This article appeared at very nearly the end of 2018, and we’re closing in on the prospective date of its 2019 equivalent.  Still, I thought that some might find it worth a quick read:   “Biblical Archaeology’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2018: A glimpse at the important excavation work revealed this year.”   The item in the list that most caught my immediate interest was (7), entitled “Semitic abecedary found in Egypt.”   It tells of an inscribed piece... Read more

    First, a few science-related links:   “How do we know how old the Earth is?  Geology professor Alan Collins from the University of Adelaide answers a great question from a young reader.”   “Remarkable fossils capture mammals’ recovery after the dino-killing asteroid: Survivors grew from the size of a rat to that of a wolf within 700,000 years of the impact”   “How mammals inherited the Earth: Scientists map out first million years of life after the dinosaurs.”  ... Read more

    The latest installment of the biweekly Hamblin and Peterson column on world religions and religious history has appeared in the Deseret News:   “The ‘Donation of Constantine’ and the powers of medieval popes and emperors: Though often challenged and threatened, medieval popes could not be ignored”   ***   A nice piece by the astoundingly industrious Irish Latter-day Saint Robert Boylan:   “Is it true the Book of Mormon Contains No Doctrine that is Already in the Bible?”  ... Read more

    As I write, we’re even closer to Halloween this year.  But here’s a column, originally published in the Provo Daily Herald back in mid-2003, that some might find interesting.  In its first incarnation, it was dedicated to my father, who had just passed away.  As the dedication put it, he was blind, but now could see:   We’re two weeks from Halloween, where, in America at least, tiny vampires, ballerinas, ghouls, superheroes, goblins, ninjas and witches will descend... Read more

    I’ve been busy today, so I’m quite late with this.  But, it being Friday, a new article has (yes, of course) appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “Ministering across Fault Lines of Belief and Community” Review of David B. Ostler, Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question(Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2019), 206 pp. $32.95 (hardback), $20.95 (paperback). Abstract: David Ostler’s book Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question addresses the daunting task of ministering to people... Read more

    Here’s a piece that I wrote by request for the official Church website back in 2005, in connection with the bicentennial of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  In the context of my recent blog post under the title of “Banned in Boston? No, suppressed in Salt Lake City,” I think it worthwhile to share it again:   Everyone Else Makes Such Lonely Heavens For these defects, and for no other evil, we now are lost and... Read more

    Always straining to find new and more gratifyingly contemptuous ways of demeaning me, one of my harsher anonymous online critics announced a few days ago that I’m “addicted” to food.   And, alas, it’s true:  I eat food every day.  Every single day.  I’m not sure that I’ve ever gone a full day without it.   Tonight, my wife and I went to the Bosphorous Restaurant at Lake Nona.  (It was a first for us; previously, we’ve been... Read more

    Late last November, accompanied by my wife, I was over — or, rather, down under — in Australia to deliver a lecture in Sydney.  It’s a very long trip from Orem to Salt Lake City to Los Angeles to Sydney (and back), though, and we didn’t really relish the thought of flying all the way there and then turning almost immediately around to fly back.  Fortunately, owing to the American Thanksgiving holiday and to a quirk in my... Read more

    We attended a session at the Orlando Florida Temple today with our next door neighbors, who happen to be visiting Orlando quite independently of us.  Afterwards, with a local friend who was delayed and who therefore only arrived too late to the temple, all of us enjoyed a really good lunch at the Seasons 52 on Sand Lake Road.   Attending the temple here has extra meaning for us not only because one of our children was married... Read more

    Dr. Hales Swift continues to contribute videos (and their transcripts) to the Interpreter Foundation for the use of students and teachers in the Gospel Doctrine classes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Here’s his latest:   Facing Temptation and Anxiety in 1 Thessalonians 3: A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Lesson 41: “Be Not Soon Shaken in Mind, or Be Troubled”   ***   I strongly recommend this very short piece from the folks associated with... Read more