From the manuscript that I’m working on for my forthcoming book on Islam for a Latter-day Saint readership: The ultimate destination of the damned is described in the Qur’an with highly picturesque language. Hell is a place of raging and roaring fire, of towering columns of destroying flame, and of scorching winds that drive pitch-black smoke across a blighted landscape. The souls of the unrighteous are prevented from escaping by fetters (hammered out of the very wealth... Read more
My very first angry, mean-spirited, ad hominem attack-column for 2018 has now appeared in the Deseret News: “Focusing on the essentials in the biblical story of creation” Just this morning, alas, I found a passage that would have fit perfectly into my column (had there been space in the column in which to fit it!). It comes from David Wilkinson, God, Time and Stephen Hawking: An Exploration Into Origins (London: Monarch Books, 2001). Rev. Dr. Wilkinson is speaking about... Read more
“President Monson Funeral Arrangements Announced” Here’s a tribute to Thomas S. Monson from Elders Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, formerly counselors to President Monson in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/president-eyring-president-uchtdorf-condolences See also: “Tribute to President Monson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles” “President Trump, Mitt Romney, Orrin Hatch and other leaders react to Thomas S. Monson’s death” For those who read... Read more
My wife and I went out to dinner last night at one of our favorite restaurants, the Market Street Grill in South Jordan. Then, for the first time, we attended a performance on the center stage at the new Hale Centre Theatre, not too far away. We had already seen a performance of Forever Plaid, some time ago, on the Theatre’s smaller but still rather large secondary stage. (See “The New Hale Centre Theatre, in Sandy, Utah.”) ... Read more
Some more notes taken from my reading. In this case, some passages from Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, extracted 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 the Sun scaled down to a 10-foot-diameter ball of glowing gas. On this scale the Earth is a grape 1000 feet from the Sun, and the edge of... Read more
Continuing with my introductory book on Islam for Latter-day Saints. I’ve just discussed how, according to Islamic belief and teaching, we will be judged according to our works at the Last Day. Nevertheless, there is divine grace in Islam, which God will bestow upon those who have sought to know Him and to carry out His will. “God will do away with their foulest deeds and reward them according to their noblest actions.”[1] How will individual people be... Read more
“And thus you shall take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.” (Doctrine and Covenants 54:8) Some critics of Mormonism have argued that limited Mesoamerican geographical models of the Book of Mormon (like those that I prefer) are incompatible with such passages as that given above, and with the common Latter-day Saint practice of referring to all Amerindians as “Lamanites.” Such criticisms, in my view, reflect both... Read more
I won’t pretend to have socialized with him on a regular basis; there are, I would guess, thousands of Latter-day Saints who had more and closer personal contact with Thomas S. Monson than I did. Still, I had a few memorable encounters with him, and I’ll share a couple here. I first met him when he came to Switzerland, roughly halfway through my mission there. He was a member of the Council of the Twelve at the... Read more
When the Book of Mormon first issued appeared in an 1830 press-run of 5,000 copies, the response, particularly from the American frontier elite, was overwhelmingly negative. It was, said one contemporary newspaper, “a bungling and stupid production.” “We have no hesitation in saying that the whole system is erroneous. . . . There is no redeeming feature in the whole scheme; nothing to comment it to a thinking mind.” Contrary to what such denunciations might have led... Read more
I continue chugging along with my manuscript on Islam for Latter-day Saints. Here, I’m discussing the Qur’an’s portrayal of the end of all things and the Last Judgment: We are the witnesses of all your thoughts and all your prayers and all your actions. Not an atom’s weight in earth or heaven escapes your Lord, nor is there any object smaller or greater, but is recorded in a glorious book.[1] The records of men’s deeds will be... Read more
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