From now on, after reading this article, you may decide to take only sponge baths.  But it offers some serious warnings about real threats as well as just bit of practical advice (though you may wish that it had given more).  If you’re headed to the beach, or a public pool, or a hot tub, you may want to read it:   Forget sharks: 7 things in the water swimmers should actually fear   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui,... Read more

    I like this blog entry, by a Catholic blogger named Joe Heschmeyer, very much:   http://shamelesspopery.com/muslims-jews-christians/   There are a few points at which a Latter-day Saint might not quite agree with the analysis, but, on the whole, I think it’s entirely sound.   See also “‘Allah’ is not pagan term — it means ‘God’.”   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    “‘There is no possible idea,’ Kenneth thought as he came onto the terrace, ‘to which the mind of man can’t supply some damned alternative or other.  Yet one must act.'”  Charles Williams, War in Heaven   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    A brief but important post from Tarik LaCour:   http://tarikdlacour.blogspot.com/2017/07/understanding-apologetics.html?spref=fb   I myself have tried to make the same patently obvious and unquestionably true point on several occasions, without much success.  Maybe Brother LaCour will have more luck.   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    We attended the Lahaina 1st Ward today, having decided that an English-language service would be more appropriate for us than one in Tongan.   It was a very good meeting, organized loosely on a “Pioneer Day” theme.   Once again, I loved the roster of names and participants:   Conducting the meeting was Aloha Kaniho.   The invocation was given by Nathan Kahaialii.   The first speaker was Ryah Kaniho, who is back for the summer from the... Read more

    A provocative essay.  I expect that the title alone has already upset some of my secular-minded readers:   The Myth of Religious Violence   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    I suspect that we’re going to be hearing about bit about Grant Palmer again in the next week or two, so it seems not inappropriate to call attention to a few links regarding his work:   Brian C. Hales and Gregory L. Smith, “A Response to Grant Palmer’s ‘Sexual Allegations against Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Polygamy in Nauvoo’”   FairMormon, “A Summary of Five Reviews of Grant Palmer’s ‘An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins’ (with a Few... Read more

    “A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world.” Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    This is a matter where bureaucratic decisions have direct and possibly fatal impact on real, individual, human lives.   http://www.christianpost.com/news/evangelical-advisory-board-pressured-trump-admin-not-deport-iraqi-christians-192709/   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more

    “The amount of knowledge which we can justify from evidence directly available to us can never be large.  The overwhelming proportion of our factual beliefs continue therefore to be held at second hand through trusting others, and in the great majority of cases our trust is placed in the authority of comparatively few people of widely acknowledged standing.” Michael Polanyi   Posted from Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii     Read more