This week’s new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture is a review essay titled   “Celebrating the Work of John W. Welch”   It marks the 287th consecutive Friday on which Interpreter has published at least one new article.  The Interpreter Foundation has existed for 288.5 weeks.   ***   Don’t forget the Interpreter Foundation’s new radio program, which will broadcast its second show on Sunday evening, from 7 PM to 8 PM (Utah time) on... Read more

    This is how the text read in my old book Abraham Divided, from the mid-1980s.  This is a passage, I think, that needs considerable expansion and nuancing.  Comments are welcome, as are suggestions of issues that you would want to see covered.   Islam has a very realistic view of the issues involved here, a view that does not easily lend itself to the support of pacifism. Had God not defended some men by the might of others,... Read more

    Another attempt to help us imagine the sheer unimaginably astounding size of the cosmos, from Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, in his book How It Began: A Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Universe (New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012), 98:   We live in a city of light.  To grasp the vastness, we need a scale model.  We can get there in two steps.  In the first step,... Read more

    Some further notes from John W . Welch, et al., eds., Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017), 35-40:   The essay “Did Pre-Christian Prophets Know about Christ?” (35-36) addresses something that is often derided as an anachronism in the Book of Mormon:  Did the pre-Christian Jaredite and Nephite prophets simply know too much about Christ?  Is their foreknowledge plausible?  If so, why didn’t the ancient Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament know so... 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 Mormonism or whose spouse or father or daughter has lost faith.  I always... Read more

    From my manuscript on Islam for Mormons:   The sixth of the five pillars of Islam never quite made it into the authoritative lists, although there were a number of prestigious thinkers who argued that it ought to be included. The word jihad is often translated as “holy war,” but its meaning is really broader than this.[1] Its primary definition is “battle,” “struggle,” or “striv­ing.” Muhammad is said to have taught that “holy war,” of a literal, military... Read more

    Lawrence Krauss is a physicist at Arizona State University — and a very vocal atheist who believes that the universe came out of “nothing” (or, at least, could have done so) without the aid of a divine creator (e.g., in his A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing [2012]).   Amir Aczel (1950-2015) was an Israeli-born American mathematician and historian of mathematics — author of, among numerous other books, Fermat’s Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret... Read more

    Some material from Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, taken from his book How It Began: A Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Universe (New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012):   Imagine atoms in the universe scattered like playing cards.  Instead of the normal suits and numbers, these cards are labeled as elements of the periodic table.  The dominant elements are hydrogen and helium; everything else is amazingly... Read more

    I was on an airplane this morning, flying from Phoenix to Salt Lake City, when the new First Presidency — Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, and Henry B. Eyring — was announced.   Many were surprised and not a few disappointed that Elder Dieter Uchtdorf is not a member of this new presidency.  I myself was mildly surprised and slightly disappointed.  As many other Church members do, I like him very, very much.   But I’ve seen... Read more

    Some notes on the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage that is among the “Five Pillars of Islam,” from my manuscript on basic Islamic doctrine and history for Latter-day Saints:   It is incumbent upon every Muslim who can afford to do so to make the pilgrimage to “the Ancient House” (the Ka’ba) at Mecca at least once in his or her life.[1]Those who cannot afford to do so or are otherwise unable are exempt from the requirement. Make... Read more