It seems that the crisis that loomed following the assassination of Qasem Soleimani (قاسم سلیمانی) may have receded somewhat. Whether that is permanent or not remains to be seen. One positive result of the relaxation of tensions is that President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian cultural treasures seems less likely to be carried out, at least in the near term. Moreover, high-ranking officials in the Trump administration, both at the Pentagon and at the Department of State... Read more
(Ian Hutchinson, Monopolizing Knowledge: A Scientist Refutes Religion-Denying, Reason-Destroying Scientism [Belmont, MA: Fias Publishing, 2011], 1-3) Hutchinson quotes from The Counter-Revolution of Science (1952), by the Nobel laureate economist F. A. Hayek (1899-1992; with whom, as I’ve noted earlier, I had the privilege to spend some time in Scotland back in 1976): During the first half of the nineteenth century a new attitude made its appearance. The term science came more and more to be confined to the physical and biological disciplines which... Read more
Several years ago, out of the blue, a certain person claimed, online, that he had personally launched the Interpreter Foundation and that I had unethically stolen it from him. A number of people who had been present at the creation of Interpreter wrote to contradict and protest the claim, and the back-and-forth occasionallly became quite heated. The claim was utterly and demonstrably false and, after four or five days, the person who had advanced it withdrew it, claiming... Read more
A new book review has just been published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “An Approach to Isaiah Studies” Review of Joseph M. Spencer, The Vision of All: Twenty-Five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi’s Record (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2016). 318 pages. $59.95 (hardback); $29.95 paperback. Abstract: This review makes a case, briefly, for the unmistakable presence of Jesus Christ in Isaiah’s text, which case is based on a corpus linguistic-based description of the... Read more
We were out to dinner with friends again last night, (at their request) at the La Jolla Groves. Excellent food, once again. Tonight, we went out for a quick bite with another couple of friends. (Hey! How am I supposed to maintain my slim, youthful physique while eating out so often?) She is a very serious violinist (master’s degree level) and so, after dinner, we attended a performance at BYU by the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra. Under... Read more
New, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Teachings and Testimony of the First Vision: Some Doctrinal Teachings about the First Vision: Part Two of a Series Compiled by Dennis B. Horne” Occasionally, when the first vision is reviewed by church leaders, they may state some doctrinal insights, interpretations, defenses, or positions about various particulars. The below items mention some of these. The first is a comment (from a memo) from Elder Bruce R. McConkie, then a member of... Read more
I liked this piece on the CNN website, and I suspect that its analysis might be correct : “Iran’s strikes seem intended to avoid US deaths. Here’s why that might be the case” Iran had to respond in some way or other to the killing of one of its most prominent generals, and I hope that the overnight missile strike was enough and that it was deliberately symbolic rather than effective. I’ve mentioned here the... Read more
Cody Quirk has kindly drawn my notice to an item by LaVar Webb, whose name will be recognized by many who have paid attention to Utah politics and public policy matters: “A story about LDS Church finances” Brother Webb’s experience parallels my own, although I didn’t have any single large expense of the kind that he describes. I served for several years as the bishop of a ward that met near the south Orem campus... Read more
It has come up yet again, and so I’ll attempt to swat it down yet again, as clearly and decisively as I am able: Does Qur’an 9:11 actually prophesy that “the wrath of the eagle” will cleanse the lands of the Arabs? No! No, it doesn’t! No! No! It does not! Several years ago, a member of the Church whom I had known for quite some time (but who has since passed... Read more
A very short but fascinating discussion, using pivotal photographs, of some of the most important developments in the history of astronomy: http://nautil.us/issue/32/space/these-astronomical-glass-plates-made-history Growing up in San Gabriel, California, I saw Mount Wilson — a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains — virtually every day of my life until I went away for college. It was the dominant feature of the local horizon, as well as my reliable indicator of north. Its most obvious and striking... Read more
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