Humans have a natural tendency to “anthropomorphize” animals, and especially pets.  We sometimes talk to them as if they were human babies, and we ascribe feelings to them that, in my experience at least, science has long told us that they don’t actually possess.   But maybe our natural tendency isn’t quite so far off as we’ve been told:   http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150720-dogs-animals-science-pets-evolution-intelligence/     Read more

    A fascinating article, kindly brought to my attention by Kevin Taylor, on the apparently inverse relationship between prosperity and giving and on the relationship between religion and charity:   https://philanthropy.com/interactives/how-america-gives-opportunity-index     Read more

    “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Nelson Mandela Read more

    Some — especially in the Obama administration — seem to be trying to pretend that he wasn’t:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421346/chattanooga-shooting-muslim-jihad-muhammad-abdulazeez     Read more

    It’s a dogmatic certainty among some critics of Mormonism — especially, in my experience, among certain secularist former believers — that the Church and its defenders are in panicked retreat, desperately shrinking the claims of the Book of Mormon down in the face of overwhelmingly coercive evidence that it’s a fraud.   A main example of this, they imagine, is the Limited Geographical Theory, which — although its history and actual evidentiary motivations, which long predate Crick and... Read more

    In the Interpreter Foundation’s 131st scripture roundtable, Jeff Bradshaw, Craig Foster, Stephen Smoot, and Martin Tanner join for a discussion of 2015 Gospel Doctrine lesson 33, which focuses on 1 Corinthians 1-3, 5-6:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-131-new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-33-ye-are-the-temple-of-god/     Read more

    Luke 13:10-17   This passage sheds important light on how the Sabbath ought to be observed.   The woman in the story hadn’t been injured recently; she’d been suffering for eighteen years.  Surely another day or two wouldn’t have made much difference.   But Jesus healed her on the Sabbath.   Doing so wasn’t a necessary evil.  There’s no indication that he viewed his act of healing as an evil at all.   The Sabbath isn’t simply a... Read more

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/19/creationists-take-down-another-top-professor.html   Incidentally, this article’s author, Karl W. Giberson, has spoken at Brigham Young University and is himself an Evangelical.     Read more

    Luke 13:1-9 Compare Matthew 21:18-19; Mark 11:12-14   The point here seems to be twofold:   1) Destruction, death, and disaster aren’t, in and of themselves, indicators that the victims were unusually wicked.   But . . .   2)  Destruction, death, and disaster will eventually come upon the wicked.     Read more

    In this, the 130th scripture roundtable produced by the Interpreter Foundation, Craig Foster, John Gee, Cassandra Hedelius, and Bruce Webster focus their discussion on Acts 18-20 and the Epistle to the Galatians, providing helpful background (we hope!) for students and teachers of 2015 Gospel Doctrine lesson 32:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-130-new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-32-live-in-the-spirit/     Read more