John 8:37-47   This is very forceful teaching.   Jesus is again saying that biological parentage means virtually nothing if one has the wrong spiritual “parentage.”   For people who took their special status as the “chosen people” so seriously, to be told that their real father — in this sense, the only father who actually counts — was Satan would be extraordinarily jarring and offensive.   It was meant to get their attention, and it did.  ... Read more

    What in the world is dark matter?   https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150820-the-case-for-complex-dark-matter/     Read more

    Another week, and another article in Interpreter:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-treason-of-the-geographers-mythical-mesoamerican-conspiracy-and-the-book-of-mormon/   This one, I predict, won’t be well received in some circles.     Read more

    John 8:30-36   I’ll note two ideas in this passage:   First is the concept that knowing the truth makes one free — and that, by implication, ignorance of the truth is a kind of bondage.  That’s remarkable, actually.   And the more important the truth in question, the richer the freedom (or the deeper and more oppressive the bondage).   Second is the apparent confidence among the Jews to whom Jesus was speaking that there was particular... Read more

    Doug Ealy alerted me to this little article, which, I think, offers some helpful insights and the almost-always-useful perspective of a friendly “outsider”:   http://www.ldsliving.com/To-Mormons-With-Love-from-Your-Non-LDS-Neighbor/s/76513   O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us. To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion (Robert Burns)     Read more

    Few American theologies are more complex than that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but its flagship Brigham Young University teaches off-the-shelf, industry-standard evolution. That has been the case since 1931, when the church officially said: “Leave biology, archaeology, and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research.” … What the church requires is only belief “that Adam was the first man of what... Read more

    An interesting response, brought to my attention by Dan Hardey:   http://rationalfaiths.com/one-believers-reactions-to-the-ces-letter/   While I’m at it, here’s some relevant material from FairMormon:   http://en.fairmormon.org/Criticism_of_Mormonism/Online_documents/Letter_to_a_CES_Director   And here’s a transcript of my oral remarks on  the topic, from the 2014 FairMormon conference:   http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2014-fairmormon-conference/reflections-letter-ces-director     Read more

    Thanks to Kevin Flanigan for calling this to my notice:   http://www.livescience.com/49855-obsidian-maya-mural-guatemala.html     Read more

    John 8:21-29   Jesus speaks very enigmatically here, and “the Jews” predictably fail to understand him.   One of the central points to take away from the passage, though, is entirely clear: “You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”   That applied to them then, and it applies to us now.     Read more

    An interesting little video clip — not quite six minutes long — called to my notice by Jabra Ghneim:   http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/progressive-muslims-fight-back-against-fundamentalism     Read more