Yawn.  More notes from another incomplete manuscript.  I wrote this up several years ago.  Eventually, in sha’a Allah, it will be incorporated (probably in substantially modified form) into a more finished text and submitted for publication:   It is not obvious that reason as reason can survive on a naturalistic view of the universe.  Let us suppose, for example, that the universe did indeed commence with the Big Bang—as, to this point, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that it... Read more

    People in the West who strongly oppose and condemn Islam don’t do so merely for political reasons.  Some anti-theists and militant secularists use Islam as a particularly egregious example of the evils posed by religion in general.   Are they justified in doing so?  The evidence suggests that they are not.   Here are a few more passages that I’ve drawn from John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (New York:... Read more

    Every once in a while, I feel moved to post this item, which I first wrote many years ago.  I feel impressed to do so yet again.   Other books and materials could easily be added to this list, addressing these and scores of other specific topics, but these will do for starters:   I’m sometimes contacted by people who’re experiencing doubts about the claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or whose spouse or... Read more

    Four passages reporting a multi-colored “sky” in heaven, from John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015):   Dean Braxton recalls, “The most gorgeous sky ever seen here on earth cannot even come close to the atmosphere in Heaven.  It is bright because of the glory of our God. . . .  The atmosphere is something you experience, not just see.  It is golden, yellow, white, and... Read more

    Don’t forget!  The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard live via broadcast in the greater Salt Lake City area or, anywhere at all, by computer.  It originates between 7 PM and 9 PM on Sunday nights, Utah time:   https://interpreterfoundation.org/the-interpreter-radio-show/   I, alas, probably won’t be able to hear it this week, as I’m hosting the monthly meeting of our reading group on Sunday night at just that time.  We’ll be discussing the new history of the Church,... Read more

    From another of my manuscripts come these notes, in a fairly raw state:   Why does the public care so much about Darwinism and evolution?  Nobody — nobody who isn’t a specialist, anyway — becomes very exercised over quantum mechanics, the role of chlorophyll in photosynthesis, the nature of the covalent bond, or general relativity.  The difference, I suspect, arises because Darwinism isn’t merely a theory in biology but an entire world view, one that carries profound implications,... Read more

    Is Islam, as such oppressive to women?  The situation is more complex than many in the West presume it to be.   A trio of passages that I found worthy of note in John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (New York: Gallup Press, 2007):   Is Islam the Problem? Because anti-women views are often believed to result from religious sentiment, important questions that must be asked are: Does religiosity among... Read more

    I share with you here some additional passages that I recently marked while reading John Burke, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015).   The first three concern the so-called “being of light,” famliar to anybody who has read much about near-death experiences:   I went through this dark, black vacuum at super speed.  You could compare it to a tunnel. . . .  I saw a bright... Read more

    Please note this new aid for personal and family scripture study that is being made available at no cost by the Interpreter Foundation:   “Come, Follow Me Resource Index”   ***   In one of the several incomplete manuscripts that I have on my computer, there is a section on the evidence that I see for Joseph Smith’s sincerity.  There is no way to prove that sincerity beyond anybody’s capacity to doubt it.  But there are certainly good... Read more

    These unpublished notes are focused on science.  But they shouldn’t be taken as singling science out for unique censure.  All human enterprises are fallible.  Science is actually, on the whole, pretty good at correcting itself — though not quite as good as some naïve devotees of scientism imagine.   A note on humility. There is no question that modern science, at least since (say) the days of Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton, has been staggeringly successful.  Its achievements have... Read more