First off: “January 20–21, 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)” You might perhaps be able to see it tonight. I should be able to do so quite well here in Utah Valley. Conditions are very clear at the moment, and the eclipse has already plainly commenced. *** From Book of Mormon Central: “When was Jesus Christ really born? The Book of Mormon can help” *** Life is sometimes very hard. Even for... Read more
This poem, by Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887), appeared in the official Latter-day Saint hymnal as late as the 1941 edition but disappeared thereafter. I wish it had not, because I think its message very important. When I was a naïve undergraduate, we laughed about some people who, we joked, appeared to believe in the injunction “Think not, when you gather to Zion.” As one professor (who subsequently served, among many other things, as a General Authority) quipped,... Read more
John Updike wrote this poem (entitled “The Dance of the Solids”) after he read the September 1967 issue of Scientific American, which was devoted to materials. It appeared fifty years ago in his book Midpoint and Other Poems (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969): All things are Atoms: Earth and Water, Air And Fire, all, Democritus foretold. Swiss Paracelsus, in’s alchemic lair, Saw Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury unfold Amid Mellennial hopes of faking Gold. Lavoisier dethroned Phlogiston; then Molecular Analysis made bold Forays into... Read more
A very significant little item by Jeff Lindsay, writing from Shanghai: “Further Notes on One of the Earliest Hebrew Texts, the Silver Amulets of Ketef Hinnom” *** I like the argument here. I think it’s solid: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/aestheism/2015/02/heretics-and-other-insiders/ Two reservations: 1. I’m surely among those Latter-day Saints who insist — many times without result — on identifying themselves as Christians. I’ve published a book on the topic. Is this solely about “marketing,” though,... Read more
Here’s a brief but interesting article on a little-known field in the biological sciences: “The Overlooked Organisms That Keep Challenging Our Assumptions About Life: Gorgeous and weird, lichens have pushed the boundaries of our understanding of nature—and our way of studying it.” I like the opening passage of this 17 January 2019 article, which was written by Ed Yong for The Atlantic: “Science is sometimes caricatured as a wholly objective pursuit that allows us to understand... Read more
The most recent iteration of the regular bi-weekly Hamblin-Peterson column in the Deseret News is now up: “The last god-king” The accompanying photos, taken recently by Bill Hamblin, are really nice. *** “Elder Christofferson Shares Why Watergate Made Him Question His Profession: ‘It Was Like a Punch to the Gut'” *** “What Happened After Nonmembers Were Asked to Read One Page of the Book of Mormon and Look for Jesus Christ” ... Read more
This astounding editorial, by one Clay Cane, appeared on the CNN website on Friday: “Karen and Mike Pence’s astonishing moral hypocrisy” It seems that the wife of the Vice President of the United States is about to begin teaching art at a Christian school in Virginia, and that some folks in our country are going to be needing their smelling salts, a large supply of sedatives, and perhaps some artificial resuscitation in order to cope with... Read more
Masculinity is under ideologically-motivated attack in some quarters. You may perhaps have missed these items: “Grown Men Are the Solution, Not the Problem: With young men in crisis, the American Psychological Association wrongly declares war on ‘traditional masculinity’” “The APA Can’t Spin Its Way Out of Its Attack on ‘Traditional Masculinity’: Our culture has grown more disdainful of common, inherent male characteristics.” And now there’s a new controversy: “Procter & Gamble’s Toxic Sanctimony: A new ad... Read more
One of the classes that I’m teaching this term is Middle East Studies (Arabic) 467R, which is also listed as Philosophy 360R. The first book that we’re reading for the class is Lenn Evan Goodman, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), where we’re focusing on the translation of a wonderful Andalusian text from the twelfth century. It’s an Islamicate Neoplatonic work, which means that it’s quite different... Read more
New, in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “Barriers to Belief: Mental Distress and Disaffection from the Church” Abstract: People leave the Church for a variety of reasons. Of all the reasons why people leave, one that has attracted little or no attention is the influence of mental distress. People who experience anxiety or depression see things differently than those who do not. Recognizing that people with mental distress have a different experience with church than others... Read more
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