“Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.”  (David Searls)   Posted from Darmstadt, Germany     Read more

    Our final speaker here at the 2015 Darmstadt FairMormon conference is Jeff Bradshaw, who is considering science and Genesis.  Again, well illustrated and very interesting.  Provocative insights on the temple, coupled with full openness to the findings of science.   I like this approach.   Today is the birthday of two of our speakers.  Pretty remarkable, that.  I think we’re going to have to celebrate tonight.   In the meantime, I’m gratified by the fact that five of the participants... Read more

          Scott Gordon, the president of FairMormon, is speaking right now on the topic of “Freemasonry and the Temple.”  In particular, at the moment, he’s discussing the origins and history of Freemasonry.  Quite interesting, and well presented, with good illustrations.   To begin with, though, he called several people up from the audience to enact a brief and simple little sketch for which he had prepared them.   A young woman, probably just about to leave... Read more

    My friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague Dr. John Gee is now presenting a beautifully-illustrated lecture on the Book of Abraham and, more particularly, on the world in which Abraham lived — if, as mainstream Latter-day Saints believe, he did indeed live.   He’s delivering it in German.  Which, since he served a Greek-speaking mission, not a German-speaking one, is a very brave thing to do.   And he’s doing quite well.   Posted from Darmstadt, Germany  ... Read more

    Rounding out the Friday morning program here at FairMormon:   I liked a quotation from Emma Smith that Laura Hales shared.  I don’t think I’d heard it before.  In 1842 or thereabouts, Emma was very ill for a time, unable to take care of herself.  So her friend Elizabeth Durfee tended to her.  And, one day, Zina Huntington was there and overheard this exchange:   Elizabeth Durfee:  “Emma, is Joseph really a prophet?”   Emma Smith:  “Yes.  But... Read more

      We’re meeting in the large Darmstadt chapel, which, it turns out, was the home meetinghouse (until he and his wife were obliged to move) of a German Latter-day Saint by the name of Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  Brother Uchtdorf had considerable success as an aviator and as an executive, serving for more than a decade as chief pilot and senior vice president for flight operations of Lufthansa German Airlines.  Since 1994, however, he has gone on to hold significant leadership... Read more

    Still (as always) in its death throes, the Interpreter Foundation has nevertheless managed to post its 124th scripture roundtable discussion.  This one features Martin Tanner and Bruce Webster, and — in connection with 2015 Gospel Doctrine lesson #26 — focuses on passages from Matthew 26-27, Mark 14-15, Luke 22-23, and John 18-19.   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/scripture-roundtable-124-new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-26-to-this-end-was-i-born/   We hope you find it useful.   Posted from Darmstadt, Germany     Read more

    http://news.byu.edu/archive15-jun-helicopter.aspx   Note the links to Time and Inside Higher Ed.   Posted from Darmstadt, Germany     Read more

    “Whenever, at a party, I have been in the mood to study fools, I have always looked for a great beauty: they always gather round her like flies around a fruit stall.”  (“Jean Paul,” 1763-1825) Posted from Darmstadt, Germany     Read more

      I happen to feel passionately about the importance of reading old books and foreign books, and eating foreign foods, and traveling to unfamiliar places.  I think it’s essential to encounter different things and different ideas.   At Columbia University, though, some seem to feel that the most important thing is to keep students intellectually safe and unchallenged:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419025/columbia-students-triggered-old-books-are-ones-who-need-them-most-ian-tuttle   “The past,” L. P. Hartley famously wrote, “is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”   Plainly, some... Read more