I have, once or twice, used Daniel W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, 2d. ed. (Malden MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) as the principal text for my introductory course on the religion of Islam. Along the way, I’ve marked a few passages that reminded me of points that I myself wanted to make in a revised third edition of my book on Islam for Latter-day Saints, which will actually represent such substantial revision that I intend to... Read more
Dr. Suzanne Lundquist, now retired from the Department of English at Brigham Young University, sent some materials to my wife today. (They’re friends, and longtime members of a small study group together.) I hope that Suzanne won’t mind that I share the prefatory note that she sent, along with one of the items in her attachment. She did, after all, send her note to a fairly long list of people: Experiencing Christ and his Love for All... Read more
At least once, and perhaps twice, I used Daniel W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, 2d. ed. (Malden MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) as the principal text for my introductory course on the religion of Islam. Along the way, I marked a few passages that reminded me of points that I myself wanted to make in a revised third edition of my book on Islam for Latter-day Saints (on which I’m finally beginning to really get to... Read more
I know, I know. Scientists don’t know anything. They’ve been wrong almost every time. They’re mostly dishonest progressive hacks. Nonetheless, these two studies will be of interest to people who aren’t reflexively anti-science: “Millions of COVID Cases and Deaths Averted Thanks to Lockdowns: ‘One of Humanity’s Greatest Achievements’” And scientists may yet justify their existence to all but the most hardcore anti-vaxxers: “Three COVID-19 Vaccines are Ready for Final Stage of Testing: ‘There’s a lot... Read more
Here are few more or less unrelated quotations that I’ve drawn from Geraint F. Lewis and Luke A. Barnes, A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016): Our models are mixtures of well-tested theories, reasonable assumptions and guesses; as Richard Feynman noted, ‘it is not unscientific to make a guess.’ Science happens when we ask the Universe whether we guessed right. Otherwise, the experimenter is doing little more than stamp collecting, and the... Read more
Here’s another passage that I marked in Graham E. Fuller, A World Without Islam (New York, Boston, and London: Little, Brown and Company, 2010): [M]inorities who had resented Byzantine, Sassanid, and other rule believed their situation would improve under Muslim rule; time and experience under the new Muslim calphate mainly confirmed those hopes. Certainly fear of the conquerors might impel some to conversion, but so would a desire to curry favor with the new authorities for personal... Read more
New materials from the Interpreter Foundation, available (as usual) online and at no charge: Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 24 “Enter into the Rest of the Lord” Alma 13-16 The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 24, “Enter into the Rest of the Lord,” on Alma 13-16, featured Bruce Webster, Kris Fredrickson, and Mike Parker. This roundtable was extracted from the 17 May 2020 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show.... Read more
I here offer a thought that I wanted to jot down for potential future development. (It’s possible that I’ll have another such thought later today or tomorrow, though two actual thoughts may represent my full allotted quota for this half of 2020.) It goes as follows: Can the problem of evil be considered an argument for — or, anyway, a hint of — the existence of God? Or, at least, of something beyond inanimate particles and the... Read more
Graham E. Fuller, A World Without Islam (New York, Boston, and London: Little, Brown and Company, 2010), makes a very important point: Islam actually had no parallel to the intimate links between church and state in the West, where the church itself wielded great political and economic power. While Islamists today — those speaking for forms of political Islam — constantly emphasize the indissoluble unity of religion and state in Islam (din wa dawla), in fact, this... Read more
It’s been a while since I’ve shared any of my notes from Paul McFate, 52 Good Reasons to Go to Church, Besides the Obvious Ones (Chicago: ACTA Publications, 2004). So here are a few more, all of which qualify for inclusion in your Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File: Faster Healing (page 41) — A 1990 study found that religiously committed, church-attending elderly women recovered more quickly from broken hips. They spent less time in the... Read more
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