I’ve recently been reading work by the late Israeli-American mathematician, statistician, and historian of science Amir Aczel (d. late 2015, of cancer), who is probably best known for his bestselling 1997 book Fermat’s Last Theorem.   Here’s a passage from Amir D. Aczel, Why Science Does Not Disprove God (New York: Willam Morrow, 2014), 144-147:   The idea is that there are many things that we do not understand about our universe: its parameters seem to be too “fine... Read more

    One of the pleasures of visiting Newport Beach is going to Ruby’s Diner, just off the Pacific Coast Highway (and with a wonderful view of the ocean) south of Newport Coast Drive.   Their grilled ahi is really good.  But the real reason that I go is for their date milk shake.  I’ve had the occasional date milk shake there — it wasn’t Ruby’s Diner then, but it was at or near the same place, with the same... Read more

    In my remarks at the 2017 FairMormon conference, one of my comments concerned the fact that none of us achieve our full potential in this life.  In fact — and, for this point, I used the tragic story of Ludwig van Beethoven as an illustration — many of us die sadly young, undernourished, uneducated, impoverished, and/or ill, coming nowhere near full realization of our talents and abilities, our potential for service and accomplishment.   To me, this offers a... Read more

    Just back from a really good little San Diego Mexican restaurant called — oddly — “Jimmy Carter’s.”  (Referring to the owner, who isn’t the former president of that name.)   ***   I’ve reported here previously on the reaction, in some circles, to my 2017 FairMormon remarks of nearly three weeks ago:   “Now, you can read the monstrous horror for yourself!”   The worst talk I’ve ever given, one reviewer pronounced it.  Indeed, he declared, perhaps the... Read more

    We drove down yesterday from St. George.  I had thought that we had left early enough to escape the weekend traffic between Las Vegas and Cajon Pass, but it now appears that there is no time that’s early enough.   I grew up in southern California, though with relatives in St. George and also further north in Utah.  I used to make the drive through southern Nevada several times each year.  Now, though, we live in Utah; my... Read more

    This afternoon, we saw a good production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  The audience really liked it.  And then, this evening, we watched what I considered a very, very good version of As You Like It.  The play is an uneven one; there are wonderful passages but also some parts that, in my view at least, drag just a bit.  But this production was about as good as one could make it, I think.  In several respects, at... Read more

    Why did I sign the amicus brief for the Supreme Court regarding Mr. Trump’s proposed travel restrictions?  (See “Mormon Scholars File Brief Attacking Trump’s Muslim Ban.”)   For a number of reasons.   I’ll hastily mention some of them here.  (I need to be out the door shortly.  We’re in southern Utah.  Yesterday afternoon, we took in a very good performance of Guys and Dolls at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  Last night, we watched a solid version of... Read more

    It being Friday, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture has published a new article, titled “The Next Big Thing in LDS Apologetics: Strong Semitic and Egyptian Elements in Uto-Aztecan Languages” and written by the invaluable Jeff Lindsay, a member of the Interpreter Foundation’s board.   Dr. Lindsay’s article represents a more extensive discussion of a body of work that I sought to highlight in a 1 June 2017 column for the Deseret News:  “Near Eastern languages in ancient... Read more

    This is the third and probably the last of my reports on the “Chiasmus Jubilee” that was held on Wednesday night at Brigham Young University, culminating a two-day academic conference on campus devoted to the subject of chiasmus in the scriptures and other ancient texts.  The previous two were   “A first report on Wednesday evening’s gala event”   and   “Elder Holland Speaks at Book of Mormon Chiasmus Conference”   I offer, below, a text of the... Read more