Luke 11:34-36 Compare Matthew 6:22-23   I’m sure that the Savior’s comment here presupposes and reflects an ancient theory of vision that we no longer hold, scientifically speaking.   Nevertheless, I think his essential point remains:   If our way of perceiving people and the world around us is fundamentally wrong, skewed, warped, deformed by gross error, poisoned by cynicism, distorted by hatred, and so forth, that will affect virtually everything about us.  And, manifestly, not for the... Read more

    It’s good to be back in southern California, in my native state.  It feels like home.  The quality of the light, the foliage, the sheer look of the place — this is where I was born and raised.  In Utah, I’m still something of a pilgrim and a stranger and will probably remain so.  Of course, in fairness, I would probably be so anywhere else, too.  But this is home.   My immediate family — it wasn’t very... Read more

    There is a story out of pre-Islamic Arabia that I’ve told before.  I like it, though, and I’m going to tell it again.   As incredible as it may seem, some of you may have forgotten it or even missed it in the first place.   One of the great poets of the Arabic tradition is Antara b. Shaddad, or Antar (AD 525-608).  He was the son, it is said, of a Bedouin chieftain and an Ethiopian slave.... Read more

    This is pretty astonishing, something that would have been essentially unimaginable not very many years ago:   New York Times:  “Black Hole Image Revealed for First Time Ever: Astronomers at last have captured a picture of the darkest entities in the cosmos.”   Nature:  “Black hole pictured for first time — in spectacular detail: The Event Horizon Telescope’s global network of radio dishes has produced the first direct image of a black hole and its event horizon.”   ***  ... Read more

    The third and final portion of a review of D. Michael Quinn’s Early Mormonism and the Magic World View that my friend, former missionary companion, and current BYU department colleague, Stephen D. Ricks, and I published in the January 1988 issue of Sunstone:   Quinn’s attempted rehabilitation of the salamander is, in fact, extremely puzzling. Although there are no authentic documents explicitly linking Joseph Smith or early Mormonism to the figure of a salamander, he spends several pages... Read more

    Luke 11:29-32 Compare Matthew 12:38-42; Mark 8:11-12   Some have argued that, because Jesus cites the story of Jonah, that means that he believed the story of Jonah to be historically true.  And, because Jesus was the Son of God, his believing  the story of Jonah to be historically true proves that, in fact, it is historically true.   I myself am disposed to believe that there is a historical core, at a minimum, to the little story... Read more

    A few days ago, one of my sons surprised me with an unexpected fact — a fact that’s obviously true, when you think about it.   “Did you realize,” he suddenly said, “that Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the cell phone than to the construction of the pyramids?”   He’s undeniably correct.   Motorola demonstrated the first handheld cellular mobile phone in 1973.  It weighed nearly 4.5 pounds.  The first commercial cellular network was launched in... Read more

    Back 0n 30 March 2017, slightly more than two years ago, I published a column in the Deseret News about a book that I had just read and that I thought (and still think) some will find helpful:   “‘Answers Will Come’ shares how to cope with religious doubts, questions”   Last night, I picked the book up again and happened to notice on page 145 what the author, Shalissa Lindsay, calls “One parting thought . . .”:... Read more

    Continued, from a review that my colleague Stephen D. Ricks and I originally published in Sunstone in January 1988:   In chapters 5 and 6, Quinn attempts to demonstrate “magical” influences in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and seeks to document allegedly “occultic” parallds to its content. For page after page, he adduces occultic etyma that parallel the proper names found in the Book of Mormon. The number of these is sometimes simply staggering. In... Read more

    Luke 11:5-8   Following on his presentation of “The Lord’s Prayer,” and leading into a promise that God will respond to prayer, Jesus offers a very human portrait of a person who will grant another’s request, if not because he’s feeling benevolent at least because the petitioner has been insistent and he wants him to go away.   It’s actually pretty funny, and — despite our long-standing habit of reading the scriptures with grim solemnity — I suspect... Read more