Thanks to Jaxon Washburn for reminding me of this statement, made by Elder Erastus Snow of the Council of the Twelve Apostles on 3 March 1878:   “‘What,’ says one, ‘do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of man and woman? Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself…. I must believe that deity consists of man and woman… There can be no God except he is composed of man... Read more

    From a forthcoming book. Beginning with the year AD 632, in Arabia:   Muhammad was dead. Now came the question of succession. The founder of Islam left no clear instructions on this question. Some felt that he had designated Ali, his cousin and son-in-law and one of the earliest male converts to Islam, to be his successor, but most in the community, including many whose loyalty to the Prophet can­not plausibly be denied, seem to have known of... Read more

    For particular reasons, I’ve just re-read an article by Ugo A. Perego and Jayne E. Eakins, “Is Decrypting the Genetic Legacy of America’s Indigenous Populations Key to the Historicity of the Book of Mormon?” that appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 12 (2014): 237-279.   It’s very, very good.  Those who are interested in questions surrounding the issue of Amerindian DNA and the Book of Mormon should absolutely be familiar with it.  And I’m pleased to note that... Read more

    From a rough manuscript of mine:   Another indication of the Prophet’s sincerity is the striking fact that his own family manifestly believed him.[1]  “The parents and all living brothers and sisters of Joseph Smith believed his account of his visions.  In fact, the two grandparents still alive in 1830 also believed.”[2]  For example, the Joseph Smith Sr., the Prophet’s father, traveled two hundred miles—a significant and taxing journey in the frontier America of that period—to carry a... Read more

    I’ve been browsing a collection of sayings attributed to ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (d. AD 661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and, eventually, the fourth Islamic caliph (and the figure around whom the Shi‘i form of Islam ultimately coalesced).  I selected a few of them for sharing here, in no particular order:   “If you want to know someone’s character, examine the friends he sits with.”   “There is no wealth like education and no poverty... Read more

    Another passage from one of my rough-cut manuscripts:   We’ll first look at various explanations holding that, yes, there was an objective reality [to the plates, etc.], but it was an artifact of fraud.  This is perhaps the most common explanation advanced by skeptics.  As one recent book from a prestigious academic publisher remarks in passing, with regard to the Book of Mormon, “Exactly how this work was composed remains a matter of debate, but most non-Mormons would... Read more

      “We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.” Ray Bradbury   “Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” Walt Whitman   “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Socrates   “The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the... Read more

    Some interesting comments from a German theoretical physicist about possibly running up against the limits of science:   “How do you prove that Earth is older than 10,000 years?”   If I had to hazard a judgment from the article, I would guess that she’s not a theist.  But I expect that I’ll be assaulted yet again for quoting only anti-scientific Christian apologists, or something of that sort.  Sigh.   ***   Our scientific knowledge remains distressingly superficial.  By which I... Read more

    Here’s a column that I wrote for the Deseret News back in December 2010:   I often wonder which of the two holidays, Christmas or Easter, is the most theologically significant.  Occasionally, I’m repelled not only by the commercialism of modern Christmas but by its sentimentality.  It’s too easy, sometimes, to gush about the “babe of Bethlehem.”  Babies are cute.  They’re funny.  They’re unthreatening.  And, although they certainly make demands upon their parents (often in the middle of... Read more

    Continuing with the discussion that I began in a prior entry, “How can a Latter-day Saint entertain the possibility that Muhammad might have been a prophet? (Part One)”:   The Facebook comments from Richard Giroux appear in red.  My one additional Facebook response will appear in green, while my responses here will simply appear in the ordinary default black.   “Truth exists independent of the speaker/messenger of it. According to the LDS canon, Satan spoke truth, accompanied by... Read more