I’m back to reading Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner, Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness, 2d ed. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). At the time they wrote the book, both Rosenblum and Kuttner were members of the physics faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In this passage, the now late Professor Rosenblum, the senior of the two, recalls his experience as a much younger man who was studying at Columbia University in... Read more
To be honest, I’m not sure that I see why there should be such a category as “hate crimes.” Perhaps somebody can explain the rationale to me in a way that I’ll find persuasive, but it seems to me that deliberate violent crimes are deliberate violent crimes, however motivated. Assault is assault, and it should be severely punished whether the victim is an Arab-American, or gay, or Jewish, or Muslim, or even a bland and ordinary (and, therefore,... Read more
New, from Dr. Hales Swift and the Interpreter Foundation: “A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 12: The Lord Labors with Us (Jacob 5-7)” *** Yesterday, I posted a blog entry (“Does This Thursday Mark the 200th Anniversary of the First Vision?”) in which I called attention to an intriguing argument and to an interesting 35-minute video that lays it out. According to the two researchers who figure in the documentary film, the... Read more
In a bid to continue helping you with your Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” Files even during this time of plague — we do take-out and home delivery! — I offer you this item, which provides further information on how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is responding to the coronavirus: “Church parking lots in Utah could be used as COVID-19 testing sites if needed” And here’s an extra item, for those... Read more
Several times previously here, I’ve mentioned an independently produced film that runs just slightly less than 35 minutes in length, and encouraged people to watch it. It’s really relevant now: “How Lovely Was the Morning” The documentary describes the work of two researchers who independently decided that Joseph Smith’s First Vision most likely took place on the morning of Sunday, 26 March 1820. If they are correct, the two-hundredth anniversary of the First Vision falls this very... Read more
A metaphor for the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it occurred to me last night, and I want to try it out here, to test drive it in order to see how it works. Feedback is welcome. Many, many years ago, I read an article by the late NASA astronomer and space scientist Robert Jastrow, in which he argued that thermonuclear weapons were essentially obsolete, or soon would be. I’ve never forgotten it. I’m not taking... Read more
For relaxation last night, and to get away from the never ending bad news about COVID-19, my wife and I watched several episodes of an excellent and well-produced 24-part “Great Courses” lecture series on The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague, by Professor Dorsey Armstrong of Purdue University. We found it for free on our cable television, on demand. This is probably a temporary offer. I highly recommend the lecture series. Fascinating. *** In the... Read more
We live, as nobody has ever pointed out before, in a remarkable age. For example, all of my classes have been cancelled — in terms of face to face instruction, that is — for about a week and a half. So, over the past several days, I’ve recorded illustrated lectures on such subjects as the great Ottoman Turkish architect Sinan (and two of his buildings, the Süleymaniye Camii in Istanbul and the Selimiye Camii in Edirne; the c in... Read more
This is a really juicy one for your Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File. Isn’t it regrettable that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built up a substantial rainy-day fund during those sunny days before the epidemiological and economic rains began to fall? Don’t we wish that it hadn’t? Our indignation should be intense and unceasing! Even when we’re standing in the unemployment and food lines. “How Latter-day Saint Charities is helping during... Read more
New, from the Interpreter Foundation: Come, Follow Me — Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 14, March 30-April 12: Easter (from Jonn Claybaugh) Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 14: “He Shall Rise … with Healing in His Wings”: Easter Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen were the discussants for the Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 14, “He Shall Rise … with Healing in His Wings,” which is keyed for Easter. This... Read more
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