I’m still working my way through some note-taking from John W . Welch, et al., eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017).   “Did Jacob Speak during an Ancient Israelite Autumn Festival?” (80-82) John S. Thompson argues that 2 Nephi 6-10 follows the covenant/treaty pattern that is now recognized by scholars as having been widespread in the ancient Near East: Preamble (2 Nephi 6:1-4) Historical Overview (2 Nephi 6:5-9, 22) Stipulations of the Covenant (2 Nephi... Read more

    Still excerpting passages from a manuscript in progress:   Islam insists on an absolute gulf, an unbridgeable chasm, between God and everything else in the universe. There is no kin­ship between Creator and creature, any more than there was a genetic relationship between Thomas Edison and the lightbulb.[1] In Islam, Jesus too is a creature.[2] Educated Muslims will proba­bly understand what we Christians mean when we speak of “the brotherhood of man under the Fatherhood of God,” and... Read more

    There have been a number of deaths over the past few days in our ward, neighborhood, and social circle.  Some of them have been expected, while others (so far as I’m aware) haven’t been.  We are saddened by these losses.  But they’ve brought to mind again a poem that was apparently written by the Rev. Luther F. Beecher (d. 1903), who was a cousin of the much more famous Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (and, thus, related to Henry... Read more

      Continuing with yesterday’s discussion of Mormonism, Islam, and the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Trinity:   The irony is compounded by the historical fact that some early Latter-day Saints saw themselves as monotheistic allies of the Mus­lims, confronting a Christianity corrupted by saint-worship and the veneration of relics. (After all, they correctly reasoned, Latter-day Saints worship only one God. As much as Latter-day Saint scrip­tures and leaders may talk of “the Gods,” our worship is strictly limited... Read more

    I’ve been reading a few pages every few days in Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking (New York: Penguin Books, 2014).  Jordan Eilenberg is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  Here are a couple of items from his book:   “To paraphrase Clausewitz:  Mathematics is the extension of common sense by other means.”  (13)   “Mathematics is not settled.  Even concerning the basic objects... Read more

    Yet another passage from my book on Islam for Mormons:   Islam is an absolutely rigorous, pure monotheism. “To God alone is true worship due,” declares the Qur’an.[1] In this regard, it resembles Judaism rather more than Christianity. There is no God-man in Islam, no divine Son. A chasm separates man from God. Even the doctrine of the Trinity, with its claim that three persons are really one God, has never satisfied Muslim critics: People of the Book,... Read more

    Elder Von Keetch of the Seventy died suddenly last week.  He was just 57 years old:   “Elder Von Keetch remembered as kind father, loving husband, remarkable legal mind”   I did not know him.  I may be mistaken, but I don’t believe that I ever met him.   However, I look in, most days, on a virulently anti-Mormon and mostly atheist message board.  It provides a window for me onto what the latest enthusiasms and fashions are in those... Read more

    “My original decision to devote myself to science was a direct result of the discovery which has never ceased to fill me with enthusiasm since my early youth—the comprehension of the far from obvious fact that the laws of human reasoning coincide with the laws governing the sequences of the impressions we receive from the world about us; that, therefore, pure reasoning can enable man to gain an insight into the mechanism of the latter. In this connection,... Read more