Some notes from a manuscript:   It would seem, for example, that evolutionary psychology’s insistence that ideas are the products of evolution, “chosen” for their utility in the battle to survive and replicate, is self-refuting.  For included among those ideas, obviously, is evolutionary psychology itself.  If ideas are nothing more than tactical tools for survival, it is unclear how they can be judged to be objectively true or false.  (Even our judgment would be nothing more exalted than... Read more

    ***   A new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   “Jacob’s Protector”   ***   More notes:   Even many decades after the Book of Mormon was published, Katherine Smith Salisbury, Joseph’s sister, was still deeply convinced of the authenticity of his claim to prophethood.  “I can testify to the fact of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon,” she said, and also to its truth, and the truth of the everlasting gospel as... Read more

    Just back with my wife from attending an enjoyable concert at BYU, with friends, featuring Jason Robert Brown and Kelli O’Hara.   Things like this are among the principal reasons that I love living near a major university.   ***   A thought that’s exceptionally appropriate for the Christmas season:   “A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human... Read more

    Some notes on Joseph Smith’s honesty and sincerity, based on the impressions of those who knew him well:   “We found him a boy of truth,” remembered Joseph Knight, Jr., of the twenty-one-year-old farmer’s son.[1] “So honest and plain were all his statements that there was no room,” said Newell Knight, “for any misgivings with me on the subject.”[2] Knight recalls the testimony of Josiah Stoal during a hearing against Joseph Smith in South Bainbridge, New York, in... Read more

    The first recording of Do You Hear What I Hear? was made by the Harry Simeone Chorale shortly after Thanksgiving 1962, and sold so well during that Christmas season that Bing Crosby eventually recorded it also — making it, by means of his star power, a mega-hit.   Here is that very first choral recording:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmYIbKqH45A   The song had been composed only a month or so before, during the thirteen days of the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, when — and... Read more

    John Betjeman (1906-1984) was poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death:   “Christmas” by John Betjeman The bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across the night Has caught the streaks of winter rain In many a stained-glass window sheen From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.The holly in the windy hedge And round the Manor House the yew Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge, The... Read more

    Hugh B. Brown (1883-1975), a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from Canada who served as a counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay between 1961 and 1970, reported an event not too very long before his death that his nephew, Harold B. Lee, recorded in his journal and later shared:   “He [Elder Brown] said it was not a vision, but the Lord appeared to him, very informal, the same as I... Read more

    If you can get access to it, many of you will find this relatively long profile article (from the 4 December 2017 issue of The Weekly Standard) of considerable interest:   “King of the Jungle: The Mayan Empire of Archaeologist Richard Hansen:  On the trail with the man who discovered the preclassic Mayan civilization.”   Dr. Hansen, who leads “what is probably the largest archaeological excavation in the world,” is — to the author’s considerable astonishment — a... Read more

    The author gets our theology a bit wrong, and he doesn’t seem to have noticed that the Mormon Tabernacle isn’t quite entirely white, but I’m glad he liked its performance of the carol: http://thenet.ng/2016/12/watching-this-white-choir-sing-a-yoruba-christmas-carol-will-make-your-head-swell-seriously/   It’s one of my favorites, too.  I still remember hearing it for the very first time, at the annual BYU Christmas choir concert.  It was unexpected, and thrilling.   ***   Day Twelve of the “Light the World” Christmas initiative:   “Blessed are... Read more