Well, the navigation equipment failed on the KLM plane that I was to take from Helsinki to Amsterdam, so I missed my Delta flight from Amsterdam to Salt Lake City. Seven hours later, I caught another KLM flight from Finland to the Netherlands and I also got the very last available seat (back row, window) on a KLM/Delta partnered flight from the Netherlands to Utah. When we arrived, I was the very last passenger off of the plane.... Read more
One of the things that I most admire about the great Muslim thinker al-Ghazali (d. AD 1111) is the care with which he sought to understand the arguments of those with whom he disagreed. He is most famous, probably, for two multi-volume works. One is the Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”), which is very much a work of Islamic theology. The other is the Tahafut al-Falasifa (“The Incoherence of the Philosophers”), a brilliant... Read more
I haven’t been following Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old climate change activist, very much. Not at all, really. But I haven’t been able to avoid seeing photographs of her. They’re everywhere. And they almost always show her with an angry expression on her face, delivering an impassioned oration to a group of either rapt adult admirers or uncomfortable adult government officials constrained to act deferentially toward her. I don’t like it. It seems to me pure exploitation.... Read more
I’m sitting here in a Helsinki airport lounge, quite tired, reflecting on various things. One of the best things we did in raising our children — and, of course, as with most parents, there are things that we would do differently with hindsight — was to put our children in a Spanish immersion program, whereby they did their basic subjects not in English but in Spanish. As it happens, we now have two Hispanic daughters in... Read more
Ah, the wonders of modern air travel. We were on the plane in good time. And then we sat there. And sat there. With no explanation. I began to wonder whether I would make my already tight connection in Amsterdam. Then the captain told us that the navigational equipment had failed, and that there was no suitable replacement part at the Helsinki airport. One would need to be flown in from Amsterdam. Which pretty well answered my... Read more
I’m sitting in the airport at Helsinki, which has free wi-fi. So I’m going to try to “improve the shining moment” by throwing something quickly together. I’ve been extremely busy here in Finland and, on one day, in Estonia, and I’ve been largely cut off from the internet and almost entirely cut off from the news. But the headline today in my airport hotel room was that Nancy Pelosi has given the green light to possible... Read more
The invaluable Matthew Bowen called attention several days ago to this passage from Hugh Nibley, which I really like: “Until the final returns are in, no one is in a position to make final pronouncements, and as long as science continues to progress, the final returns will remain at the other end of a future of wonders and surprises. In the world of things, we must forever keep an open mind, because we simply don’t know the... Read more
“Church Donates to Suicide Prevention and Awareness Campaign in Utah: Another step in an ongoing effort to reduce suffering and save lives” As you can easily imagine (if you ever pay attention to such things), a group of critics sprang into action immediately upon hearing about the donation mentioned above — not to praise the gift or to express gratitude for it, but to complain that the gift was too small. They compare it to much larger amounts... Read more
The fireside in Helsinki on Sunday night was the biggest of the entire trip. I’m told that there were 308 (or, according to another report, 310) people in a room that has a capacity of 300. Wayne Crosby spoke first. Scott Gordon spoke second. I was the third speaker, and I was followed by Sharon Eubank. I think that the evening went very well. The Gordons and I had attended sacrament meeting first, in the Espoo Second... Read more
I have, as I say, been largely cut off from internet access since my departure from the United States last Thursday. So I’m behind on a number of matters and am now trying to catch up just a bit. *** This article was published by John Hilton III, Ryan Sharp, Brad Wilcox and Jaron Hansen on Friday in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Gentiles in the Book of Mormon” Abstract: The word Gentiles appears 141 times in the Book... Read more
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