Near-death experiences, while they do not directly demonstrate the existence of God, strongly seem to suggest that the universe is the kind of place in which it makes abundant sense to believe that God exists. The actress Jane Seymour would surely agree.  She says that her experience “confirmed her belief in God.”[1]  As one man, who survived a major automobile accident, told the Gallup researchers, “I now know, without a shadow of doubt, that God . . .... Read more

    The insistence of some militantly reductionist adherents of naturalism, that “mind” is merely a more or less illusory product of purely chemical/physical processes, that consciousness and free will are hallucinations, seems to me transparently self-refuting.  Why should I pay any more attention to the neurochemical events in an atheist’s brain than to his digestive process?  What significance would they have?  And, anyway, what, given such preconceptions, would it mean for “me” to “pay attention” to such things?  What... Read more

    Further notes on the evident sincerity of Joseph Smith:   “The Prophet did not really desire longer to live,” concluded [Benjamin F.] Johnson.[1]  Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner recalled the Prophet saying, near the end of his life, I am tired, I have been mobbed, I have suffered so much. . . I have asked the Lord to take me out of this world. I have stood all I can. I have to seal my testimony to this generation... Read more

    This is the column that I published on Thanksgiving Day 2015 in the Deseret News:   Although American Thanksgiving Day began as a harvest festival, it’s not about eating.  Most of us eat quite well—often too well—every day, so meals aren’t special.  It’s not even really about family.  As its name implies, it’s about giving thanks. And we have much for which to be thankful. Why is there a universe in the first place?  Why is it so... Read more

    Curiously, being in Chicago, I’ve begun to think of the most famous adopted son of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.  Many years ago, with her parents, my wife and I visited parts of the state associated with him.  One of those places was the Oakland Cemetery in Petersburg, where Ann Rutledge, who died at the age of 22 of typhoid, is buried.   According to some, although this is disputed by others, she was Abraham Lincoln’s first and deepest love.   Long after... Read more

    Another passage from one of The Manuscripts.  This one deals with the changes that occurred in Judaism in the wake of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the cessation of prophecy among the Jews:   An example will serve to make the new situation clear: At roughly the time of Christ, a great Jewish thinker by the name of Philo Judaeus lived in Egyptian Alexandria. Philo was thoroughly at home in Greek literature and wrote excellent... Read more

  From my notes:   Joseph Smith knew that he would die at the hands of his enemies. “He well knew that he must sacrifice his life for the principles God had revealed through him,” said Lucy Walker Kimball.  Yet “Death had no terrors for him although life was dear. I have often heard him say he expected to seal his testimony with his blood.”[1] “He was cheerful and comforting,” remembered Edward Stevenson. He said, “I shall not be sacrificed... Read more

    I published this column in the Deseret News on Thanksgiving Day 2014:   Many years ago, a friend (now deceased) told me about a very high-ranking Church leader (also now deceased) who had been asked to address a group of local senior service missionaries and their wives at their annual Christmas dinner. As the program proceeded, various stories were related to illustrate the great things that this group of devoted volunteers had accomplished during the year then nearing... Read more

    Rather a Germanish day today (Saturday).  Also a good day to be inside — dark and windy and rainy.   My wife and I went out to lunch with a long-time friend — I knew him at BYU before my mission; he was called to the same mission as I was (though he spent most of his time in Lebanon rather than in Switzerland), and he was the best man at our wedding — at The Berghoff.  That’s... Read more

    In his 1994 book The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, Sir Francis Crick (1916-2004; co-discoverer with James Watson of the double helix structure of DNA) declares his thorough-going naturalism and reductionism very clearly:   “A person’s mental activities are entirely due to the behavior of nerve cells, glial cells, and the atoms, ions, and molecules that make them up and influence them.”   “The Astonishing Hypothesis is that ‘You,’ your joys and your sorrows, your memories... Read more