Educating the public on how to recognize and avoid practical logical fallacies is a very meritorious undertaking:   http://hostsofheaven.blogspot.com.es/2017/06/sophistry.html   Think of all of the trouble we could avoid, for instance, if politicians and voters thought more reasonably.   Posted from the Adriatic Sea         Read more

    I like this.  I like the idea of trying to be more deliberately kind.  To make it a resolution to do specific acts of non-habitual kindness on a regular basis, both for family members and friends and for strangers.   http://www.lifezette.com/faithzette/the-key-to-happier-and-healthier-lives-may-start-here/   Posted from the Adriatic Sea     Read more

    A very nice three-minute “Mormon Message,” based upon a conference address by Elder Kim B. Clark of the Seventy:   https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-01-6000-eyes-to-see-and-ears-to-hear?category=topics/jesus-christ&lang=eng&cid=HP_FR_23-6-2017_dPFD_fMLIB_xLIDyL1-A_   I did a short devotional for our group this evening — Church policy no longer permits onboard sacrament meetings — about the testimony given by New Testament women concerning the resurrection of Christ.  I won’t try to explain the connection here, but it built upon our visit to Venice’s Cathedral-Basilica of St. Mark.   Posted from... Read more

      From the Royal Society of Chemistry:   https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/chemists-unravel-why-humans-arent-constantly-bursting-into-flames/3007617.article   I remember, from perhaps somewhere in my very early teens, reading frightening stories of spontaneous human combustion.  I haven’t thought about it since, but apparently it doesn’t happen and can’t happen  What a relief!   Posted from the Adriatic Sea     Read more

    Another Hamblin-Peterson Deseret News article inspired by the fact that this year marks the five-hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865683578/Surplus-good-deeds-and-Martin-Luthers-rebellion.html   Posted from Venice, Italy     Read more

    An interesting angle that, I suspect, won’t have occurred to everybody:   How religious literacy can save lives   Posted from Venice, Italy     Read more

    “Pius X, in 1906, right here in Rome, had beatified the sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne, martyrs during the French revolution. During the trial they were condemned ‘to death for fanaticism.’ And one of them asked in her simplicity: ‘Your Honour, what does fanaticism mean?’ And the judge: ‘It is your foolish membership of religion.’ ‘Oh, Sisters, she then said, did you hear, we are condemned for our attachment to faith. What happiness to die for Jesus Christ!’ “They... Read more

    An interesting blog entry from the prolific Robert Boylan:   http://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.com.es/2017/06/book-of-mormon-names-no-fiction-writer.html   Posted from Venice, Italy     Read more

    This should stop.   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448941/iraqi-christians-deportation-ice-refugees-trump   Contact Senator Mike Lee   Contact Senator Orrin Hatch   Contact the White House   Posted from Venice, Italy     Read more

    This painting by the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516), which apparently belongs to a four-part altarpiece, hangs today in the Doge’s Palace in Venice, which I can see from where I’m sitting right now.   I don’t know whether or not I’ll get a chance to see the painting this time around.   It’s fascinating, though.   The “tunnel of light” that it depicts is so similar to those described in accounts of near-death experiences that it... Read more