I have many interesting books in my library, among them James N. Gardner, Biocosm: The New Scientific Theory of Evolution: Intelligent Life is the Architect of the Universe (Makawao, Maui, HI: Inner Ocean, 2003). James Gardner is a lawyer, a graduate of Yale Law School, as well as a former Supreme Court clerk and a former member of the Oregon State Senate. So what qualifies him to write such a book? Well, apparently he studied... Read more
One of the principal architects of modern Islamic “fundamentalism” and, therefore, derivatively, of modern Islamic extremism (including such groups as al-Qaeda), was Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian author and educator who was a leading member and theoretician of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s. Qutb published prolifically, including twenty-four books — among them Social Justice, Milestones (Ma‘alim fi al-Tariq), and a thirty-volume commentary entitled In the Shadow of the Qur’an (Fi Zilal al-Qur’an) — and... Read more
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was probably organized in the home of Peter Whitmer Sr., where much of the translation of the Book of Mormon also took place. David Whitmer, a son of Peter Sr., was one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. (For a very recent blog entry on David, see “David Whitmer and the Great Richmond Tornado of 1878.”) Four other sons — Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr.,... Read more
I’ve been asked by a friend who is a reader of and a commenter on this blog to explain how in the world I was able to visit the north German university town of Göttingen almost precisely midway through my mission to Switzerland. (I mentioned this somewhat curious fact in yesterday’s blog entry entitled “Imagination as a Key Element in Science and Mathematics.”) Please permit me to do so. One of the very occasional functions of this blog... Read more
A nice little interlude from Carlo Rovelli, Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre (Penguin, 2017), pages 74-77: Contrary to his popular image, Albert Einstein was not a great mathematician. Indeed, he struggled with mathematics. In 1943, a nine-year-old girl named Barbara wrote to him about her own difficulties with math, and he responded “Don’t worry about experiencing difficulties with maths,* I can assure you that... Read more
A new article has appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. It’s by Professor Matthew Bowen: “Becoming Men and Women of Understanding: Wordplay on Benjamin — An Addendum” Abstract: Royal and divine sonship/daughterhood (bānîm = “children”/“sons,”bānôt = “daughters”) is a prevalent theme throughout the Book of Mosiah. “Understanding” (Hebrew noun, bînâ or tĕbûnâ; verb, bîn) is also a key theme in that book. The initial juxtaposition of “sons” and “understanding” with the name “Benjamin”... Read more
The latest installment of my Deseret News column discusses a few of my very favorite buildings, and I’m unusually pleased at the photographs that my editor at the newspaper, Christine Rappleye, selected to accompany it. I’ve visited many if not most of these marvelous relics of that earliest Christian period in Norway, still within at most a few generations of the Viking Age: “These churches in Norway are 800-900 years old and survived the Black Death: There are... Read more
Searching through a pile of papers, I came across a little book today that I haven’t seen for quite a while: Paul McFate, 52 Good Reasons to Go to Church, Besides the Obvious Ones (Chicago: ACTA Publications, 2004). It’s a lot of fun, and I’m going to share some notes from it as I read it through. The primary reasons for going to church are, of course, to worship God and give thanks to him, to learn... Read more
I share some notes that I jotted down from Douglas Fox, “The Brain, Reimagined: Physicists who have revived experiments from 50 years ago say nerve cells communicate with mechanical pulses, not electric ones,” Scientific American (April 2018): 60-67: Curiously, although physicians have been administering general anesthesia for nearly two centuries now, and although they have discovered dozens of different but effective anesthetic compounds, nobody actually knows exactly how anesthesia works. We know that they all shut down... Read more
I share some further notes from Margaret Smith, Muslim Women Mystics: The Life and Work of Rābiʿa and Other Women Mystics in Islam (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001). These are from pages 29-52: It is said that Rābiʿa al-‘Adawiyya or, as she is sometimes also known because of her birthplace, Rābiʿa al-Baṣriyya received many offers of marriage, but that she rejected all of them. She felt that she could pursue her spiritual path only via a celibate life. So, very much like... Read more
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