An autobiographical reflection:   I came to Brigham Young University as a freshman mathematics major.  I had a virtually life-size poster of Albert Einstein on the wall in my dorm room.  My real fascination, however, was with cosmology — the very biggest of big subjects.  I was interested in the origins and the nature of the cosmos as a totality.  And in its structure.   I soon realized, though, that mathematics wasn’t really my passion, as it was... Read more

    Paganism Condemned Another common theme beginning in the earliest chapters of the Qur’an is a denunciation of paganism, the worshiping of pagan gods. This theme drew enthusiastic praise from Parley P. Pratt: Mahometanism included the doctrine that there was one God— that He was great, even the creator of all things, and that the people by right should worship Him… On this account, on the simple subject of the Deity and His worship, if nothing more, I should... Read more

    An interesting, even inspiring, short article from the inimitable Jeff Lindsay:   “Learning from Russell M. Nelson’s Response to an Inspired Recommendation from President Kimball”     ***   From World Religion News:   “Did You Know Mormons Dominate Competitive Dancing?”   Actually, I did know.  But, alas, I’ve never done anything at all to contribute to that domination — except, perhaps, by conscientiously refraining from dancing.   Curiously, I don’t think that the article mentions BYU’s record... Read more

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    Many of you, no doubt, heard Elder Dallin H. Oaks’s remarks at the recent October 2017 General Conference of the Church:   “The Plan and the Proclamation”   With that in mind, you’ll perhaps find the headline to this article, by Fred Karger, as . . . umm, as remarkable as I do:   “Mormon Church’s Crusade of Hate Goes On”   I’ve received communications from certain observers who have described Elder Oaks’s talk as “a hateful rant.”... Read more

    I apologize.  I should keep better notes; I’ve forgotten who it was that kindly brought this item to my attention about a week ago:   “Thousands of Muslims march against ISIS as brother of one of Jihadi John’s victims remembers his death”   ***   Thanks to Matthew Wheeler for calling this heartwarming story to my attention, a harbinger of the utopian bliss that will inevitably dawn when atheism bears universal sway:   “Chinese police order Muslims to hand... Read more

    “The very comprehensibility of the world points to an intelligence behind the world. Indeed, science would be impossible if our intelligence were not adapted to the intelligibility of the world. The match between our intelligence and the intelligibility of the world is no accident. Nor can it properly be attributed to natural selection, which places a premium on survival and reproduction and has no stake in truth or conscious thought. Indeed, meat-puppet robots are just fine as the... Read more

    From one of my manuscripts:   Indeed, so impressive a convert was Sidney Rigdon that many, who simply could not believe that the semi-literate Joseph Smith had authored the Book of Mormon and could not grant the divine alternative, began almost immediately to claim that he himself, a much more eloquent and highly educated man, was the book’s true author. In 1865, John Rigdon, Sidney’s son, who himself had serious doubts about Mormonism and the Book of Mormon,... Read more

    First, a few words about Arabic/Islamic names.   There are certain basic elements.  For instance, there is the kunya, an honorific given to married parents that includes the name of their eldest son.  The father of Yusuf (“Joseph”) would thus be known as Abu Yusuf, from the Arabic Ab/Abu (“father”), while the mother would be called Umm Yusuf.   Yusuf’s father and mother will, of course, have their own personal names.  The masculine parental unit might be Muhammad,... Read more

    Well, it’s the Nobel season, and I’ve been passed over yet again.  Instead, one of the science prizes has gone to a  guy named Kip Thorne.  Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature — delighting my friend and colleague Van Gessel, who knows something about such matters.  And the Nobel Peace Prize has been given to a group that, as my former student Nate Oman pointed out yesterday, has persuaded “Thailand, the Vatican, and Guyana (and no... Read more