The invaluable Jeff Lindsay, a member of the board of the Interpreter Foundation, continues his critique of Duane Boyce’s current article series in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   “Unnecessary Attacks, Part 2: In Defense of Grant Hardy”   For the articles published by Duane Boyce in his series thus far, two of three, see here and here.   So that there will be no misunderstanding, by the way, I note for the public record that... Read more

    Have any of you run across these two stories before?   “California Woman Livestreamed Dying Teen Sister on Instagram After Car Crash”   “Florida teens who recorded drowning man will not be charged in his death”   What do you think?  Do such incidents merely reflect human depravity?  Or do they represent something new?  Perhaps a detachment from reality caused by a culture of video games and routinized Hollywood violence?   In any case, they’re disgusting.   ***... Read more

    Everything begins with light.   It’s the cosmic energy out of which everything else proceeds.  Matter follows, in second place.   Amazingly, and in ways that run quite parallel to the principles of modern physics, the great world religions commonly describe light as the original power from which all else arises.  It is the source of everything.   In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the... Read more

    We went to see the film Dunkirk today.  In IMAX (which I recommend, if at all possible) at Jordan Commons.   Perhaps it’s partly because I’ve been thinking a lot about the Second World War this summer — e.g., we took a trip to Normandy back in late May, I read Last Hope Island a few weeks ago, and I just finished a book by Wolfgang Benz titled Der deutsche Widerstand gegen Hitler [“The German Resistance against Hitler”] — but I liked... Read more

    A thought for the day:   “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.  It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.”  (Calvin Coolidge) I couldn’t agree more strongly.  It’s easy to be glib and even to know facts.  I, at least, find making serious judgments a... Read more

    This article was late going up today because the person who posts our articles has just moved across the country and was busy unloading his moving van this afternoon and evening.  And I’m late posting an alert to the article because, by the time it went up, I was busy with something else and away from the computer.   In any case, late or not, today is still Friday.  And this marks the 262nd consecutive Friday on which Interpreter:... Read more

    I’m grateful to Cody Quirk for bringing both of these articles to my attention:   “Ancient DNA reveals fate of the mysterious Canaanites”   “Living Descendants of Biblical Canaanites Identified via DNA”   It’s taken me a while to get to these links, and I regret that:   When this story first appeared, some hailed it as casting doubt upon the historical accuracy of the Bible.  (The original title of the first story read something like “Ancient DNA... Read more

    Interpreter‘s article for the week is likely to go up a bit late today, owing to . . .  well, to some real-life matters that need attending to by the person who puts our articles up, who has just moved across the continent.   So, in the meantime, I’ll provide links to some things that I’ve found interesting:   ***   “One of the ‘Sistas in Zion’ tweets her thoughts on people who leave the LDS faith”   I myself have... Read more

    For a time, Dr. Glen Cooper, a former student of mine, was a colleague in both the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative and, thereupon, the Department of History at Brigham Young University.   I was delighted to see this profile of him in BYU’s alumni magazine:   Islamic Renaissance Man Dr. Cooper’s field is a very important one, as scholarly disciplines go.  It’s important both intrinsically and, given the lack of awareness among a sizable proportion of Americans regarding Muslim contributions... Read more

    “Guyra will field a side in Sunday’s NERU minor semi-final”   Not, perhaps, the outcome that some would hope for.  But I have mixed feelings on situations like this, and I honor either choice.     Read more