I had already read several things from Michael Denton, an Anglo-Australian scientist who holds a medical degree from Bristol University in the United Kingdom and a doctorate in biochemistry from King’s College London. But I had never actually heard him before. So I was pleased when a commenter on this blog who goes by the moniker of brotheroflogan called my attention to an apparently recent speech that Dr. Denton had delivered. My wife and I listened to a recording of... Read more
Today is my brother’s birthday. We were close, although technically he was my half-brother, he was ten years older than I, and we often lived at considerable distances from each other. (Except for a senior year at BYU, he was always based in our native southern California.). He died suddenly in March 2012, but I still think about him just about every day. Yesterday, in fact, driving up to Park City on my own, I found myself talking... Read more
This document is cited at Edward L. Hart, Mormon in Motion: The Life and Journals of James H. Hart (1825-1906) in England, France, and America (Windsor Books, 1978), 216: August 21st, 1883, Richmond Missouri I met David Whitmer and his son David and had a pleasant conversation with them. He (David Whitmer, Senior) said persons want to know about the presentation of the plates to himself and other witnesses — but there was a glory attending it... Read more
Saladin established a dynasty in Egypt and Syria, but it never quite measured up to the qualities of its founder and it was relatively short-lived. I am more interested in what followed. Like earlier rulers in the Islamic Near East, Saladin brought in fresh warriors from central Asia to serve in his army. These slave soldiers were known as mamluks.[1] The word mamluk means “owned,” and it is a common term used in Arabic to describe slaves. Saladin’s... Read more
I’ll share a passage here from Jeff Wynn and Louise Wynn, Everyone is a Believer: The Growing Convergence of Science and Religion (2019). Dr. Jeffrey C. Wynn, who has described himself as a “recovering atheist,” is a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a research geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). He is currently based at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington, one of the five USGS volcano observatories in the United States.... Read more
Three new items went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show — September 27, 2020 The 27 September 2020 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show featured Steve Densley, Matthew Bowen, Mark Johnson, and Daniel Peterson. In this episode, the discussion focused on humility and academic integrity, with some reference to Peterson’s recent Interpreter essay “Reckoning with the Mortally Inevitable” and his recent Ensign article “The Book of Mormon and the Descent into Dissent.” The... Read more
Overall, it can be said that the principal characteristic of the Middle Periods of Islamic history is political disintegration. Constantly shifting political boundaries made for instability and unceasing conflict. And the distinguishing mark of what Hodgson calls the Early Middle Period is, with the obvious exception of far-off Spain, Turkish domination. The Arabs had lost control of their own political destiny—something that would last for centuries and that has continued to rankle them well into our own time.... Read more
My manuscript now begins to treat what I call, following Marshall G. S. Hodgson, the “Early Middle Period,” which will last from AD 945 to AD 1258: The so-called “Shiite Century” that followed the close of the High Caliphal period actually lasted for a little more than a hundred years, from 945 to 1055 A.D. But the complete takeover of the Islamic world by Shiites, hoped for by some and feared by others, never materialized. In fact,... Read more
A couple of new items are up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation. The first is an article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship that was written by my friend and former BYU colleague Paul Y. Hoskisson: “Janus Parallelism: Speculation on a Possible Poetic Wordplay in the Book of Mormon” Abstract: In this article, Paul Hoskisson discusses the question of whether Janus parallelism, a sophisticated literary form found in the Hebrew Bible and elsewhere in... Read more
One of the many unattractive traits of our current debased public discourse is the unseemly enthusiasm with which tribal factions eagerly scan the words of those to whom their tribe is opposed, seeking occasions to take offense, express outrage, and justify indignation. Too many zealously try to demonize those with whom they disagree, to portray those who differ from them as evil and depraved. (The irony of such “othering” is especially evident in an era that is so... Read more
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