Here’s some interesting food for thought from There is a God: How to Respond to Atheism in the Last Days, by Hyrum Lewis, who teaches history at BYU-Idaho:
From the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, Western nations passed through an industrial era in which machines took over much of humans’ physical work. Accordingly, scientists saw the universe itself as a vast machine in which everything could be understood as matter in motion. Even our bodies were machines, and any talk of a soul was, said philosopher Gilbert Ryle, like talking of a “ghost in the machine.”
But in our current twenty-first century, post-industrial age, the most crucial component of reality is information — something that is decidedly nonmaterial. The thinking machines (computers) that underlie this new age, while physical, are nothing without the organizing software that makes all of their activity possible. Most of the valuable and real commodities that Americans produce today are not even tangible — including designs, algorithms, soft-copy documents, programs, plans, and spreadsheets. We cannot touch them. They are series of binary code that travel wirelessly through the air and are only discernible on electronic screens. There are billions of machines on the planet (computers) with nonmaterial “ghosts” in them (software). Ryle ridiculed the idea of “ghosts in the machine” while on the very cusp of the new information age in which “ghost-animated” machines would transform the world.
Not only is information more fundamental than matter when it comes to computers, but scientists are now finding that information is even at the root of physics and biology. DNA is an information code that precedes and determines the organization of the matter that makes up living bodies. Atheists claim that humans are mere material beings, but most of the cells of our bodies die and are entirely replaced many times during our lives. Atheists often say, “We don’t have a body; we are a body.” If this is true, why do I remain the same while the matter of my body constantly changes? . . .
In physics, quantum theory — developed primarily by Christians such as Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg — has shown that the atomic particles that make up all matter are themselves informational. Electrons exist not as well-defined material entities, but only as probability smears, while the quarks that make up protons and neutrons are so information-laden that some scientists have begun comparing their properties to computer codes. Information is how widely accepted as a third property of the universe along with matter and motion.
While it’s common today to use the term information, LDS scriptures (prophetic as always) have long called it intelligence. (12-13)
Posted today on the unchanging and completely static website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Interpreter Insights Podcast — April 16, 2026: The Closeness of Those Beyond the Veil:
In the 16 April 2026 episode of The Interpreter Insights Podcast, Martin Tanner discusses the closeness of those beyond the veil: angels, deceased loved ones, and miracles. Incidentally, Martin served for a number of years as the vice president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies.
Some observations on the ongoing war between the White House and Vatican City:
- Forbes: “Trump Posts AI Photo With Jesus—Days After He Was Slammed For ‘Blasphemy’”
- By Common Consent: “In Which I Make the Trump Jesus Post About Us”
- A judicious and helpful editorial from National Review: “The Pope and the President”
- NBC News: “Vance warns the pope should ‘be careful’ when talking about theology: Vance, who is Catholic, said the pope was wrong in saying Jesus wasn’t on the side of those who wield the sword, pointing to the U.S. helping defeat the Nazis during World War II.” Isn’t it wonderful to think that we have a vice president of whom it can be argued that he’s more Catholic than the Pope? Who expected this? I don’t actually agree completely with recent statements on war from Pope Leo XIV, but I confess that I do love the idea of an American politician warning the Supreme Pontiff of the global Roman Catholic Church to “be careful” when doing theology. Our vice president is, or thinks he is, more Catholic than the Pope! What a time we live in!
This horror wasn’t found precisely in the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™, but it was located directly next to it. First, though, an explanatory note: My adopted home state, because of its close association with a church that is sometimes labeled “the Morg” and its high population of what some like to call “Morgbots” or “Mor(m)ons,” is known in some circles as “Utard.” And, clearly, it deserves that title: “Utah ranked No. 1 in country for economic outlook. Here’s what lawmakers say is secret to success: Utah had an especially high rating because of its ‘pro-taxpayer reforms in recent years,’ the report found”
Continuing, this time with material found solidly within the Hitchens File, I first suggest the following as a good entryway into some of the vicious activities undertaken worldwide by one particular group of religious fanatics: “Caring Report 2025—Central America and South America.”
I close, though, by noting an attempt to spread the cancer of theism-driven “charity” to Southern California: “Tabernacle Choir Announces Benefit Concert at the Hollywood Bowl: Tickets available for the ‘Songs of Hope Benefit Concert’ on April 17”:
One hundred percent of ticket sale revenues from the concert will be donated to trusted charities, including CARE, Helen Keller Intl, and The Hunger Project. These charities work to improve maternal and child health, expand access to nutrition and education and provide safe and supportive environments for women and children.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will match the revenue from concert ticket sales, thereby doubling the charitable contributions associated with the event.
Disgusting. Though, somehow, still legal.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In