I return yet again to Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon (Provo: BYU Studies, 2018). This extract comes from a letter written by Martin Harris Jr. to President George A. Smith, dated 9 July 1875: He has continued to talk about and testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and was in his happiest mood when he could get somebody to listen to his testimony. . .... Read more
In their book Glimpses Beyond Death’s Door: Gospel Insights into Near-Death Experiences (Orem: Granite Publishing, 2005), Brent L. Top and Wendy L. Top cite the case of a man who had a near-death experience when he was the victim of an attempted murder: I became aware of the most powerful, radiant, brilliant white light. It totally absorbed my consciousness. It shone through this glorious scene like the sun rising on the horizon through a veil which had... Read more
I think that I need to explain traditional Arabic names to the readers of the book that I’m currently preparing for publication and to two classes that I’m currently teaching. Something like the following will do, I think: There are certain basic elements in traditional Arabic names. For instance, there is the kunya, an honorific given to married parents that includes the name of their eldest son. The father of Yusuf (“Joseph”) would thus be known as... Read more
Continued: According to William Dembski, design can be detected or inferred by using what he terms an “explanatory filter.” This “filter” checks for signs of contingency, complexity, and specificity, while filtering out the background noise of mere chance and necessity. If an event or an object exhibits all three of the enumerated factors — contingency, complexity, and specificity — it can be identified as the result of an intelligent cause (as contrasted with a nonintelligent material cause). ... Read more
It seems that I’ll be doing a fireside on Monday evening, 14 September 2020, on the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. It will be primarily for a Young Single Adults stake in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, but it also may involve other stakes in Lethbridge and even, perhaps, in Calgary. As I’m currently thinking about them, my remarks will be quite distinct from the Witnesses-focused fireside (“The Witnesses: Variety and Complexity”) that I gave a while back to... Read more
This focus upon submission to the inscrutable will of God as the characteristic mark of true religion points to Islam’s emphasis upon the omnipotence of God. It is an emphasis that is absolutely fundamental to the religion. It underlies Muslim rejection of the doctrine of the atonement of Christ and flavors daily life and speech throughout the Islamic world. To elaborate, God forgives whomever He chooses to forgive, and denies forgiveness to anybody he wants, for any reason... Read more
Philosophers such as Richard Swinburne [of the University of Oxford] have presented muscular inductive arguments from design that do not depend on the fine-tuning argument . . . , but invoke long-known aspects of nature such as the cycles of the seasons, the orbits of planets, the spectrum of colors, the beauty of the natural world and so on. He argues that the complexity (with respect to natural systems), regularity, simplicity (with respect to basic laws) and beauty... Read more
A short literary passage that seems to me increasingly apropos to our culture of rising intolerance and cancellation — see this egregiously silly case, for example — appears at Ring Lardner, The Young Immigrunts (Indianapolis: BobbsMerrill, 1920), 78: “‘Shut up,’ he explained.” That brief sentence comes forcibly to my mind as I contemplate the situation summarized and endorsed by Jana Riess: “Controversial Latter-day Saint book pulled from publication” She has the advantage over her... Read more
I was really busy yesterday, so I didn’t have time to post a link to the latest iteration of my bi-weekly column for the Deseret News. But here it is. This particular installment is unusually autobiographical: “When the Pope left the Vatican for a meeting of healing: When Pope John Paul II hosted a number of bishops from the ancient non-Catholic churches of the East, the location of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls... Read more
Here are some reminiscences from William Pilkington, as given in Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon (Provo: BYU Studies, 2018). Young William boarded with and worked for Martin Harris Jr. for a year, near Logan, Utah, and, while there, met a very old man who was also living in the house. Here is a memory of their first serious conversation: Willie did you ever go to Sunday School? I... Read more
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