Many years ago, I participated for two successive years in an international and interreligious “trialogue” that involved roughly ten scholars each from the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. It had already been going for at least a year when I was asked to join in it. The first year that I particpated was in Graz, Austria. The next year was in Jerusalem, including a day in BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. I’m not sure that the “trialogue”... Read more
Continued from “Will computers ever become conscious? (A)”, drawing from Christof Koch, “Proust among the Machines: Within our lifetimes, computers could approach human-level intelligence. But will they be able to consciously experience the world?” Scientific American (December 2019): Contemplating the question of whether or not machines will ever be conscious, Christof Koch observes, “we inevitably come to a fork up ahead, leading to two fundamentally different destinations” (48). The first of the two alternative paths that he describes... Read more
As I pointed out in “LDS Inc. (Part Seven),” I understand the desire for greater financial transparency on the part of the Church and — like one now-departed senior leader of the Church of whose position on the subject I was personally aware — I’m not unsympathetic to it. That said, however, I can think of at least one serious reason not to be fully open and transparent. Already, in the little discussions here, we’ve had avowed... Read more
Since I began this little series on “LDS Inc.,” a number of critics, here on this blog and elsewhere, have responded to it by demanding more “financial transparency” from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which hasn’t issued expenditure reports since 1959. This is a distinct matter from the one that I’ve been addressing, but it’s obviously related. I haven’t wanted to become involved at this juncture in the controversy over opening the Church’s books, and... Read more
From 1987 until 2013, the German-born Christof Koch was a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, ultimately serving there as Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology. Currently, he is both the chief scientist and the president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, and a member of Scientific American‘s board of advisers. I was struck by his article “Proust among the Machines: Within our lifetimes, computers could approach human-level intelligence.... Read more
Two new articles have just appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: David L. Clark, “Hugh B. Brown’s Program for Latter-Day Saint Servicemen During WWII” Abstract: Prior to U.S. involvement in WWII, the First Presidency asked Hugh B. Brown to initiate and serve as coordinator of a program that would reinforce the spiritual welfare of the increasing number of Latter-day Saint men entering the military. Brown initially answered the challenge by organizing religious services at training camps along the West... Read more
The latest installment of the joint biweekly Hamblin-Peterson column for the Deseret News has been published: “Religion is motivated by more than wish-fulfillment or death: The claim that religion is mere wish-fulfillment fantasy, motivated by fear of death, doesn’t apply to many of the world’s great religious traditions” *** My wife and I really, really liked the recent film Harriet. Unfortunately, though, I’m not sure that it’s done very well. I read at least one movie... Read more
Now this is joyous news! Ho ho ho! “Two of the biggest US earthquake faults might be linked: Provocative analysis of sea-floor cores suggests that quakes on the Cascadia fault off California can trigger tremors on the San Andreas.” But it’s not as if geological or seismic factors can affect human life in any significant way! “How a volcanic eruption helped create modern Scotland” *** Some quotations from Tim Keller, Making Sense of God: An Invitation... Read more
A fun note from our attendance at the Salt Lake Temple yesterday: When I was given the little slip bearing the name of the person for whom I was to officiate — a man who was christened on 1 April 1877 in Fritton, Suffolk, England — I was pleased to see that it had been submitted for temple ordinances by one “Wendy Watson Nelson,” whose address appeared on the slip at 47 East South Temple in Salt Lake... Read more
One of the more frivolous forms of the complaint to which I’ve been responding here points out that, unlike today’s Latter-day Saint leaders (who tend to wear suits and ties), Jesus (who seldom if ever wore either a suit or a tie) never bought stocks or invested in a shopping mall. Of course, maybe those who like to intone this particular criticism may mean it seriously; in an age of bumper-sticker polemics and tweeted political philosophy, who knows? But,... Read more
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