Fortunately, I soon recognized that my mathematical talents, while okay, weren’t stellar.)

I’m amused to see him recommend Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming, by Bjorn Lomborg.

He’s plainly unafraid of controversy.

But Latter-day Saints will be particularly surprised and delighted — and their critics likely rather irritated — by this exchange:

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

“The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” I treasure it because some of my best friends are Mormons, and the book tells a dramatic story in a fine biblical style. The reader has to wait with growing tension almost until the end of the story to reach the final climax, when Jesus arrives in America and founds his second kingdom here.

(I’m grateful to my friend Mark Skousen for bringing this interview with Freeman Dyson to my notice.)