Notes from Hans Küng, The Beginning of All Things: Science and Religion, translated by John Bowden (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company).   Commenting on the account in Genesis:   Light was created before all other things, even before sun, moon, and stars.  Joseph Haydn in his oratorio The Creation expressed this more vividly than any words could, better even than Michelangelo could depict it in the Sistine Chapel: with the surprising fortissimo change in... Read more

    Continuing through my forthcoming (and still evolving) manuscript on Islam for a Latter-day Saint audience:   Still, it was necessary and foreseen that a final messenger would have to be sent to bring the truth to the earth one final time before the consummation of all things. And it was fitting that, as the hanifs had begged, this final messenger was sent to a people who had never yet had the privilege of entertaining a messenger of God.... Read more

    Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture published a new article today:   “The Book of Mormon Witnesses and Their Challenge to Secularism”   ***   And here, in honor of the holiday weekend before us, is a column of mine that appeared in the Deseret News back on 29 December 2011:   We’re approaching the new year, and a new gospel doctrine curriculum year devoted to the Book of Mormon is almost upon us [that is, in 2012, not... Read more

    For those of you who may have (unintentionally) missed it, Meridian Magazine has picked up my blog post on   “Winston Churchill, Brigham Young, and Dithering”   In my piece, while I say that I very much enjoyed the film Darkest Hour and very highly recommend it, I cited an article that was quite critical of one aspect of its portrayal of Winston Churchill.   Since then, I’ve read two much more positive responses from writers whose judgment... Read more

    Three passages from a response to Richard Dawkins by the distinguished British writer and Cambridge University academic John Cornwell, editor of such volumes as Nature’s Imagination, Explanations, and Consciousness and Human Identity and author of such books as Coleridge: A Critical Biography, Hitler’s Pope, Power to Harm, Hitler’s Scientists, and The Pope in Winter:   I want to write to you now about your Utopia.  You have issued a glowing promise of ultimate happiness, if only your readers will trust in... Read more

      Here’s a pleasant article, brought to my attention — if I’m not mistaken — by Matthew Wheeler:   “The Muslim youth group who help bring festive cheer”   ***   And this is a topic that richly deserves attention:   “One story to watch: Will 2018 see notable decline in the Middle East’s hardline Islam?”   Will such projections turn out to be correct?  Much hinges on which way things go.  For the entire world.   ***... Read more

    We’re nearing the time for New Year’s resolutions.  They can be helpful, sometimes.  We often focus on quantifiable goals, like losing twenty pounds or saving a thousand dollars or exercising five days a week.  But the most important goals are often not measurable in such simple ways.   Two of the most important things that we might do over the next year would be to be more self-aware and to be more charitable in judging others.   On... Read more

    I realize that this is a thankless task, and that it can only serve to confirm the position of those who already agree with me and to further inflame those who already don’t.  I recognize, too, that doing so will expose me to inevitable accusations of insensitivity and disrespect and even, from my worst critics, of anti-Semitism.  But I’m going to comment once again — see also my prior entry, titled “On performing baptisms for Jewish Holocaust victims”... Read more

    I’ve been struck, over the past few days, by the number of people who have lost close relatives or friends this Christmas season.   I posted an entry about one of them earlier today, under the title of “The passing of a truly remarkable Latter-day Saint.”  And here’s a sad new story from the mission field in Africa:  “Mormon Missionary Serving in Nigeria Passes Away.”   I don’t know whether the number, from within my broad circle, is... Read more