New, in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Don Bradley, “A Passover Setting for Lehi’s Exodus” Abstract: Later in his life, former Palmyra resident Fayette Lapham recounted with sharp detail an 1830 interview he conducted with Joseph Smith Sr. about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Among the details he reports that Lehi’s exodus from Jerusalem occurred during a “great feast.” This detail, not found in the published Book of Mormon, may reveal... Read more
On this Thanksgiving Day, I’m grateful for many things. Among them, I include those people who have made this year’s achievements possible for the Interpreter Foundation. Tomorrow will mark the 384th consecutive week (out of its 385.5 weeks of existence) that the Interpreter Foundation has published at least one article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. The Interpreter Radio Program is on the air between 7 PM and 9 PM every... Read more
I would like to call your attention to a few things from the Interpreter Foundation Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man: Answering New Atheism and Seeking a Sure Knowledge of God Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article by Amy L. Williams originally appeared in Science & Mormonism Series 1: Cosmos, Earth, and Man (2016). Abstract: This article describes and counters the arguments of the “New Atheism,” a loose movement that some have characterized as espousing... Read more
Two weeks ago, I published an article in the Deseret News with the approaching Thanksgiving holiday in mind. It was the first part of a two-column ensemble: “The miracle of Earth’s atmosphere design and the air we breathe: As the Thanksgiving holiday draws near, there is much for us to be thankful for — including the very air that we breathe” And today, on Thanksgiving Day itself, I complete the pair: “Gratitude for the dirt beneath... Read more
I continue here with another passage that I’ve extracted, for my notes, from Ian Hutchinson, who is a professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a primary interest in plasma physics. It occurs in his book Monopolizing Knowledge: A Scientist Refutes Religion-Denying, Reason-Destroying Scientism [Belmont, MA: Fias Publishing, 2011]). First, though, a bit of background: Most scientists — there surely aren’t too many exceptions, if there are any at all — haven’t taken kindly... Read more
This is the proclamation that set the precedent for America’s now-longstanding tradition of a national day of Thanksgiving: Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863 By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been... Read more
I would like to call your attention to a remarkable new book, which is now available on Kindle and which will shortly appear in hard copy: Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories Here’s the book description that appears on the publisher’s website: On a summer day in 1828, Book of Mormon scribe and witness Martin Harris was emptying drawers, upending furniture, and ripping apart mattresses as he desperately... Read more
Here are some brief quotations from Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona: “The two main ingredients of our universe, dark matter and dark energy, are still enigmatic . . . ” (x) (In this context, see my 2015 Deseret News column “Materialism isn’t what it used to be.”) “. . . cosmologists who reconstruct cosmic history from slender shards of evidence, some of whom... Read more
The last thing that we did before heading to John Wayne Airport this afternoon was to take in a session at the Newport Beach California Temple. It was especially nice because we ran into long-time friends there. One, who was there early for his service as an ordinance worker, was actually in the session with us and sat next to me. I’ve known him since I was a teenager; he was, if I’m not mistaken, my priests quorum... Read more
This was my Thanksgiving Day column in the Deseret News for 2010: Most modern Americans are so far removed from farming—we get our milk from cartons, our meat neatly packaged at the grocery store, our grains in cereal boxes, our cranberries in cans—that we easily forget the agricultural roots of Thanksgiving Day. But Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, and similar celebrations of bounteous crops (always an uncertainty) have occurred for millennia in such places as Korea, India,... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In